High School - Thai Muang Wittaya

After Jess and the team went back into the high school we have managed to keep a team of volunteers going there. Jackie (US) took over when Jess (US), Ken (Aus) and Brenda (UK) left, now Harvey (UK) is teaching with Jackie and has been joined by Sarah (Germany)
Some of this has been filmed by Hannes (Austria)
Jeez, its no wonder you blokes have trouble talking to each other.
In words you can all understand (because I'm writing it)
THIA MUANG, WE'RE BACK AND WE'RE STAYING!
uncle Ken

goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend

I have fallen in love with Thailand. When my roommate, Stacie, first told me about the organization out here, I wasn't too keen on it. I had my heart set on spending a few weeks with Judd and Annika in Peru. But for some reason, I felt like I was supposed to go here. I think I made the right choice. The culture here is like none other. Sexuality is something comfortable here. It's not uncommon to see two high school boys walking hand in hand past two girls sitting with their feet intertwined. It's friendly affection. It's not uncommon to sit next to a "ladyboy" on a bus ride. It's acceptable. It's not uncommon to see farongs (foreigners) eating with the locals. It's welcome.
Khao Lak is a special place. The locals here call it the town of ghosts because so many people were killed here during the tsunami. David and I were hanging out the other day with his volunteer leader. He pointed to a wide ditch next to where we were and told us that during the tsunami, the ditch was filled with three busloads of dead passengers. It's a very somber feeling to stare a ditch that was once a mass gravesite. The road between town and our hotel becomes very dark and quiet at night. I have often taken that road when it's pitch black. Normally, I would be a little scared that a scorpion might attack my toe or that a gang of thieves would come and rob my bag. But here, it’s a different feeling. It’s somber. I can only imaging this road leading to the beach must have been lined with people attacked by the water.
During my travels, I’ve visited many places ruined by attacks from mankind. At such places I get frustrated, angry, and begin lose my faith in humanity. But this event is different. Hearing the stories of how one night took the lives of so many people makes me stop to really appreciate the moment. A few emails ago I wrote about how difficult the turns on my motorbike had been. I really wasn’t trying to be metaphorical, but I received an email in response from my Aunt Sandy. She compared them the turns in our lives and how much easier they are when we look ahead. So true. Her response and feeling of this place resonate in my head these last few days.
My one-month stint is coming to an end tomorrow. Thank you to all who kept me in touch with your lives. If you ever get a chance to travel, I’ve can recommend a great nook to rest to your feet. Also, if any of your or anyone you know is looking for a genuine volunteer experience either teaching or building playgrounds, please email me. This organization is top notch.

Love you all,
Jesicah

The Rolapp Family Singers!

The countdown has begun, and I’m extremely bitter that I didn’t plan a longer trip. The work here is beyond gratifying. Teaching at the high school that past week has opened my eyes to how desperate this country is to have native-English speakers. Many of the “English” teachers are inept to teach English because they have such a limited capability themselves. As a result, the students merely copy down sentences from the board into their workbooks not understanding much of what they’re writing. In only a week, we’ve had so many teaching moments. Students are able to finally practice their speaking, listening, and writing skills in small groups. A normal classroom of 40 students is divided among three teachers. It’s an ideal situation for English learners. I only hope that the high school teaching will be able to continue once I’ve left. We’re hoping that more volunteers will be coming in soon so that our work can continue.

My motorbike skills have greatly increased thanks to my daily travels to the school. In addition, David is enjoying getting to borrow it to run trivial errands (getting water, picking up other volunteers, getting gas). This past weekend we headed inland a bit to go white water rafting. The river where we went has been dammed so that once all the rafts are in the water, they open the damn to create better speed. Luckily, no one fell out but there was quite a bit of slipping, sliding, and swearing! (I, of course, took no such part in the latter part of that!)

We finished off Saturday with a barbeque at our favorite restaurant, Everyday, and sat around living up a relaxing weekend. One of our local friends, Gap, played the guitar and sang for about three hours for us. Once his lungs had given out, David and I decided to take over for him. I wish we had videotaped David playing guitar and both of us singing our hearts out. It was a true Partridge moment. Once again, it’s so amazing to see who my little brother has turned into. He’s actually quite funny!

Once we get back, it looks like we’re doing a family road trip up to Utah to visit the family. I’m curious to see if David and I will finally start fighting once we’re around our whole family. Hopefully not. This does mean, however, that Utah girlfriends need to start preparing for a Jungle Invasion!!!

Love to you all,

Jesicah

P.S. I need to officially announce the engagement of my best friend, Debbie Sachs, to her true love, Andy Erickson!!! I am so happy for the two of them and can’t wait for the big day of joy!!!! I love you!

Jesicah Rolapp

Another Volunteer's Story

http://jackieinwonderland.wordpress.com/

Thank you, Uncle Steve

Dear Friends and Family,
I can’t believe I only have a week and a half left! I should have booked a longer trip! This week has been extremely exhausting teaching 12-18 year olds! Yesterday, one of the other volunteers turned to me after a long day and said he had a newfound respect for teachers. Oh yeah! The high school has proven to be an extremely rewarding experience; because three of us are going there we are able to double the amount of students we are teaching. And yes, I rode a motorbike to the school and back in the pouring rain!

Ken drove us on Tuesday but Mark (another volunteer) and I opted to drive ourselves on Wednesday. All Tuesday night, I tossed and turned with absolute panic that I would fall of the cliff, run into a truck, or slip out of a rain puddle. Wednesday morning came and David hopped on the back so I could drop him off at spot before making the 40 kilometers trek. I had definitely let my nerves overcome my abilities and proceeded to drive the bike off the road with David behind me. Once I situated myself back on the bike and dropped David off, he jumped onto the truck to take him to the workshop and gave me a thumbs up. I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be the last time I ever saw him. Yes, I was being overly dramatic.

The journey to the school starts out with a straight drive through town, a windy road up and then back down a mountain, another long stretch, a city, and finally a long stretch. I knew that if I could get pass the curvy mountain, then I would probably be ok. As we started going up the mountains, my nerves wouldn’t allow my take the turns easily and I found myself extremely shaky. It seems that I just couldn’t get the hang of it. As I was trying desperately to calm down, my Uncle Steve’s voice suddenly popped in my head.

When I was around eight years old, I remember sitting in the back seat of my uncle’s suburban as he was teaching my cousin Alisha to drive up a similar curvy mountain rode. “Just look ahead at the curve, your body will naturally turn the vehicle. If you look directly in front of you, it won’t work.” So, I tried to do just that. Instead of focusing on the few meters ahead of me, I looked ahead at the length of the curve. Suddenly, I was able to make the curves while staying in the motorbike lane. I didn’t even know I had this memory until just then. I never thought the day would come, but thank you Uncle Steve for saving my life.

The rest of the journey was exhilarating but uneventful. In the middle of the fourth class, the rain began. By the end of the class, the rain was beating so hard that we couldn’t hear each other speaking inside the classroom. I looked over to Mark and wondered how we would ever get home. As an experienced rider, he had no qualms about mounting his bike and beginning the ride. Seeing as how I would rather die than lose face, I quietly mounted my bike and said a quick prayer. A few minutes later as the rain continued to pour harder, we were speeding along on the road as rain drops lashed against my cheeks and my glasses fogged up so that I could barely see in front of me. Somehow, we made it home safely.

The rain has continued all through last night and into today. This morning when I went to meet Mark at our stop, he suggested we take the bus today instead of our motorbikes. You can imagine the sigh of relief that came out of my mouth! Maybe tomorrow the rain will have stopped so I can get another adrenaline rush!!!

Love to you all!
-Jes

a mid-month holiday!

Dear friends and family,

Greeting from Railey! A few of us volunteers decided to get away from Khao Lak for a few days and go Island Hopping a little farther south. On Thursday afternoon, we boarded a minibus and arrived in Phi Phi to find a multitude of white people. Very strange to us. We quickly decided that we needed to get off the beaten track a bit more. After a day of hot springs, emerald pools (lakes), and elephant trecking we jumped onto a longtail boat and ended to the island of Railey. Ok, I guess I need to explain that day a bit better. A friend of ours from Khao Lak hooked us up with a travel agent in Phi Phi and her husband ended up taking us around for the day. After an amazing $1 Thai breakfast, we went to a local elephant hike where our tour guide assured us that the elephants were well fed and treated humanely. Yes, it is still not the most humane use of giant animals but I couldn't sick on the experience. Half way through the trek, the guide (who had been sitting on the elephants head while we sat on a chair strapped to the back) turned to David and asked if he wanted to ride in the front. I held my breath as David slowly slid foward and straddled the elephant's head. After a few minutes, I knew that David shouldn't have all the fun and changed places with him. Super scarey. You have to adjust your hips with every step in order to keep steady. I guess it was good practice for my motorbiking next week. After the elephants, we hiked to a natural lakes called Emerald Pool. Unfortunately, our timing was off because a Japanese double-decker tour bus arrived right after us. The lake was amazingly refreshing after such a strenuous hike. (Ok, if i keep saying hike I know David will call me out, it was more like a brisk walk...) We then headed over to some natural hot springs and had a blast trying to slide down the rocks. David has a nasty fall and bruised his behind, which he promptly showed to everyone on our walk back to the car. "Father like son."

After such an exhausting day, I was hopeful to find a place to eat, sleep, and shower before quickly hitting the sack. Unfortunately, we still had a 20-minute longtail boat between such dreams. I ended up sitting in the front seat on the side where teh waves break. Anyone want to guess who was the wettest? The worst part about it was that a Thai woman sat next to me who did the trek every morning and night. At one point, she grabbed my thigh and said that the waves were much bigger than normal. I then had the bright idea to ask if she had ever seen a boat capsize. She proceeded to tell me an extremely detailed story of a long tail boat she saw flip over in the "exact same waves as these." I held tightly to the side. Meanwhile, David is sitting at the top of the boat Titanic-style with not a care in the world! I finished the night with a quick dinner, couple rounds of card playing, dancing, talking education with a fellow American teacher, and pulling a cockroach out of my hair.

Today we woke up early to do a snorkeling adventure to four neighboring islands. Absolutely perfect weather! Luckily, none of us got the dreaded back leg sunburn. We just finished dinner and have found a place that has seven mats for seven massages. Yes, that's right. We are splurging on $10/hour massages! Here, massage parlors have their bed mats lifted onto a raised platform with shower curtains dividing each bed. There is probably only a foot of space between each bed. This should be interesting...

Love to you all!

Jesicah Rolapp

The best day yet...

Yesterday was the reason I travel. After a late start, eight volunteers loaded the truck and set off to teach at a primary school about 30 minutes away. The lesson of the day was on weather so we each took turns acting out different weather scenarios. The students especially enjoyed acting out the word "freezing." Clearly, acting from what they've seen on television because I can't imagine anyone ever being cold in Thailand. We taught two classes and took way too many photos with the students after. I don't think they had ever seen so many volunteers before. We each literally walked away from the classroom with about eight children latched on to each of us. That would have been enough to make for a pretty good day.

After stopping for lunch at a noodle shop, Ken (our leader) took us to a high school where had volunteered for two years. Because we has an unsual high amount of volunteers for the next couple of weeks, he inquired about having some of us teach our own English classes at the high school instead of moving from school to school each day with the group. One of the teachers at the high school immediately recognized me from an English camp last weekend and requested that I come teach at her school. So now it looks like myself and a seasoned teacher from England will be teachin our own self-contained English classes to high school students for the next two weeks. Yes, I'm freaking out! High school is foreign to me. I barely spent three years there...well, more like two and half if you remember me from those days. Either way, I have just spent the past few hours preparing a week's worth of lesson plans for next week. In addition to thetwo of us being on our own, the school is about an hour away by bus but only 30 kilometers in distance. I'm considering renting a motorcycle and traveling on my own through the windy, crowded streets of Thailand to get there. This will be interesting...

After the high school, we visited an orphanage and split up to teach three groups of students. I am always amazed but how happy some of the most unfortunate people are in this world. The kids were a blast. I think I spent ten minutes simlply reciting the alphabet with a little boy. I also taught another girl how to do the "slide" hand game. I hoping when I go back that she has practiced so we can rock it out.

Once we returned to Khao Lak, we immediately went out to dinner. This group of volunteers could not be any better. Represented at the UK, Australia, and the US. So often, we find that we don't understand each other and are constantly repeating things to each other. We've also started picking up words from each other. I especially like the word "bloke" (random guy in Australian) and clearly use it way too often. Dinner was followed by a lengthy round of cards and then a brilliant idea to go swimming. A group of American researchers are here for a master's thesis and have taken to joining up with us at night. One of whom has rented a motorbike. I asked him if he would take me for a ride so I could a feel for whether I can really drive one of them to the high school. Well, at 30 kilometers/hour I nearly freaked out and had a panic attack! I think I might need to practice all weekend before next week. After the life-threatening ride, we all headed down to the pool and ocean; both of which felt superb! I finished the night off with a bit of The Kite Runner (loving it!) and woke this mornig realizing just how fortunate I am to have this experience.

I am in absolute bliss and loving it. Ugh, as I finish this email, it's just starting to pour. At least I'll be cool during my walk home.
Love you all,
Jes Jesicah Rolapp

Week 1

Dear friends and family,
It's amazing that David and I are already done with one week here! Boy, time has flown beyond any sense of measure. So far, teaching has been an absolute adventure. I was even offered a full-time job teaching 8th grade maths in the local primary school today. Needless to say, they are desperate for teachers an even offered me a whopping $100 a week. Not too shabby. Of course, I couldn't accept seeing as how my students would probably be greatly disappointed if I deserted them next year. (Right, you guys, right?) I also splurged on an $8 hour massage a few minutes ago. I find it peculiar how different massages are in different countries. I think this one might has topped my Greek massage that I received a few years earlier in awkward moments. At one point, the Thai woman was making a circle eight around a new area.

David seems to be really enjoying the construction aspect of the volunteer work. I'm really excited to see soem finished products. Yes, pictures will come soon when I get longer than a few minutes on a computer. Other highlights this week include jumping in the pool every afternoon after sweating/teaching all morning, making animal face masks with the youngings, meeting my "20-year-old" brother for the first time (it's hard to remember that he's no longer 12), seeing my younger brother flirt with the other volunteers, running through the rain at a Buddhist temple, seeing the Tsunami momument recently erected to remember the people who did not survive, playing cards with the other super cool volunteers, and finishing FOUR novels in one week! I haven't fully adjusted to the 14 hour time change just yet, and I find myself often waking aroun 7:00 in the morning and reading on our balcony. It's probably the best way to start any day.

Thank you all (especially past students) who have responded and given me updates in your own lives. I hope all is well!
Love,Jesicah Rolapp

Week 1 - Jesicah

Dear friends and family,

Day two of our Thailand adventure begins with a snail spotting that was literally bigger than my fist. Let me backtrack a bit…David and I have arrived in Khao Lak for a month of volunteering. He will be building playgrounds while I teach English to the locals. We left Los Angeles Thursday night, arrived in Bangkok Saturday morning, spent 10 hours sightseeing, jumped on another plan to Phuket, caught a taxi to take us an hour and a half north to Khao Lak. When we finally arrived, it was Saturday evening. We quickly found a room and collapsed. At 7:30 the next morning (Sunday), we ran down to the beach and took a morning swim. David begged and pleaded that we change our room so that we could be down by the beach. Although it was a little over our planned budget for rent, I agreed knowing inside that I secretly would also love to have the beach and pool minutes outside our room. As such, David and I are staying a resort right on the beach. It’s absolute bliss but more expensive than we planned to spend…guess we’ll just live off of rice and more rice for awhile.

We’ve met up with both our volunteer coordinators and have orientation in an hour; we start work tomorrow. And now for a few of my observations:

• The heat here is unimaginable…I think it’s worse than when I was in Kenya but I may have just forgotten how hot it was there. I’m in a constant sweat. I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to teach in a shirt with sleeves tomorrow. Pit stains are inevitable I guess.
• Bangkok was enjoyable but we were both glad to leave. We saw the grand palace and then took a canal trip around to see the sites. It always strikes me how povety and wealth and so closely bundled together in big metropolitan cities. For example, a big mansion nestled right next to a trash dump with children looking for loot. An impressive yacht tied next to a boat made out of a log. Although the juxtaposition is no different than in Los Angeles , seeing if from a different lense makes stop and consider. Oh, anyone hear about the swine flu outbreak in Bangkok ? We kept seeing people with face masks on and assumed people were overly cautious in Bangkok . We later found out that over a 1,000 cases of swine flu had broken out recently in Bangkok . Luckily we both feel fine….guess we should have read a newspapers before getting there!
• The town we are staying in is defninitely in the middle of low season. This is great because it means our room is about half the price it would normally be. Unfortunately, we are realizing that there are few people who speak English proficiently. I think David and I are both silently wondering when we will get sick of each other!

The rest of the day seems pretty relax. We have orientation in a few minutes, then we’re heading to the store to stock up on breakfast foods (oh, mom, you’ve taught us well), then we’ll probably head back to the beach for some more body surfing. The locals continually warn us against swimming in the ocean because the spirits from the tsunami are still there and will pull you in from your feet (anyone ever heard of under tow?). We politely thank them for their wisdom and then go back to swimming. Between the two of us, I’m not too worried about the “tsunami spirits.”

Buy beautiful photographs to help support VTT

Fay and Robbie (volunteers with VTT) have a collection of beautiful photographs on redbubble that are available for purchase with 100% of the proceeds going to support VTT. Please browse through the prints and consider making a purchase here:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/sypa

thank you!

Welcome

Welcome to the blog of volunteer teacher thailand, a place for past and present VTT volunteers from all over the world to share their stories and experiences. Please email Ken for an invitation to join the blog if you would like to help post/contribute at (volunteer.teachers [at] yahoo [dot] com).

Thanks!