Kentucky to Bangkok
Hey y’all I’m Cody. I come from a small rural town in the United States of America. Specifically, the northern part of the state of Kentucky with a population of a little over 2,000. To put it in perspective, none of my family lives more than 30 minutes away from one another. Everyone knows everyone. It’s a real homey feel. Kentucky is known for the rolling hills, bluegrass, Bourbon, and racehorses. Farming is still very popular in Kentucky as well. I grew up on farm raising tobacco and learned what hard work was from a very young age.
Multiple summers and school breaks were spent in the tobacco fields. I’m married to a handsome local Kentuckian named Andy. Andy’s from a small town in eastern Kentucky. You are most likely familiar with Kentucky Fried Chicken. Andy’s hometown is near where the first KFC was built. Coming from similar backgrounds, it took our families by surprise when we told them that we were going to move to Bangkok.
When Andy’s work offered him a relocation contract to move to the Bangkok office I didn’t know what to think. I had never been out of the country before. Travelling to me was going 850 miles away to Florida to the beach, not going across the globe. I had only been on a plane a handful of times and it was never over a two-hour flight. Panic struck me, what would my parents think? I’ve never moved so far away from them.
What about my friends? I won’t get to see them for a long time. Oh, and my job? I will have to quit my job. I knew though that we couldn’t pass on such an opportunity so we made the decision together that we would move to Bangkok. We thought we were both young, no children, and have never travelled before. It all seemed like the perfect opportunity to leave Kentucky and see the world.
What a shock it was when we first got here. I couldn’t understand people and they couldn’t understand me. I didn’t know where anything was. I didn’t have friends. I couldn’t find a job. I felt like I didn’t have much of a purpose. Andy would go to work and I would be home by myself all day. How I first coped with this feeling was downloading books on my Kindle to read. I had never read much so it was a good time to be by myself and read. I still had this emptiness inside me. I needed something more. I decided I would sew. My grandmother actually got me a sewing machine back in the States and when we moved I brought it with me. So, I worked on quilts and I made two quilts for friends. As fun as that was I still didn’t have friends. I could no longer be on my own. I needed a girlfriend who I could chat with. Women long for communication! I wanted a job I could go to.
My job search in the beginning was a complete fail. I went to some by Cody Jackson interviews but none would provide me with a work permit. The majority of the jobs here are for English teachers so I looked up the requirements and did a course online to get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate. While I was completing the course to get my TEFL certificate I started to look up groups I could join but I wasn’t ready to commit and pay a membership fee to join any of them. A co-worker of Andy’s recommended I look at Internations online, that there may be some volunteer work I could involve myself in. I saw that Internations also has a membership fee but you can see a lot of the posts without having to pay. I saw a post that needed volunteer English teachers
. I was intimidated at first because I didn’t have any teaching experience but I reached out to the organizer anyways. She was delighted to have me on the volunteer team and explained to me the need for English teachers at the Duang Prateep Foundation. It was the perfect opportunity for me to use my TEFL certificate and gain teaching experience. The school was located in Khlong Toei slums. I taught kindergarteners. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I volunteered once or twice a week.
A lot of the volunteers helping at the school in the slums were older and I wasn’t able to connect with them. Don’t get me wrong, everyone was extremely nice! I even met a Thai friend who I still keep in contact with. She’s so busy with her own work and she travels a lot so I wasn’t able to meet with her much. Through Facebook I found a girls international group that’s based in Bangkok but didn’t find myself making friends there either.
A lot of them are younger, like me, but are not here long. I find myself detached from younger groups because I am married and I don’t like going out drinking. I think I isolated myself at the beginning because I didn’t feel ‘worldly’ enough to be around people. I haven’t travelled before so I didn’t have any stories to share. It’s very intimidating at first making new friends and there is a sense of vulnerability that’s felt when expressing myself to a new person.
It’s been a year now and I have continued to volunteer. I am using my TEFL certificate and tutoring Thai students. I am now going out more and I have started going to the park near my house and going for a run in the mornings. Being here in Bangkok I have met a lot of interesting people. We may not all be lifelong friends but we all can give a listening ear when a sister needs it. We can uplift each other and tell each other our stories. I also have a wonderful husband who encourages me and seriously has shown me the world. For all these things, I am grateful.
