Katie Maddock, Thailand 2018
The purpose of our trip was to help community projects in Northern Thailand and also teach basic first aid to school children and members of Thailand Girl Guiding. After landing in Bangkok to a warm welcome from the local Girl Guiding Association we had some orientation time and a chance to experience some Thai culture.
Our group visited Wat Po Palace, the floating markets and joined our hosts in a traditional Thai meal with music and dancing entertainment. The food was very different and the fragrant spices took some getting used to, but we made an effort to try everything.
In Chiang Mai we went into a Private school to have a cultural exchange and meet the children. We shared some of our Guiding songs and taught them balloon modelling. This was very funny as the balloons occasionally popped! Our hardest project was to refurbish and paint a women’s refuge centre. This centre was going to be used to give women a meeting place and bring them together, and also to teach them crafts and the basic skills to run their own small business and support their families. We also helped to plant trees around the centre to give some shade and space for them to learn outside.
After climbing the highest mountain in the area in the cloud we visited some hot springs. Another amazing opportunity was to go to an elephant sanctuary to see and help feed the elephants. They were bigger than we thought, and the baby ones were very cute and curious to meet us. I can’t believe we were able to spend some time with them in their natural habitat and were glad we could support in some small way. All the elephants have been rescued from poor and often cruel situations and were now cared for in safety. Our second school visit was more challenging as they spoke no English and we needed an interpreter to help us teach CPR to the children.
We flew south to Krabi, which is a beach town on the west coast. We again had an opportunity to go into the local school to teach CPR and basic first aid. This was particularly important as there had been a tragic incident last year where a boat capsized and the locals made attempts to rescue the people but then did not know how to resuscitate them and no one survived. We felt like we had made a real difference by teaching them the skills to do CPR and donating the manikins we had taken with us and some first aid boxes too.
I think I learned more about how people manage with very few material things. Actually having a caring, supportive community and the opportunity of some education and learning skills are so valuable in helping improve your life wherever you are. For me, I enjoyed meeting the local children, having fun teaching them life-saving skills and being challenged to cope in a completely new culture.
Thank you again for supporting me to take part in this trip of a lifetime.
