Building Mud Houses

Travel to Teach is realizing a long held dream when setting up a camp to help build Mud Houses, or earth, clay or adobe houses as they are also called, in a Lahu village on a mountain above Pai. The initial project will run for 10 days from the 16th to 26th April, however if this is as successful we plan to run more projects in the future.

Program for the 10 day project: Volunteers will be driven to a drop-off point and we will then trek to the Lahu village. Once at the village, volunteers will have a short briefing and set up our sleeping arrangements, and then begin learning how to build right away. You will have the opportunity to look around the village in small groups and can take some photos over the course of the trip. There is also a waterfall within walking distance if you want to swim. Electricity in the village is solar powered, so entertainment in the evening will consist of talking with your fellow campers and the local villagers.

Volunteers will be working to build shower rooms, toilets and a sink area for the villagers. There are approximately 30 children in the village school and you may have the opportunity to help teach English to them if you are interested. The mud structures will be built entirely from scratch, so you will learn the basics of making and drying the bricks yourself. At the end, we will have produced two shower/toilet rooms and a sink area. The local school children will learn how to take care of the new toilets as part of their duties.

This will be a fun way to learn more about the Lahu hill tribe villagers and to interact with other volunteers; while doing something that will benefit this community for years to come.

Lahu People

Lahu villages are usually located high in the mountains at an altitude of approximately 1,000 meters. In the past, Lahu people practiced shifting cultivation, planting upland rice and corn as well as small amounts of a range of food plants and vegetables. Until Government restrictions were enforced, opium was an important cash crop for the people. Profits from the sale of opium were used to buy salt, iron and other products which they could not grow themselves. Villages comprise of 10 or more houses, generally built on the mid-slope. Houses are built from bamboo, wood and cogon grass.

Lahu food is strong in flavor and tends to be very hot and spicy, and/or very salty and/or very sour. The nutritional benefits and having enough to eat tend to be more important than taste, although there is never a meal without chilies.

You can read more about the Lahu people and other hill tribes of Thailand at www.hilltribes.org.

New Program: El Salvador

In El Salvador we are working in two locations an orphanage in Santa Tecla, close to the capital city San Salvador and in Meanguera Island in the southeast with turtle conservation projects.

The Santa Tecla orphanage is run by Catholic nuns and has a huge garden where they cultivate Coffee and all sorts of other vegetables and fruits. There are around 120 kids and who attend regular schools but our volunteers will assist them with homework and afternoon activities. Our volunteers will live in “Homestays” with families in the area.

The beautiful Meanguera is a small island in the Bay of Fonseca, bordering Honduras. The island is an important breeding grounds for a number of endangered turtle species including the hawksbill, the Olive Ridley, green turtles and the worlds largest breed of turtle, the Leatherback. All of the species are in decline for various reasons including accidental fishing catches and pollution. Our work at the Don Chentillo Hatchery where they help the turtles hatch and survive their first 3 months until they are ready to go into the sea.

Volunteers stay with El Salvadoran families in a small village where people live mainly from fishing. As well as the turtle conservation volunteers can also teach English and computers.

Laos Volunteer Story

Carissa from Spain spent 2 months teaching at the Vang Vieng Organic Farm in Laos. Below is her volunteer story.

It's not about saving the world, it has nothing to do with being a hero, it's not even about teaching. It's about learning, it's about caring, it's about trying to make a difference. It's a different way of living and traveling. One that doesn't involve trampling over nature, superimposing your westerner's views on the local people or being the typical tourist who knows nothing about the country he visits. It's about learning that there are different ways of living, different wisdoms, different languages, all necessary to enrich and complement the world. To volunteer means to adopt a certain attitude. It means to be willing to get out of your own way for someone else without expecting anything in return. It means a desire to give your time and energy for the pleasure of sharing.

One of the first things you learn is that those whom you're trying to teach are the best teachers. They may not be the best English speakers, but they certainly tend to know more about life than the regular westerner. Kids are very often the wisest of them all.

When I got to Laos, it suddenly struck me, the uselessness of most of my knowledge. It suddenly became evident to me that I knew all sorts of facts and dates, but almost nothing about life. Since I've always lived in big cities, I became overwhelmingly aware of my distance from nature. All the kids around me seemed to know so much more than I did. They knew all about different animals and plants, they knew how to read the clouds and the sky, the river and the wind. The elder kids took care of the younger with such tenderness, and the youngest of them seemed so mature. I was truly impressed. I thought I was there to help them, but they seemed happier, healthier and wiser than me. To give always means to receive, it is never a one way street. To help another is to help yourself. To help is to help each other.

Laotian people couldn't be warmer and nicer, and specially the people at the farm. The food is wonderful. I got to learn all sorts of interesting things about plants. I loved watching the goats in the morning, not to mention the dozen of piglets that were born during my stay there. The scenery is astonishing, and the English classes were also an amazing experience. I also made really close friends from all over the world, other volunteers who were passing by, just like me.

The wonderful thing about the farm is that it is the result of the effort of dozens of people who have been willing to give just a small fraction of their lives for a good cause. When I first got there, I thought of a million things that could be done to make the place better. However, as the days went by, I realized that the farm is perfect just as it is. It has it's reasons, and you have to live there to know them.

A part of me will always miss my days in Laos.

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