VSA1613 ICL Khonkhan Camp

VSA1613 InterCultural and Language (ICL) camp - Khon Kaen

My name is Patter. I’m a Fashion Designer from Bangkok and this is my first time in volunteer camp.

Day 1: Arrived - The school

Rajaprajanugroh 50 school is the residential school with about  800 students. The school’s area is very large. It is about 200 rai (1 rai=1,600 square metres).There are vegetable farm and pigsty in the school that are all operated by the students. The students are trained to do sustainable agriculture and other careers that they are interested in such as barber, dress maker, etc. The students in this school are self-disciplined and responsible. They wake up early in the morning on week day to run around the school as an daily exercise.

Day2:  Meet the students

My first class was in secondary. I was excited to meet the students. Although I did not well prepared, to teach this class with the other two volunteers Jo and Scott was going very well and the students gave me a warm welcome.    

When I meet the students, they are so nice and respectful to their teacher. During this day I notice something special which is the student call their teacher “Mom” and “Dad” because they use most of the time in the school. In the class, the students are too shy to answer the question but after we can break the ice by telling them in Thai that It’s ok. if it’s a wrong answer,we won’t punish them,the students have so much fun with us. 

Day3 and 4: High School

The lesson for high school student was more challenge and serious than the secondary. On this day I went to teach with other two volunteers but not the same person because we were rotated everyday. We planned to teach the student about translation. We gave them an assignment to translate the song that they sang in every morning. The song is about ten responsibilities to be a good student. It was difficult for them but finally they can made it and they were proud of themselves.

Day5: Primary Busy Christmas

This day was the day before christmas party and the students had many things to do such as decorating school’s board, making christmas card and rewriting article for the handwriting competition so I went to help them spell words about Christmas.The primary students are so cute and they make me feel young again.

This is a really good experience I ever had. I greatly appreciate the school’s kindness and VSA for taking care of me and taking me to travel in Khon Kaen.