Goodbye Quarantine, We'll Meet Again Soon

In quarantine, we had live and recorded sessions to help prepare us for the outside world. These sessions included Thai lessons, cultural lessons, and learned how to successfully teach ESL students. After 15 days of being in quarantine, we were all beyond excited to get out of quarantine!

The company we traveled with set up a day in Bangkok where we could explore a little bit of the capital before we all departed to our new cities. We spent the day exploring the Grand Palace, grabbed lunch, got a sim card for our phone, had a few drinks at a fun bar, and ended then evening at a unique hostel.

Exploring Bangkok was exactly what I needed after 15 days stuck in a hotel room. The next day, we were picked up by our school coordinator. My town, Samut Sakhon, is about 45 minutes from the center of Bangkok. It's on the edge of Bangkok and Samut Sakhon. We stopped at the mall to grab a few groceries and essential items to help us get started. We planned to grab more items later in the week when we had time to explore at our own pace.

During all of Covid, Thailand has done a tremendous job keeping their case number to a minimum. We were so excited to finally feel a sense of normalcy while being able to travel, teach in person, and walk around town with little restrictions.

On Sunday, we got news that our town, Samut Sakhon, had a massive outbreak of Covid cases. To date, Thailand had around 3,000 cases since it all started. But over the weekend, the town of Samut Sakhon reported over 1,000 cases alone. The outbreak began because fisherman/workers at a large seafood market entered Thailand illegally without quarantining.

Unfortunately, to help contain more outbreaks from the market, all schools in Samut Sakhon were required to close for a minimum of two weeks. Many of the schools switched to virtual teaching but because I will be teaching the 3 and 4 year old class, I am not able to teach online. Thankfully, I am living on the larger school campus and I have been able to create lesson plans for some of the teachers in order to get paid during this time.

Not only are schools closed, the boarders for Samut Sakhon are closed as well. There are security check points to make sure no one is leaving or entering our town. A large area of Samut Sakhon where the outbreak began is also closed. This has been a bit of challenge because we are not quite settled into our place and don't have access to much within walking distance. I've learned how to get groceries delivered but only have basics to get me through a few weeks.

The thought of leaving quarantine in the hotel was so exciting. We were so ready to travel, explore new things, and start our new adventure. Going back into quarantine, has been pretty disappointing. I'm extremely lucky that many of the other teachers live on campus as well to keep me busy.

I'm thankful that God is using this time to help me grow. I've been able to spend more time reflecting on this opportunity and giving thanks for this journey. I know God has a plan and His plans for me in Thailand are perfectly planned out. I'm learning to have faith in Him, in His promises, and in His ways. He is working for my good and I'm thankful that during these times, He is allowing me to learn more about myself.