Travel to Teach: Thailand Volunteer Story

Monks also listen to music!

Pascal, 25, Switzerland

I just returned to Switzerland after spending three months in Thailand where I had the time of my life! In the following text, I will try to explain you why I got to like Thailand so much, what makes it such a special and beautiful place to be and why the experience you get as a volunteer is worth so much.

As I arrived at Nongkhai, the heat and the humidity was just too much for me. Coming from the cold and snowy Swiss mountains, where everything has to be preferably covered with ice and snow, surrounded by negative temperatures, it is no surprise that I feld dizzy for a while.

In Nongkhai, I stayed together with other volunteers from almost all over the world in a dormatory. After I spent a few days in Nonkhai, being surrounded by white people only, unless I went to teach to ‚my' beloved College for Business, Administrator and Tourism in Udon Thani (I got picked up and dropped of every morning:), I knew that this is not what I came to Thailand for. I wanted to get to know as much as possible about Thai culture, the way of Thai thinking processes, Thai behaviour, Thai morals, ethics and values. But I was not getting as much as I wanted by staying in Nongkhai, even though the Thai staff is great and very helpful. After a few weeks in Nongkhai, another volunteer named Martine, a Belgium Chemistry teacher, and I went to a Thai English teachers camp for one week. There, we taught them various methods of teaching English language.

With a few other volunteers, I went on a weekend trip to Khao Yai Nationalpark (200km east of Bangkok), one of the oldest and biggest national parks in Thailand. On this trip I encountered for the first time that Thai people do not care at all if a bus ride which normally takes 6 hours takes almost 11 hours…

On another weekend, we drove to Sarnelli House (visit: http://www.sarnelliorphanage.org) with rented motorbikes. I am still very affected by what I expericenced there. Another wonderful place to visit in Thailand!

With the help of Mooy, one of the very nice Travel to Teach Thai staff, I went to Loei which is about 150km away from Nongkhai. Loei is - supposed to be - famous for its mountainous landscape and cooler temperature (to be honest, that's what it says in LonelyPlanet, but I hadn't heard of this place before :). I decided to stay in a Buddhist temple with 5 monks and 3 novices for two weeks.

As I was living in the temple, every monk and novice was very kind to me. They were proud to have a white guy staying at their temple, being interested in their culture and way of living. Therefore, they drove me to many different places, as often as they could (and always expected me to go with them), even though it was on their expense, as the financial situation in each temple had to be taken care of by the head monk, the abbot. As Michael, the abbot, showed me various and beautiful temple sites, totally abandoned, I was amazed! Some of them did not even have electricity. And the fact these monks want to spend the rest of their life in those places is just unique!

As soon as I arrived at the temple, Michael and the other monks brought me a pile of books, as I told them I would like to know more about Buddhism and Thai culture, since the latter one is based on the former one. So they brought me eight books which they wanted me to read. They were very proud if I read one of their personal books. By doing so, I learned a lot about their culture. There are about 227 rules the monks have to follow, rules about eating and living habits, about the way of Thai thinking and behaviour etc.

Initially I only wanted to stay for two weeks, but after the first day, I decided to extend my stay to three weeks, the maximum I could as I had previously booked to teach in another Travel to Teach location, Phon Phisai I dedicated the next three weeks of my stay in Thailand to the Buddhist way of living in a temple which means they expect you to follow some of the 227 rules the monks have. For example:

• I learned how to meditate and did it every day for two hours.
• I went to collect food with them as a carrier of their bags.
• I slept alone in a house on the wooden floor on a thin straw mat.
• They expected from me to avoid wrong speech (such as yelling, swearing, lying, shouting).
• To avoid doing any harm to any other living organism (including plants, soil, insects and humans), Giving things (such as food) away and not only keeping everything for myself
• To not touch any female person or things that a female person holds in her hands at the same time.
• Not to eat after 12 noon, one normally has breakfast at 9am. Monks normally eat once a day - and I wanted to do it the same way. After 12 noon nothing is allowed except sunflower seeds and some herbs)
• Not to consume any alcoholic drinks (as a person who drinks alcohol is not only thought of threating his own but also the other peoples lives of the community he lives in).

My timetable during my stay at the temple roughly look like this: I got up at 5am, meditated for an hour, then swept the temple grounds for about another hour. After this, we went to collect food and then ate breakfast. After this, I went to teach at the monk University near the temple by a ‚Tuk-Tuk', a three-wheel motorbike. After coming back from the University, we swept the ground once again, then chanted, ate sunflower seeds and drank homemade tea. Before I went to bed, I meditated for another hour and by then it was normally around midnight.

In these three weeks at the temple, I built up a very strong and deep relationship with the monks, mainly to the head monk who I'm still in contact with. Before I left Thailand for home, I went to visit the monks for the last time and as soon as I arrived, I was told that Michael (the Abbot) needs me to go to a birthday party with him! The birthday party was absolutely amazing: more than 1000 people came to congratulate the old and well respected monk! I got goose bumps by seeing this …

The experience of living in a Buddhist temple among monks, having the same rules and learning a lot about Buddhism, Pali (monk) language, Thai culture and Thai language means a lot to me. This is definately something extravagant for anybody doing something simliar. I definately recommend such a stay at a temple for everybody; you do not need to be Buddhis at all. They are open to any religion. And they do not want to convince you to become a Buddhist at all. They respect you too much to dare to convince you! For them, it is not important what you believe in, but THAT you believe in something.

After my unique life and experiences from the temple, I went to Phon Phisai, where I got introduced to the way of living in Phon Phisai by 'Happy Jack'. In Phon Phisai, David Styles, another volunteer who seems to spend the rest of his life in Phon Phisai (hi Dave! :), and I taught the basics of Word, Excel and Powerpoint in the Travel to Teach computer centre.

There were other volunteers teaching English in Primary and High Schools but I had chosen to teach IT.

After spending three months in this magnificent country, I had leave it for good as my University courses were about to begin. My departure was not easy at all and indeed, I had a really hard time to leave; Nat, Charlotte, Mooy, Meaw & Jack (the Travel to Teach Staff who had now become my friends); the monks and various volunteers who I had spent my time with.

To conclude I'd like to say the following: Thailand is a great place to be! The people treat you with so much respect. I really never heard one bad word from a Thai person!

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