Travel to Teach new dorms in Nongkhai.

Overlooking Laos are our new dorms in Nongkhai. A Thai town house, fifty meters from the main dorm and 20 meters from our old headquarters, which now also serves as dorms, is our latest Volunteer house. This picture shows the view from the roof. The Mekong River is one house away with Laos on the other side and the Indochina market on the Thai side of the river.

Altogether we can now host about 20 volunteers comfortably in Nongkhai. Volunteers from Nongkhai now also go to different villages around the town to teach, sometimes staying for a few days in the village and returning to Nongkhai in the weekends. This combination we think facilitates for volunteers to get the true contact with Thai community and life with the possibility of "debriefing" with friends in Nongkhai.

On their way to set up English Camps

Travel to Teach does not own any motorized means of transportation, we rely on our bikes, and an occasional neighbor helping us to get to the bus or train station. In the month of October schools in Thailand are closed and we travel by bus or vans to English Camps all over Isan. This year Travel to Teach has set up English Camps: - In Nongkhai, teaching a two-week class with FGCC.

- In a small village twenty km east on Nongkhai, Andys village, where are teaching three classes throughout October.

- In Namsom where we will make two different camps, a weeklong camp with one of the primary schools and a week-end camp with the high school.

- We have also taken part in camps in a National park in Udon Thani province.

- Together with students form the Maha Sarakam University set up a weeklong camp in Sakon Nakon.

Elin's Volunteer Story

Elin Holstensson, 23, from Sweden spent a few months with us in T2T Mexico.

El lugar del Nopal
Stuck in my home country for two years studying I was getting restless. I needed to go somewhere and I needed to go soon. I thought about going somewhere not too far from my country. Maybe to Nice to improve my French, or to Barcelona to learn Spanish. I opted for the latter, but as I was searching the web for info on Barcelona, a little notice of a small volunteer organisation starting up in Tijuana, Mexico popped up. I was immediately intrigued, it just seemed so exciting. After doing some calculating I realised that even though Tijuana was further away, it probably wouldn´t cost me more (rather less) than a trip within Europe. After investigating other volunteer organisations in the area I found T2T to be the most inexpensive, flexible and interesting alternative. I promptly signed up for the program.
A month and a half later I found myself in the streets of Tijuana, eating the most delicious mexican taco!

Only having been in contact with T2T over the internet, and not having any ex-volunteers to consult (me being the first proper volunteer), I had been a bit worried about what I was getting myself into, but those thoughts quickly disappeared. I got a very personal welcome from Adriana, the program coordinator. On the first weekend we had a "launching party" at her house and I was also invited to her fathers ranch, a drive outside of Tijuana...
Read about Elin's time in Tijuana

Fulbright Seminar in Namsom

This summer Travel to Teach hosted a Fulbright seminar for teachers from Wisconsin on ethnic minorities and comparing teaching situations in USA and Thailand.

Thirty teachers from Wisconsin were treated to lunch and afternoon discussions with the English teachers at Namsom high school. The next day they had set up a program for the students.
Thai teachers put on a show with Thai dance and songs and made their American colleagues join the dancing.

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