Back to School

Wednesday was the official starting day with the IJM Thailand Field Office.

I haven't started driving myself yet.  The 1992 Honda Civic is going to be a great commuter car, though.  And it will probably catch the eye of car aficionados as I drive by.

But back to work.  I've included a few pictures of the office I share with the IJM attorney, Rit.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday took me back to school.  For these first few weeks, I will devote myself to being a student of Thai, Thai law, and Thai coffee.

The IJM Thailand staff has been very gracious, including their spouses.  When I went to get in the car to go home on Friday, I opened the door on the right and almost sat on the driver, Pi Mim's husband.   Each person has taken the time to help me every step of the way -- whether work-related or life-related.

So far, I have immersed myself into a large document about the history and process of citizenship in Thailand, courtesy of UNESCO.  Next up are more documents and procedural outlines of citizenship law and then onto criminal law, as we prepare the Child Sexual Abuse pilot program.

When the internet went down on Friday, I was able to take a moment to look at this bull chomping on the grass outside our office.

I was reminded that I'm not here just to learn, but to make an impact on people's lives.  Learning new laws and procedures is a challenge I accept, but only because of lives who are in need of rescue from abuse and statelessness.

I look forward to telling you more about how this will be done in the coming weeks. For now, it's back to the books.