Peace Corps Thailand, Group 134 volunteers are close to their “one year complete, one year left” mark at their permanent sites. To honor the occasion, we asked our Sticky Rice staff to follow a popular reflection/feedback model – Rose, Thorn, and Bud:
The “Rose” represents anything from the triumphs of service – the crowning jewels of the volunteer’s hard work – to the people that made the struggles worth it and the beautiful moments along the way.
The “Thorn” calls to mind those moments that prick our egos, challenge our fortitude, and constitute that “struggle” inherent to service.
Finally, the “Bud” stands for all that the volunteer hopes to accomplish, whether it be for another year, less, or more. The “Bud” is where we plan to grow with our communities in the remaining time that we have with them.
Cloé Fortier-King, 134 YinD
Rose
For me, the highlight of service is always going to be my students. Their antics never fail to make me laugh, their breakthroughs make my heart soar, and their sheer excitement to spend time with me softens the other challenges of living and working in Thailand. I think fondly of the occasions my students have held my hand while walking, shared their candy with me, braided my hair, or squealed with excitement to see me biking by—it’s those small gestures that help me feel truly at home here.
Thorn
As much energy as my students bring to my life, the one thing I wish I could change about service is my own energy level, which is often depleted due to the physical environment in Thailand. The oppressive heat and smoky air, along with constant biking and the mental workout of trying to understand the Thai spoken to me can be draining. I frequently wish I had an endless stockpile of energy to draw from, so I could show up entirely energized and excited all the time.
Bud
In the next year, I’m looking forward to becoming a slightly more established member of the community and schools. Of course I’ll still stand out, but I hope to have a more solid presence at each of my schools and begin to grow my lessons and activities into larger and more impactful projects.
Bianca Palese, 134 TESS
My community is my rose! The students are my favorite part of this experience and they’ve kept me going on more than one occasion. I have also formed friendships with other teachers at my school including my two counterparts. I love my counterparts, I got so lucky with them. One is leaving to have a baby soon and I am so excited to be a น้า (aunt). My host family has also been very welcoming and understanding which I appreciate so much.
The thorn has been language. I’m sure a lot of my fellow volunteers will say the same thing. I thought that I would surely become fluent in a foreign language from serving, but at the one year mark I am still struggling to fully understand conversations and don’t feel confident enough to interject in discussions. I saw something online recently that said if you know 2,000 words of a language you can understand 90% of conversation, and I would estimate I know at least 1,100 Thai words. So maybe if I work hard (and the internet isn’t lying to me) I’ll get to where I want to be by the end of year 2.
The bud is my year 2 projects. Many are still in the brainstorming phase, but I think it will feel very rewarding to go through the process and see some ideas come to life. I didn’t get to work with the mattiyom students a lot last year, and I am low-key afraid of teenagers, but I am going to spend more time with them this year and I hope that we have so much fun together. 12 more months seems like so little time when it used to seem like forever!
Teresa Derr, 134 YinD
Bradford Reszel, 134 TESS
Rose: As we’ve written about before, being a married couple in Peace Corps is a much different experience to individually serving. It has been one of many highlights to really grow as a couple and figure out ways to support each other not only in the day to day but also in the big picture. Having the time to talk about what we want, both here in Thailand and after service, has helped us hone in on our goals for life.
Thorn: Figuring out how to establish relationships in the community outside of school. While I know lots of people and have casual acquaintances with them, I want to take the time and put in the effort to develop more impactful relationships.
Bud: The teaching rhythm with my counterpart continues to grow and I am excited for next school year. We both agree we need to change some things up for the older students and I am looking forward to truly collaborating in the planning stage.
Morgan Shupsky, 134 YinD
Rose: My host families. At site and during PST my host families were the center of the community for me and really became my home. Last week I found a huge spider in my house (on my BED), which is actually my biggest fear realized. After an hour of trying to work up the nerve to kill it myself, I called my host mom. She woke my host dad up and they were at my house 10 minutes later to rip my room apart, find, and kill the thing. Then they brought me to their house for dinner and made fun of me for the next hour. It was exactly what would have happened had I been at home with my real family and having that here is everything.
Thorn: Expectations. The second semester here really did a number on me, and it took me a long time to realize that all of the things I wanted to do simply were not going to happen in the wake of the camps, competitions, sports days, and holidays that were occurring. I wish I had been able to accept that all that was being asked of me was to spend time with the kids. I wasn’t being asked to plan lessons or come up with clubs and trying to do so led to a lot of unnecessary frustration.
Bud: Implementation! It’s well known amongst volunteers that the first year is where the foundation is built and you figure things out while the second year is when stuff actually happens. I’ve spent a full year now getting to know my community, learning how best to communicate, figuring out my students’ interests and motivations, and brainstorming with the teachers and SAO employees the best ways to use our energy and resources. I’m excited to go into this second half with a realistic idea about what’s possible and how it’s going to be done.
Kayla Kawalec, 134 YinD
My Roses:
Thorns:
Beautiful Buds:
Sticky Rice 
Leave a reply to dylandenner Cancel reply