Travel to Teach Newsletter September 2003 - Volunteering News, Opportunities and information with Travel to Teach

Travel-to-Teach will move into new dorms i Nongkhai.

Our programs are expanding. Somehow our volunteers have found a perfect balance between "having fun" and "working hard". They have been very popular everywhere where they have worked and demand for T2T volunteers teaching English and/or other subjects is rising steadily. So since this is truly a positive thing for all parties involved, we will expand and we are presently moving into more dorms in Nongkhai. In the building that's now used by Issara Learning Center we will remake the third and fourth floors to host volunteers in three to five bedrooms And we promise that the terrace on the roof, overlooking the Mekong river and Laos, will get some flowerpots, some bamboo furniture, and see some T2T-"parties" and probably many breakfasts!

T2T in cooperation with Isara Learning Center

Kirk at issara Travel-to-Teach will work together with our former webmaster, Kirk, on this project. Starting in Nongkhai this week the hope is that we will be able to spread to other areas soon. Kirk: "The Isara Learning Center (ILC) is an educational venue and discussion area for local Thai citizens and foreigners. ILC will help educate the poor, help maintain Thailand's unique cultural identity, improve the equality of women, and inform Thai people of important issues (environment, health, etc.). Classes begin October 1st. If successful, ILC will open other facilities in Northeastern Thailand."

* Isara (Is-ah-ra) means "freedom" in Thai.

The story of a web site

old web Travel to Teach history begins with an idea (to make high quality, low cost volunteer-programs) and the web site necessary to make it come true.
We had no idea about how to produce web sites! We only new just barely enough about internet to surf a little on the web. And we had no money to put into it. So we have been depending on volunteer work from the very beginning.

The architect of our site is Kirk Gillock (see the article on Issara Learning center), he made our first site, careful to make it simple enough for us to maintain.
Sarah Macbeth helped out with some expansion half a year later and Miriam van Reijen translated to Dutch. We felt that the site was good but we needed more space for more information.

So:
Andre Clertant, web designer from Lyon, begun his stay with us by making the logo turn. He then continued to help us remake the site since it had expanded beyond it's limits..

Sara Delander, contributed with a piece on Thai culture (she had been an exchange student for a year in Thailand prior to volunteering with us). The paper was meant to be handed to new volunteers but we also think it can be accessed beforehand by putting it on the site.

And finally, since neither the latest web designer nor the "content provider" are native English speakers, we have got help from yet another volunteer, Brian Harding to make the English language on the site more readable. So we owe many thanks and feel gratitude to many.

Volunteer story

Chris Wormley Christopher Wormley, 26 from UK/US, was with us for three months in the summer of 2003. Since he already had extensive volunteering experience (2 years in Benin, Africa) he helped us establish our programs in Namsom and made them a success, with volunteers as well as with the schools. Chris:

So far, when asked to say a few words about my time in Thailand I've only been able to say that it was as different as Africa and yet still the same. The people are always friendly; the food always great, and as ever the time I spent in the community opened my eye to a different way to live.

The cultural lives of the Isan Thai are amazing. I met so many people who made the Buddhist traditions an important part of their lives. We as volunteers were not only accepted into the lives of the people, but also were allowed to see how they live their lives in the Isan Thai traditions. We were invited to plant rice, drink rice whiskey, attend funerals, and participate in the very lives we were here to see.

The school were I taught was the experience of a lifetime. From day one I was welcomed as a teacher, volunteer, and friend all in one. I was given responsibilities of teachers and given the freedom of a volunteer. I was extremely busy while I taught about 240 students in the 5th and 6th grades. I worked on average 5 or 6 hours a day, five days a week. At the end of the day I was tired, and at the end of my time at the school I was able to see a great difference in the ability, desire, and courage of the students to speak English.

In the short three months that I was in Thailand I was able to experience so much that I can’t even remember it all. The highlights of my time are numerous: motorcycle trips, rainbows on the Mekong, eating silk worms and bee larva, scuba diving in Koh Tao, crazy roads in Laos, trains, planes, smiles, chilies, smiles, laughs, pictures, volunteers from around the world, and so much fun in all the adventures I found myself in.

Finding a niche were you will fit is easy. Many people enjoyed the laid back pace to a small town where it was an accepted practice to sit in a hammock all day and just relax. If the slow life is not your cup of tea, try a few days in Bangkok to heighten the level of excitement. If you are looking for a more difficult style of travel, try a trip to Laos for a week or ten day to end your experience in SE Asia.

The one recommendation I would make to any potential volunteer is when you arrive, eat, drink and learn as much Thai as possible