I went on a GIVE trip to Thailand to shake me out of my comfort zone. I had never been outside of the US or Canada but have always wanted to travel, and not just to super-touristy locations. I was skeptical paying money to volunteer, but now, knowing what goes in to making the experience, I can say that it was completely worth it. GIVE is incredibly connected with the host communities. Most of the guides grew up locally and speak both English and Thai fluently, which made it so easy to learn about life in northern Thailand: many things that you wouldn’t be able to learn as a standard tourist. I was also able to experience many of the local shops and restaurants and what it is like to stay in jungle villages. Things that I would also not have been otherwise able to experience as a solo traveller having no previous connections in the region.
I was concerned that I would not be able to make much of an impact only staying for 2 weeks, but teaching and playing with the kids at Nongbua School, I could feel how special it made these kids feel to be visited by people from the other side of the world. I don’t think I have ever been in a place where so many people want to hug me. Playing soccer against a bunch of Thai school kids under a sky full of dragon flies in the pouring rain (and losing), was just an otherworldly experience.
We were also able to see the progress we made in the permaculture project. Just a few hours a day of the whole group finding, removing, and transplanting banana trees, we were essentially able to plant a small forest. In addition to the physical permaculture projects, we also learned about the beauty of and the urgent need for sustainable agriculture and forest restoration. Of course, learning on-site is so much more impactful than reading or watching videos about permaculture online.
I was also surprised by how much the guides and locals invited us to ask questions (the hard ones too). We had many sessions where a local would be invited to talk about a particular subject, like how it is to teach at the local school, and how Elephant ownership and conservation work in modern times. A lot of the time, these sessions were brutally honest: addressing things like the negative parts of life in Thailand, the downsides of voluntourism, and the reality of how the least harmful way to keep elephants in captivity still involves chains and hooks.
On a personal level, the guides were also very inspiring. There were quite a few emotional speeches and individual conversations that I had with the guides that made me look forward to the future more than I have in quite some time. They pointed out the opportunities that I have to travel and search for what I love doing. There is no doubt that this trip has changed the course of my future. I feel like this trip helped me see how insignificant the problems in my daily life usually are and how much opportunity I have right now that I may not have in the future and that many people might never have.
Of course, there are organisations with much longer-term projects out there that involve less tourism and more labour. These projects can have larger impacts, but there are also many fewer people willing to commit to such long-term projects. Not only does GIVE make international volunteering more accessible, but based on the experience I had, I would expect that GIVE is inspiring more people to commit to such long-term projects.
