Location: Kaeng Sanam Nang, Thailand
James Pengelley (thehairychef@gmail.com)
To be honest, I was very nervous about going to Thailand to teach English. But there was something about hearing other people's experiences, and understanding that I wanted a challenge and a chance to prove something to myself, that kept convincing me that I wasn't crazy. I really had very little idea what I was getting myself into - in fact only 8 days before I arrived at my homestay in rural Issan, I was skiing the slopes of Whistler in Canada with my family - needless to say the culture shock was pretty intense.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for my Thai experience to start changing my mind, and as my nerves settled, my eyes opened, and my appetite returned, the smiles started to shine more and more frequently.
I was based at Bung Palai school, near Kaeng Sanam Nang (about 1 hour from Chaiyaphum) - a school of about 600 students, many of them from farming (predominantly sugar cane and rice) families in very poor villages. Two of the three rooms I taught in had no tables or chairs for the students, and my class sizes ranged from 17 to 55 kids.
I have to say it really was the Thai kids that made my experience as fantastic as it was. There is something about the smiles and mischevousness of the Thai students I spent my time with that put a lot of things in perspective for me. It's a strange thing to say, but until I went to Thailand I had never experienced a room full of people who were all smiling and filled with a pure happiness.
A lot of this is, of course, very easy to say in hindsight, but that is not to detract from the difficulties I experienced in finding my own rythym in the classroom. Being alone in the classroom with students who would rather be playing Takraw (traditional Thai ball game) than listen to me (ajarn farang)...not to mention English teachers who hardly can speak English...but at the end of the day I believe I made a difference to far more children than I had ever anticipated and I feel very lucky to have been given that chance. However, I don't think the lining of my stomach will ever fully recover from the amount chili I ate during those six weeks...not that I'm complaining...however I'm still trying to decide whether or not my chili-eating habits constitute substance abuse...
Michael adds: Chili eating is encouraged but not required at homestays!
Location: Orlando, FL, USA
from Chris Borda, an upcoming volunteer:
chrisborda@gmail.com
Reading about everyone else’s experiences on this blog helped my wife Jen and I make the decision to take a Volunthai trip of our own this coming July-August, so thank you all. But the blog does say that it’s for past, present, and future volunteers, right? So I thought I’d try to write at each of those three points in our journey. Now I am a future volunteer. I have never set foot in Thailand, I haven’t taught English to Thai students, I’ve never even met anyone who has! But despite all of this, I still feel like I’m a part of the Volunthai family in some small, yet ever-growing way. That is the one thing that struck me about this entire organization and the people who are a part of it; they’re all a family of wonderful, helpful, and exciting people.
Upon discovering Volunthai I immediately e-mailed Michael for more information. Michael responded to that e-mail the same way that he and Ae have responded to the dozen e-mails that I’ve sent them since: promptly, thoroughly, and as kind as could be. They have answered all of my questions faster than I could have ever asked for and they’ve helped make the entire application process as smooth as possible.
I already had visions of what our time in Thailand would be like and was as excited as I could be to make this trip, but I also wanted to hear from someone who had been before, so I sent an e-mail to Amy Blaisdell (read her entry from 9-4-07 if you haven’t already). Amy wrote me back right away with the same joy and enthusiasm about Volunthai that everyone who goes seems to have. Amy wrote me multiple times despite her busy schedule and gave me a lot of great information, but one thing that she said really stuck out to me. She said that if you’re the type of person who would sign up for this program, you’d have a hard time NOT having a great experience. For me, it all comes back to the type of people that are a part of Volunthai. The passion, kindness, and giving that I see from everyone involved in Volunthai has me ready to make my own trip, take my own pictures, teach my own classroom, and give as much of myself as I can to this. But as Michael himself wrote almost eight years ago, “… if you are the right kind of person, Thailand will give you back far more than you can ever give it.”
Location: Ban Luam, Thailand
We'll never forget the hospitality and the tolerance of the people here. They're always smiling and full of joy to have foreign people with them. They often treated us like VIPs. Our host family was very friendly and did a lot of things with us. On the weekends we went sightseeing (National Park, ancient temple) and shopping. In the evening we cooked together and watched movies. The family included us in their daily life (we were even invited to the funeral of a family member). They cared a lot about us, just like a real family.
The most important thing we had to learn was to take every day as it turns out because we never knew what was going to happen! Many times we didn't know who was going to pick us up, where we were going, or what they expected us to do there. The funny thing was that they all always knew what we did, said, ate, etc. This is real life in a small town!
We definitely learned to improvise. One day we taught 60 students for about three hours without any preparation while teachers were filming us. Another day we prepared lessons, but when we arrived at school they told us we had the day off. In the classroom, it's sometimes difficult to guess the ability of a class because age and grade don't tell you much about the students’ ability to speak English. We had ten year old students who were much better then 16 year old ones. The other difficulty is that most of them are quite shy. They love playing games and singing but it's important that no single student is singled out too much.
We both think that this project is a very good thing for Thai students as well as for volunteers. We hope we can take some of this hospitality and tolerance back home to Switzerland. (P.S. If you can read Swiss German there is a more detailed blog and more pics under www.myspace.com/asiereis)
Cheers, Nora and Marc
Location: Thailand
Michael wrote: Don’t you hate websites that only tell you the good stuff??? We do too, so here are a few emails from a couple who were having a tough time at their homestay, and the way that Volunthai helped them out:
“Dear Michael, Although we're having a great experience here we have not been completing the most important part and we wanted your opinion as we are not sure the best way to proceed.You see, we were told on our first week by the teacher that we would teach the kindergarten for the whole duration of our stay. After a lot of persuasion we were eventually allowed to teach the secondary school but then told we could only do it 2 days per week. We felt that the classes in the secondary school went brilliantly as the kids really responded to us, we got nearly all of them talking and really tried to hammer home the importance of them being confident and prepared to make mistakes; we were also told by the teacher (Nina) that we were excellent teachers.As we have not been allowed to teach at the secondary school we have been teaching at the kindergarten, which has been going quite well however we have a few problems with it. We feel that the children are just too young for us to make a real difference, whereas in the secondary school we feel we can. We want to do the right thing for Volunthai here but really feel our current position is untenable. The last thing we want to do is create a bad image for Volunthai so perhaps you could shed some new light on the situation for us. Many thanks, David and Ali”
Michael adds: We really like it when volunteers communicate with us! It let’s us know more about the schools we work with (since most of them are quite remote and we can’t be there all the time), and it let’s us help to fix the problem. The next day we made a tactful excuse to Dave and Ali’s hosts, and sent them to another school. Here’s their next email to us:
“Dear Michael, Just wanted to let you know that everything is going great at our new school, so don't worry we won't be bothering you anymore! We are really happy and they seem genuinely pleased to have us here and would have us teaching 24/7 if they could! Our homestay is great too. The teacher we are staying with has been really good to us and very welcoming. Just thought we would give you a quick update and definitely recommend that you send loads of volunteers here! Thank you again for all your help last week, we really appreciated how you handled it because we were unsure of the best course of action at the time but we knew that you guys would know! Ali and David”
Location: USA
Lisa Robinson
lisamarierobinson@gmail.com
My intention in writing 5 months after my return home is to encourage others who are seeking a similar experience. It’s worth it! To say that it was an incredible experience would be an understatement.
I desired to live in another country and become immersed in another culture. I didn’t want to be just a traveler, as I have been many times before. This time I wanted to actually live somewhere very different from everything I’ve ever known.
I was trying to maximize my limited expenses, and live in Southeast Asia for as long as I could afford. It seemed that many organizations I had looked into were taking advantage of people, it doesn’t make sense how one could justify charging $2500 to volunteer for 3-4 weeks in a developing country… not including airfare.
Volunthai was exactly what I was looking for. Everything about the organization – from living with a local Thai family, cost (or lack thereof), remoteness, and the fact that it was kind of like a box of chocolates… I didn’t know what I was going to get! I have nothing but fond memories living in my little village of Prang Ku. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a similar cultural experience. With confidence I can say that you will be shown the utmost love, care, and respect by those you will meet along the way. Most of all, you will get more out of the experience then you could ever put in, and walk away with new friends for life!
Location: USA
I've just uploaded some pics from my recent trip to Vietnam on my personal blog:
http://www.planetranger.com/michaelincambodia/i...
One of the schools we're going to be working with is about an hour from the hill tribe village shown. Michael
Location: Thailand
2008 UPDATE
Volunthai has just received permission from the Vietnamese government to start sending volunteers to schools there! This option will be available to volunteers who sign up for 2 months or more, with the first month spent in Thailand.
Location: Korat Province, Asia - South East
Excerpts from Julia's diary:
I am the only foreigner in this village and so consequently I get stared at a lot. In fact, today I was ‘home alone’ planning lessons and two little girls plonk themselves next to me and then spend the next hour (no exaggeration) just staring at me. They scampered when my host family came back home from ‘town’. I went to a party at the school in the evening (to farewell the sub-director and introduce me). The party was heaps of fun. We had a yummy meal, drank whiskey and danced.
I underestimated the value of dressing nicely here, so I picked up some nice new clothes for teaching. Its rather amusing, after backpacking for 2 months I thought tidy trousers and a nice top would be ok for teaching, however, I find it’s a lot better to wear a nice skirt and top. When I wear a skirt I seem to get a lot more respect from the kids and the teachers make nice comments in the morning about how nice I look! Travelling overseas always makes me realise how sloppy most New Zealanders dress!
It is my 2nd week at school and I am starting to get into the swing of things. I can already see a difference in the kids as they get used to me, they are definitely less shy this week (in fact some are outright boisterous) and they are starting to speak English with me more. As I ride my bike to school I get lots of ‘hellos’ and ‘good mornings’. In fact, before 8am I am sure I say ‘Good Morning’ at least 30 times! It’s all good fun and it’s so good to see the kids getting more confident to use their English, even if it is just a ‘Good Morning Teacher’!
Tuesday was interesting. After the flag ceremony at school all of the teachers got in cars and went to a small school in a small village about 20-30mins drive away. The sub-director of our school is leaving to be the director of this little country school. So all the teachers in our school and many other teachers from other schools in the area met to wish the sub-director good luck in his new job. The open hall/meeting area was decked out with tables, we were seated and spent the morning chatting, eating, drinking fizzy drink and listening to speeches. A spiritual leader (not a lady monk but not a priest either) came, everyone tied white cotton around the wrists of the outgoing director and the incoming director (our ex sub-director) of the school. We all had a big feed and then at about 1pm went back to school.
Location: USA
Michael wrote: Volunthai recently organized a project for 16 students from the American university program Semester at Sea, where they tour the world on a cruise ship and stop in at various countries. While this 4-day program isn't exactly what our normal volunteers experience at their homestays, it does paint a nice picture of volunteering in rural Thailand:
http://emilysadventuresatsea.blogspot.com/2007/...
Location: Rasi Salai, Thailand
A Family's Volunteer Experience
by John Battye (john@johnbattye.com)
In Thailand, basic proficiency with the English language can mean the difference between living your life in the rice fields or making some real income and helping your family with basic needs. I am not saying that farming is a bad life, and in many respects simple village ways have a lot to offer over all the racing around that we do, but it is a hard life and surplus income is not a benefit.
This is why my seven-year-old, Jennifer, or my ten-year-old, Timmy, could stand in front of these kids and lead a lesson. They are native speakers. Jennifer loved the beginnings of class, but usually my wife or I would take over at that point with the lesson of the day and leave the last ten minutes to her to teach the students a new song.
My purpose in writing today is to let you know that you can do something like this and that it may be easier than you think. The benefits of making such a trip far outweigh the fears that might hold you back. There were so many moments that made it all worthwhile: My daughter, only there a week, proclaiming with conviction that we have way too much “stuff” at home and could get along just fine with just a couple of toys, watching my sons bargain (respectfully, artfully, and successfully) in Thai at the local market, having the chance to watch the stars in an ink black sky from the back of a pickup, being part of daily life in a rural Thai village populated with the most generous people on earth, and, most importantly, seeing all of my kids pick up the custom of local Thai children who treat helping out and daily chores as an honor, not an obligation. Imagine that!
There are actually lots of ways to get yourself to some exotic sounding place in the world where you get to live with a local family as we did and do something good for the community. As we discovered, most of them cost thousands of dollars, and that’s on top of airfare. But with a patient search and networking (initially through the ubiquitous internet) with other families who have stretched out of their nests, you will find all sorts of ideas and opportunities abroad. When we first began this process we hadn’t even considered Thailand. It became the front runner very quickly because we were looking for a safe, friendly place where people loved children and Americans.
I totally agree with Michael Anderson, the Volunthai founder, who said that you couldn’t possibly give one tenth of what you will get back from the experience.
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS FAST IN THAILAND
By Jennifer Battye, age 7
If you do not speak someone’s languidge you can just keep smiling and make your expereshen on your face say I like you. Will you be my friend. Let’s play together.
Kids like to play games like Old Maid. Before you deal the cards get the old maid and show it and say “Mai Ow!” which is Not Want! After you deal show two matches and point to them. Put them on the table. You can play Pairs, too. Lay all the cards on the table. Pick two up and if they are the same put them on a pile in front of you. If they are not the same put them back face down. At the end of the game who over has the most matches wins!
At the playground you can laugh together. To act like monkeys say “Ling, Ling” and go in the tree and scratch our heads and tummys and make monkey noises and faces. When it is time to go you will have many friends!
If you want to give compliments say, “Dee” (good), “Dee Mak” (very good) or “Gang Mak” (very, very good.)
Thai people are the nicest people in the world.
Location: USA
Here's a link to a cool blog by a couple that just finished volunteering with Volunthai:
http://brigidandbrianinthailand.blogspot.com
(the August and September pages)
Michael
