Guest Post: Coming to Thailand

A few days ago, a friend and I got the idea to publish guest posts on each other's blogs, both of us being MK's. So I asked her to write on her first reaction of coming and living in a foreign country for the first time. Kristin Rutledge is a thirteen (soon to be fourteen) year old, new MK to Thailand.

When my family came as missionaries to Thailand, I really had no idea what to expect. It had been two years since I had even set eyes on it, and I was not totally thrilled about going.  I had never really thought about it until after I got there and I was stuck. Well, I don’t feel that way now, but back then that is how I felt. I did not want to leave America.  Everything in Thailand was different from America.  It was weird they drove on the wrong side of the road.  It was strange that they ate rice every single day. I did not understand a word of what anyone said to me.  It was just crazy and unbelievable. I thought it was weird when I see three or four people on the back of a motorcycle. I thought it was weird that you had to take off your shoes when you went inside anywhere.  Everything they did was different. I hated Thailand and everything about it. I hated the people, the food, the concrete houses, and the Thai signs on the road.  I started missing home and I guess I let it overwhelm me a little bit.

All I did was sit around and call friends in America and do school.  I had no desire to do anything. Nothing really amused me.  I just let it overwhelm me and I felt as if I had no purpose and no reason to be here. There were many times I just wanted to go back to America. After a very long time, I finally gave up wishing for that.  I finally got the idea that it was not going to happen.  This went on for months. Then in September of 2012, I got saved.  I had a different outlook on Thailand then. I no longer hated Thailand, but I knew why I was here. I was here, not to hate these people, but to help them come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I have learned to speak Thai, I like living in a concrete house, I can eat Thai food without a grumpy look on my face, and I enjoy life in Thailand.

Now anytime I begin to get homesick again, I think about what my friend, Emma, once told me, “Not all girls your age get the chance to go live in a foreign country. You should embrace the unique experiences.”
My advice on dealing with a foreign country is to remember why you are there, trust God, and don’t let it overwhelm you.

I hope you all enjoyed this post, check out Kristin's blog and watch out for my guest blog post that she will be posting on her blog.

Of Missionaries and Locals and Tom Hiddleston

This may be my most controversial post, but maybe some of you won't find it controversial and maybe some of you will.

I read a post by a fellow blogger about Tom Hiddleston's involvement with Live Below the Line and about haters hating a few months ago and I was (I don't want to say moved so I guess inspired is the right word) inspired to write this post. I hesitated to write a post like this because of its 'controversial content' (or at least what I believe is controversial). But anyways, I reviewed on the blog post saying:

So while this post has really nothing to do with 'haters hating,' it does have something to do with what I said in my comment on Gina Mustos's blog post.

I wrote up above that being a missionary kid, I saw fellow missionaries come to Thailand and treat the locals here as props. And I will have to say that is kind of true.
I've never been a huge fan of celebrities and even missionaries who go to 'foreign' countries for (in all sense of the term) publicity. Even Tom Hiddleston's (who will admit I do have a crush on) involvement with UNICEF caused me to lift up an eyebrow and roll my eyes.
Now, I know I shouldn't judge. But as I said, I'm not a huge fan of people going to a foreign country just simply for the 'Oh wow! You're so brave to go to another country! Oh! Look at you with the little brown baby!' You know, those kind of comments. Now please do NOT get me wrong, I think it is brave for people to get out of their comfort zones and see new places. But people like celebrities, missionaries, and organizations who send groups over seas, they are in the business of people. And it seems like these 'do gooders' (do gooders sounds kind of bad, but it does kind of describe them) seem to forget that. They forget that these foreigners are people too. Of course, I'm sure celebrities like Tom Hiddleston, Katy Perry, and Angelina Jolie really are concerned about that state of poverty in the countries they go to and really are concerned for the people. But really I'm not a huge fan of celebrities and having 'photoshoots' of their 'emotional adventure' in some poverty stricken country.

Back to talking about missionaries, I know I shouldn't judge them because I don't really know them. But there are some missionaries who seem to forget that they are dealing with actual people and their souls (which is the main reason why missionaries go over seas), they forget that they are here to save people and to help them grow in God, but it almost seems like the only thing they are concerned with is taking pictures, sending them to their church and just say 'Look at these poor people! Look at how they live! Look at how weird this culture is!', and yet they never do anything to help these 'poor' people and just concentrate on the 'weird' culture.
They, in a way, begin to treat people like props for a photoshoot. And that is a sad thing. It becomes all about them and not about the people who are need. It is an almost selfish thing (the exact thing tells us NOT to be!).

If you just finished reading what I wrote up above, don't close this up yet and don't comment about how I'm just a cynical, judgmental person. This is just how I feel. I'm sure there are people out there who really do have a heart for those who are suffering. I'm not saying that every famous person is just out to look good for the cameras, there are famous people who use their celebrity status to raise awareness for their cause.
But being a missionary kid, I've seen the ups and the downs of Thai people. I do know that they can do wrong and it was easy to grow up and just say "Wow, people are horrible beings", but I've seen them change and become faithful Christians. I've learned that anyone is capable of doing horrible things. Everyone is capable of stealing what isn't there's, committing horrible acts of violence, but like how we can do bad things we can do great things.
I think what Western people forget (and not just Westerners, but really everyone) is that everyone is people. New missionaries are naive and think that Thais are innocent, ignorant children. But they're not. Like anywhere else, there good people and bad people.

So a word of advice to those of you who are deciding to go over seas for come kind of cause or other, just remember that people are people. Treat adults like adults. Treat children like children. Just because someone has a different culture from you doesn't mean that they don't think like adults.
But don't treat everyone, like they're scum of the earth. So just remember that you should treat everyone with respect and love and just treat them as you would want to be treated. Don't treat them like they're just a figure for you picture.

So this was a bit of a long post and I hope I got my point across. Maybe some of this came off as a bit harsh, but I try to tell the truth. And just as I commented on Gina's post, it is easy to become cynical and judgmental. I don't want you all to read this and think 'missionaries really are horrible.' Because like anywhere, there are people who are doing wonderful things. I know missionaries who are doing amazing things here and are actually not crazy! Which is a good thing.
What I'm trying to get at in this post, is that, yes, there are horrible, selfish people in the world. But there are also good people in this world too. To quote Samwise Gamgee, "There is some good in this world, Mr. Frodo and it's worth fighting for!"

Life of a TCK

I will admit, part of the reason I'm writing about life as a TCK, is
due the fact that I have no idea what else to write about so this just seemed like something someone would be interested in.

So for those of you who don't know, I'm a third culture kid (duh, you should know that. I mean seriously, I have it posted like everywhere and use every moment I have to rub it in your face).
A TCK is a person who has grown up anywhere but their actual country of origins or someone who has lived in multiple countries. For myself, my passport country is the US, but I've lived in Thailand for ten of my eighteen years. TCKs are more commonly found in military families, missionary families, kids of diplomats,
and others. Pretty simple right?
I don't want to say that my family is any different from any other TCK's, but mine is a little strange. I didn't actually realize how weird my family was until my brother, Matt (the Matt I mentioned in my last post about Land and Freedom) joined the military and had to give details about his family (you know stuff like that, to make sure no one is in leagues with terrorists or anything).
Let me give you a little bit of detail about my life; me and my brothers are half Filipino and half American, my sister is adopted and really my cousin so she's full Filipino. I was born in Japan while my brothers were born in Utah. My sister in law is French and my brother in law is American. And my sister and her husband live in Japan. And of course before I forget, me and my parents live in Thailand.

So extremely short story of my life. So before my parents decided to become missionaries and move to Thailand, my dad was an air traffic controller for the United States Air Force. And that's the reason why I was born in Japan, because my dad was stationed there for several years. I don't remember much about Okinawa, Japan since we moved to Florida before my second birthday. I lived in Florida for roughly around five years until we moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand a month before I turned eight.
When I went back to the States four years later, family friends in Florida asked me and my family what it was like to be 'home'. 'Home'... that word is the hardest for a lot of TCKs to define. To me and my brothers, Florida isn't home. It just isn't. I don't have many memories of the States being 'home'. To me Thailand is home. But in other ways it kind of isn't. I've been an outsider my entire time in Thailand. Because of my white features, I'm always considered the foreigner. My brother Josh (yes, the borderline hipster one), gave the perfect definition of being a TCK, "When I'm in Thailand I feel like a foreigner, but when I'm in the States I feel so Asian." That pretty much sums it up. I fortunately haven't gotten the chance to really feel like this yet, but we'll see next year when I return to the States.

Growing up in Thailand, being bi racial, and being born in Japan has made me quite a confused child. My dad once told me he was surprised when he had heard that my brother, Josh had gone through an identity crisis. To that I chuckled and told my dad that all of kids have gone through at least a small identity crisis at least once in our lives. Being a TCK is extremely confusing and we get confused on what we are and where we come from.

Link to a short film about TCKs: http://vimeo.com/41264088