Thailand is an amazing country full of rich history and culture.\u00a0 The people of Thailand hold fast to traditions and are very hospitable to visitors.\u00a0 I feel very comfortable here, and even though there is a slight language barrier, I do not feel like an outsider.\u00a0 We payed a visit to Wat Arun a couple of\u00a0 days ago, and I still cannot get over the beautiful architecture! I learned that the buildings were made with tiny pieces of porcelain brought over from China.\u00a0 I am still in awe.<\/p>\n
I also have learned that Thailand and its surrounding countries are dealing with serious human trafficking issues.\u00a0 Many people, women, children, and men are forced into labor.\u00a0 The biggest percentage is sex trafficking.\u00a0 Girls are taken from their families deceptively and used as sex slaves.\u00a0 But there are some people that are taking the steps necessary to try and prevent that.\u00a0 One is Mr. Hartanto who has opened up a school (located within Wat Arun) for girls that are at-risk for human trafficking.\u00a0 He takes them in, 50 at a time, feeds, clothes, and educates them.\u00a0 At the end of their program they take a nursing exam, in which case he has a 97% success rate! The girls have a respected career and a new life, one they would not have had living in their villages.\u00a0 When I asked him what the key to his success was, he said “discipline”, and he credits that discipline to meditation, and the benefits that stem from it.\u00a0 I am encouraged by his practice, and am going to apply some of the principles I have learned from him into my life, and in my own classroom. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thailand is an amazing country full of rich history and culture.\u00a0 The people of Thailand hold fast to traditions and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/encompass-sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}