Today was an absolute eye opener for somebody that has never seen poverty before with their own two eyes. You think you can prepare yourself to see under privileged areas, but there was no way that I could prepare myself for something when i didn't know what to actually expect. Today was day 11, and was by far the hardest of them all for myself personally. For the first couple of days in Thailand, I experienced a little bit of 'cultural shock', as I had obviously not prepared myself at all for what I was going to be seeing. However, as the days continued, I had prepared myself more and more. Today, as I said was by far the hardest, due to use visiting a slum area of Thailand. You see pictures and hear stories about areas like this, that exist all over the world, but I've always liked to think that these slum areas don't exist. I've never been so thankful that Australia has bin's everywhere so we don't have massive piles of rubbish in a beautiful area. I've never been so thankful that most Australians live in a house, with clean water and electricity. I've never been so thankful to be able to breathe fresh air and not have a shocking smell surrounding you. I've never been so thankful for just the little things in our country or just in my life. Driving through this area, and visiting families through this village absolutely broke my heart. But no matter the environment, every person we have encountered always had a smile on their face, even when we only had our company to offer them. It's the small things in life that matter, and that's what I've continually learnt throughout this encounter.

-Jasmin