Volunteering in Thai Countryside

View from our restaurant

Pakson: a small village lost in South Thailand. When the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere, I understood I had reached the heart of the Southern country....


Thai Child Development Foundation is an association created by two Dutch women. The aim is to look after the disabled children of this area, which is highly populated even if remote. The husband of one of the woman, who is Thai, could buy some land. They built up a school where disabled kids can come over 3 times a week and non disabled every week-end. They added an Eco-lodge to help raising funds for the association  Volunteers like me coming for a week can help maintaining the Eco-lodge and teach English to kids on the week-ends. The rest of the jobs is done by Thai staff who are paid by the association. So overall, it seems very useful and very well integrated in the community.

The place is stunning and you really feel you are in a jungle! Animals are just three times bigger than in other places: frogs, gecko, spiders, snakes...

Biggest frog ever!

Giant gecko: we needed them to eat the mosquitoes

Our "Garden coordinator" was a volunteer Spanish guy who used to sell sandwiches in Pret-a-manger in London:-) He had learnt the job in a few weeks and was actually really good and of course...relaxed! Ok I haven't worked for a few months but the rhythm in tropical places is just incredible. It is so hot that have to do everything slower...There were 5 Thai volunteers with us, young students sponsored by the government to learn English while working with foreigners. They were really sweet and funny. So we spent a few days, building bamboo fences...

Bamboo: a fantastic wood both light and robust but also itchy when green
and not so easy to cut!

..planting trees..

My papaya tree

..watering plants..

Pinky pineapple!

Drying beetle nuts: they are used for drying clothes or in cosmetics

I also spent one day with the kids. They start at 9am by lining up in front of Thai flag and listening to the anthem.  Then a bit of aerobics to warm up, a bit of meditation to calm down (that was amazing!), some recycling activities, some games and a totally improvised English lesson by..well...me:-)

Lining up in front of the Thai flag

Quiet moment..

Recycling activities

In the afternoon, the supposed "organised games" transformed itself to very advanced educational practices: total freedom on the play field and in the nature! Thai staff were probably too tired to run after them..

One evening, we all went to the "celebration" of the funeral of one Thai staff's grandmother. For that occasion, the family provides 3 meals a day for approximately one week to whoever turns up in the temple. All the women from the community gather to cook and serve the dishes. But we were all surprised by the quality and the amount of food provided: curries, veggies, fish, noodle, rice ... kept on coming until we had to say stop! The coffin was richly decorated, and on the last day it would be cremated. Thais do not show feelings. One lady told us the only time she saw somebody crying at a funeral was a woman who had lost her 3 years-old child. In our case it was a 81 years-old granny and everybody looked perfectly happy!

Funeral dishes which kept on coming...and coming...

\Funeral atmosphere:-)

Lady boy mystery..
Lady boys are part of Thai culture. We also saw many of them in Philippines. Ton, one of the Thai volunteer, was  a Muslim boy from South Thailand. We had passed his home town when crossing the border and it seemed quite conservative. Ton looked like a big guy but as soon as he moved or spoke....ah... "lady boy"!! I wasn't sure how he felt about it until he told me:" I like this boy", pointing at a big blond guy working in another volunteer team. Then we spoke...lady boys are generally accepted in Thai culture. They go to high school with make-up, adopt feminine manners and do not have to hide their sexuality. The thing is they can earn a lot of money doing the high seasons. Each family accept that there may be a lady boy among it..that's life! Ton had a boyfriend he was about to meet in Puckett  For his future, being half Malay and a Muslim gay, he wanted to leave in Kuala Lumpur where life would be easier. I will never forget him, choosing carefully his garden gloves: of course, he was looking for the pink pair:-)