Who runs the world? Girls! This week, Sticky Rice spotlights some of the special women that we have had the honor of learning from. Globally recognized as International Women’s Day, March 8th is an important day to honor strong women throughout history, and our lives. Our Peace Corps Thailand volunteers have written small articles highlighting women in their lives with a tremendous impact. We’d love to hear about influential women in your life as well, tell us in the comments!
Mack Devoto, 135 YinD
I have been blessed to have a multitude of strong, beautiful, resilient women in my life. It was a woman who inspired me to apply to and join the Peace Corps. It was a woman who suggested my undergraduate school to me. It was a woman who raised me and taught me to be who I am today. Every part of me is made up of memories and love from the women in my life, and what a blessing and privilege that is.
In Peace Corps, I have come face-to-face with my femininity and what it means to be a woman, to me, in a much more vulnerable way than I had anticipated. Peace Corps has introduced so many new women into my life, teaching me more and more about myself and what womanhood means to many around the world.
At my site, one of my closest relationships is with a co-worker of mine, P’Thip (the honorific “P” acknowledges respect for her being older than me). While I say co-worker, P’Thip works in a different office, and she is really more of a mother figure to me. She is the same age as my mom back home, and despite her lack of English knowledge when I first arrived, she immediately treated me with nothing but kindness, curiosity, and acceptance. P’Thip and I eat lunch together almost every day. Usually, it’s just me and her, going to some restaurant and enjoying a meal together, learning some English and Thai in the process. She constantly worries that she doesn’t speak enough English, and I constantly reassure her that her English comprehension is actually incredibly improved from when I first arrived. She is funny, smart, and so caring.
In some of my first months at site, I felt incredibly lonely and isolated– not an unfamiliar experience among volunteers. Although most people were shy and nervous to approach and form a relationship with me, P’Thip was quick to adjust, and recognize that I was being immersed in an overwhelming foreign environment, completely alone. She worked hard to push herself out of her comfort zone, to help me feel more at home. Without her, I genuinely don’t know if I would be where I am today, in terms of my site and my service. Now, I feel a very strong connection to my site and it has truly become a home for me, largely thanks to her.
This International Women’s Day, I am grateful for P’Thip.
Her love has allowed me to grow and integrate in ways I wasn’t sure were possible at first. A year into service, I can’t imagine my life without her. She will, undoubtedly, be someone I am forever connected to and will keep in my heart. She reminds me to try to be the best version of myself, as an example to the young girls in my community and those back home, and that love transcends language and culture.
Sticky Rice 