A Life-Changing Experience!

When I arrived at the office of the Mirror Foundation in Chiang Rai, I started doubting whether I had made the right decision coming to volunteer in Thailand.
The accommodation was very basic and the premises were located quite far from proper civilisation.
But truth is, this is exactly how the majority of people in Thailand live like. No, actually many of them even live under worse circumstances.
The factor that made my stay so rememberable wasn't the quality of the accommodation though.
It was the kindness of the Thai people.
Everywhere you go everyone smiles at you and wants to take pictures with you and Thai people are so appreciative as well!

I was lucky to be able to go on a homestay three times during my stay, which only was three weeks, and it was the best experience of my life.
We were preparing the lessons in a group of 4 people and we had to teach classes with children ranging from 8 to 16 years.
One of our homestay guides, Tar from PayaPraj School, took us to his school, which was far up in the mountains. There was not much to do there but he did a good job looking after us and making sure that we don't get bored.
He assigned us one student each, to show us around in the school and to help us translate some words to Thai, while we taught.
After school he took us to the music room, where a couple of students and teachers were practicing a song. Tar taught us to play some songs on the guitar and also how to sing some lines of a popular Thai song, which we would sing on stage in front of 300 students later that week.
He really appreciated us teaching his students some English and as a thank you he took us to some local places, such as local restaurants or the famous Mae Chan Tea Plantation.
Leaving him at the end of that week was really difficult for all of us.
The homestays were really what made my experience so unique. Some of the homestays also took us to the Golden Triangle and other famous sights.

In retrospective, volunteering in Thailand brought me very close to the Thai culture and taught me a lot about the different aspects of life in Thailand. The first steps were quite difficult for me coming from a western country but it was more than worth it! The Mirror Foundation did a really good job in making the introduction to different living standards as smooth as possible!

If you are ready to lower your living standards and to live in a very basic environment then, I am confident, that you will have a live-changing experience in Thailand.

And many thanks to IVHQ for making volunteering so affordable, the project was worth every penny!