Kathryn & Frank Lepera (husband & wife), USA, February 2009

This was our first time in Asia and we were eager to immerse ourselves in Thai culture through volunteering. Volunteering, we believe, offers a unique cultural education that benefits everyone involved. This kind of all-around positive inter-cultural experience is what we found in reading Else’s blog and others on this website so we contacted Aom and Netting.

We arrived in Bangkok without knowing for sure what to expect of Thailand and without confirmation that we would volunteer with the English Crazy Club. Within a few days our plans were set and we were on an overnight train to Ubon Ratchathani. Despite the early hour, a smiling Aom greeted us at the train station and talked with us over coffee as we waited for our host to arrive. P. Pim and Mr. Lake arrived on motorbikes. So, packs and all, we rode off to Mr. Lakes house for breakfast. After a short rest, a friend with a car drove us to P. Pim’s village, Pho Sai, about an hour outside of Ubon Ratchathani.

From that first morning to our last night, our host, P. Pim, and her family made sure we were comfortable and well-fed. Never did we feel want for anything. We feasted for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on an array of flavorful dishes. For us, meal time (Gin Kow) was always an education. We learned how to compliment the delicious food (aroy-dee) and delighted over the spicey (ped) dishes. The teachers would provide lunch for us at the school. We would learn the Thai name of a certain food and they would ask what we called it in English (“ah, tamarind!”). After sampling all the tasty offerings, we learned to let our hosts know when we could eat no more (im).


Food and family anchored our daily experience; but the students at Muang Yai (Green Mango) School gave heart and spirit to our volunteer assignment. We would wake up each morning and have breakfast with the family before heading to school on motorbike. We looked forward to the students greeting us each morning when they would all stand together, smiling, and say proudly in English, “Good morning teacher.” Then the fun would begin!


Learning English, as the co-founders of the English Crazy Club believe, should be fun for the students. And so it is for the teachers. Our host taught us songs and activities that help the students practice their understanding and pronunciation. The students, so gracious and helpful, were patient as we would “explain” how to do a new activity. We could not expect the students to understand complicated instructions in English and likewise we knew only a few Thai phrases. Thus, teaching English to Thai children requires both student and teacher to work together to reach a common understanding. Humor, enthusiasm, body language, trial and error, and a little luck make so much possible.

The students’ ability varied from each grade level, 1-6. We quickly learned how to adapt songs and activities that suited each group. The “Hokey Pokey” became a favorite in Grade 4 and Grade 6 showed off their knowledge of English in a modified version of “Scrabble”. Each day offered opportunities to try out new activities and songs and repeat the favorites from the day before. Some things worked better than others, but that was part of the individual learning experiment between “Farang” teacher and the Thai students. We were happily exhausted at the end of each day.

The open air classrooms, the smiling and eager students, and the friendly teachers gave us comfort and a sense of belonging. We were sent off with many blessings in a special Isan ceremony held in our honor on our last day at the school. We were happy to see our host family and neighbors sitting with us; Mom and Toon were both there.


(Toon, Pim’s sister, looked after us for a few days while Pim was away. We were grateful for her proficiency with the English language as she was our only interpreter in Pim’s absence. Mom, although she spoke little English, would practice words out of her phrase book). We were in awe of the beautiful ceremony; but we were saddened that the ceremony also marked the end of our stay. We left Pho Sai the next day on bus to Ubon Ratchathani, soaking up the views of the country side and thinking of all those we met.


We were filled with such warmth and love during our stay. Our sense of indebtedness grows more and more each day. Aom and Netting do so much to connect rural schools with caring “Farang” – and P. Pim lives her life committed to her students and their future. There is so little available to the teachers and students and so P. Pim will often use her salary to provide materials for her classroom.


If the “Learn to Give” foundation is to teach us anything at all, it is that giving does not have a beginning or ending. Now that we are home we are investigating more ways to give – whether it is encouraging other volunteers to go to Ubon Ratchathani or to persuade those that can not travel to donate materials or funds to these schools to further stretch the good work of Aom, Netting, and their network of teachers and volunteers.