Projects Abroad, Newsletters from Thailand

I had the opportunity to meet with Ms. Chanok. She lived in Krabi Province for the last 20 years. She originally came from Suphanburi Province but moved here when she came to work in Ao Nang and married a man from here. They have 2 children one is 10 years old and the other 4 years old. I met Ms. Chanok at Nopparat Thara National Marine Park. She works as one of the Tour Guide on speed boat taking tourists to different islands.

Loy Krathong Day is one of the most popular festivals of Thailand celebrated annually on the Full-Moon Day of the Twelfth Lunar Month. It takes place at a time when the weather is fine as the rainy season is over and there is a high water level all over the country. "Loy" means "to float" and a "Krathong" is a lotus-shaped vessel made of banana leaves. The Krathong usually contains a candle, three joss-sticks, some flowers and coins.

Ninety years ago on this day H.M. King Chulalongkorn or Rama V pass away. Thailand remember him as the "beloved" King for abolishing slave trade in 1905. H. M. Rama V has done so much to bring about many major changes to Thailand. He wanted to show other countries that we can be proud of our country as well.

In Thailand you may wonder why we consider September as the tenth month when everywhere in the world September is considered the ninth month. Back before we started to use Gregorian Calendar we were using the Buddhist Calendar. December was considered our first month and November, our twelfth month. Songs were written about the water level rising on the twelve month when we have Loy Kratong Festival. Therefore in November we have a Loy Kratong Festival activity planned for our volunteers.

August 12, 2009, is the Thai National Mother’s Day. And all over the country people gather in the centre of town to show their love and respect to Her Majesty The Queen Srikit. It is her birthday today. At Projects Abroad we also joined in the celebration by organizing a Beach Clean-Up at Ao Nang Beach. Lek, one of our Field Coordinators, was in charge of passing out leaflets to the local community to join in the celebration by meeting at Ao Nang Beach for a beach clean-up.

This has been one of the best experiences of my life, beginning the moment I arrived in Krabi all tired and sweaty! Living with my host family has been fantastic allowing me to learn about Thai cooking, language and traditions. The Thai food cooked by my host family has been wonderful - hot and spicy just the way I like it and am used to back at home.

On Saturday evening, 27th June our volunteers asked to be taken to Krabi Town to experience a Night Market that has have been set up by the City of Krabi. The aim of this event is to encourage the local people to come out of their houses and shop, eat and enjoy the shows that are performed by students from different schools in Krabi.

Projects Abroad was invited to take part in this Open Ceremony in Phan Nga on 24 April 2009. Thai government encouraged and invited organizations, and local people to take part in this big event in raising awareness of rebuilding and repairing Seaside and Marine Wild life by planting trees and release sea turtles in to the ocean. Here are some thoughts from our volunteers who attended the ceremony.

Thailand is a land of smiles as well as many old belief and old traditions. Many people that travel to Thailand all agreed that Thai food is most interesting in appearances, shapes, colours and tastes. This month I would like to share with you a little history about Thai Desserts or Khanom as the local people calls it.

Bees Honey is another source of food that can be found in and around Krabi area. These hives are formed on the side of a huge rock. In this picture we found at least 7 – 8 bees hives lodge against the side of the rock. The local people climb with the help of long bamboo poles they use to step on as a ladder. It is about 50 – 70 feet off the ground. When asked the local how long these hives has been around, they say as long as they can remember.

At Projects Abroad we welcome our New Year by donating school uniforms to the needy children. It is a tradition in my family to donate school uniforms to children that we know are in need. We bought uniforms for two children Yaya and Sofina, the two children who live near the Project House. We’ve seen them running around the property with Shane, Mr. Suwat’s son, and they have become familiar faces to our volunteers and staff.

It is a common occurrence for people to ask what you do, then smile politely when you say 'occupational therapy'. This is usually because they don't know what occupational therapy is, and in all honesty, there is no easy one way for one to quickly summarize what occupational therapists do. Some might say that occupational therapists provide people with 'skills for the job of living', others might say that they promote independence and empowerment in others.

The women in charge at this facility explain to us pretty much everything we could ever know about coconuts, including the necessary tools and the step-by-step process of opening and manipulating them in order to receive the milk, the flesh and the oil. Afterwards, they take us to the room where jewellery and decoration are produced from the nuts. We even get to create our own piece of jewellery, and after 15 minutes of hard work I manage to craft something that can almost be recognized as a dolphin...

The pupils must learn in an early age to work alone or in small groups. This is clearly a problem for all pupils because they are used to the teacher controlling and running the lesson from a to z. Listening to English as well as writing, reading and speaking are all important things to learn. Accordingly, these activities should all be incorporated in the planning of English lessons.

As I had arrived at night on the 20^th of July, I was eager for the morning as I would finally be able to see what my surroundings looked like. I was immediately driven over to the Chong Pli house where Sam, Amorn and 7 other volunteers were staying. Jet lag was not affecting me anymore as I had flown into Bangkok from Amsterdam 4 days earlier with my dad who was there for business.

After a night out in the town we were shipped of to the mangroves to explore and be educated. There were mixed feelings about the mangroves but personally I enjoyed the waist deep mud and the smell of sulphur crawling up my nostrils. Our guide Dominic had an amazing ability to make anything seem interesting, EVEN MUD! We then had our last two days of diving ahead of us, which was exciting yet disappointing. We traveled to the nearby Phi Phi, where we saw numerous creatures from turtles to sharks.

On Friday June 27, 2008 on Racha Island in Phuket, 30 False Killer whales (much smaller and less aggressive than their distant relatives, the Orca or Killer whale), beached near a Thai resort. Local residents and hotel staff saved all but one of them.
Mr. Wannakiat Thubthimsand, director of Phuket Marine Biology Center reported that 10 whales had to be loaded onto trucks and carried to another beach less than a kilometer away, the calmer water helped them out to sea but sadly one died due to heart attack before it reached the water. Mr. Wannakiat thought it was due to shock...

On June 16 or the second Thursday of the month, we celebrate and recognize all teachers. Schools prepare special ceremonies with special performances from different levels of students. Performances such as musical programs, poem recital and Thai Cultural dances. All this happens in the assembly hall in the morning. Some schools hold their program the day before or before the end of the school day. All teachers get asked to come to the front of the Assembly room and sit on the chairs. Selected Students with jasmine flowers handed them to their teachers as they sat in their chairs, while the students sat on the floor and they put their hands together to be placed at the foot of their teachers. This is the same manner children show respect to their parents. Teachers received flowers and blessed the students, for good health and luck.

The past month has gone by so fast. It’s been a fantastic mix of activities, the most predominant activity by far was the diving, of which the highlight for me must have been the live aboard! We spent two nights aboard with a national film crew that were filming us doing our salvage diving, fish surveys, and fish release…the pressure was on to look busy! The visibility on most dives was great and fish diversity was fantastic…we ended up seeing turtles, sharks and dolphins!

In 1767 Thai people were called Siamese, Ayutthaya was the second capital of Thailand. Burmese troops had occupied the Northern Kingdom of Lan Na (or Chaing Mai as we know it today) and proceeding down southward. A young man of noble Ayutthaya descent named Thong Duang born in 1737 became Chaophraya Chakri. The rank "Chakri" would be similar to a modern day Field Marshal. He rallied his Siamese and Lan Na forces to fight back the Burmese troops, but were unsuccessful and gradually forced to fall back until, the Burmese burned down the Royal Capital. Ayutthaya fell on April 8, 1767 and Siamese people fled to Thonburi, further down the Chaophraya river. The Burmese troops took gold, silver, jewelry and some of the Buddah statues were decapitated in the process.

The end of February also marks the end of my fifth month as field coordinator for marine conservation and I am very pleased to start March as the new Conservation Manager for the project. These five months have just been incredible and it seems that I arrived only a few weeks ago! My first couple of months were particularly intense, having to get my bearings with the projects and in Krabi, while training to become a divemaster, as well as taking Thai language lessons. But I have now settled in well and feel at home here, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone here at Projects Abroad Thailand for their warm welcome and for helping me to adapt to my new life. I am very glad I am working with this team and that we can have so much fun while working.

Thursday 27 of December I arrived in Krabi, after a 3 months placement in Nepal.Chane picked me up from the airport and brought me to my host family. They gave me a warm welcome with drinks and all kind of fresh exotic fruit! My host family is great! Nit, my host mum, is the best cook and she makes me the best Thai Food! Their three kids are lovely. I felt really comfortable from the beginning and they made me feel like if I'm part of their family. I consider myself really lucky!

I choose to stay during 3 months and I have no regrets, living with other volunteers who come from worldwide was really interesting and fun, I appreciate the fact that you can exchange a lot of things and you can learn to know other cultures. The staff is really friendly and funny, after just a few days I am feeling like home. In other words, if you are looking for great landscapes, heat, discovering a new world under the sea, sharing good moments with other people, just go ahead now …

According to the writings of H.M. King Rama IV in 1863, the originally Brahmanical Festival was adapted by Buddhists in Thailand as a ceremony to honor the Lord Buddha. Apart from venerating the Buddha with light ( the candle on the raft), the candle on the raft symbolize the letting go of all one’s grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start a new life on a better foot. Some people would also cut their fingernails and hair to put in the kratong to symbolize the act of letting go of their bad parts. Many Thai people believe that floating a kratong will create good luck and also honor and thank the Goddess of the River.

It is now almost two months since I boarded the plane on a damp Dublin morning, anxious about spending the next eight weeks teaching English in a far country of Thailand. Seven weeks later and I can’t believe that I’ve been here so long; I really cannot say where all the time went! When I arrived at the airport tired and weary after 36 hours travel, I was picked up by Chane and Nid, who instantly made me feel welcome and assured me that I had arrived in the right place.

On this day Her Majesty the Queen Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat, turned seventy nine years old. All of Thailand celebrate her day and made it “Mother’s Day” to observed. Many Thai people go home to be with their families to pay respect to their mothers and ask for her blessings. Jasmin flowers or roses are given as a symbol of love and devotion. Government Offices, Businesses and Banks are closed.

There were five specific salvage dives this month to collect fish traps, anchors and large fish nets spotted on previous dives that were too large to remove during the dive, so the location of the items were marked for later retrieval. At Koh Ya Wa Sam a fish trap weighing 13kg was collected with the use of lift bags. At Loh Ba Gao, 11kg of fishing net was removed along with some plastic bags and rope.