I took part in a two weeks volunteer project in Songkhla province, with 7 other international volunteers. It was an intercultural and language project. We went to teach English in several schools of the area. The goal was to get the students familiarized with the English language, but also with the foreigners. 

Let me tell you a bit more about this experience. 

I arrived on Saturday, 27th August and met 5 other volunteers: one was from France, like me, two were italiens et two were Vietnamese. At that point, I was already feeling excited for the experience I was about to live, but I was also a bit scared. It was a whole new experience for me. 

Then we were divided into three host families. The two Vietnamese girls, Gracy and Mai, and I went to live with P Tao and her family. For these two weeks, they welcomed us into their home and took very good care of us. P Tao was always cooking the best meals for us, she always made sure we had everything we needed. We felt very welcome there. During our free time, in the evening, I would often play with P Tao’s daughter. At the age of 8, she was really eager to learn English, and she happened to be a very fast learner. 

On Sunday, we went to Songkhla university and met a few students there. It was a great experience. The students took us to visit their university, we played a few games to get to know each other, and in the afternoon, we visited Songkhla old town and Samila Beach. I learned a lot about Thai culture and the Thai school system that day. 

On Monday, we began our project in Ban Khok Muang school. We met the students and played many games. 

On the days that followed, we split into two groups. Gracy, Mai and I went to Watbangsala school for 3 days. The teachers were very welcoming and the children were very interested in the activities we proposed. We tried to help them learn English through songs, games and physical activities. We wanted them to have fun while they learned English. Working with the Thai teachers was interesting. It helped me understand the Thai school system better, and made me see the difference with the French school system. 

On Thursday, a new japanese volunteer joined our project. 

On Friday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, all 7 of us went to English camps. We worked with Indonesian volunteer teachers and Indonesian trainee teachers. Again, we played many games with the children and had a lot of fun. 

Then, Gracy and I went to a new school for the two last days of the project. This school was very different from the others, it was smaller, there were only a few students in each grade but they had a lot of energy and it was sometimes hard to channel it. But we had fun together, we played games and sang songs. 

Throughout the entire project, we had to improvise many times , and deal with the difference in the number of students: sometimes they were 30, sometimes they were 60, sometimes they were 10, at one time they were only four. But even if sometimes it was tiring, even if most of the children had a low English level, I had a lot of fun, and I made a lot of good memories here. 

I also loved learning about Thai culture and discovering Thaïland during our free time. With the other volunteers, we went to a market to eat, we went to a huge shopping center in Hat Yai, and we visited some islands near Pak Bara. We tried many different Thai dishes. Most of them were very tasty, but some of them were way too spicy for my European palate. We also spent most of the evenings together, so we shared about our culture as well. I learned about Vietnamese and Japanese cultures. 

This project helped me deconstruct some stereotypes I had about Asian cultures, so different from mine in some ways. It has also helped me grow as a person. It has been a great adventure and I am so glad to have met all the people I have met these past two weeks. I will now go back to France, filled with joyous memories.