T2T Staff
In our latest Newsletter we introduced Defne and Vincent as new members of our team. This time we will introduce Charlotte and Nat. They will both join us in January/February.
Both have been volunteers with our organization and both want to come back and join us in developing our programs.
Charlotte Williams
Charlotte 24, was a volunteer with us this summer. She is from UK; she has majored in Public relations and Business Administration.. She has join us in Nongkhai to help make our administrative routines more smooth and to help promoting Travel to Teach in various media.
Nathaniel Manu
Nat 35, is now a web designer with the BBC in London. He has designed our present website. Nat will join us to make Computer and design classes in Nongkhai. Our aim is to serve a belt in the lower Mekong region, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand (Isan) with state of the art knowledge of designing skills, Internet and related competence.
New Program in Sangklaburi
Sangklaburi is a small town close to the border to Burma. It's in Kanchanaburi province by the legendary "Three Pagodas Pass". There has been a dam built and many villages have been destroyed with social problems following. We will begin working with two orphanages there.
One orphanage has around 80 children mostly from the Karen tribe and refugees from Burma. They also help mothers that are abandoned and/or abused. A small weaving factory gives the women salaries to support their families while the children are admitted to the school. The other orphanage has 20 boys and works with ecological projects in the forest.
A sad Christmas
We have had a hard time concentrating on making a New Years Newsletter this year! This extremely tragic and dramatic Tsunami taking away most of the joy one would normally feel.
We are sad along with all the people of the region and asking ourselves what we can do to help. Our volunteers have been donating blood and we have donated some money but given the size of this catastrophe, anything we can do seems so inadequate and so little.
Since so many of the Thai people hit by the wave, directly or indirectly, come from the Isan region where we work. We believe that the best thing to do is to carry on with what we know how to do and keep teaching here.
Kerstin was in Sweden during this dramatic period. Swedish media was totally occupied with the Tsunami wave and its consequences. So many Swedish people were lost or found dead that this is the greatest disaster in modern times for Sweden.
One striking thing was the amount of good will that has flown from Sweden and other European countries towards Thailand. Thai people are through all media coverage described as compassionate, brave, clever and extremely helpful. They are praised everywhere.
So if something good could come out of this tragedy it might be the feeling that we are all in the same boat, all on the same planet and that what concerns one also concerns the other. "No man is an island... "
Volunteer story from Tijuana
Caroline Olofsson, from Sweden spent a few months with us in T2T Mexico. Read what she has to say about our program.
You know the feeling when you're about to decide if you should go on the roller coaster you've always wanted to try, you are so excited, but at the same time you've never been more afraid? You really want to try it, but you also have feelings like" What if something goes wrong? What if I don't like it?"
A roller coaster-ride can be horrible and terrifying but also absolutely wonderful and exciting. Imagine yourself standing there trying to decide what to do. What do you do? Walk away fromroller coasteraster and possibly one of the most wonderful things in the world or do you go for it? Now imagine that you decide to go on the roller coaster after all, and you find it to be the most incredible ride of your life, even tough sometimes during the ride you pray to God to "please make it stop", but when you've done it you're ready to go one more time instantly. This is a situation, I think most people experience sometimes during life, in many different circumstances. Whether you're starting on a new job or you decide to try bung jumping. It's all about taking risks and to follow your heart and intentions.
Read about Caroline's time in Tijuana
