Trip to the Ao Luk Police Station

See below for a classic Ao Luk experience from Gemma and Hannah, 2 TEFL volunteers:

Our Trip to the Ao Luk Police Station

Towards the end of our expedition we went to visit our students,
Jack, Wee, Kom and Chai at the police station. When we arrived they had changed their computer screen savers to a picture of us in traditional Thai costume beneath a big welcome sign. We took several photos with all the officers. We felt like celebrities! We then got shown around the police station. The best bit was when they showed us the map where they marked up all the incidents that had occurred in the past month. There was one and that was a traffic accident! Ao Luk is obviously a very safe community. We were then taken outside and shown around the town and had to pose for hundreds of pictures. At the end we were given a CD with all the photos on from that day and an invitation to lunch the following day. It was certainly an experience!

By Gemma and Hannah

Trip to the Ao Luk Police Station

End of the 10th Expedition

Saturday marked the last day of GVI's 10th TEFL and teaching English expedition in Ao Luk, Thailand. GVI volunteers and staff had a weepy farewell as everyone parted ways to return home or continue their travels. It was particularly hard to say goodbye to our 3 six month interns, Kristy, Becca and Michael who have been with GVI since June. They did a particularly fabulous job teaching and the community and helping out with life on base. We will miss their smiling faces! Thank you to all the volunteers and staff that worked their butts of in 2009!

End of the 10th Expedition

Last Day of Classes

Today marked the end of the 20th term of classes for GVI's free English program for the Ao Luk Community. Students came out for a final night of evaluations before taking a break until 2010. Certificates were awarded to 56 students who attended at least 85% of the classes.

Last Day of Classes

The King's Birthday Celebration

December 3-5 marked the King's Birthday festival in Ao Luk. December 5th was the King's 82nd birthday, which also doubles as Father's Day in Thailand. For the last 3 years, the town of Ao Luk hosts an impressive festival celebrating the region's traditional arts and crafts, food, music and other specialties.

The GVI team was asked to participate. On Wednesday, 12 GVI teachers performed a northeastern style dance on the main stage. The dance was so popular the teachers did an encore performance!

On all 3 nights, GVI hosted a booth. They advertised for classes and hosted apple bobbing and fortune telling and sold sandwiches and T-shirts. It was a great chance for GVI's volunteers to work with the local community and experience some authentic Thai culture.

The King's Birthday Celebration

Tiger Temple Trip

On Saturday everyone took an early morning trip to the Tiger Temple before it got too hot. The Tiger Temple is just outside of Krabi town and consists of an impressive limestone mountain with a huge Buddha image on top, huge 1,000 year old trees in a hidden valley, random caves, beautiful temples, monks in saffron robes and monkeys that hang out waiting for hand outs (or just take food OUT of your HAND!). Some volunteers made the challenging 1,237 step climb to the top of the Buddha image to enjoy the amazing view below. Others enjoyed a stroll through the old rainforest and hidden caves.

Tiger Temple Trip

Back to Ban Klong Ya School!

GVI TEFL volunteers, interns and staff returned once again to Ban Klong Ya Jalern Samakhee School, this time to work with the 55 secondary school students in grades 7-9. This week's English activities were focused around directions, foods, body parts and questions and answers. Due to the older age of these students, activities were longer and slightly more challenging. Students and teachers had a great time together.

Back to Ban Klong Ya School!

Behind the Scenes with the GVI Dancers!

GVI's TEFL volunteers, Teaching Children volunteers, Interns and staff in Thailand are busily preparing to perform a dance for the King's Birthday celebration on the 3rd - 5th of December. The GVI team has been asked by the Ao Luk Non Formal Education Center to perform and a couple of the NFE teachers are the instructors. The dance is a traditional northeastern style of dance called "serng". The community is going to be pleasantly surprised to see the volunteers get up and perform.

Enjoy some photos behind the scenes during dance practice.

Behind the Scenes with the GVI Dancers!