Volunteering in an orphanage...

… wasn't at all what is sounds like.

Expectation: You get to take care of cute little orphans, play and laugh with them all day. You get to know them really well and build real relationships, which makes it heartbreaking to leave them behind at the end of your stay.
Reality: You're supposed to help RENOVATE the broken down school ground. You are given a big ass tool you don't even know the name of and are told to mix heavy cement. You look around for any fixing, painting, wall building that needs to be done and make it your project for the week.


Once I had wrapped my head around the fact that I wasn't going to spend my time at the orphanage with the children, I was positively surprised at how 'fun' the volunteer work was. Admittedly, fun might not be quite the right word. It isn't FUN to mix cement in the boiling sun, it isn't FUN to paint the bars of a very leggy table, it isn't FUN to build a brick wall in a corner where it stinks like pee, but it sure as hell is FULFILLING. That's volunteering for you, you don't get to choose the work that is needed and you certainly shouldn't complain about the job that is appointed to you. 

Nevertheless, we did get to spend some time with the kids. One afternoon we taught some 14- to 17-year-olds English which was a lot harder than imagined. The students that had been assigned to me had a English level of pretty much zero, so it took a (long) while to get through to them. Also, I found that the ongoing men were a lot shyer than their female classmates and that they love to let them do all the oral participation. Sadly, this inevitably leads to lesser language skills. 


All through the week the kids occasionally gazed at us with their deep brown eyes while we were beautifying their school and home. It was great to see the smile on their faces when they realized our only purpose there was to gradually improve their lives, brick by brick.

„What should we do if we see a bear?“ – „Take a photo“

Soo sorry this is coming so late, but here it is:

Last week on Friday we visited the Monkey Palace where little monkeys stay in a semi enclosed area (they can easily jump over the fence and walk freely on the street if they so wished). I hadn’t even set foot in the actual monkey area and two of them had already jumped on me from behind and reached for the tiny banana I had had in my hand. Once they were off of me, I could appreciate their cuteness and watched them from afar. Some of my friends had a constant presence of monkeys on them and we got some great pictures.

Yet that hadn’t been a big enough adventure for eleven of us, so we separated from the rest of the group and made our way to Pak Chong, a town near the National Park Khao Yai. We had a day trip through the park planned. After observing an amazing view over the park a tour guide led us through the depths of the jungle while we searched and hushed for any kind of wildlife (birds, elephants, tigers etc.). On our three-hour trek we found three gigantic squirrels and a long horn spider. 

Sadly, we didn’t find any wild elephants, even though we rushed after the cracking of the trees caused by them. At one point we were about 30 meters away from them. Nevertheless, the jungle plant life had more than enough to offer and it was a great outing.

We also got to see a beautiful waterfall which some of you might know from the movie “The Beach”. As we drove home we kept our ears open for even the faintest elephant sound. Thanks to another tour group we saw one from the street, but only a little peek of it’s dark back. So we made our way towards the gentle giant through some spicky plants. “If he runs, we all die” is what our guide had said. Yieks, good to know! We were all quite scared and just listened while it ate its vegetarian dinner. Yet we still only got to hear it, the plants were too thick to be able to see it. After this nearest to death experince I’ve ever had, we stopped one two more times, the last one seeing a group of about 10 t0 15 elephants, small and big, walking along a hill on the other side of a lake. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take any pictures.

That was the best day yet!