Volunteer Stories  |  Emily

September to December 2009 - Chiang Mai, Thailand, Luang Prabang, Laos and Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

My name is Emily Doss and I am 24 years old from Orange County, California, USA. I volunteered with Travel to Teach for three months and it was truly one of the best experiences of my life. Prior to my trip, I did a large amount of research on several NGO’s and volunteer organizations offering the kind of experience I was looking for and then I came across T2T.

The first thing I did was send tons of questions to T2T asking everything from A to Z and they were always promptly and accurately answered. I was looking for an organization that did not break the bank, had enough support, and that also allowed me to teach in several different countries. I traveled alone, so it was important for me to find an organization where there was going to be other volunteers and also a volunteer coordinator for support in each placement. I decided to do a combination placement in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Luang Prabang, Laos and Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Each was a completely different experience, but they all came together as the best trip of a lifetime.

I started off my trip in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I arrived after quite a long trip and was skeptical about my living situations, as well as the other volunteers I would be working with. Dennis, the coordinator in Chiang Mai, greeted me and he showed me around the town and also the house that I was to stay in. The volunteer house was a good size and could fit many volunteers. It had bunk beds, kitchen, a chill out area in the living room, and a porch with a hammock. I settled in and got to know the other volunteers the first few days, which was a lot of fun.

I started teaching in a Primary School with two other volunteers. We taught three hours in the morning, grades 1 through to 6 and afterwards got to eat lunch with the teachers. In the afternoon we would make lesson plans for the next day as well as document what we had done with each class that day. I had this schedule for the first three weeks and I enjoyed it very much. I became very close with some of the children, and it was really hard saying goodbye to them as they ran after our vehicle every day we left.

For my last week I taught English with one of the volunteers in a local orphanage. This experience was amazing as we tried to make it more fun then just teaching English, so we incorporated some arts and crafts and played fun games as well. In terms of living in Chiang Mai, I would say it was fairly easy. Most nights, all of the volunteers would get dinner together or we would go eat the street food, which was extremely cheap and very yummy! It was very easy to get around the town, and do everything you could do at home very easily.

It is also fun to plan a weekend trip to go trekking or to Pai, which were both on my list of highlights for this trip. I would very much recommend volunteering in Chiang Mai if you are looking for a larger, but still unique town, and to teach children who will very much appreciate you being there.

My next adventure led me to Luang Prabang, Laos. I was the first volunteer with T2T to work at this placement, so I guess you could call me somewhat of a guinea pig in Luang Prabang, or at least that is what we called myself. It was probably my favorite place that I volunteered. I took the three day slow boat from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang which I would totally recommend as this was also another highlight of my trip.

Hamish, my coordinator there, greeted me and he showed me around town on my brand new bike. The town is small, but has a lot of class. Cute little tea bookshops, French style homes and hotels, wine bars and fancy restaurants, as well as extremely serene. I stayed in a small, yet very homey guesthouse, which was down a little street with a bunch of guesthouses on it, but at the bottom on the river. I had my own room there, and I enjoyed it because it gave me a sense of home away from home mentality. The owners, Mamma and Papa practically became my parents for the month I was there and treated me like their daughter. They always treated me like I was a part of the family and invited me to eat with them and to be a part of the blessing they had done on their house by the monks.

It was such a special place to stay and I will never forget their kindness and hospitality towards me. I enjoyed living at the guesthouse because backpackers were constantly showing up, so every day I made new friends, and went to the waterfalls and out at night with them.

I was given several options as to where I wanted to concentrate my volunteer efforts at the local Library. I decided that it was best I concentrated on turning the library into an English learning place so that the students could have diagrams and basic English down. I went every day to the library and had the students help me with the diagrams we made for the walls such as the family tree, weekdays, months, the human body, colors, ABC’s, a House, etc. These things were all colored by the students and are still up on the wall as we speak.

In the evenings I taught a class of what was supposed to be eight people, turned out to be forty! It was a free English class and this was the first time they had done it so word spread like wild fire throughout the students and their peers. I was a little nervous due to the fact that I didn’t have much teaching experience, and these students were about my age, so I wasn’t just going to teach them the ABC’s or what a dog or cat is! I learned in the end that all they really wanted was to be around a western speaker and hear my voice. Most of the lessons we did were conversational exercises as well as pronunciation because this is what they lacked in. In the end, all of my students put on a traditional Laos ceremony for my goodbye and it was the most special and honorable thing anyone has ever done to me. I still keep in contact with several of my students, and will definitely return their one-day.

My last placement was in the small beach town of Sihanoukville, Cambodia. When I first arrived, I felt a little more uncomfortable in Cambodia just because it is a lot less developed of a country than Laos and Thailand. But after a few weeks, I absolutely loved the place that I almost didn’t leave!

I was amongst quite a few other volunteers from all over the world, so it was nice to be around many different people. We worked with the children on their paintings, which are sold to tourists, and then the money goes straight into the hands of the children and towards their schooling. A typical day would be working with the children from about 8am to noon or the afternoon shift, and helping them paint, while maintaining their progress, playing with them, and helping them learn English and how to use computers. We also took a few fieldtrips with them to the waterfall and the islands, which was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed working with the kids and becoming close with them, it was such a rewarding experience. As far as living in Sihanoukville, it is pretty much a backpacker stop with awesome beaches and quite a fun nightlife. I got to know a lot of the locals and ex pats in this area and just fell in love with the town.

Overall, I had an experience of a lifetime, and if it weren’t for Travel to Teach and its support and organization, none of it would have been possible. The people who touched my life; students, locals and travelers and the experience of teaching and growing as a person was really quite priceless, but was well worth the small amount of money. I would recommend to anyone looking for an adventure into the unknown to volunteer in the towns I visited so that you can have a similar exhilarating experience. I was looking for an adventure along with the experience of helping others and teaching, and that is exactly what I got, and more, with Travel to Teach.