Long Live The King

This month saw the 60th anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s succession of the Thai throne.

Now the world’s longest serving monarch His Majesty the King is loved throughout the nation. It is believed that this monarchy is responsible for initiating close to 3,000 projects in the areas of education, environment, public health, welfare, social development, water sources and irrigation systems. Celebrations have been held throughout the kingdom with everybody choosing to wear yellow to show their respect and admiration for the monarch.

World Cup at Phitakon Festival

Although Thailand has never successfully qualified for the World Cup Tournament. The nation’s enthusiasm for the cup means that volunteers were never without a place to watch the all important games.

The most surreal of these places turned out to be a town square in the middle of Loei province. Volunteers had journeyed there to experience the annual spirit festival or Phitakon as it is known. Phitakon is one of the strangest and most spectacular festivals in the Thai calendar. In Buddhist accounts, it is said that when Prince Vessandara, the Buddha's penultimate incarnation, returned to his city, it was such a joyous occasion that the village spirits came forth to join the welcoming parade. Now the festival starts in the dead of night with a Shaman evoking the spirits to take part in the proceeding. Two days of festivities follow as the men of the town adorn themselves in elaborate spirit costumes and a parade along the streets.

This years events took a suprising turn with the addition of a big screen in the central square which allowed everyone to watch the quarter final matches. Two nerve wracking penalty shoot outs later Benard and Reiko were left celebrating Argentina’s defeat while Becky, David and Charlotte were more than dissapointed to bid farewell to England.

Volunteer of the month

Susan Elizondo

Susan Elizondo arrived Quito on the night of March 28th. The following day, Susan traveled to Puerto Lopez, where she would spend 12 weeks teaching English. On her weekends and after her program Susan traveled throughout the country. During her time in Ecuador, Susan had the opportunity to understand and learn about Ecuadorian culture and the Spanish language, enjoying all of her sojourn in Ecuador and the places that she visited. Susan spent her time living with a host family where she felt more like another member of the family than a tourist.

As a volunteer teacher, she was well received by the communities of Puerto Lopez and Puerto Rico, where she was teaching English in elementary schools and was loved by her students. Although Susan had very limited materials to teach, she was very creative and always ready to teach even in unfamiliar circumstances which is why she was chosen to be June's volunteer of the month.

T2T wishes Susan the best of the luck in the future.

Waterfall trip

At the beginning of the month Jack, Jennie and David took the volunteers to Wat Phu Tok a multi layered temple built into the side of a mountain and Chet Si Waterfall, about 3 hours from Nongkhai. The plan was to not only have a good day out but also be a little creative and record a video with children’s songs for future volunteers to use.

So at 6 am a happy bunch of volunteers squeezed into one of the Thai vans, sang songs and enjoyed the drivers early 90's disco music. The mountain is split into 7 layers with temples on each layer and reaching the top involved climbing the 7 increasingly steep layers and then negotiating a rather precarious looking wooden walkway hanging from the side of the top layer of the mountain. After some deep breaths and lots of trying to avoid looking at the drop below everyone finally agreed that the fantastic view at the top was worth the effort. Then after feasting on Sile's peanut butter sandwiches it was time to walk all the way down again...

At the waterfall we found about a big group of Thai teenagers who were busy climbing part of the waterfall and then sliding back down again. Some of the volunteers joined in which was highly appreciated. Forget about taking clothes off, in Thailand you go swimming in jeans and jackets!

Before heading home we carried out our mission and recorded the "Listen to the Water Song". An English summer camp favourite. The volunteers lined up in the waterfall in front of an amused looking Thai audience with T2T's David was recording and Jennie was directing. One volunteer Shaun cleverly avoiding any sincing by claiming responsibility for watching the bags... All in all it was a great day and we hope to be able to do it again soon!

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