CCT Volunteer Julia Taladay Blog Post (Art Relief International)

Since starting my internship with ARI only 2.5 weeks ago, I feel like my understanding of so many different things have changed. The people I’ve gotten to meet and work with have made me realize that I can be an extremely adaptable and relaxed person, while also being a leader that people look up to. Before starting the internship, I did not think that I would work well with disabled people at all. Being an athlete, most of my friends are also athletes and we often bond over physical activities like sports or competitions. For children who are physically disables, I was unsure if I would be able to make a connection with them. At Hope Home and Healing Families, I proved myself wrong. I have learned new ways to bod with people through different avenues. I am learning how to communicate and bond with others in a way that in still physical, like helping the kids paint and giving them different fabrics to feel, but in a way that is less competitive and more educational and therapeutic. This has been a recent revelation of mine. One of my favorite moments with ARI so far has been with Healing Family, playing games with the participants. It is physical, but in a way that encourages bonding and solidarity rather than competition. I’m excited to see how ARI will redefine other concepts for me in the coming weeks.

CCT Volunteer Dakota Van Deursen Blog Post (FORRU placement)

The past two weeks have been a true whirlwind. FORRU, the Forest Restoration Research Unit based out of Chiang Mai University, does such great work for the region and the world; it's a true honor to be a part of it all!

                My first week, the other TEAN interns and I were flung head-first into pretty intensive field-work days. Tuesday, we hosted an education day for American college students at the FORRU nursery at Baan Mae Sa Mai. Nestled way up in the hills of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, it served at the best orientation imaginable -- we got to learn more about FORRU's 'framework species' planting method, then take hikes to visit old planting sites.

                The rest of the week, we spent preparing the plots at Mon Long (near Moncham). Each day, we left campus near 7:00am and didn't return until past 6:00pm! They were long days, but I don't mind it. We spent most of this time removing pine needles from the forest floor to aid in a soil acidity test being performed by one of the staff members.

                It all boiled down to Saturday, though: Big Planting Day at Mon Long with the help of students from MaeJo University, park rangers, the Rajapruek Institute, and others. We put all of the prepared trees in their holes, then began work fertilizing them all. It was certainly rewarding to take a step back and admire our handiwork!

                Following the labor-intensive yet massively successful previous week, our second week was spent mostly in the FORRU office on-campus, working to create electronic copies of Herbology charts. I've gotta say, I'm impressed by how much the simple act of typing differnet species' binomial nomenclature over and over again can affect how you recognize words (and their associated plants).

                Wednesday was spent on the road to and from Tham Pha Thai National Park in Lampang province. In preparation for the next Big Planting Day, we spent the morning loading 2500 seedlings into the truck (learning important Thai words such as "snail," "millipede," and "snake" along the way). The drive that day afforded some of the best, albeit fleeting, scenery I've yet seen in Thailand.

                So, now I'm two weeks in, and I'm totally hooked. I can't wait to see what the next five weeks have in store for me. Not that I want to find out too quickly, mind you! I'd like that departure date to stay as far away as possible, too.

CCT Volunteer Annie Kaplan Blog Post (Temple School Wat Khuang Singha)

Sawatdeeka World! Hi, I’m Annie Kaplan from Danville CA checking on during week three of her internship at Wat Khuang Sing School. I am a Comparative Cultures and Politics/ Secondary Education double major at Michigan State University who hopes to one day work as a history teacher in America. This summer I have decided to make a daring decision and work as an English teacher in Thailand. Both the country and subject were extremely unfamiliar to me which made this a big decision. It was not an easy choice and has not been easy thus far but I think it will all be worth it in the end.

Our group has now been in Thailand 5 and a half weeks. We took classes and went on excursions the first three weeks but since then have been fully immersed in our internship placements. Through these experiences we are all learning so much and will come away from these 10 weeks having absorbed so much through just living and communicating in a new space.

There are 11 interns in total, but at my school it is just my friend Sarena and I. Every day we Uber to school to begin a day filled with learning, teaching, and facing something completely different than what we are accustomed to in the United States. Our first week, in my opinion, was the biggest culture shock I have had in Thailand thus far. Everything is so different compared to my public school upbringing. Our school is a Buddhist temple school, meaning that it’s a government run school with very strict rules. The kids wear a variety of uniforms throughout the week, and sing and chant whenever there’s a transition in the day. Teachers are tough, but show so much dedication to their practice. My favorite part has definitely been the amazing cook at our school who is able to cook for 300+ people and accommodate my strict vegetarian diet! The most shocking to me has been that teachers do not stay in one room, it’s the kids that do. Teachers rotate grades and classes throughout the day bringing everything they need with them as they travel. While I saw this as unfamiliar, the kids take to their daily tasks with more happiness than I’ve ever seen. As a sixth grader, I liked school but nowhere near as much as some of the students here do. When I was in middle school, I was constantly falling asleep in class but the way teachers command a room engages the students unlike any I’ve ever seen.

I am placed with P.4 through P.6 which are the oldest kids at the school. They are learning a range of subjects from clothing to daily actions to common English phrases. Making the transition from studying social science education to English education has been strange but there has not been a moment where I felt that I didn’t know what to talk about. Part of my time at Wat Khuang Sing is spent teaching, and part is spent observing how to be a good teacher. Structuring lesson plans and building activity blocks are skills I am working on with my mentor teacher, who is showing me different ways to engage students and present lessons. We rotate from PowerPoints to flashcards to working out of the book, a sure fire plan to keep students focused.

Games are another strategy used by the English teachers here which has been one of my harder tasks to tackle. Something about explaining a game in a foreign language just makes it a tad bit harder for both the kids and myself. There have been moments where I have gotten up in front of them to teach and the level they understand of the words coming out of my mouth has been zero. So yea, it’s been tough. I’ve been stressed and exhausted and overwhelmed but there’s something tremendously uplifting about seeing the smiling faces of my kids every day. 

Introducing Srey Neang - CCT's first ever volunteer from Cambodia!

CCT and ARI are ecstatic to introduce you all to our first volunteer from Cambodia! Srey Neang is an incredible young woman with a beautiful story. She comes to Chiang Mai from Siem Reap, where she started begging on the streets at the age of 9 before encountering one of our new partner organizations, The Green Gecko Project. 

This NGO supports over 70 children who previously lived on the streets of Siem Reap. They are providing security, education, opportunities and lots of compassion, so that participants can achieve their full potential in their adult lives. Intrigued to find out more? Check out this conversation volunteers Cat and Shellie had with Srey Neang this week…

Shellie: So how did you get involved with Green Gecko?

Srey Neang: You know Green Gecko started from us begging on the street, for some people it created a lot of pain. Some people are selling stuff, some are sleeping on the street. But Tanya, an Australian woman, came to Cambodia for the 1^st time and we used to beg from her. We would carry around our sister or brother, begging for a meal. But the baby is not eating the meal because we just sell it back to get the money...

So Tanya also bought meals for the first time, but the beggars know the owner inside the restaurant and sell it back. And so Tanya asked, “so the kids are not eating the meals that I buy, you sell it back to get money?” 

So the next time she bought the rice, and brought all the street kids to the restaurant and paid for all the food that they ate. And the next time she tried to get all the kids to study English at a school in Cambodia, and she bought the rice for us at lunch time. And next time she saw us still begging and she tried to rent a place for the kids to enjoy activities, we go half a day and go back home. 

Some kids go back to begging still the same. So she rented a second school, bigger than the first, and we went there to study. And some kids that live far from Siem Reap, she rented a place where they can sleep there, and then they can go home to visit their families. And for me, I had a rent house so I didn’t have to sleep there. I go for learning, and then go back home. 

At night time I still go back to begging, and she saw the kids begging again, so she tried to let kids have a job. They could choose to sell books or postcards, and she made something like a tuk tuk that we could push around and sell to tourists. She tried to stop the begging because the police tried to catch the begging kids, but with selling books we were just earning a little bit, and a lot stopped selling books and went back to begging again. 

But Tanya, she continued to try and find a better place, and the last one that she found was the one we are at now. It is a beautiful, big place and we all go there and study and we have a lot of volunteers go visit and be volunteers there, and all the kids that started from the beginning stay there Monday to Saturday, and Saturday at night time they go home to visit their families for one night and come back on Sunday. 

And that’s why we stopped begging, because Mom (Tanya) organized for families to have 5 kilos of rice, and she also helped with the rent house 20 dollars a month for all the families. And the kids saw that their families are getting food and can also pay for the house, so they stopped begging and started focusing on studies. Our NGO has English, Khmer, and other activities like living values, logic, computer, on Thursdays Bokator (Khmer martial arts), and then music, art, dancing and other fun things on Friday.

We also have Gecko Action. We already have everything like love, food, and now we share back to other kids. We raise money by collecting the rubbish in town and selling something to help old women or old men that have no kids to look after them, and kids that can not go to school, and kids that study in university but can not catch up.

Srey Neang: Green Gecko has meaning – Gecko is the animal that comes out at night time, right? And we are like the geckos – we come out at the night time begging. Green Gecko is the place where dreams come true for the kids, whatever they want to do, it will come true.

Cat: Did you have any dreams when you were 9?

Srey Neang: Yeah, I dreamed to be an interior designer. But when we’re small, we keep changing our dreams. You know, first a teacher, then interior designer. But when we grow we see everything around us, and we know what we are going to do. I want to help Cambodian people, and do art therapy. So, Mom is going to send me to a short course on art therapy before I go to university.

Shellie: Okay, so your dream now is art therapy!

Srey Neang: (laughs) Yeah, but it’s really hard because Cambodia doesn’t have a course or a school for me to study this. There are ones in Australia and Malaysia. At Green Gecko, they are trying to find a school for me, so they’ve applied somewhere in Australia and Malaysia…if they don’t reply back, we will find a volunteer from another country to come to teach me.

-        

Shellie: That’s really cool!

Srey Neang: Yeah, and if I learn it, Green Gecko will open up another place to let kids see what career they want!

Cat: Are there kids at Green Gecko that arrive when they’re older?

Srey Neang: Yeah, but some kids are not good at studying, but they’re good at other things. Some are good at school, but they want to stop studying because of their families. But Mom tries to tell them to help their families now a little bit and earn a little bit. But if you finish university and you have a good job and more money, you can help your family more. In Cambodia, we have those times in grade 9 and grade 12. I tried to stop grade 9, but people told me I should do this and this and should try to study.

Cat: Why did you want to stop?

Srey Neang: Because of our families, we need to help them. And sometimes we see our fathers work hard and he gets older and older, and if something happens to him, what are we going to do? We try to stop studying to get a job, but Mom says “you can not stop now, you’re nearly at the end! If you start from the beginning and you stop before the end, you’re going to be upset in the future.” I keep going, but in grade 12 my father got sick and I couldn’t continue with my studies and I tried to stop. And my brother just told me, “We’re nearly finished, sis. You can not stop. I know that you want to help our family, but if we finish grade 12 it will be better than if we stop right now.” I tried to keep thinking this, but I saw it was really hard with my father. And Mom said, “Continue studying, I will help your families.” And then she just paid some money for my father so I could keep studying and finish grade 12 and I could go to university. I am still thankful, and now my father is much better!

Shellie: What do you dream of doing with art therapy in Cambodia, since it is such a new thing? 

Cat: Would you want to work with Green Gecko?

Srey Neang: Yeah, I think if I finish my studies in art therapy, first I think I will find a job in another career first and will make some money, and will ask Mom to open the school in Cambodia with Green Gecko.

Cat: You guys do school and activities. Are the activities ever creative and artistic?

Srey Neang: Yes, some!

Cat: Are those your favorite?

Srey Neang: (laughs) Yes! On Friday we have many different activities like cooking, dancing, music, computers, and art. I have 2 hours. For 1 hour we can do one activity, and the next hour you can choose another one. But for 2 hours I chose art, because I really enjoy it! I’m not good at dance or music, I mean I can, but I’m more interested in art.

Shellie: Do you like painting the most?

Srey Neang: Yeah, I really enjoy watercolor the most. I really feel (leans back, humming in peaceful delight!)

Cat: Did you ever experience that calm feeling from creating art when you were begging?

Srey Neang: No, I didn’t feel anything like that. But I felt hurt because we couldn’t have good times with our families like the rich people. Because when you’re begging you just see this around and you feel jealous. But when we are at Green Gecko, we feel that we are lucky and now we feel another way. I feel that when we share our lives with others, we feel much better.

Bringing "Hakuna Matata" to Chiang Mai

At the end of my six months of the theatre outreach internship with Chiang Mai Drama Centre and Art Relief International, I had the honor of taking part in the special Lion King musical theatre workshop for kids. When I was growing up the Lion King was my absolute favorite Disney movie. Even today, the story deeply resonates with me; when I hear the musical score, I can feel the powerful emotions of the music running through my veins. So when Natalie, the founder and director of CMDC, asked me to create the choreography, teach the songs and dances to the kids, and create some costume pieces, I was beyond enthusiastic about it.

After much anticipation and planning, the first day of the Lion King workshops finally came, and adorable children aged 5 -10 arrived to Lanna International School full of energy; ready to tackle everything we threw at them. As they learned the first song and dance, “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”, they were incredibly attentive and ready to learn African dance moves. We finished off the afternoon by reading through the script and assigning parts. At the end of Monday, Natalie and I felt like it would be a challenge to have everything learned and completed on time, but we leaned in with anticipation of the coming days.

By Wednesday, these incredible children learned 3 songs and dances, blocked almost the entire script (with some students already having memorized their lines), and we began seeing more character development. The students were creating brilliant set pieces like jungle bugs, flowers, birds, and elephant graveyard bones. Even though 4-hour days are definitely challenging for kids this age, they continuously blew us away with their energy and attentiveness. At this point, it was evident that the kids would be able to blow the performance out of the water!

Time flew and it was already the day of the performance. There was a good vibe in morning, and the kids were nervous and excited to show their new-found skills to their parents. The music started and all of our animal characters entered to the “Circle of Life”; just as I expected, they performed brilliantly! They remembered to smile big during the songs, all of their dance steps, and dialogue. On top of this, some of the students were even able to improv, stay in character and keep going even when things didn’t happen according to plan (like Timon and Pumba hilariously missing their high-5 a couple times before getting it right).

At the end of the week, I felt ridiculously proud of the kids for working hard, putting in a lot of effort, and focusing on a common goal at such a young age. Personally, I felt accomplished and successful in seeing my ideas come to fruition. What I have learned from Natalie while working at the CMDC is that everyone can learn how to be a team member, while growing in confidence by having a bold voice and showing others what they are capable of. It is amazing to see young kids learning how to be committed, flexible and able to adapt to challenge. These are key qualities and skills for life that they can carry into school, friendships, and future jobs.

As it is with so many folks that travel to this captivating place, Chiang Mai has captured my heart and I now plan on staying here longer than I thought I would! Of course, this makes me incredibly happy, as I know that I do not yet have to say goodbye to all of the young individuals who have made my life so much brighter. I am more than thrilled to see what the future holds with the shining youth of Chiang Mai.

Peace and love,

Shellie

Hello from Maggy!

Hi everyone!

I'm Maggy and I hail from sunny Southern California, specifically a little beach town called Ventura.

I graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara (another beach town-I really like the beach...) a little over two years ago with a Bachelor in Communications.

After graduating I did a bit of travelling around Western/Southern Europe and then landed a position in politics, working as a field representative for a state elected official. Through my experience in politics I was able to gain a unique perspective into state law and policy-making, while also using my direct ties to learn about significant issue areas such as water, education, the environment, public safety, and non-profits. Although all interested me, I felt spread thinly across several different topics and preferred to focus on, and be an expert in one field--something I deeply cared about.We can all strive to make the world a better place if we genuinely care about the work we do, right?

As far back as I can remember I have always been passionate about societal issues and helping at-risk populations. To be honest, there is nothing else I have ever really considered dedicating my life to-I don't feel as strongly about anything else. However, for a long time I just knew I wanted to help people. But help people how? I didn't really know. I just wanted to do some good. Working as a field representative I was able to learn a lot about government, but I knew it wasn't something I was going to commit my life to. I see politics as longitudinal systematic change and I'm all about direct, hand-to-hand, help. So I decided to take a risk and do something I have always wanted to do. And that's why you are reading this now.

I quit my job and came to Thailand to spend the next 6 months interning at Urban Light through CCT. Urban Light is dedicated to helping boys at risk of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. I am very excited to be able to not only immerse myself in the beautiful Thai culture, but to have the opportunity to learn about and contribute to such an important cause. I am really looking forward to making the most of my time here!

If there is anything else you need to know about me, it's that I am a super upbeat, positive, warm person, who really just wants to be your friend. Oh, and I LOVE to eat and be adventurous-whether it be with food or exploring some new terrain. Need a new buddy? Just say the word :)

Love,
Maggy

Teaching... With a Twist!

From the 2nd November to the 18th of December I taught English at the Wat Kuang Singh school in Chiang Mai. 

The biggest challenge was the communication with the kids, because most of them had only learned English for a short time and so they understood next to nothing of what I was trying to say. But with the help of tooth and nail, pictures, a Thai speaking teacher or google translate, everything was possible. 


I taught 3 different classes and discussed different topics in every class. With the youngest (6-7 years old) I talked about pets and the numbers until 20. We learned new words with pictures and played pantomime games. 

The middle ones are about 8-10 years old and we spoke about our families and the different rooms in a house. We drew our family trees and the ground plots of our homes. 

The oldest ones are about 10-12 years old and they were the biggest class with about 48 students. It was really hard to work with such different levels in one class. But they all had fun when we talked about weekend activities or the western Christmas. Furthermore we played a lot of hangman to learn and remember new words. 

The other teachers were really nice and from my first day on I was a part of the team. One day we made a school trip to Doi Suithep and to the Bhubing Palace. Because the guided tour was in Thai the teachers did everything to explain the whole tour to me. And at the temple a few girls took me with them and showed everything to me.



Furthermore I learned how to build a krathong, a traditional, boats like structure made from banana leaves and flowers as part of the Loy Krathong Festival. I was a bit helpless at the beginning but the teachers and also the students showed me how to fold banana leaves and how to fix them on the banana trunk. 

The father's day ceremony was also a great experience. Everybody wore a yellow shirt and girls of all ages performed traditional thai dances. They also sang the National Anthem and other Thai songs and every adult had to write greetings for the King in a book. After the ceremony every class made their own chilli paste and then sold them. 

I should also say something about the food because I've never had such delicious food at a school. I am really impressed that one person is able to cook such good food for so many people.

All in all I had a awesome time here and I am really upset that this time has ended so fast. But the time here showed me that I really want to become a teacher in the future and I'm thankful that I was able to have all these experiences.


Alina, Germany