A great, exhausting time gone all too fast...

The time spent teaching with OMP strongly impacted my thinking and plans. It was what made me decide that I wanted to be a teacher, and it really helped me to find a lot of confidence in communicating with members of other nations and cultures. The one major drawback: it didn't last long enough.

Before I go any further, I'll explain the last comment. We came on the program over our winter break, so we were trapped in a time that actually was rather inconvenient. Between touring and the school being closed for the kids' winter break, we only got to spend a few days teaching. Poor timing on our part was what cut our experience short.

That being said, I wish we'd had more time. The kids at Klong Yang Elementary were wonderful, full of energy and eager to learn. The teachers all gave us support and were able to help us when we started to feel overwhelmed. The entire community was very welcoming and made every effort to accommodate us.

The OMP personnel were also very helpful. Our coordinator gave us lots of help in the form of transportation, instruction and serving as a local guide at times. We were able to see the best of Krabi thanks to her knowledge of the area, including places we most likely would have overlooked on our own. She taught us some basic, practical Thai, such as how to greet locals, how to bargain in the language, and how to avoid making fools of ourselves (we did anyway). We were introduced to their circle of friends, including fellow volunteers and an amusing radio personality named Dtaa, who made us laugh ourselves silly several times.

The biggest difficulties we encountered were ones which we'd all expected: attempting to communicate and trying to teach English. Both of these were solved with trial and error; some lessons we taught were wonderfully received, while others elicited puzzled looks. We also had our share of miscommunications, some of them leading to very amusing results. These are things which any volunteer teacher should expect no matter where he or she goes, and rather than be embarrassed, embrace the experience and learn from it.

My verdict? Go. You won't regret it.