Volunteer Stories  |  Julie and Ryan

My husband and I decided to take an extended trip to Southeast Asia for 3 months. While we were deciding where to go and what to do we both felt it was important to give back to our world and volunteer during our trip. After some diligent research and correspondence with former volunteers we signed up with T2T.

Travel to Teach was an amazing experience. We volunteered for 4 weeks in Nong Khai, Thailand and upon leaving we felt as though we were apart of the community. We appreciated the structure and support that the T2T staff provided us. Their efforts certainly eased our cultural awareness, communication, and overall experience. We enjoyed the additional activities that were offered, teaching the monks was one of our favorites!!! We loved the Thai cooking classes and looked forward to them every week- we've already tried the recipes at home! We always felt safe, secure and supported by the T2T staff.

Our teaching experience included teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th grades for 1 hour each class. We ate lunch with the Director (principal) and the other teachers who loved to practice English as they taught us a little Thai. The children were wonderful and so much fun to teach, they really had a desire to learn English. My only advice would be to bring more supplies - crayons, paper, workbooks, readers, etc. as your resources are limited so you need to get creative. We think we taught the students a little more about the English language and America.

We enjoyed our time in Nong Khai and loved the overwhelming hospitality that everyone shared with us. We highly recommend this organization to anyone looking to give back to the world, to have a cultural experience and to teach English.