Rich, rewarding and fun!

This was my first time volunteering abroad, and it totally turned my life around. I volunteered together with my 9 year old son, which was fabulous to do together. We volunteered with the elephants, and also teaching English. We were immersed in village life,working each day with the mahouts caring for the elephants, and experiencing the variety of events that happen in a village daily. We were made to feel very welcome both by our host family, as well as by all the villagers. We particularly felt we were able to make a contribution while we were teaching English. The children we taught only have access to native English speakers to teach them when Starfish sends volunteers. Starfish ensures that there is continuity in the children's learning - we built on what the previous volunteer teachers had taught, and knew that volunteers to come after us would build on what we had taught. This makes the program particularly strong.
Starfish' programs are very well organised, and the volunteer coordinators were with us at all times, offering language translation as well as cultural interpretation of all we were involved in. And they were great fun to be around, really added to our incredible experience.
We felt safe at all times, and the beauty of this rich experience was our instant immersion into the Thai culture.
Food was great throughout the trip, both with our homestay family in Tha Thum, as well as during our time in Surin while staying at the volunteer house. I should mention the accommodation which was also excellent, being both clean and well located.We left feeling that we had made a difference, but also knowing that we ourselves had changed in this time. We are definitely planning to volunteer with Starfish again!