Volunteer Stories  |  Robert

It is often said that it is worth doing something in our lives for the first time. With this in mind I decided to embark on a volunteering placement in Thailand. I was teaching English to primary school children for a few weeks in Nong Khai which is located on the Mekong River in the north east of Thailand. Laos is visible from the town centre. Nong Khai is a small town where westerners are not as common as other larger tourist towns and therefore the amount of English spoken by schoolchildren and indeed the broader community is minimal. Indeed, the school where I was teaching has had only two other western teachers before me. As such, the teachers and students relish the opportunity to have a westerner in their classroom and the basics are taught beginning with the alphabet, forming words, basic sentence construction, and singing songs to give the children confidence to express themselves with English.

The children were terrific fun, inspiring, and keen to learn. The highlight was the final day when I was presented with a farewell lunch, certificate, flowers, and a moving Thai ceremony where each child bows their head on your knee and presents a flower as a mark of respect and thanks. Another positive was the group dormitory in which volunteers live. The opportunity to live and share experiences with travellers from across the globe is a real plus. My colleagues had similar aspirations to mine in terms of wanting to contribute something meaningful to others whilst enjoying themselves at the same time. Volunteering by teaching English provides a unique opportunity which on reflection, has been one of the highlights of recent travels.

Travel-to-Teach were professional in the way that they answered my questions in regards to the placement and indeed the management of the volunteering experience. I can certainly recommend their services if you are thinking about doing something different in place of a regular holiday experience.