Almost at the end

My fellow volunteers and I have been in Thailand for ten months now and suddenly time is flying by. There are about six weeks left until our departure. Although I'm really looking forward to being home and seeing my family and friends, I also get a little melancholic when I think about saying goodbye. My project and especially the people here have grown close to my heart and have taken very good care of me and the others during the last few months. Most of all I will miss Kru Yupha, who always made sure that we lacked nothing and who gladly sacrificed her free time for us.

Of course, as the end approaches, I ask myself whether these are all the last times I will experience. Is this the last time I will walk along this path? Is this the last time I will see this student? Is this the last time I will be in this place?

When I get back to Germany, I will be very busy for the time being, enjoying my home and my regained privacy. But at some point I would like to come back. Back to my old project and the people who have been like my second family for a year.

It won't be easy, as first of all I have to find time in the distant future and then there is the matter of money, but I am hopeful. Otherwise, I would consider it a great pity to keep my current stay in the north of Thailand as my last in memory. Fortunately, I am not the only one who has fallen in love with the country. My parents, who visited me in February, and my little brother, who spent two weeks at my school in June, also want to come here again if the opportunity presents itself.

Instead of dwelling on my last weeks in my project, I will enjoy every moment so that I can bring home only good memories of this time.

A year has passed quickly and I feel like I am returning home a little more mature and wiser. Sometimes it was hard to be so far away from everything familiar, but in the end it made me the person I am now. And if someone asked me if I would do it again, my answer would clearly be "yes." In a few years, I will look back on my time volunteering in Thailand and wish myself back to this place and time that gave me so much.

I am grateful to everyone who made this experience possible for me.

Thank you!

Alena Nöckler, July 10, 2023
Volunteer from Germany in ICL Khonkan Project (RPK50) August 2022- August 2023