End of the Expedition

The 8th GVI Expedition in Thailand has come to an end. We said goodbye to a number of new and old friends as volunteers and staff parted ways.

Over the past 10 weeks GVI's volunteers taught well over 100 adult students in the community and awarded 113 certificates of attendance. They taught regular English classes at the Ao Luk Primary School and the Ao Luk Municipality School providing quality lessons for over 700 school children. Through Friday village projects they visited 5 different villages and picked up trash and cleaned up a community forest with local community members and taught English lessons at two different rural schools. In addition volunteers took part in Thai cooking workshops, Thai lessons, the Thai Songkraan festival, visited local tourist attractions, began renovations on another new classroom and assisted with the future English Self Access Library. All in all it's been a busy 10 weeks.

Here are some photo fantastic memories of our fabulous volunteers over the last 10 weeks.

Songkraan Day (13 April) with our first TEFL training group

Patriot Party with our second TEFL training group and Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

The Ims! From right to left, Mim (3rd time teaching children volunteer), Tim (20 week volunteer) and Kim (GVI volunteer gone short term staff)

Mike and Matt - Teaching Children Volunteer

Thank you to all the volunteers and staff that made the last 10 weeks a success!!!

End of Term Party!

On Friday another end of term party was hosted at the GVI base (the 16th one!). Lots of students and community members came out to celebrate with their teachers and the rest of the GVI team.

There was the usual spread of amazing food including rotisserie chicken, papaya salad, rice noodles with green curry, fresh shrimp, loads of seasonal fruit (rambutan, mangosteen, etc) and a plethora of other dishes made with love by members of the community.

This party had a surprise change in plans as the computer with karaoke didn't work cancelling out the usual Thai and English singing performances that carry through the night. Instead disco and dance music was played compliments of Tim's I-pod and the rented sound system and a number of people danced the night away. It was a nice change in pace but we are confident that the usual karaoke craziness will return to base for the next expedition.

End of term 16!

Another term of free English classes for the Ao Luk community has come to an end. On Thursday students in 9 classes, Levels 1-6 were evaluated by their teachers to test how well they had learned the materials covered over the previous 4 weeks.

All students that attended at least 85% of classes received a certificate of attendance. In total 52 certificates were awarded.

Tiger Temple Cave

Yet another trip to the Tiger Temple cave. Steve, one of GVI's volunteers who has completed his 50 hour TEFL followed by participating in 2 weeks of the Teaching Children Project went on the trip with a GVI staff member. Below is his own description of the trip from his blog including some lovely pictures:

On Saturday I visited Wat Tham Sua with Kim. This temple is just outside Krabi and is set into one of the many incredible karst formations that abound around here. Ajahn Jumnien Silsetso, a charismatic Buddhist monk known as Thailand’s Good Luck Monk, founded the temple in 1975. A nun whom we met in the Viharn of the temple told Kim and me that its name arose because a tiger was living in one of the caves there at the time of the foundation. However other explanations include that it was named after a rock formation in the shape of a tiger, that it was named after rock formations in the shape of tigers' paws and claws and that it was named after fossilised impressions of tigers' paw prints within the caves.

The temple's grounds are immense and a new pagoda was in course of construction when we arrived. Refreshment cafes, souvenir shops and convenience stores are dotted about, together with the usual places to buy candles, flowers etc for offerings.

Monkeys freely roam the temple grounds and seem to have little fear of humans, coming very close to people and even stealing things from them. After completing the rainforest walk, we wandered back to the main courtyard and bought something to drink. My tin of iced tea (lemon flavoured) attracted the attention of a monkey who tried to wrench it from my hand. I resisted and managed to retain the can, though it was deeply dented from the monkey's firm grip. But then the monkey teamed up with a friend and both approached me in a threatening manner with their paws outstretched, showing their sharp claws. I decided to let the monkey have the tin and it gleefully ran off and drank from it just as would have a man.

Now it was time to try to climb the 1,237 steps up to the top of the mountain. Kim had already done this back in January, so she stayed down in the shade whilst I tried to see how high I could get. Painted numbers indicated the number of stairs you had climbed from time to time during the ascent, which did serve as an encouragement. I made it to number 675 and then descended. I got back just as our lift to Krabi had arrived. Kim got off at the bus station, whilst I continued to Krabi Town to stay at a hotel overnight for the rest of a relaxing weekend.’

Village Project: Tung Sung School

This Friday the GVI team visited Tung Sung School in the village of Tung Sung in the Khao Yai sub district. Tung Sung School is a small primary school with 52 students in pre-school through 6th grade. The GVI team led fun, interactive activities with 24 of the 1st-6th grade students. Topics included colors, body parts, fruits and an environmental education workshop about litter and recycling.


The parents of the students had been invited out for a quick meeting to introduce the GVI team as well as welcome a new teacher and say goodbye to an old one. Each parent brought food to share and lunch was a literal feast. On top of the usual GVI picnic foods of sandwiches, fruit and pasta salad there was an array of rice, spicy curries, stir fries, chili pastes, fruits and sweets for everyone to enjoy.


Tung Sung School will be one of the 11 schools that GVI will be providing volunteer English teachers for at the end of this month as part of the teaching children project.

Wildlife at the GVI Thailand Base!

The rainy season has brought a whole plethora of creatures to the GVI base. One of our volunteers, Tim has documented them with some fantastic photos. See below for the praying mantis and monitor lizard he got on camera. Hopefully there will be more to come!

Durian Tasting!

On of our favorite students, Kitti, brought around durian for the GVI team to try. Durian is known as the 'king of fruits' and is quite unique in appearance, flavor and smell. The hard, spiky shell makes the fruit a challenge to get into. Once the fruit is broken into segments the golden fruit is revealed in all it's glory. Known to have such a strong smell that some hotels bear signs telling people not to bring in the fruit people tend to find it's a fruit they either love adoringly or absolutely detest. The flavor is rich and custardy and is incomparable to any other fruit out there.

Volunteers and staff had the opportunity to sample Kitti's durian. As you can see from the picture, the fruit went over with mixed reviews!