Tim's Volunteer Story

Here's the scoop on GVI Thailand's Internship programme from Tim, who recently completed his six-month stay here in Ao Luk:

'I had never heard of GVI.

I was cycling across Nepal (as you do!) and was taking a rest break in this small town called Bhandipur overlooking the Himalayas - it was beautiful. I was wandering around taking in the stunning scenery surrounding me and looking on in amazement and bewilderment at this group of very young local boys who were all taking it in turns to practice & ride what looked like brand new unicycles!! Up and down the cobbled street they went totally enthralled, and considerably skillful with this "toy" they had acquired from somewhere?

But all of this is another story.....for another time....

This story begins with a total stranger who, like me was also watching the children with amusement and a smile on her face. She was another "ferang" which is a word that Thai's use for any other foreigner, I was in Nepal, but I guess its appropriate to use the word here anyway!! We started chatting about the kids playing and we also enquired to each other why we were there. She was volunteering with Global Vision International - teaching children in the local community in Nepal. My purpose for cycling around Nepal was also for children - raising money for children and adults with learning disabilities in the UK. I was intrigued to hear more from this ferang, who's name I unfortunately can't remember,....but perhaps she's reading this now, so thank you ferang lady!

She told me a little bit about GVI and scribbled their website address down on a scap of paper. I remember thinking at the time this could be just what I'm looking for. I was totally miserable in my job back in London and didn't know how to get to do what I wanted to do - which was anything like charity, voluntary work or environmental work, preferably abroad - all things I was very passionate about but had no real experience in to make a career or earn money out of them.

After an incredible time in Nepal, the inevitable "return to work" Monday arrived - YUK! Isn't it an 'orrible feeling? However, this particular return to work day had a twist -.....I found out that after nearly 14 years I was hot listed for redundancy. Well once the initial surprise had worn off and I'd had time to absorb and think about the consequences, I was all for redundancy - bring it on!! A week later I was told the news and I was gone.

Feeling somewhat lost with no job, time on my hands, I was wandering around my apartment a week or so later tidying up and came across the scrap of paper from Ferang Lady in Nepal with GVI's address on it. So I checked out the website and my eyes widened when I saw everything that they did across the world - it looked just what I was looking for. I called head office in St Albans, spoke to Jeremy and arranged to meet him to discuss what programs might suit me best.......he recommended the 20 week TEFL programme in Thailand.......and here I am, the first, I believe, volunteer to sign up for the 20 week program.

As I write this I have less than three weeks to go before I head back to London and leave GVI and Thailand behind. But I'll be taking home with me the most wonderful memories and experiences after doing so many new and exciting things and meeting so many lovely lovely people. The local Thai people in the community have been so warm & welcoming and all the other volunteers from all over the world who have come and gone over the weeks and months have made this mini life journey very very special.

So I've been here in Ao Luk for nearly 6 months now and what an incredible 6 months it has been. It hasn't always been easy. It's been a bit of a roller coaster sometimes of emotions, fun, challenges, hurdles, rewards, laughter (lots of it!), mishaps (and I've had a few!! - and not too few to mention either!!) together with acclimatising to new ways of living, new ways of eating and very hot and humid weather with the occasional tropical downpour to drown you and cool down the air. But I wouldn't change anything. And to top it all off I also now have my TEFL qualification to show for all my hard work.

Coming to live and work in Thailand, albeit only for 6 months, couldn't have been more different to everything I was used to with my life style and way of life back home in London. For anyone considering coming to Thailand to do the same, to ensure that you enjoy your experience it's important to embrace every single little part of it. Sure it will be different from anything you will have done before - and certainly very different from living comfortably in your own home with all the conveniences we all take so dearly for granted. But you gotta immerse & open yourself up to making the absolute most of everything that comes your way - and then it all becomes exciting.

Living at the GVI base in Ao Luk was fun. I loved it. It's kinda like camping, but in a house rather than a tent. Because of the weather, lots of the living is outside - eating, relaxing, chores (!!), studying, learning, lesson planning etc. It's also a bit like living in the Big Brother house, but without Big Brother. At any one time there could be up to 25 people all sharing and living together in the house - I thought it was cool - and adapted from living on my own in my cosy London flat to living in a big old not so cosy house in Thailand with lots of strangers very easily (including the squeaky bunkbeds with cardboard matresses!). Everyone mucks in together with chores, keeping the house clean and tidy, the gardens outside looking neat n tidy (we have coconuts, bananas, mangoes & papayas growing as well as various vegetable patches and herbs), cooking - breakfasts and lunches - but its all part and parcel, and its fun.

Aside from us volunteers living in and at the house, there are also a number of indigenous critters popping up every now and then (and sometimes very frequently!). Monitor lizards, preying mantis, bats, squirelly things, golden beetles, massive beetles, beautiful butterflies and moths, snakes (don't worry, not many!), scorpions (don't worry, not many!), frogs galore (especially after a rain storm - the frogs croaking chorus is deafening!!), geckos scurrying & climbing over every wall and ceiling and even bloody crabs would you believe!!! We're miles from the sea, where do the bloody crabs spring up from????

Oh, did I mention cockroaches, flies, ants????........ We'll forget about them.....!!

In the evenings, everyone chillaxes outside on the papuas, paluppas, papayas (or however you spell it - a bamboo gazebo to you to me!!) with the sounds of the evening wildlife, the moon in the clear night sky filled with millions of stars and unwinds from the days or evenings English teaching classes.

My first 4 weeks on base were doing the TEFL Monday to Thursday. In the mornings after breakfast we had input, which is when we were trained and taught the TEFL. The rest of the day was spent planning the evenings lessons using everything we learnt during the day and later practising it all in the classroom. I have been a trainer for many years, which to some degree helped me in the classroom. But learning the TEFL was demanding and challenging, but also interesting & very rewarding. There are classes at 5pm and 7pm. The classes are free and anyone is welcome, but the minimum age is 15. We go out into the community, outside schools, around local businesses with fliers informing anyone interested of registration at base where they can then be assessed as to which level they are going to be best allocated to. There are 6 levels of classes - level 1 being veeery little spoken English through to level 6 which is quite conversational. So students come from all walks of life - ordinary housewives (they are great fun!), to nurses, older school students, policemen, anyone working or living locally who wants to benefit themselves and the community with their spoken English skills. But wherever they come from or whatever they do, they are all so much fun to teach, they are friendly, charming, eager to learn and often bring you gifts of bags of fruit or food. But above all, Thai's have a great sense of humour and the students are as quick to laugh at their own mispronunciations of English as they are at your mispronunciations of their language!

We teach in terms and in my expedition program, with breaks there have been four terms. A term is four weeks with four 90 minute lessons in each week from Monday to Thursday. At the end of the last week there is a review lesson which is basically a re-cap on all the previous lessons to prepare them for a 7-8 minute verbal assessment on the last day. This assessment will determine if any of the students are ready to move up to another level next term. After the assessments, students are presented with attendance certificates which they receive if they have missed no more than three lessons. Photos are taken and applause is given and recognition received for their commitment to learning.

The end of term is celebrated with a big party at GVI base. The whole party is outside - karaoke is set up, balloons are filled & preparations are made. All the students bring various delicious Thai dishes (some just a tad too spicy for lil ole me!!), and there are normally around 60 or so students, so you can imagine how much food there is - and they are very keen for you to try it... all of it!! At the party special announcements are made, and the NQT's (newly qualified teachers) are presented with their TEFL certificates. It's a great night!

Aside from learning the TEFL and teaching in the evenings we also got involved with village projects. Here we go out into the community and offer ourselves to teach English in primary and junior schools and also educate on environmental issues which might also involve us working with local people to help them tidy up any of their local beauty spots of trash. GVI works in the schools to educate the small children about the consequences of dropping plastic bottles and bags, glass bottles, cans etc - the children also Take the GVI Green Pledge to always aim to keep their beautiful country beautiful - its sooo cute!!

Alongside the TEFL teaching program there is also the Teachers Assistant programme. There is a high demand for GVI to provide these teaching assistants who are free to the school and speak fluent English for the kids to learn. As I had taken 3 terms teaching the adults at the centre, I wanted to spend my last 4 weeks teaching children as a TA. I love kids and the Friday village projects we did were soooo much fun - you cant believe how cute some of these kids are. We teach them very basic stuff -colours, shapes, body parts, animals etc and a lot of the learning is based around games, songs and activities which they LOVE (along with having their pictures taken!!).

On my first day and we were teaching at Ao Luk Noi school. The day started with the children of the whole school assembling on the school playing field to a small band of kids banging drums and clashing cymbals - they all march out and form lines in their respective ages - its very lovely. I remember it was a beautiful morning, bright sunshine, surrounded by mountains, and I felt very excited to be part of this typical Thai school day. There are no teachers around - all this is orchestrated by the kids themselves, just with a teacher looking on. One lone younster grabs a microphone at the front of the field on a small platform and addresss the 150 or so kids in something Thai which I naturally didnt understand. The younger pre school kids who are soooo cute in their little bibs and school uniforms get a bit restless standing in a line while all this is going on and are easily distracted - so they just chat and hit each other!!

Then I was invited to take the mic and address the whole school which I did, but past saying "Good morning" and "hello" in Thai along with my name, I'm sure they didnt have a clue what I was saying. But teachers in Thailand command a lot of respect, so I got a clap and the children are totally taken by having a white "ferang" teacher amongst them!! It was a great first day teaching. Organisation in the schools is strangely all over the place sometimes, tho Im sure to them it all makes perfect sense! So we discovered we only had half a days teaching which after two hours teaching in the morning suited me fine - I WAS EXHAUSTED!!!!! 30 kids is a lot of kids to keep occupied and focused for an hour (or sometimes two!) Lunchtime couldn't come quick enough!! We always eat lunch with the kids and sit with the other teachers - 9/10 the food was toooooo spicy for me and before long tears would begin to form and sweat would begin to drip and the teachers would begin to laugh! - and I would run for a bottle of water!!

So as you can see.. there's a lot going on here at GVI Thailand - and plenty to do and achieve. But it's not all work and no play!! I wanted to make the most of my time here in Thailand and have as much fun and see as much as possible and when I look back over the past few months, I have certainly done just that! I have been to Bangkok twice for a week each time and had a blast, such a great city - fun, dirty, charming, loud, brash, great shopping and markets, deeelicious street food, the city just comes alive at night - you can't move for traffic and tuk tuk's - but its soo much fun. I visited Kanchanaburi to see the bridge over the river Kwai and visit The Tiger Temple, I played with four 3 month old tiger cubs (got bitten by one on my ankle, skin ripped, blood etc - but who cares!) and fed them their milk, I was affectionately mauled by another 5 month old tiger cub called Boo who refused to unlock his jaws from my arm, I visited Kuala Lumpur where I went white water rafting, visited the Petronas Towers at night, I've gone elephant trekking up a small river into stunning rainforest, I've gone river tubing through more stunning rainforest at Khao Sok national park, I've had my ankles sucked dry of blood my a gazilliion mosquitos, I've been snorkelling twice and seen the most beautiful marine life off the most beautiful islands with water as clear crystal, I've been island hoping around amazing islands on cool speedboats, had a night out watching Thai boxing, I've fallen and twisted my ankle going down into a cave and was in agony for weeks, I needed to have a root canal, I had to have a crown, I fell down a 2ft crevice in another cave, I burnt my ankle trying to skip a 12ft flaming skipping rope on Phi Phi island, I fell through the floor boards of my wooden lodge in Khao Sok national park, I fell off my bike in the front garden and badly scraped my back, shoulder and arm, I got my first tattoo (my name on my ankle in Thai) done by bamboo on Phi Phi island, I got my second much bigger tattoo done on my back in Patong, Phuket, I went kayaking through mangrove swamps and through caves to see 3000 year old cave paintings, I've played volley ball with school kids, I've been through a floating night market and gone up river to see thousands of fire flies flickering in the trees and bushes, I've taught 156 hours of English to wonderful Thai people, I have tried at least 4 new kinds of fruit I had never eaten (or heard of) before........and.... all along the way, I have met some really really cool people who have made it an experience I will never ever forget.

Would I change anything from over the last 6 months? -....no, absolutely nothing!

Come and find out for yourselves!!'

Tim's Volunteer Story