Volunteer Stories  |  Elise

Elisa from Finland was our first Scandinavian volunteer. She taught in Namsom and made her way to a very special place in the heart of many of her fellow volunteers.

I spent six weeks in Namsom, a small town surrounded by rice fields, teaching English mainly in the high school as well as some adult classes in the town library.

Nam Som is an easy town to settle into. The people are always friendly, full of smile and want to look after you, asking you how you are and where you are going. My high school students had a very positive spirit and filled the lessons with giggles. They always wanted to find answers to questions jointly. The other teachers welcomed me with warmth and soon treated me as part of their community. The adult classes were a lot of fun, and people were very eager to learn English.

In the town, where pace of life of slow, with the heat slowing you down even more, it was easy to take each day as they came.

Nam Som is full of rural noise, I was woken up by roosters every morning and every night there was a joint howling of all the dogs in the neighborhood, sounds of geckos, and continuous noise of crickets.

I was put on a compulsory health diet, as freshly cooked, beautiful food was sold on the town market and the few restaurants also served gorgeous food. During my time in the town, it was wonderful to learn how much I was able to communicate with people, although many people spoke only a little English and I very little Thai.

Often on the weekends I went to Nongkhai, to spend time with the volunteers there, have a swim, shop, party, sit in caf?s. Nongkhai, with its more international sprit, was always a fun break from Nam Som.

My time as a volunteer, experiencing people and places, noises, tastes, smells, customs, and lots of very memorable moments, was just wonderful.

Elisa Jalkanen, 24