Great Progress!
One of our students from the Computer Center in Phon Phisai used to take care of water buffaloes as a profession, in his village.
When he enrolled on our 1st basic computing course he was scared of holding the mouse.
But Som was a very diligent student and by the end of 3 months learning the basics, MS Word and Photoshop he has managed to secure work in Bangkok working with computers.
A big hand for Som.
The nicest school toilets in Isan!
Once one starts painting it's hard to stop! And if you have an artist with you, you better make the most of it. So we painted the toilets in the Mechai School. Red for boys and yellow for girls.
More pictures of the painted toilets
Volunteer Story from Namsom
The moment you arrive in 'Ban Falang' (the house of the foreigners) you feel at home in Namsom. The house has a great atmosphere and it just feels good to be there.
After my arrival in Nongkhai I went straight on to Namsom with two other volunteers. To get there we had to take a samlor for about an hour to Ban Phu. There Jehab (the lovely Thai girl who helps the volunteers in Namsom) met some Thai friends and we were immediately invited for dinner.
Read Muriel's story
The Tale of: Bas & Pizza Namsom
When I arrived in Nong Khai, I had the opportunity to go to Namsom for only one week to find out if I would like it there.
Well, one week became two, two became three and now after seven weeks I am finally leaving the Isan paradise.
Read Bas's story
Starting our Video project
Travel to Teach will produce a video (VCD-format) as an English teaching instrument to give to students and schools in the Isan region of Thailand.
The Video is conceived as something between Sesame Street and MTV. A challenge to our team!
But we have an enthusiastic, partly professional team. Chris is an amateur video photographer, Khutse is an experienced project planner, Kirk has 10 years experience of video production, Jessica has worked in LA's entertainment industry for 10 years, Charlotte has a major in media and communications and Nat has lots of experience with graphics and animations!
Can we do much better?
The project plan is to have a 30 minutes video ready by March 2006. We shall then carry on building the product as we receive more volunteers interested in the project.
Finishing first part of Michai Camp
A grand finale finishing the first part of our engagement in Michai School.
We had a Baisee (a ceremony exchanging gifts and thanks givings ) at 8.30 am in the morning, this was followed by a performance by the Michai School Children. And then lots of games and sports.
We Lunched together, then played even more games!!
We had a short break to take a shower and relax before the evening events, a shoe filed finale with kareoke, shows and dancing. Whew what a long day!
Some magic watches over our projects! When we started the Michai renovation project we did not have any one to help with the electrics or wood work but as soon as the project started we discovered that one carpenter, Remy, and one electrician, John, had jus arrived as volunteers. So we repaired fans and lights and furniture.
We then had to paint the school. White is Ok but too tedious on some walls, specially a 100 Metre wall. But then, hey presto, Sarah arrives, a volunteer who was also an art teacher. She sketched out the shapes on the wall and the rest of us filled in the shapes. Suddenly we had created the nicest wall in the area.
We now have 2 galleries about the Mechai School Project so please check them out:
1. The Whole Restoration and English Camp
2.The Final Day Ceremony and Events.
T2T Football Team
During the Mechai School Camp, Travel to Teach (T2T) was challenged to play a game of football against the technical college students who were helping with the restoration of the school.
T2T volunteers are mainly female so we had a hard time scraping together enough players to play a 'five a side' game on the pitch we had built for the Mechai school kids. We eventually, with the help some FGCC Students, managed to get a team together.
On the day of the match, the technical college team arrived with 10 players, in Thailand that means they have a lot of substitutes and T2T hasn't any :-). When the game started we realised that although we were physically bigger and strong than them, given the size of Thai people, they were much faster and BETTER players than we were.
The 1st half ended a 1- 1 draw, but the technical college had more of the better chances. So T2T decided to basically sit in front of our goalkeeper for the second half and fight for the draw. Due to our size advantage this tactic worked well and we even managed to steal a goal on the break, giving us the lead with 4 minutes to go. We dug in hard for the last 4 minutes as they threw everything they had at us but finally we managed to win the game 2 -1.
Hooray to T2TFC!
Naga Festival
Or Bang Fai Phaya Nak as it is known locally is the annual festival held to celebrate the fireball phenomenon.
The event is an unexplained phenomenon that generally takes place on the full moon night of the 11th lunar month, which also coincides with the end of the Buddhist Lent.
On this night, smokeless, scentless, soundless fireballs begin to rise from the Mekong. Local people will tell you that the giant water snake or Naga is the source of the fire, others will insist it is a natural phenomenon. Only one of our volunteers was lucky enough to spot one this year, the rest of us where happy to make do with the fantastic festival that surrounds the event.
