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

You Are Never Too Old... Or Young!

Hi there, my name is Silvana, an Italian / Swiss woman, living in Switzerland, and only 63 years young! 

When I applied for a volunteership I had the feeling people were smiling at me. And when I went for the introduction evening before I left Switzerland I was absolutely the "old lady" amongst teenies. I thought "Oh dear......"

Meanwhile I have started my voluntary services at the Wildflower Home. The home provides safe shelter, education, health and other services to young single mothers who are either pregnant or have young children. WFH offers emotional and educational support to help them move from crisis and poverty to steady jobs or continous education after leaving the home.

I immediately noticed that the children (up to four) were quite agressive to each other. They tore away each other's toys. Young volunteers seemed to always try to be nice to them. I learned that they needed firmness and limits to their behaviour. You would not believe it, but after three weeks everybody noticed! The children became calmer, they now play together, they share, and they politely ask if they want something! I am amazed how quick they learn. 

I just love them. Everyone wants to be hugged in a different way....... their background has certainly not been easy.

In the next edition I will talk about the young mothers!

As you can read, I am still eager to achieve a lot, step by step, whilst just being a little bit over 30!

The City of Chiang Mai

I don´t think I have wrote a word about Chiang Mai so far, the city which has become my home in the past three month. Maybe because this place is already so familiar to me, that I don´t realize its extraordinary beauty anymore.

First of all, Chiang Mai is not only the destination for thousands of travellers every year, but also the economic centre in northern Thailand. In fact, the wealth of the city has grown fast in the last years – I found some old travel guides in the volunteer house and it´s very interesting to compare the Chiang Mai they describe with the one I experience. Chiang Mai isn´t a city where you have to miss anything, maybe that´s why a lot of western people mad it their home.

 Chiang Mai is not as hectic as a big metropolis but has all comfort of city life.  Don´t get me wrong, it´s definitely a busy place, the traffic is always a nightmare and no matter what time, you´ll find always an open bar or street food stable. But there is something about this city, that makes me relax, makes me smile.

Maybe it´s because of all this cosy cafes where you can drink a lot of coffee and where your office work seems to be a little bit easier than home. Maybe it´s because of the small galleries all over the place, showing works of local artists. Seeing their view of Thai society, their thoughts about developments – both positive and negative, I remember works to the invasion on western deserts – their dreams for their country expressed in art impressed me very much. Of course not all art is about social or political issues, it´s just the part that interests me the most. You´ll find a lot of landscapes, self-portraits or abstract sculptures, too. In fact, Chiang Mai´s art scene is much to diverse to describe it in one blog post – it´s a city of art!

Nicola,

I Heart Pai

Last week I wrote a lot about work, this time it is all about the so called "rest". I might be the wrong one to tell you much about the nightlife of Chiang Mai, mud shipping and taking care of toddlers makes you tired. But enough about work! Yesterday a few volunteers went to sticky waterfalls. This is a quite popular place, well known, because the stones in the falls are not slippery at all. You can climb up the falls, which isn´t too difficult. The whole setting is set in between huge jungle trees, so that you can overview an ocean of green tree crowns from the very top – a stunning view. I could have sat there for ages, just watching the forest with the water all around me. Life can be so easy. The falls itself are from such beauty, that I couldn´t get rid of the thought, someone must have planned this. It´s too perfect to be just there, without purpose, without plan.

Pai- more a promise than a name, more mythos than reality. Who hasn´t heart lots of stories about legendary nights in Pai?Most travelers in Chiang Mai are either just coming from or about to leave to Pai. What is it about this small village, that drives people crazy? My travel guide says, Pai is somewhere in between hippie heaven and commerce, a tightrope walk, sometimes working out, sometimes not.

First, the bus drive form Chiang Mai is not as bad as everyone tells you. I slept in both directions nearly the entire time. Pai itself is truly a pearl, surrounded by mountains and forests offers everything that lets a nature lovers heart beat faster. Waterfalls, hot springs, breathtaking views, even a so called canyon. Reasons enough to visit Pai.

It is truth, nights in Pai are magical. Maybe because of the promise, that everything is possible as soon as the sun disappears, maybe because everyone is your friend for the night, maybe it´s the beautiful setting or just the fact, that you cannot be further away from any duties. There are this moments, where Pai seems to keep every promise. You turn around – just for a few seconds and suddenly your friends´ faces are hidden behind layers of paint. Someone starts in the early morning hours an awesome fire show right at the river in the light of the full moon.

Before I left, a Thai friend told me, Pai wouldn´t be a path of Thailand. I can understand why, Pai could be everywhere, especially because the majority are red-white tall Westerners. For me, Pai was a sort of vacation from Thailand, a place where I could stretch my feet, . I didn´t feel a need for a time off the time I left, nevertheless it was very  restorative. But that was definitely enough for me and it feels good to be back to reality, back in Chaing Mai, Thailand, back at work.Pai, that´s a double-edged sword to me. It´s like walking on a small mountain track- it´s all about your balance.

Nicola

Winter at Wildflower Home

Last blog was about the Christmas celebration at Wildflower Home and this time I will tell you a bit about winter here. In Europe, Christmas and winter are almost synonyms, it has to be cold outside, nice and cozy at the fireplace inside. It is the time of hot chocolate, candles, early sunset, needle trees, salty roads, gloves, bonnet, icicle and -if you are luck-, of snow. Winter in Thailand is slightly different, less cold in the first place. Surprisingly, it can still be very freezing. The women at Wildflower Home are often wearing gloves and coats in the mornings and my skiing socks have become my new best friends. There is now infrastructure for cold nights, no insulated walls, no double glazing, often not even closing windows. Maybe worse is, that you are not prepared for the cold, too. Even with two blankets and a warm pyjama's is a temperature drop from 32 °C to 8 °C degrees nothing your body likes. As a result, all of our infants have running noses, colds and look rather unhappy. Nothing too serious, thank god.

The days are still as hot as always and it feels wrong having a cold while the sun burns on your face, but that might be stupid European problems. But the heat is different than in August, not as standing as it has been. The shadow is therefore often very chilled and it might be the only time in the year,  everyone at Wildflower Home sits after lunch in the sun to get warm again.

Nicola,

Christmas at Wildflower Home

Christmas is a really big deal here for that it is a Christian organization. Weeks before the big celebration day the dining area was decorated with reindeers and small Christmas tree images and small snow globes hang from the roof. Three “real” trees completed the scenery and making small tags for them was a lot of fun for both, mothers and children. From time to time you could hear someone singing “We wish you a merry Christmas” the women were practicing the song for our Christmas party and within the weeks, Christmas was all over the place. A nativity scene, a lot of big stars and glitter were added around the pond and it took us a long time to make all our handmade Christmas cards for donators and friends abroad ready. – Yes, Christmas is big at Wildflower Home!

The menu for the party was planed long before and it took us all day before to prepare the food, we even killed one of our pigs. The party was great and –of course- the food was very delicious. It was so good to see the women getting out of their daily routine, wearing their best dresses and just enjoying their self’s talking, laughing, making fun with their kids. It was a truly a great day for everyone at Wildflower Home and we hope, for our guest too.

A day at Wildflower Home

Last time I wrote about Chiang Mai, this time, I´ll write about Wildflower Home, the place I work in. You may have read a bit about my tasks there already, but the organisation itself might not be familiar to you.

Wildflower Home is a non-profit organisation that provides shelter for single mothers and pregnant women. It is located a little outside of Chiang Mai in a rural context, surrounded by fields. The foundation itself contains beside the main building and the mother´s homes a day care for the older children and a small farm. The whole complex is designed with passion and love, the columns of the main building for example, are trees and all walls are painted with floral motives.

A lot of small channels and lakes help to water the plants in the farm during the dry season and give the whole area an idyllic outlook. It is truly a place to rest and recover, a place of peace – at least for me. That doesn´t mean that things are always sunny at Wildflower Home. It is like everywhere, you deal with the everyday life issues as well as the sometimes hidden personal problems. And I have suffered enough hours under the inclement sun fastening the soil around one of the ponds or shipping rice husk for the stables to know that the so called “simple life” is in the first place hard work and not simple at all. That it has nothing in common with the romantic idea of being consistent with nature and yourself you can find in many western societies. Still, I can imagine places to work in, which are worse. Every time I take a break from work, sitting in the shadow with my water bottle, with the beautiful view over the farm, the ponds and banana trees, the stables and the vegetable garden, I do feel very privileged. Privileged, because I am able to experiences this all, to see what we have done and what is left to do, because I have the opportunity be a small part of this organisation, joke with the other farm workers and just be thankful for a moment of rest.

Now I am writing again about my experiences here and you still don´t know more about Wildflower home. The whole point of the organisation is to encourage the mothers and give shelter for them and their kids as long as they need it. It is hard to write about “the mothers”, each of their stories is different and not all of them shall be shared in public. Their age varieties over almost twenty years, some have only one child, some a lot, some only stay for a couple of days and some for years. The only thing, that unifies them, is that they and their children are in needs. Wildflower Home tries to find a solution of each and every one of them, encourage them. For me as a volunteer this variety of needs means in the first place to be very flexible and creative. I try everything what needs to be done – you never know, you might be able to solve a problem if you just try. But it means also, to except, that from time to time an expert is needed or just someone, who is fluent in Thai.

Wildflower Home Blog 7

Although I wrote a lot about my weekends in the last blogs, eighty percent
of my life in Chiang Mai is determined by my work at Wildflower Home. A
few things have changed at Wildflower Home and with it my tasks have
changed as well. I work in the farm until lunch break. This involves
cleaning pig stables, fastening bank slopes and setting up a vegetable
garden. I like the work there. It is rhythmic and it is dynamic. Your head
is absolutely empty. There is just the sound of your rake hitting the
ground and the smacking sound of the soil giving in. This is accompanied
by the choir of roosters crowing all around you. No deadlines are pressed
but instead you´re just giving your best. You work to your tempo, taking
breaks when ever need them. If it´s not ready, you´ll finish it tomorrow.
I have learned a lot about my physical limits, but I was also surprised by
some of my skills. Skills which I never would have assumed I had. I have
learned that hard work brings people together. The breaks provide a great
opportunity to get to know the members of Wildflower Home better. It gives
you time to hear their stories and to understand why they are at WFH.
Overall, working in the farm is definitely the highlight of my day.

In addition to my work on the farm, I´m teaching English in the afternoon.
This is one activity which is really fun. Beside that, I am doing crafts
and handmade cards. I find that these can be dreary. But the kids provide
a light to the tedium with their running around and playing with our art
supplies. They always seem to be giggling and screaming. Since some
mothers with older kids have left, there are only three kids around two
year’s age. Therefore, there is no nursery currently functioning. Whoever
is around simply watches the cluster of children. Though their presence
makes the card production slightly slower, when a happy two year old jumps
on your lap the interaction brings the biggest smile to your face.

Blog 5

I was thinking hard about what to write in this week´s blog. There hasn´t

been something extraordinary, I could tell. It has been a week as usual.

But maybe that’s the extraordinary thing: to say a week as usual. It

implicates, that there is actually something that approximates everyday

life in Thailand. Even though my Thai is still pretty poor – only some

basic words and sentences - I work on it. I manage somehow to get along.

It´s incredible how much you can understand contextually, especially if

you know the person you are talking to a bit better. However, it doesn’t

help you much when you are about to buy mosquito spray and want to know,

it´s whitening. Thai letters are still a mystery to me – somewhere in

between beautiful ornaments and Linear A.

But there is always someone around to help you and even if it´s with hand

and feet. Charades between shampoo and bug killer. Sometimes it´s life

writing the best stories of all.

The rain found us finally this week. Our local coordinator kept telling us

at the weekly family dinner, the monsoon comes next week. Every week was

hot and – beside some rain at night- dry. I´ll bet, there has been more

rain back home and it´s summer there. I automatically stated to wonder

where the rainy season got its name from. However, the rainy season should

be almost over, so were we told this week. The rain started the same

evening, rhythmic and constant, choking every other sound from outside. I

love rain. Listening to the rain with a good cup of tea has the same

effect on me like a warm fireplace in a frosty winter night. As a side

effect of this rain the days are cooler, which everyone appreciates very

much. To illustrate the temperature change, I was even wearing my dad´s

warm sweater till lunch time.

Well, what can I say, the rain didn´t last too long and now we are back to

32.8 °C in the house. Too bad.

2nd week at Wifdflower Home.

Hello again!

My first full week in Wildflower Home is over and I want to tell you

something about my work there.

First, Wildflower is an organization for pregnant women and single

mothers, which offers them not only a safe place to stay, but also the

opportunity to educate themselves.

My current job is basically running the day-care for the older children (1

to 2 ½ years). Of course I haven´t done it on my own. Anyone who has ever

dealt with children of that age knows, you need at least six pairs of eyes

and ten hands to look after them. Right now, there are five toddlers in

the daycare, that´s 2 to 3 children per adult. Sounds like an easy job?

Actually it is challenging, running after them, playing, smiling if

they´re crying, being creative when they´re bored, making sure that no one

climbs over the fence or gets lost. I have never worked with children that

age before and to be honest, it´s still hard to figure out what they need,

when they start crying. – Hungry? Hurt? New pampers? Miss mum? Need

attention? My respect for nursery nurse rises with every minute, they must

be somewhere in between Superman and Mother Teresa.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to work there! The kids are adorable and it´s

amazing to see how fast they learn. The feeling is indescribable, when

they get used to you, start to trust you. And a bright smile in a child´s

faces excuses for everything.

If I need a break from playing with the kids, there is plenty other work

to do. Today I washed all dishes for the monks in the temple nearby, I

moved a mountain of mud into a hole and pulled a pick- up out of the mud –

well, I helped a little bit. In fact, my hands told me after ten minutes

of mud shipping, that their tool is a pen and not a shovel. But it´s good

to see the result of your work and it´s a lot of fun, too. Joking with the

mothers and the other volunteers about how useless and weak the foreigners

are. To be honest, it will take at least two more months to catch up with

the mothers, they´re so much stronger and faster in everything they do.

Not that I´ve expected anything else, but I can´t wait for the day, I´m

not only the nice German girl playing with the shovel, but a real help.

Meet Nicola!

Hello, my name is Nicola, I´m 21 years old and I come from Germany. Four

days after finishing my B.Sc. in physic at TU Dortmund University, I

caught a the plane to Thailand. That is already fourteen days ago and

right now I´m sitting in the living room of your volunteer house and life

in Germany seems to be very far away. The most important thing you need to

know about me is, that through Cultural Canvas Program, I am the new volunteer at Wildflower Home, an

organization for Single Mothers in Chiang Mai.

Here I am, Thailand, Chiang Mai, 32°C and 49 % humidity according to

google. Maybe not the best circumstances for a body used to 18°C and light

rain. So what brought me here? It is the idea of learning from a different

culture and maintaining an intercultural dialogue on eye-level. I see the

six month in Thailand as a great chance to understand at least a bit of

its rich culture. And I hope to contribute with my ideas and talents, or

just a helping hand, my fair share to Wildflower Home.

Although I am a scientist and my heart beats for expressing nature in

handy equations, I always believed that there is nothing more enriching

than learning from different people. That’s why social work is an

important part of my life. It gives me the opportunity to help people and,

at the same time, to learn from their stories.

Furthermore I love to travel, whenever university allows it and my

voluntary service seems to be a good opportunity to see more of this

beautiful part of the world.

What have I done so far in Chiang Mai? The first week was basically a

short orientation in Thai culture and language and detailed overview over

my tasks at Wildflower Home. Of course we did a lot of sightseeing, too.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep was only one of the impressing temples, we

visited. I cannot remember that I have ever seen so much gold. But my

highlight was definitely the walk through the evergreen forest. The

biodiversity this forest has is inconceivable and fascinated me very much.

Call me a fool, but did you know that the nice rattan chairs in the café

around the corner used to have spikes?

For some unlikely circumstances I worked at Wildflower Home only for two

and a half days so far. That´s why I won’t write about the work there, it

is simply not enough time to get into it, but maybe next time, so stay tune to my next blog!

So six month of learning ahead and I can´t wait to try out more delicious

food, explore the city and, most important start (again) with my work at

Wildflower Home.