Moin Moin !

Hi everyone, or as we say in Hamburg "Moin Moin". My name is Miriam, I am 19 years old and from Hamburg in Germany. I just graduated High School and I am very excited to be volunteering here in Chiang Mai for 6 months. It has always been a dream of mine to come to Thailand and I am so glad that I have the chance to be here until February!

I am a very active person and enjoy sports, cooking and spending time with my family and friends.

During my time here I will be volunteering at Wildflower Home, which is a shelter for young mothers and their children that come from crisis situations. As a volunteer there I will be helping with the kids in the daycare, gardening, farming, organizing or where ever a helping hand is needed. During my first week, the other volunteers and I inventoried all the items that are handmade by the mothers and sold on our website. I was really surprised of how many beautiful bags, jewelry and other things we had in the storage room.

So far, my highlight was cooking pasta with tomato sauce from a huge donation of tomatoes for all the mothers and kids last Wednesday! It was so much fun to cook with the other volunteers and the mothers!

Wildflower Home is such a beautiful place and everyone there is super nice and welcoming. Every morning I am excited what the day will bring. What I like best about my work is that there is always something to do and that it is something different every day!

I am so excited for the time ahead and I am sure I will learn and grow so much from the experiences I make here.

Sawasdee Ka

Hello everyone, my name is Carla, I’m from Munich, Germany and I have just finished high school so I’d say my stay here is part of my gap year. I will be staying in Chiang Mai with CCT for 6 months and my placement is at Wildflower Home, which is a shelter for single mothers. In Thailand women who become pregnant out of wedlock or women who have to live without a husband because of different reasons are often discriminated. Therefore, they often struggle to build up a sustainable future for themselves and their children. I have always been very much interested in womens’ rights and human right, which is why the aims of this project -to provide education, shelter and hope- are very important to me.

During our first week we already got to do a lot at Wildflower Home. We were taking care of the children and we even got to look after our youngest baby, who is only 6 weeks old. Besides that we helped in the garden, for example planted a few trees or helped pulling wheats and also made an inventory list for the products the women have produced in the past. Wildflower Home sells the products as a part of their income-generating program. Even in these first few days we really got an insight in the diverse tasks at Wildflower Home. We realized that there will hardly be a time where there is nothing to do for us.

Although I’m more than excited for my placement, I am also looking forward to learning a lot about Thai culture. When I first arrived here I didn’t know much about it or at least not more than what I’ve learned from the CCT-handbook, which - of course, I’ve read thoroughly. But even on our way from the airport to the volunteer house and in the last two weeks I’ve realized how much there is to learn and see for me. Now I’m more than excited what the upcoming months will bring and what lessons I will learn. I hope I will be able to bring home a lot of stories and memories.”

Carla Lohner

CCT Volunteer John Pooler Last Blog Post (Thai Freedom House)

Thai Freedom House

Jack Pooler

I am currently finishing up my last week here at Thai Freedom House, and it feels like I have just arrived. It has been difficult getting ready to leave, especially being here for only 6 weeks, it feels like I am leaving without doing all that I wanted to. With no classes currently being taught at Thai Freedom House, most of the work I have been doing in my time here will not be applied until the next session of classes starts well after I leave. At first, this was hard to come to terms with, because it feels unfulfilling in the current moment. But much of the work I have done in my time here is to make future volunteers jobs easier, and it is taking solace in the fact that my contributions here will have a lasting impact that has made coming to terms with leaving easier, even if I will not be here to see the results.

Not much has changed in the past couple weeks in terms of the work I have been doing. Assisting with curriculum building with the other volunteer remains the primary focus. With no classes currently being taught, it is pertinent that we direct as much of our attention to this as possible because when the school opens up, there will be significantly less time to do these kinds of things.  At this time we have almost finished up beginning and intermediate English curriculums for the upcoming semester, while also continuing to build on an English training manual for the workers in Free Bird Cafe. Even after I leave, I hope to be able to contribute a little bit to these projects when I have time, because it is an unfinished project and one of the few things I can assist with while back home.

Since it is my last week, I also completed my last English tutoring session with the Freebird staff on Monday. Since many of them can already communicate in English, we have been working on emphasizing pronunciation and expanding vocabulary. This past week, we also worked different customer scenarios and what kinds of difficult questions that might get asked about the cafe, the menu, or Thai Freedom House. Their tutoring will continue after I am gone because there are a couple other tutors as well. It is often difficult to see improvements in language over such a short period of time, but even in the 4 weeks of tutoring I was a part of I have seen progress in their understanding and confidence speaking the language.

I have enjoyed my time at Thai Freedom House immensely. The work that is done here is so often overlooked or not given the attention it deserves because it is not as large as other non-profits. But they serve their community extremely well and are dedicated to their cause. The lack of access the community we serve has to many institutions leaves them extremely disadvantaged in education, work, and plenty of other institutions. The work done here is is important to helping them succeed and providing them with opportunities that might not be available otherwise. Being a part of this community and the work that is done here has been an invaluable experience, and I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity.

CCT Volunteer Dakota Van Deursen Last Blog Post (FORRU)

Wow. I can't believe that it is over. My 10 weeks in Thailand. My 7 weeks with FORRU. It's a little mind-bending, really. It seems like only yesterday that I was walking to my first day of work, but so much has happened since then.

                The last coupld of weeks went by so quickly, but I feel like they were the most productive, rewarding, and educational. Most recently (a few days ago), the TEAN interns at FORRU presented comprehensively on our seven weeks – my presentation (and this post) is most easily broken up into Office Work, Field Work, and Lab Work.

Around the office for the past few weeks, most of the hubbub has centered around the FORRU website. It has been the job of the TEAN interns to revamp the website, giving specific parts of it much-needed facelifts. I worked with Kyra – while she worked on the website-proper, I worked behind the scenes, scanning in recent FORRU publications to be uploaded. Two comic books, two pamphlets, and two seed-care books later, that part was finished!

FORRU’s fieldwork lens has been focused upon Tham Pha Thai National Park: A few weeks ago, we visited and joined the planting of over 5000 trees. Earlier this week, FORRU took an over-night trip to the very same plot, to monitor the growth progress of the trees. Three teams of two went out, each tasked with recording the height, crown width, and diameter of 500 saplings. We…didn’t quite finish. A late arrival, two spats of rain, and a broiler of a day pushed us to nearly 350 per group. Oops. We got some good data, though!

And finally, lab work. Oh, boy. The last two weeks were eye-opening, in terms of the experiment. We went to work every single day to take results and keep it healthy. All that, though, and half of it had still managed to completely fail within five days. Generally unwanted patterns and a disastrous fungal infection rendered our results inconclusive. The other half, though, has been hobbling along. It has been kept on life support for at least the next few weeks, in the care of one of FORRU’s new interns. I have faith that he’ll treat it well, as we did.

                I suppose that is all, then. It feels weird to be leaving Thailand, and the new city I've come to appreciate so much. I'm sure I'll be back as soon as the opportunity arises!

CCT Volunteer Annie Kaplan Last Blog Post (Wat Kuang Singha School)

10 weeks ago I left on a plane to a place where I knew little to nothing about. I knew Thailand had a King, I knew I loved Thai food, and I knew I was ready for something different. Other than that, my knowledge of this country was extremely limited. Today, as I wrap up week 10 of being here and week 7 of working in a temple school, I have learned more than I could have learned in an entire semester of classes back home.

My work at Wat Khuang Sing School has been the most life-altering time I have yet to experience in my 21 years on Earth. I have been challenged as a person and as an educator, spending every waking moment attempting to improve myself and my teaching. I can remember my first day here like it was yesterday. I arrived shaky and nervous, unaware of the love I was about to receive from the students and teachers. Things have gotten better week by week too. As I grasp what my students know and want to learn, I have been able to adjust my lesson plans and simplify instructions to help comprehension. 

Last week was one of my favorite weeks by far. I taught all three classes I work with the Macarena, a personal party favorite of mine. It started with P4 last Monday as a way to kill time during the transition period, but slowly crept around school. By lunch the next day all of my coworkers were talking about how they had seen the dance and couldn’t wait to learn it themselves. P6 learned it next, bringing out a side of them which I had never seen before. I don’t have much of a chance to interact with them as my mentor teacher teaches that class alone, but this moment I’ll cherish forever. The character each child brings to such a simple dance is what I love the most about the Macarena. By the time I got around to teaching P5 the dance, many of the girls knew it already. They had seen their friends doing it and heard the music in the hallway throughout the week. By the end of Week 10, I hope to teach and have them master the Cupid Shuffle.

Something that has come along with this summer is my second guessing of my future profession. Like many of my family members and friends know, I want to be a Social Studies teacher initially but then eventually go into Education Policy. Every day I wake up though wishing I was working at summer camp or doing something different with my day. Preparing each day’s lesson became a nuisance which had me questioning if I even want to be an educator for the rest of my life.

cher teaches that class alone, but this moment I’ll cherish forever. The character each child brings to such a simple dance is what I love the most about the Macarena. By the time I got around to teaching P5 the dance, many of the girls knew it already. They had seen their friends doing it and heard the music in the hallway throughout the week. By the end of Week 10, I hope to teach and have them master the Cupid Shuffle.

 As I talk to my fellow interns and friends back home, I realize that hating work as a teenager is just kind of a part of life. We are all adjusting to the daily grind and figuring out how to balance work life and social life. We are testing the waters with jobs we like, dislike, and slightly tolerate. It’s a part of life I’m coming to terms with slowly but surely. With my final year of college approaching, I’m ready to see where life takes me and how this internship changed me for the better.

but this moment I’ll cherish forever. The character each child brings to such a simple dance is what I love the most about the Macarena. By the time I got around to teaching P5 the dance, many of the girls knew it already. They had seen their friends doing it and heard the music in the hallway throughout the week. By the end of Week 10, I hope to teach and have them master the Cupid Shuffle.

(Thank you Wat Khuang Sing for giving me these three)

CCT Volunteer McKenna Tychsen Second Blog Post (Hope Home)

McKenna Tychsen

Hope Home

{July 9th-July 25th}

A few weeks ago, I said I would go into detail about each of the children! Here you are!

We have 10 children at Hope Home, however, not all of the children live full time at the home. Each child, very unique in their own way, has specific need which we do our best to cater to in each activity we do throughout the day. Here, I go into more depth about the complexities of each child we work with.

1) Bella, 4 years old, (almost 5!!) with a fatty acid oxidation deficiency and a developmental delay. The fatty acid oxidation deficiency is a condition requiring her to eat every couple of hours, If she doesn't, it could be very serious and turn into a hypoglycemic episode. Bella is also deaf in one ear and partially deaf in the other. She is a VERY sweet, intelligent and dedicated little girl with high potential for success, but can distract you easily with her adorable charm to get out of something. During our learning portion each day, Bella is always very attentive and interactive with the lesson. We work with her to improve discipline, fine and gross motor skills as well as basic educational material, such as colors, days of the week, numbers, etc.

2) Little Guy, 2 years old, was born premature with respiratory problems, so had to have a trachea placed in his throat. Now, he is a very active and talkative little boy. Very smart for his age! It is sometimes hard to know if he fully understands English, (for me to understand him at least) however, he has an easier time with Thai and listening to the Thai staff. We are working with Little Guy on his basic educational skills like learning the Thai and English characters and basic words, as well as colors numbers and other beneficial life skills.

3) Tadpole, 3 years old, came to Hope Home when he was about 1 and a quarter years old. He has Down's syndrome and is one of the sweetest and outgoing kids you'll ever meet. His adorable smile and big hugs will get you every time. He has the most energy of all the children, always running around and getting into some sort of ruckus or mess (usually with Little Guy) but is a blast to be around. We work with Tadpole to improve social and mental skills in our education bit and throughout daily skills. We also try and improve his attention span keeping him focused and interacting with others for a longer period of time while staying focused.  We also are working with Tadpole to develop his vocabulary in English and Thai, learning colors, numbers and basic life skills.

4) Yannie, 7 years old, has a developmental delay, but she loves playing shakers and rattlers, coloring and making messes!! She has a contagious and boisterous laugh as well. At Hope Home, we work on Occupational therapy with Yannie. We do repetitive activities such as put certain items from one box to another in order to work on her focus on one activity at a time as well as her fine gross and motor skills.

We've also been trying to improve Yannie's health, so we do fun activities such as bending down, grabbing balls out of one basket and having to lift her body to put it into another basket, like basketball, but repetitive action of shooting the ball in the hoop!

5)  Will, 20 years old, has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus. He is also recovering from stroke caused by shunt complications. Will struggles with communication. He is non-verbal, but can make some sounds and slightly points to things that he wants. We try to help involve him in activities and learn but at his own pace and capabilities. We also work on his motor skills and mobility with physiotherapy each day.

6) Clark, 12 years old, has cerebral palsy, but is probably one of the most able children I've ever seen with cerebral palsy. He is very intelligent and is able to use his limbs and noises as a clear way to communicate. We have also adapted ways for him to use his communication strengths (such as his legs and feet) to form a device which speaks when he presses the buttons. He know where each button is and what it says, so it is a good way for him to show his expressions without being able to verbally communicate them. We've also been working with Clark on his standing and arm mobility. These are both skills which will aid in helpful daily activities such as eating himself, or brushing his own teeth. Clark has a lot of potential, and from the three months I've been here, I've already seen many improvements. Keep it up Clark!

7) Yindee, 9 years old, has severe cerebral palsy, epilepsy and a chronic lung disease. Yindee has had a rough few weeks, however, maintained a smile the whole way through. There was a bug going around Hope Home and a few of the kids got sick with a cold and a fever. Unfortunately, Joy's immune system isn't strong enough to fight against the bug, and it quickly turned into pneumonia, and due to Joy's previous conditions, it affected her very badly and she had to be taken to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) in Chiang Mai. She ended up staying there for 15 days. She is doing a lot better now though!! She's back at Hope Home. Yindee is a very sweet, beautiful and a true pleasure to be around. She enjoys musical sounds and silly faces!  She has limited muscle control and struggles to sit/ stand or move on her own, in need of assistance in everything, however we are working on it with her! We work with Yindee to help her communication skills (she uses her eyes as a way to say what she wants), motor skills and muscle strength/ mobility with things like holding her head up while sitting.  Eventually Hope Home wants to have Yindee work with an electronic communication aid, but for now, we've made giant charts so we can see the movement in her eyes for communication and learning techniques.

8) Dontri, 5 years old, has cerebral palsy, multi-cystic encephalomalacia (scars on the brain), micro-cephaly (undersized brain), epilepsy, a heart defect, and is blind. Dontri is a sweet little boy with an adorable laugh and smile, but with very little ability to communicate. Dontri is very sensory oriented. He needs a lot of different types of stimuli but not all at once, which may be overwhelming for him. He likes textures, calm music, head being rubbed, being held and certain smells. We've been working on having him sit up when possible so he's not laying on his back all the time (so muscle development), as well as an educational system we developed specifically for him, which includes a brail alphabet in English and Thai. As of now, we can't really tell how much he has retained, but it's a start!

9) Namchock, 10 years old, has Down's syndrome and very poor vision and goes to a special education school during the day. I don't get to spend too much time with Choppy because he leaves for school before I get to Hope Home and comes back just before dinner, and I leave right after dinner. BUT... for the time that I do spend with him, he never fails to put a smile on my face. He has such a unique personality and is a sweetheart. As for what my other coworkers have told me, they work with Choppy on his attention span. He gets very distracted very quickly.

10) Andy- 13 months. Andy was born two months prematurely, however, doesn't express any characteristics of a disability. Because he is so young, it is difficult to tell. However, Andy is very sweet and is just now starting to babble. It is quite the task to get a smile out of him, but once you do, it's the cutes little grin with only two front teeth!  We work with Andy to improve basic motor, cognitive, physical and social skills, such a waving hello and goodbye, putting a spoon into his mouth by himself, drinking out of a cup, putting objects into a box, etc... he seems to be developing quite normally so far. (I have only been here three months, but babies grow fast!!)

He loves to try and walk, with our assistance, but soon he'll be able to do it by himself!

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As the weeks dwindle down, I can't help but reflect on my time here thus far. From the classes I took at Chiang Mai University, to the friends I've made along the way and the impact the people have made on my life over the course of my three months here. People at Home Home, TEAN friends and every genuinely kind, random person I've met in Thailand. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity I've been given and have loved and cherished every moment of it.  I couldn't have asked for a better summer, I've learned a lot about myself, a better view on different disabilities and how to adapt to their abilities, Thai culture,  medicine, and the world around me. I'm now headed to travel for a bit but will stop by Hope Home before I head back to the states, for another goodbye!

Sah-wa-dee-ka for now!

CCT Volunteer Sarena Sanchez Last Blog Post (Wat Kuang Singha School)

Well, my final weeks at Wat Khuang Sing School as an English teacher have come! It's been a rollercoaster of emotions including stress, exhaust and SOOOO much joy! The kids at Wat Khuang Sing School are such a joy and bring a smile to my face every time i walk through the gate and hear "Teacher Arena!" (lots of them can't pronounce Sarena). Many of them have asked about my personal life since learning that i will be going back home to America this week. A few of the girls insisted i tell them about my boyfriend, who doesn't actually exist and others are very intrigued with the fact that i'm planning on returning to my old job at Disneyland! I'm definitely going to miss working with them everyday!

This past week i introduced Bingo to my younger classes and not only did they love it, but my co-teacher really enjoyed it as well! Since the younger kids don't have strong reading skills yet, we used pictures of vocab that we've learned over our time together. I had a hard time finding a Bingo card maker that uses photos online, so i ended up making all 25 by hand by cutting and pasting each picture into the individual squares. Sure, it was a bit tedious and super time consuming, but it was definitely worth it when i saw how excited the kids got when they realized they had Bingo! I'm glad i was able to introduce this game to them and i hope my teacher liked it enough to continue using it in the future!

Speaking of my teacher, in the beginning, it was difficult to adjust to having another adult in the classroom, but by the end of week 6, it has been so much easier! I have learned a lot from her teaching style and the activities that she prepares for the different age groups. I will be taking back a lot of useful information and techniques that hopefully i can use in my future career.

I hope the students and teachers at Wat Khuang Sing School won't forget me, because i will definitely not forget them any time soon!

CCT Volunteer Anna Osborn 2nd Blog Post (FORRU)

I can’t believe I have less than 2 weeks left interning for FORRU, these past 6 weeks went by incredibly fast. A lot has changed since my last blog post, but one thing that hasn’t is how much I enjoy working for this organization. I have attended more field trips, been assigned specific projects to help with, learned even more about forest restoration, and continue to see the beautiful scenery Northern Thailand offers.

                The past 4 weeks since my last post have been a mix of data work, field trips, and various tasks around the FORRU office. I was able to help care for the seedling nursery we have outside our office. I spent an afternoon doing seedling care for around 300 seedlings which included picking weeds, refilling the dirt to each individual seedlings, and watering them...basically I was gardening, which I enjoyed (the only part I didn’t enjoy was the heat that day)! Other tasks include entering data into spreadsheets for our bosses, making seedling identification tags for planting days, and attending meetings for the education events. Although field trips and my individual projects are a bit more exciting, I recognize this work is very important!

As for my individual projects, I have been assigned a task of assisting a professor in Chiang Mai University with a project she’s doing with forest restoration. She is in the process of working to figure out which tree species could survive in Thailand regardless of changing climates in the future. She traveled to a herbarium in England to research the diverse tree species in various countries in Asia. She collected pictures of the data she recovered and brought the information back to Chiang Mai to continue her project. I will be helping her transfer information from pictures she has to data sheets on the computer so it is accessible easier. The pictures are snapshots of information tags included with each tree species. These tags include collector, collection date, description of where the species is located, and description of the habitat where the species grows. However, these tags date back decades old, and on occasion, over a century old. It can be difficult to gather the information on the tags due to illegible handwriting or not enough information provided. Although, it is really interesting to learn of all the different species in various Asian countries and even learn more about the geography and habitats of Asia. The professor’s project is a long process but the translation of the information tags will be a start to her succeeding in her research.

Another individual project I have been assigned is updating the FORRU website projects page. The project page has two categories; recent projects and previous projects. I’m working to move projects that have been completed to the previous project folder and add the project outcomes and final reports to them as well. I also am adding new projects to the recent project page and updating the current projects that are still in the works. I have met with professors and various people heading each project to get more information on what they have accomplished and what they're working to achieve. This is cool because while I’m working to update the website, I am also learning about projects FORRU has done with forest restoration before I came to intern for them. I’m able to understand which part of the projects were successful and what did not go as planned, which is helpful to know in the world of environmental sustainability.

Away from individual projects, I’ve attended more field trips. A few weekends ago I participated in a planting day in Mae Takhrai National Park but this time I was the volunteer (this event was not put on by FORRU but the organization Flight of the Gibbon). During this planting day we planted around 4,500 trees with hundreds of volunteers. This past weekend we did another planting day, this time put on by FORRU at Tham Pa Thai National Park (3 hours southeast of Chiang Mai!). We left on Friday and helped with the controlled planting of various tree species all afternoon on Friday. After the work day, we spent the night in a cabin located inside the national park due to the national park being far away from Chiang Mai. Saturday was our big planting day. We planted over 3,000 trees this time. It was hot and a long day, but very rewarding. I love being outdoors for my job, it’s always in beautiful national parks and I am able to see more of Thailand. I also am able to participate in hands on experience, which is beneficial. One of my favorite parts about the planting event in Tham Pa Thai was our adventure ride to the planting site. We drove 30 minutes to the site through backcountry roads in the bed of a pickup truck. We passed several rice fields, beautiful luscious mountain views, and went through the forest in order to get to the site. It was a once in a lifetime experience to say the least. Not only was planting the trees really cool, but also all the breathtaking scenery I was able to see. I definitely could not have asked for a better summer internship.

During my time at FORRU, I also helped with an education event. Around 30 Thai high school students came to learn about forest restoration. This day began with an information session on forest restoration and was followed by a hike to Doi Suthep (a mountain in Chiang Mai). Although the information sessions and guided tours were in Thai, my super awesome Thai co-workers helped translate it for me so I could understand what was going on - which I’m very thankful for! After the hike we did various activities with the students, which provided a fun way of learning about this topic. They were able to engage and do group work to understand all the information they obtained. It was really cool and such a good idea, I would love to see this kind of thing happen for American students back home! They also have these education events for younger students and college aged students, which I think is awesome. Educating students on the importance of environmental sustainability can be really helpful for the future of our planet.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have to reiterate how awesome my coworkers are. They’re so fun to be around and are so passionate about forest restoration which is a great vibe to be surrounded with for the summer. Over the past few weeks I’ve gotten to know them more and more and love that I can call them friends. I’m really thankful for FORRU and my summer in Thailand. This place is amazing and this organization is great work for anybody with a desire to help the environment.

CCT Volunteer Mansur Alam 2nd Blog Post (BEAM Foundation)

It has already been a month since I landed here in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai, Thailand but it only feels like a week. I have no idea how the time has passed so quickly and I only have 3 more weeks to go.

So here is what I have been up to for last five weeks. When I came here, first I had my orientation with the executive director of Cultural Canvas Thailand. We went out to a coffee shop where we talked about my work and everything that I needed to know about Thailand, Thai culture and places I can visit here in Chiang Mai.  It was an amazing day and I was so excited and looking forward to next day.

On the first week I did very little, I went out to meet with the people at BEAM foundation (the place where I will be working for the 8 weeks I am here) and had orientation with the ART relief director. Later on we visited the Hope home. Hope home is a foster home for children with disabilities. The home is for seven children but it also serves as respite for families of children with disabilities and provides loving and caring environment. 

BEAM

Teaching is never something I thought I would do, in fact, if someone would have suggested a year ago that my next job would be teaching high school level science I might not have believed them. It was not until few weeks before I came here I read about the lives and circumstance of the kids I would be working with that I felt it was something I had to do. I think I was very affected by the stories of the kids and how they relate to my own story.

 At the beginning I was extremely nervous, and still sometimes I have to put in a lot of extra work to keep up but so far I have loved every moment of it. I am proud that I have managed to grow and pick up other skills I may have been worried would hold me back in this position.

 It turns out that having a lot in common with the students has really helped me to connect with them and build some meaningful relationships. I love that the students are engaged and interested in learning, they try their best in every moment and some of them seem to love science as much as I do. I also enjoy moments in the class where I can hear small pieces of their stories and share small pieces of mine. I love how unique they all are, and how they are able to laugh at themselves and feel comfortable enough to bring their sense of humour to the class and make it more fun for everyone including me. 

Aside from occasionally being showered with messages in the evening about homework confusion and wifi “not working,” I really have nothing negative to say about my experience with the students at BEAM. I am just over half way through my time with them and I am already starting to feel sad about leaving.

ART Relief

I have had the privilege of working with Art Relief International by participating in some of their workshops in my free time. I spend most of my time preparing for my class at BEAM as it is my first time teaching I am not yet very fast with creating my own lesson plans.

I have enjoyed every workshop I have participated in, they are all great and educational. There are  great lessons behind every workshop and I am very glad to be a part of it.

Here are a few of the workshops I have attended: 

Hope Home

I had five workshops with the kids at the Hope Home and they have been my favourite ones out of all the workshops with ARI. Our main goal here is to improve and practice sensory and motor skills including touch, sight, and sound. Therefore our workshops involve drawing, painting, folding etc. It is very important that every workshops we do include everyone in the house so that we don’t leave out anyone just because they can’t do it in certain way, therefore we help them to get involved in the activity with whatever way possible.

We go to hope home every Wednesday and do small workshop with the kids and it is really amazing, I absolutely love going there and doing different activities, playing and laughing with the kids, they make me smile so much and I really hope I can make a difference in their lives by just helping them in whatever way I can.

So far some of the things I have done with the kids at hope home are making Tambourines, Paper Plate Animals, sensory jet packs, kites, and textured painting. 

Wat Muen Ngen Kong

I have done two workshops with this school and both have been very fun and successful. I particularity  enjoyed one where we had the kids do portraits of their friends and were not allowed to look at their page. It was a fun way to get the kids to think differently and create something interesting they may not have made if they were allowed to look.

nd do small workshop with the kids and it is really amazing, I absolutely love going there and doing different activities, playing and laughing with the kids, they make me smile so much and I really hope I can make a difference in their lives by just helping them in whatever way I can.

So far some of the things I have done with the kids at hope home are making Tambourines, Paper Plate Animals, sensory jet packs, kites, and textured painting. 

Elderly Care

Going into the Elderly Care program, I was curious about how Art would be used or relevant as I am more familiar with working with kids using arts and crafts. I was pleasantly surprised by the ability that the simple art activities had to uplift the seniors and it made me happy to see them so happy. I was also quite entertained by the fact that many of them seemed to think I was Thai and made me feel quite welcomed (thanks to P’Noom translating everything they said.) So far I’ve only been able to attend one workshop with them where we did dot painting which they took to quite well. I would love to go back to Elderly Care before I leave.

CCT Volunteer Sarena Sanchez 2nd Blog Post (Wat Kuang Singha School)

The past couple of weeks have been such fun at Wat Khuang Sing School! I’ve really found my groove as a teacher and am really enjoying leading the classes!

One Friday we were lucky enough to be a part of an awesome celebration that included the entire school! At the end of the day the classrooms all lined up in a huge group with the band at the very front and the teachers right behind them. The regular teachers put us towards the front, where people of importance usually go. We then walked off of the school property and began a parade with the entire school where we walked around the neighborhood and ended at the temple. We went inside and listened to a monk talk and listened to the students recite many things. We also were given things to give to a certain monk. It was a super cool experience and I’m so glad we were able to be a part of it!

At the beginning of week 4 my teacher returned! It definitely took some adjusting to have someone else being in the classroom with me and feeling like I was being watched the entire time and almost evaluated. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but once I became a little more adjusted to it, it was such a huge help to have someone who could translate things that I struggled to get across. I also am really thankful to have her back because I am able to learn a lot from her. Teaching is what she does for a living and I have been using her strategies to make my own lesson plans better suited for the classes! 

I can’t believe there is only a little over a week left for me at Wat Khuang Sing and in Thailand! I am really going to miss the kids and other teachers in the school. I can’t wait to see what other adventures the last week brings!

CCT Volunteer Lauren Dekleva (Urban Light Intern)

Hello! My name is Lauren Dekleva, and I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I graduated in December from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, with a degree in Social Entrepreneurship and minors in Music and Political Science.

Through Cultural Canvas Thailand, I am interning full-time at Urban Light, one of CCT’s many partner organizations. Urban Light is an NGO that provides life-changing services to young male victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the region.

I've always been interested in human rights, and first learned about human trafficking as a freshman in high school. From then on, I wanted to pursue a career in anti-trafficking efforts. That desire led me to declare a major in social entrepreneurship, join collegiate organizations to raise awareness of the issue, intern with domestic anti-trafficking organizations, and ultimately, travel to Chiang Mai to work with Urban Light.

I have been in Chiang Mai for three weeks, and started my internship two weeks ago. It’s been an absolute whirlwind! These first few weeks have really been about getting my feet wet. I’ve spent a lot of time shadowing the current intern and observing the way she interacts with the boys at the center. Despite the language barrier (which has definitely been the hardest aspect of the job so far), I’ve begun forming relationships of my own with them as well, through many, many, many games of UNO, a ping pong match, watercolor painting, and a few guitar/ukulele jam sessions. It’s taking time, but many of them seem to have gotten used to me being there, and are willing to struggle through the language barrier to interact with me. And they are such incredible people! I am loving getting to know them and am looking forward to supporting and encouraging them in any way I can.

In addition to hanging out and developing trust with the boys, I will be responsible for Urban Light’s social media. Currently, I am brainstorming ways to create content and engage UL’s online audience to further spread awareness of their amazing work. I will also be assisting with the development of merchandise and a social enterprise project to generate income for the organization.

I am so excited to be in Thailand, to learn the culture and some of the language; to observe and contribute to an international nonprofit; and develop relationships with the young men at Urban Light. Over the next six months, I hope to continue to step outside of my comfort zone, discover ways to combine my passions for music and social justice, gain the knowledge and tools to become a better advocate, and have a positive impact on the community at Urban Light.

CCT Volunteer Anne Kaplan 2nd Blog Post (Wat Kuang Singha School)

For today’s blog post I want to talk a little about my desire for cultural experiences and how working at Wat Khuang Sing is slowly fulfilling them. It’s been great, but the cultural experiences are happening just a little differently than how I’d imagined.

Friday July 7^th was the start of Buddhist Lent here in Thailand. To commemorate the holiday, my school had a procession and ceremony at the temple next door. We had heard throughout the week that Friday was not going to be a normal day, but we weren’t sure until Friday as to how we were going to be involved in it. The Vice Principal of our school approached us as lunch on Thursday and asked Sarena and me what our teaching schedule looked like on Fridays. We told her that we each only teach one class in the morning, but were more than excited to stick around to observe the ceremony after school.

Around 3PM the procession started and Sarena and I watched from the back. We did not expect to do anything but observe until we were lovingly pulled to the front row by some of our favorite teachers. They wanted us to march in the parade AND carry alms! We walked for about 20 minutes (definitely the LONG route to the temple next door), until we were again lovingly dragged to the front of all the children. They wanted us to participate fully in one of their most religious, cultural events. There wasn’t a moment where we felt lost though. While the language being spoken wasn’t our own or the display of religion wasn’t something we were familiar with, the teachers translated all along the way. Words were chanted, monks spoke, teachers delivered baskets to each of the monks, and OF COURSE so many pictures were taken. My back and feet and smile hurt from all the laughing and kneeling but I couldn’t have cared less. 

In the end, it was so nice to be included in this incredible event put on by our school. I take for granted every day I have here until I experience moments like this. As a Comparative Cultures and Politics major, it’s the cultural immersions that I came here for. I wanted the change in pace, religion, culture, values, and overall difference than what I’ve had in America for the past 21 years. I spend so much time in university looking over case studies about the world that I tend to lose perspective that my studies are just representations of real life. Every case study in every class has real people they’re about.  

I’m so out of my comfort zone here, but there’s something so comforting about that. I walk into class most days expecting it to be horrible, but leave school every day with the biggest smile on my face. Each class has their own personality and specialty and now in one of my last weeks I’m learning how to use that to my advantage. P4 loves to dance, P5 has a thing for the game Hangman, P6 specializes in impromptu karaoke, but one thing I know they all have in common is that they LOVE to color.

Anyways, Annie Out.

Martha Mc Garry Blog Post (Wildflower Home)

Hi I’m Martha and I am volunteering with CCT for four weeks. I am 19 years old and study law with social justice at home in Ireland.  I decided to get involved in overseas volunteering because I have always wanted to travel and experience a new culture. I have also always been interested in global relations and creating a more equal world. Therefore I really wanted an opportunity to learn about what inequality looks like in practice. I spend a great deal of time writing about how the Global North is damaging the Global South through over consumption and how this must end. However I always felt that my opinions were invalid if I made no effort to actually se the consequences of this global inequality. 

Furthermore women’s rights is a matter I feel strongly about and so when I heard about the opportunity to work in The Wildflower Home for single mothers I really wanted to get involved. My friend Cara and I decided to travel here to Chiang Mai together. So far I have had an amazing experience in the home. There are currently five mothers in the home. There is a great sense of community among the mothers, the Sisters and the children. They have made us feel really welcome in the home and the experience has been so enjoyable. The work we do is very varied, from minding the children to gardening to making a cement path. 

It can be challenging at times to see the stark contrast between how these children grow up and how I, or many people in the West, grew up. It makes little difference to them, as the kids are all happy, healthy and adorable. There is always something to do in the home and the biggest challenge is having a noticeable impact. The staff, mothers and other volunteers already do a fantastic job of running the home. Many of these volunteers have been coming for years and have a settled role in the home. A challenge for the rest of my time will be figuring out the best way I can use my own personal skills to be helpful in the home.

CCT Volunteer Kyra DiFrancesco 2nd Blog Post (FORRU)

Things at FORRU have really been looking up. At the beginning of my internship, I was worried that we didn’t really have our place on the team. Everyone else had their projects, but my fellow American interns and I were mostly doing data entry. After bringing up my concerns, though, we were able to meet with the founder of FORRU, and as I suspected, there was a lot of work to be done! One of my fellow interns, Anna, is now taking on a project with a professor at CMU, Dakota and I are now working on a seed germination experiment, and all three of us will now be working to update FORRU’s website.

The past week has had a lot of late nights working on getting our seed germination project started. We only have two and a half weeks left, so we need to work fast. It’s been pretty difficult due to the language barrier and lack of materials. FORRU doesn’t have a dedicated lab, so we had to get creative and turned the office kitchen into our own makeshift seed lab. We had to purchase our own tables, venture out to a flower market and use what little Thai we know to buy seeds, go back and forth to too many 7/11s to get miscellaneous supplies, get interdepartmental lab supply loans, and, in a desperate hour, wander into a random lab on campus to borrow a graduated cylinder. This past Monday night we were in our lab until 11pm…blending leaves. It was actually pretty fun, and I’m so glad that we have this opportunity to experiment with FORRU (and hopefully manage to make a scientific breakthrough in three weeks). 

CCT Volunteer Dakota Van Deursen 2nd Blog Post (FORRU)

                My experience with FORRU started off as a whirlwind, and it hasn't died down yet in the slightest. Though I have had less days in the field lately, I have been just as busy helping out around the office, keypunching data, and (most excitingly!) starting up my own laboratory.

                For almost two full weeks from when we left off (Tham Pha Thai), I worked in the office on data entry. Around 20 years ago, someone wrote down a bunch of tree species in a set of books. FORRU now needs them electronically -- and they aren't gonna type themselves!

                Data entry was interspersed with hammering out some tags for the Tham Pha Thai trees. Literally. The TEAN interns spent two whole days on the landing with hammers and alphanumeric stamps, stamping out over 2500 aluminum tags.

                This past weekend, I volunteered at an all-day endeavour: youth camp. FORRU hosted the Chiang Mai Demonstration School for a day of learning, hiking, and conservation. Though really tiring, I had a blast that day, and got to support the FORRU team teaching kids how to conserve, restore, and sustain.

                The last week and a half, though, has been dominated by the most exciting facet yet: our experiment. Once our Thai language classes were over, FORRU's director held a meeting with the TEAN interns to ask us all what we were looking to do -- I was one of two who were selected to bootstrap opening up a laboratory and performing a scientific experiment.

                So far, everything is looking good. After days of running willy-nilly trying to track down all of the supplies necessary for the lab (a converted coffee break room) to function, Kyra and I are preparing to dive head-first into the science.  We hope that, by the end of the next couple of weeks, we have made a lasting impression on FORRU's plantation monitoring techniques.

CCT Volunteer Nora Demilta 2nd Blog Post (Art Relief International)

This past week with ARI has been a bit of a different experience. We had two new volunteers join the team, Danielle and Queenie. They’re both from Ireland and both are really kind and fun to work with. They let me tease them about their Irish colloquialisms and they do the same for my American slang. I’m thankful for their addition and they’ve already contributed to some stellar workshops. Danielle and I teamed up on a Hope Home workshop last week where we made jetpacks out of cardboard and plastic bottles. We collaborated on the idea and it went really well! The children at Hope Home had a blast with the jet packs they made. Whenever a kid would finish their project, one of the volunteers would lift them up and fly them around the room. This always elicited a few giggles from the students! This was my favorite workshop with Hope Home thus far and it would not of happened without Danielle’s help.

It was interesting when Danielle and Queenie first arrived at ARI. All of the TEAN volunteers tried so hard to help them and teach them the ways of ARI. We acted as if we had been here for years when in reality it had only been about 10 days. It’s funny how quickly we adapted to working and living here. I hate to think that I only have about three more weeks in Thailand. I’ve learned so much and had so much fun; I don’t want it to end. I don’t want to have to say goodbye to the students, my coworkers, or the other TEAN members. In my last days I’m trying live as fully as possible and enjoy every moment. I want to be rich in memories for when I go back to the states!