A Day Trip

We had to travel into Bangkok today for a scholarship ceremony. Over 150 Thailand children are awarded scholarships from ExxonMobil every year to assist with primary, secondary and university studies. The financial assistance is given to those children that have applied with a certain academic excellence and financial need. Every year the recipients and their families are treated to a day of fun, food and presentation. It was like a work fun fair in the states, with popcorn and drinks, lots of games for the children that included prizes, some vendors promoting health...Then we were escorted into the auditorium for the scholarship presentations where Mark presented the winners a certificate, after a ton of pictures everyone was treated to a sit down dinner. It was a day of meeting lots of new people, many of which were Exxon employees that helped organize the annual event. We wanted the boys to participate and meet some of these special children. It can feel uncomfortable when you stick out like a sore thumb-we're white and we can't speak their language but we tried, participating in the games and smiling a lot. Dustin commented,"I feel out of place, like I'm in a foreign country or something!!" That made us laugh, we are out of place in a foreign country. As each recipient came to the stage they all waid Mark and he returned the wai, I asked one of the Thai managers if that was okay, he stated that it isn't expected but it will go a long way in forming relationships. Mark and I decided that universally all children are alike-they acted timid, shy and wanted to scuttle across the stage as quickly as possible!

After the returning to our hotel, the boys stayed in the hotel while Mark and I ventured out. Mark had his first Thai haircut and then he and I both enjoyed an hour Thai foot massage. All for 600 Baht. The ladies and I chuckled watching Mark, his eyes were closed and he had a smile on his face. I'm glad that he was able to relax some after listening to him share some of the struggles he faces at work, his first week really opened his eyes to the challenges ahead of him at work, he's got his work cut out for him. I'm also including a picture of his office building.

We ordered pizza out this evening and didn't want to leave the hotel again. We ordered from the Pizza Company, the pizza is really pretty tasty. It's delivered via motorbike and comes with lots of ketchup, for our 3 medium pizzas they sent about 40 packages of ketchup which went to waste on us!