Launching a rocket
The rocket festivals have two different components:
The first is the parades and Beauty contests, shown in our Rocket Festival Gallery.
The second is launching the rocket and a hight competition. This is the really dangerous part.
Just stay as far as you can from the launching!
Ute, coordinator in Pai
Ute was with us last autumn, researching for a Master Thesis on Volunteer Tourism and Sustainable Tourism Management, comparing different volunteering organizations. Academic life finished and here she is
back helping us to set-up a program in Pai.
Jeroencha and Marleen
Jeroen was shining with enthusiasm as he arrived in Udon Thani airport! Marleen was happy to be here at last. They have both been shining ever since. Both have been in Nongkhai, mainly, but also in Namsom, Sangklaburi, on a visit to the islands, to China, to Chiang Mai and Laos. Jeroen came for a two month stay in january and is still with us,
he wrote this volunteer story very early in his stay.
Pai
Our Pai program has hit the ground running... Our new coordinator Ute, from Germany and our veteran Thai staff Poo, already have two volunteers.
And not just any volunteers either. Romain who is a photographer and Vansessa a web designer from France are already engaged in the community, helping out with a local Newspaper.
Pai is located in beautiful surroundings situated between Chiang Mai and the Burmese border. Apart from our normal teaching programs we also have ambitions to work with environmental awareness projects and "sustainable tourism", joining several efforts that are already active in the area.
Our own Computer Learning Center
In order to control all factors, and evolve our own methods, curriculums etc we have set-up our own computer center for teaching and learning.
Just outside Phon Phisai in Ban Tin Dung a small village on the Mekong river. In a classroom donated by the local government of Phon Phisai, Travel to Teach has installed 7 brand new computers, a TV and a white board to start teaching computing in a true village environment.
This is Nat's pet project, he commutes to Phon Phisai where he teaches two days a week and for the remainder of the week monitors events closely from Nong Khai.
Nat: Every person who wants to study our Office or Creative Applications courses, has to initially enroll on our basic computing course.
The majority of students have never used a computer, so before we teach concepts such as files system and OS structure, we have to teach some students how to hold and use a mouse.
Teaching at the centre can be mentally taxing but also very rewarding.
Gary and David (shown above) volunteers from the UK, have been helping Nat develop the curriculum and they also teach class weekly.
Any prospective volunteer who is considering teaching IT is welcome to contact Nat if they require further information about the computer centre.
View the T2T Computer Learning Centre Photo Gallery
View the Phon Phisai Photo Gallery
Living in Isan villages
From the very beginning of Travel to Teach we have offered the possibility for our volunteers to go and teach in an Isan village. This is because we believe that the key to Thai culture is the village life and that an experience of Thailand can only be complete if you spend some time in a village.
Nothing much goes on in a village and yet that is where things are happening.
The monks in the local Wat may invite you to join their meal (men only), the neighbors children will come to get some extra tutoring, the local wat may have a festival to mend the roof. Everyone in the village will want you to join them for dinner. You may go fishing, trekking or rat hunting!
Our main programs situated in villages are Phon Phisai and a number of villages in Loei province. Tommy, now placed in a village in Loei, so wanted to promote his placement that he wrote us a volunteer story after ten days of arriving in Thailand.
Read Tommy's story
