This is the feedback I submitted to the organization Volunteers For Peace on the time I spent volunteering at Greenway. I have much more to say about my time down in Hat Yai, and I plan to elaborate and post pictures at a later time. For now, the formal version will have to do. :)

FEEDBACK FOR GREENWAY WORKCAMP, SONGKHLA 1
FEBRUARY 7th-20th, 2005

I participated in a workcamp set up through the organization Greenway, which is a Thai voluntary organization. This organization has many different programs and satellite camps all over Thailand, but I participated in a teaching program that was based out of the Greenway base camp in the southern Songkhla province by the city of Had Yai. The base camp is set out in the countryside in the middle of rubber tree fields and close to a small village. The grounds of the base camp are beautiful; there is the Greenway office, which has a beautiful patio that is shaded by various palms and trees. Then there is the “kitchen” which is an open air area that consists of a large table and chairs, a couple faucets for washing dishes, and a water cooler and water heater for making instant coffee and instant hot chocolate. This is all nestled in a garden of rubber trees and various other trees and flowers, and overlooks the river that runs through most of the grounds. If you follow the path beyond the kitchen and office, you have to cross a little bridge to reach the miniature “island” the main house and additional bungalows are situated on. The “island” is really just surrounded by the small river which is occupied by frogs and lilies. There is one large open air Thai-style house, which has one raised large floor with bathrooms and room to dry laundry underneath, and a roof with no windows or doors. There are, however, mosquito nets and sleeping mats provided. When I was there, the girls were sleeping here, as this house could accommodate at least eight people, if not more. Past this house, there are several other smaller houses, which are more of the traditional Thai bungalow- raised single rooms with walls and a door- and could only fit two people each. The men and longer-term women volunteers mostly occupied these.

The program consisted of volunteering at five different schools, with ages ranging from eight to sixteen, over a two week period, with some time on the weekend to do various site-seeing activities in the local Songkhla district. I found this schedule to be quite rigorous and very ambitious. At the end of the program, I felt that our time would have been much more effectively spent volunteering at one school rather than spreading ourselves thin at five. However, our presence there seemed to be much more aimed at cultural exchange than at actual teaching. In some areas, the students and even the teachers had never spoken with native English speakers, and needed the experience greatly. However, I sometimes felt that we were solely there to be token foreigners who had a different color skin, and that our native English speaking skills were being squandered. I often felt that we were simply being gawked at rather than being seriously utilized as a vessel of true cultural exchange. I additionally felt that the lack of coordination and communication between the schools, teachers, and volunteers was quite detrimental to the overall effectiveness of the lessons and programs. There needed to be more communication between both parties on what we would be teaching, how much the children already knew, and what they needed to learn, for the children to seriously gain something from the experience. We were somewhat simply thrown into an already functioning school, and expected to continue the pace without missing a beat, which was sometimes difficult being as unprepared as we were. I felt that unfortunately, due to the lack of organization, we were not as effective as we could have been.

That being said, I think that in some cases learning English was not necessarily a priority for some schools, and therefore, we did not disappoint them. Additionally, all the schools were completely inviting, and some seemed to genuinely care about teaching the children English rather than simply having them meet a person of another color. The Greenway people were incredible, and all the teachers and students we came in contact with were unbelievably inviting and warm, and they definitely made the experience worthwhile.

This program would be much better suited for people purely wanting a cultural experience, and perhaps younger volunteers wanting more direction, and therefore would not disappoint, or rather, disillusion people wanting to exclusively teach. Overall, I did gain an immense amount of knowledge of true Thai life from the experience, and I learned things that traveling the “tourist routes” I never would have. For this alone, I am very happy I participated in this program. It was a great experience, and despite the misleading views on what I would truly be doing, I gained much from it, and I only hope I made a difference in some of the children’s lives.