March 17th & 18th Mirror Volunteer

Every morning at the Mirror Volunteer headquarter we are served breakfast at 8:00 a.m. This consists of rice, a vegetable dish and an egg dish. After that we have a meeting in Thai at 8:30 a.m. Basically this is information of what is happening in hillside tribe villages also organizing vehicles to transport volunteers to various places. Some of this information gets translated for us, but generally "we are in the dark".

We started doing an 8 day summer camp with 14 students from various tribes ranging in age from 9 - 21 years. All of these students were highly motivated and some come very long distances for the English instruction that is from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 everyday. We practice a lot of everyday conversation to aid them in real life situations. We have worked on greetings, likes and dislikes, feelings, body parts, actions and tried geography which failed miserably. Some of the games we have played with them include BINGO, capture the flag type games, hockey (with sticks brought from Canada), sing song primary games -- some of these running games are extremely exhausting in 36 degree weather!!!!!

Lunch is served at 12:00. Surprise, surprise rice, a vegetable dish and a pork or chicken dish. We really get excited when we see fruit, as it is delicious (mandarin oranges, mango, pineapple, bananas and watermelon) The highlight of lunch everyday is the sound of the icecream truck (just like at home -- the 3 wheel vehicle) where we can buy a popsicle for 8 baht (24 cents) drumstick 14 baht (50 cents) -- a little taste of home.

After lunch we have an hour free time, then we meet again with all the volunteers to plan the next days lesson at 1:30 p.m. In the afternoon we have some options: practice reading English with the staff here, meet at the Ebaunok shop (a small confectionary type store) in the small village (50 people) just below our headquarters to teach the locals practical English for selling their products, teach English to the local trek guides, clean and organize facilities (Norrie, Arlene and Esther worked very hard organizing the store room).

Supper is at 6:00 p.m. Once again RICE, vegetable dish, and a pork or chicken dish. After supper we either go on computers, walk to the small village for a pop (they empty the bottle into a bag with a straw and keep the bottle). Jamie was adventurous and tried the local moonshine (around 44 % alcohol) sharing sips to the rest of us who wanted to try it. While he was in his quest for adventure he also ate a cricket (after convincing the shop owner to eat one first). As we were walking past, a table of locals called Jamie to join them for a drink -- which Jamie initially declined, but ended up taking a sip out of a not so clean glass to maintain a positive relationship with the locals. The sun sets at 6:30 p.m. everyday so it is very dark by the time we walk back to our camp.

Tuesday after volunteering in the afternoon we decided to take a taxi into Chaing Rai. We did a little shopping and had a wonderful oil massage. The traditional Thai massages are great, but have left some of us bruised (finger and thumb prints) and a little sore from the deep muscle manipulation. We picked up our supper from the vendors on the street before hopping back in a taxi to go back to camp. We had our Thai lesson from one of the volunteer staff and learned a lot!! But we still have a long way to go. Jit (volunteer staff) and Martin (volunteer from Scotland) played guitar and we enjoyed the cooling off of the evening.

Anticipating our Homestay experience that we leave on tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. This is our experience to stay with a host family at two of the tribal hillside villages, for two days.

Will be continued after our 2 day adventure!!!!