Volunteers come and go in Phana

I miss a lot in Phana because I am only there for six months of the year. There is always a lot happening when I am there so it doesn't really matter very much. At my age you can have too much of a good thing (if you are lucky).

One of the things I regret missing is the arrival of the new volunteers from Project Trust in late August and then I miss their leaving the following July. Tetsaban Phana, which sponsors them, always put on a good bash for both occasions. The welcoming party always features the traditional Lao Bai Si ceremony as well as dance performances, and, naturally, lots of speeches. I blogged about this HERE and one of our first volunteers put her view of the experience Here .

These two volunteers, Sarah on the left and Lauren on the right, were in Phana 2009-2010. They were really excellent and they were very popular with everybody -- the children they taught, the teachers they worked alongside, their host family, the tetsaban staff, vendors in the market. Everyone they came in contact with, in fact.

 

 

In fact, Phana has been very lucky with the volunteers that have been sent by Project Trust. They have all been very good indeed and have given a lot of themselves to make their year in Phana a success for everyone, themselves included. When Pensri and I get back to Phana we will find two new volunteers, Billie and Rosie, already installed. They will be the seventh pair of volunteers welcomed to Phana. What makes them a bit different is that they are both English. Of the previous twelve, seven have been Scots and one was from Northern Ireland.

 

This year, Project Trust has sent 279 volunteers abroad, and 10 of them are in Isan, in Amnat Charoen, Yasothon and Mukdahan provinces.

Comments

[Martyn]

Lawrence - The hearts of the young men of Phana must have been beating well and good for a full 12 months with a couple of cracking looking lasses like Sophie and Lauren about.

I couldn't help but notice the tartan in the background of the photo. I assume neither of them took up the position of goalkeeper in the school football team.

To get involved in Project Trust must be a life changing experience for youngsters arriving in Thailand. They must eventually walk away with a completely different mindset to life. I think Thailand and especially the rural way of life teaches you that your own world shouldn't be a material one. There is more to life than having a big flash car and a swanky watch.

I did myself apply for a couple of volunteer projects in Thailand but both Chang and Singha turned me down. I'm still waiting on a reply from Leo.

Now your two new arrivals are in Phana. Cider with Rosie and Billie's Boots (spelt Billy) were two of my favourite reads from my childhood. I hope the two English lasses give your locals just as much enjoyment as those two contrasting reads gave me.

A suggestion...why not interview the two young ladies about their new life in Phana. You could do a Q&A type of post and ask readers for questions.

[Lawrence]

Hi Martyn (from a monsoon-season Croatia). A long comment deserves a long reply.

The "cracking looking lasses" are SARAH and Lauren, though Sophie was an earlier one.

I´m glad you noticed the MacThai tartan. I believe the multi-coloured group in Thailand wanted to wear it for their demonstrations, but didn`t want red or yellow shirts querying (?) what they might or might not be underwearing.

Stick with the Leo, Martyn. You can`t go wrong (well, only pleasurably so) with your local brew.

I met Rosie not long before she died at a ripe old age. She still loved a tipple, but it was hard to picture her enjoying a roll in the hay.

Scottish goalkeepers. Reminds me of a joke I heard on TV recently from a posh English stand-up comic at the Edinburgh festival. It contained lots of asides on the subject of prejudice, but the joke boiled down to this: an Englishman, a Welshman and a Pakistani were waiting in the maternity hospital. A doctor came out and told them there had been a mix-up and they would each have to claim his own baby. The Englishman went in first and came out quickly with a baby. The Pakistani said "how could you think that is your baby?" "I know what you are getting at, and I`m sorry, mate. But there are two white babies in there, and one of them is Welsh. I`m not prepared to take the risk."

[Lawrence]

Martyn, I forgot to mention your suggestion re interviewing the new volunteers. Good idea. They are about to go off to Chiang Mai for a 3-week language course, and I won't be in Phana until the end of November, so I won't do anything about it just yet.

But I would certainly welcome your input with questions. And questions from anyone else too, please. Post them here or e-mail them to me.