VSA - Voltra Group Work camp

Community Development – Homestay Chiang Mai

3 - 9 January 2016

It is hard to say goodbye. Cannot believe that today is the last day we stay in this beautiful, enthusiasm village. Everything here is great and nice. Although it is a just a seven-day work camp, we have experienced and enjoined very much.

Our schedule was packed tightly range from educational teaching, farming, and cultural exchange to sightseeing. About teaching, we went to an uphill school to teach student who came from different part of Thailand. The school mainly teach practical skill. Yet, they have very little knowledge of English, teaching them was such a difficult job since we don't have a common language. However, with the aid of body language and pictures, we still can achieve the goal of teaching.

About farming, we went to a farmland where belonged to one of our host. The main job of us is to get rid of weeds that grow near corn plant. We help her to finish one-week work in just 2 hours. A part of that, we help her to collect eggplant and the view there is pretty. Such activity is a precious experience for all of us since there have little chance for Hong Kong people to go farming.

Cultural exchange is another objective of our trip. Our “mother” taught us Thai-style cooking and traditional clothing. Then, all of us cook a full set of Hong Kong style dinner including Chinese Steamed eggs, pork ribs with bean sauce, teriyaki chicken wings, honey garlic pork chops, fried vegetable with garlic and rice dumpling as a pay back. It was a most unforgettable moment in the trip because we can sit down and chat with each other and enjoy food made by us at the same time.

Although everything was wonderful, no common language is a frustrating problem. We do like to chat with each other, but most of the time we cannot understand the true meaning behind if there are no translator next to us. It would be great that every host family can have a translator.

No matter how, everything will become a memory. We hope that what we learned and experienced can benefit us. At the end of the trip, there were so many grateful memories.

Hongkong Team