So what are you actually DOING?

I asked this question of Reg when he was in Thailand, "What do you actually DO over there?" I got vague answers like, I teachEnglish, I help out with Church and I take Thai lessons. What, three things?? Sounded like a pretty slack life. I've only been here a week, but now I understand...

Life here runs a different pace, and by different I mean slower. Times are generally approximate. Work and free time for us are a mixture throughout the day, it's not segmented by the clock. You may put in 8 hours of work but it happens throughout the day. I have a schedule for the week that I'm here in Chonburi, but it only has 2 or 3 things on it per day. It's weird how it happens but I got up at 8:30 this morning and I'm finishing this blog now at 1:20am. If I wasn't busy I surely would have gone to bed 2 hours ago.

But what exactly do I do? Every day is different:
The fixed items are: English classes Tues & Thurs 7-9pm, Church service and supper 4-7 on Sunday, Police Station Kid's English Club 10:00-11:30am on Saturday, College & Career with students from the university Saturday 3-5pm on Saturday. Monday is our day off.
The variable items are: Getting lunch from a local outdoor restaurant or street vendor, getting supper (same thing), getting pictures and footage for the 2 videos that I'm currently working on, editing the videos, meeting with the members of Team2000 about various projects (often video related), Thai lessons (1 hour, twice a week), and interacting with the Thais. This is important in ministry too. There are lots of Thai students that come to English classes and hang around the church, who are not yet saved (the use of the word yet is intentional, given time we trust God will draw them to Himself).

I don't know how it happens, but every day gets filled up, with no help from TV, no computer games, no surfing the internet for hours, no visits to the beach and no aimlessly wandering the streets. Somehow we are kept busy. It's great.