Together with Yoshi and Joyce we create a new book for kids. It´s ab book for seeing, visual impaired and blind kids. In the book You can find braille, normal letters, pictures and tactile elements. It´s a story of a bat and a Pinguin – they sear the answer what is really important in the life. So they travel in different parts in the world, after they found a treasure map in the library. They visit a town, a tropical island, the jungle, the Antarctic, the moon and other places. At the end they find the answer – it´s the friendship between both.

My name is Joyce, a Belgian volunteer and together with Ralph I am working on the universal book project for ARC in Phrao. I could tell you about this heartwarming project, or the beautiful town of Prao or the amazing people I met here, but today I want to talk”about this other”amazing citizens of Thailand namely the elephants.

I am in Thailand for a month and one thing I really wanted to do was touching an elephant. One month felt like so much time so we focussed mainly on the project in the beginning. Than the moment came that I only had 10 days left. Time flies here. I had to do research for wich elephant park to visit because it was very important to me that the elephants were treated well. So I ended up with elephant nature park. The problem was, also with other parks, that they pick you up with there own bus from your hotel in Chiang Mai since it is aimed at tourists. So I called the organisation to ask if we could come with our own car. THE man was very friendly and suggested the best project for us wich was ‘save Thai Elephant Park’ right next to the main elephant nature park.

Along the way there had been some miscommunications but in the end we arrived on time and everything was forgiven. They were very friendly. First we got information on the elephants and then we had to wash and cut the fruits for the elephants. We were with a group of around 10 people and they had 3 lovely lady elephants for us to meet. To feed the elephant was a very special feeling, they take your whole hand in there trunk. After this we had to lead the elephants to the river. We did this by giving the elephant a banana every few steps. Every family got there own elephant for this so it was only me, Ralph and the elephant. Of course the guides were also there to help if needed. When we arrived at the river, we all got a bucket and joined the elephants to help them with washing. This was really fun as we were throwing water at the elephants and they would shoot water back at us with there trunk. After this we had lunch and we had the possibility to make our own papaya salad. Than came the most fun part for the elephants, we watched how they tooka mud bath and it was really amazing to see hoö much they were enjoying themselves. We ended the day by feeding the elephants again. Is crazy how much these beauties can eat. I couldn’t give a hug to the elephants because they were totally covert in mud so I give a hug to the guide in stead for this amazing day. I will never forget this experience.

Bye bye Thailand. Kop-khun kah for everything.
Kisses, hugs and chocolates from Belgium

I started volunteering in ARC since I finished my studying abroad. I was just studying, hanging out with friends, I felt something not enough and I wanted to do something that can do only in Thailand.

And it didn’t take time til making a decision because of there was a crucial reason which is Ms. Horiuchi, founder of ARC, and Phrao, beautiful town where I was living.

 

It has been six months since I have landed in Thailand for the first time. On the 8th of March, I will take the plane again, destination Cambodia. Well, I have to admit that I am not ready at all to leave the country.

On the 31rst of last August, Yoshimi and P’Jiew welcomed me at the Chiang Mai airport and a few hours later, I arrived in the charming town of Phrao. Located at two hours from the big city, Phrao is the center of the the district of the same name, on the way to Chiang Rai.

It was love at first sight. 

Surrounded by mountains, located in the Lanna country, Phrao is simply lovely. Thanks to my colleagues, I found a house in the middle of the town, at around twenty minutes by bicycle from the Library where I have spent most of my time, five from the market, where you can find anything, and ten minutes walk from the bus station. The location is simply perfect. Every morning, I am amazed by the view as I am riding my bicycle to the library. The funny thing is that during my first three weeks in town, I was the “farang”, the stranger, the white girl riding her bicycle and people kept staring at me. As I took almost the same path every day, they started to know me and since then, we are just exchanging giant smiles, and warm “hi” or “sawasdee kha/khap” ! It is a real pleasure to ride the bike, even if it is sometimes quite hot.

In six months, I had time to do a lot of things a especially many projects with ARC. First, I discovered how an association works in Thailand. Well, it is my first time working in a library, but all is related to culture and fun activities, at least my missions were.

What did I do ?

I gave english classes to kids at the library, basic english of course, I am a French native speaker, not an english one. It felt great to teach them. I only had a class of 6 kids, it was quite easy to manage. Of course, P’Jiew helped me a lot as my thai was very basic (and is still so- ..) to explain about each exercise to them. Then, it was easier for me to teach French. I had a chance to work as teaching assistant for some french classes for Kru Tom, french teacher at Phrao Wittayakom, highschool of the town. I also went for weekly activities with the mobile library in villages around, visited disabled people who could not come to the library but wanted to read, I met a lot of people, learned a lot about thai culture and asked a lot of questions. Thanks to my missions, I really had a chance to discover a lot within my time in Phrao and around.

As Thai culture is different from mine, I was really curious about everyday things that I did not understand or that I could not read about. Meeting people who did not speak the same language as mine, forced me to step out of my “comfort zone”.

Let me tell you about one situation where I really felt like stepping out of my culture, and that was when I tried spicy food… I think that everyone at the library will remember me as the “not spicy” woman, as I could barely eat a “Pad Ka Pao” without crying. But then, I went to Mae Wean Noi, the village in the mountains to visit ARC’s early childhood literacy center, Little Smiles center. I was living among a Lisu family, P’Pim’s family, and there, everybody was used to eat spicy food since the youngest age. So, one evening, for dinner, I asked P’Pim it the sauce that she made was very spicy or not. You have to know that to the answer “pet mak” (very spicy) I usually step back, and to “nid noi” (a little bit), I usually try. Then, her answer was that it was “pet nid noi”, understand “a little bit spicy”. I tried it, and felt suddenly very hot, and super sweaty. After the ten minutes I needed to recover from the awful burning feeling, I asked her how many chili she had put inside the sauce, she then told me, as if it was totally normal “50”. I then cried again.

During my stay in Phrao, from where I am writing this article, I was confronted with myself and the others as well. For me, “pet kid noi”, was a maximum of 3 chillis, but for her, it was 50. And in fact, the entire family was eating it without even crying… It felt amazing to understand that the fact that I really thought that by “a little bit spicy” did not meant the same thing for her than for me. You can say that this always happens when you are travelling. Of course, but when my codes, my “already known notions” are challenged, I feel great, because I am rediscovering what culture-s really means. 

In six months, being the “farang” sometime forced me to step out of my comfort zone for the better and the worse (especially when there was someone to take picture of you). But i had so many great moments, with the kids, with my colleagues, with the people (farang or not) that I met here and I have discovered so many places and events as the different temples, some school camps, temple festivals, hill tribes villages, local high schools, and of course, the Rang Mai library.

This experience benefited me in so many ways that this article wouldn’t be enough to describe all of them. But I have to admit that the will of having new experiences I more present than ever in my mind.

I was supposed to stay only for five months in Phrao, and I just realized that it has been six months already.

Well, it is sure that I will come back for more !

ขอบคุณมาก!

Merci beaucoup et à bientôt !