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Two Wolves Abroad

Transforming lives through service experiences

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Thailand

Volunteer profile: Tom Conaghan

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Age:19

Graduate of St Ignatius College, Riverivew

Graduate year: 2016

Future Degree: Bachelor of Communications (Social and Digital Media) – University of Technology, Sydney.

Future Ambitions: Visit every continent in the world, to travel and experience as many cultures and to meet as many people as possible, making meaningful and reciprocal relationships with people all around the world.

Volunteer Location: Huay Tong Village, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

School: Maewinsamakkee school, Mae Win, Chiang Mai. Tom rides his motorbike to and from school everyday. His school is about 30 mins down the mountain from Huay Tong Village.

Greatest Challenge this year: Independence, your mum isn’t there to pull you out of bed in the morning, to write lesson plans, to do your laundry or to drive you to school. At the beginning of the year it was extremely difficult for me to discipline myself to do these things. What drives me to do these things now is the people that I’ve met here, and how their lives have impacted mine. Most days we’re up at as early as possible, trying to squeeze as much as we can into the day, doing as much as we can. Learning to drive myself through this year was the greatest challenge this year, but it will help me throughout the rest of my life.

My experience:

This year had a rocky start for me, with sickness and the language barrier. Some days the efforts just seemed hopeless, especially within the first month or so. This ends as soon as you get into the swing of things, begin to get a handle on the language and start making friends. I began at Khun Wang school, where I taught primary school. I taught there for six months, before I was asked to move to Mae Win. Leaving Khun Wang was so heartwrenching, which is nothing compared to what we’re all going to experience when leaving at the end of this year. It’s so weird to think that we’ve been here for 8 months already, but its great to see how close we’ve gotten with this community in this time, with a huge chunk of time left to come. I’ve grown close with a lot of people, and I hope when we go home in December, that it won’t be a ‘goodbye’, but rather a ‘see you again’

Service year in Thailand by Pat Doyle

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My year has been so varied that starting this reflection had to be one of the hardest things I had done all year. It has been like some of the things I thought it would be, but it has also been a lot of things I would never have imagined it being. The beauty of this year has been the spontaneity of it, the moments when something pops up and the idea of what it could be is too tantalising to refuse. If this year has taught me something that I would have not expected, it is this; take every opportunity you can because even the things that seem mundane or repetitive can open you up to things you would never have imagined. Now I am not saying that everyday you will wake up and there will be someone telling you they are going to the shops when instead they end up going to skydiving, it is simply never that outrageous. On the other hand I have found that you will find things as simple as getting a lift in a car, for example, can be an opportunity to make a new friend using a language you just learnt. I’m still marvelled by the generosity of this friend now, his willingness to first give us a lift from the side of a dirt road, to then sharing some beers with us and then finally introducing us to his family and children. Every minute of that afternoon turned out to be so much more than I imagined when I woke up that morning to teach.

Teaching is also something I’ve learnt so much more about, that is not surprising but it has been one of the more enjoyable parts of the year. As my confidence and my knowledge of the students’ ability grew I was able to plan and construct my lessons so much better. Teaching is so much more enjoyable when you make the effort to do it well; by planning and pre-empting the class I was able to be more relaxed with the students, something I noticed the students definitely appreciated. The students had to be engaged and inspired to really want to learn, when they saw their language skills developing or at least becoming useful, it contextualised everything that had previously seemed useless or unnecessary.

An interesting parallel to be a part of has been between my own language skills and those of the students I teach. Already most of them are bilingual and learning their third and fourth languages so the comparison is somewhat different. However, it is wonderful to see some of my students’ English ability develop so much whilst my own Thai ability develops similarly. As we are forced to speak Thai everyday through necessity, the students become more confident in speaking English in everyday encounters. This has been wonderful to watch as previously many students were fearful of foreigners or simply embarrassing themselves. Similarly, I have thoroughly enjoyed expanding my Thai from the most basic of responses to conversational levels. It’s constantly engaging to navigate through different situations using both Thai and English, a never-ending opportunity for learning.

It’s worth noting the difference between Thai and Australian attitudes towards learning foreign languages. In Australia it seems as though having the command of multiple languages is a handy skill or hobby that is useful but not essential. While Thailand appears to have a completely different attitude where foreign languages are seen as not just a skill but also a necessary part of both the education system and life in general. Foreign writing is littered throughout the country and it is expected that you speak a major language such as English or Chinese if you are to succeed professionally. Yet rarely would you ever see large amounts of foreign scripts outside of local immigrant communities. The Thai and Karen attitude towards being multi-lingual is an example that is humbling and inspiring, one that I hope will motivate my friends and myself in the future.

One of the biggest motivators of this drive to educate is the tight-knit families and communities that I have been surrounded by throughout my time here. It’s awe-inspiring seeing a mother or father’s face light up upon realising that their child can properly communicate in an entirely new language with a person from a far-away country. This universal familial love which I’ve been fortunate to witness at countless weddings and family gatherings has been a touching reminder of what I actually valued so much when back at home.

It might seem strange but what I’ve missed the most while here has been the people from home. Occasionally I may miss certain foods or things from Australia but seldom does it last. In reality I haven’t been homesick frequently since initially leaving Australia but I have become more appreciative of the things which I may have once overlooked or undervalued such as the most simple of family occurrences. In saying this, never have I missed home enough for it to overshadow the wonderful things that I am able to experience daily here.

Before leaving Australia I thought that my faith would develop and I credit this to the nature of the Service Year being similar to things I had done in school and the fact that I had been sent by a Jesuit organisation. In truth, my faith has developed, but not through the things that I thought would once promote such a change. The weekly masses that we are able to experience in Huay Tong village are occasions that seem both uncomfortable and amazing at the same time. Week upon week the whole village turns out in traditional Karen clothing, everybody from the smallest of babies to old men and women who need help just to sit down. The masses are spoken entirely in Karen, a language none of us can understand, and they last much longer than the average mass in Australia. Yet the sheer spectacle and the community’s love that so obviously emanates from the building encourages a wider understanding of the beauty of faith and the Church, in inspiring a loving and caring culture whilst also promoting the traditional Karen traditions. This sense of community I believe has been somewhat lost in Australia, but is definitely something that I will miss the most once returned.

The pace of life, especially in contrast to my previous HSC year, is a welcome change. Without the pressures of school and a much simpler routine it has been easier to slow down and appreciate the things that would normally fly by. I don’t think I will have a year like this for quite a while and so it has been a wonderful opportunity that will never fade in its value or memory. The places, faces and occasions that so defined every amazing moment will be etched in me for many years to come.

Pat Doyle

Memories from Thailand and Micronesia

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Around a year ago, myself and seven other 2014 HSC graduates were just returning from a year spent abroad in Huay Tong, Thailand and Chuuk, Micronesia. For me, staying in the Karen village of Huay Tong with our host mother Maliwan, provided us with many unforgettable memories and experiences still with us after our first year studying at university.

Not having access to the luxuries and indeed basics such as a running shower, flushing toilets and clean water was initially very hard to get used to but something that has taught me to take less for granted, especially during the height of the dry season, where driving 30 minutes to the jungle waterfall became the best option for a proper shower. For a lot of families, food mostly was what they could find or what they had grown or cultivated themselves such as rice and eggs and whilst they had little, they were always extremely keen to have you over for dinner and make sure you left the house as well fed as humanely possible. For everyone, teaching in the schools left them with both positive and negative experiences but what was unquestionable was how much the students valued our presence as teachers and companions. However it’s also to important not to over romanticise the situation and acknowledge the unquestionably significant problems within Karen society in regards to alcohol and drug abuse and violence, which has left its scars on families in the village but which mustn’t be avoided but instead needs to be addressed and amended for healing to take place

In one village we visited, around four hours away allowed us to see exquisite mountain and jungle landscapes intertwined with beautifully carved rice terraces all the while being jolted by awfully bumpy dirt roads. In this incredibly isolated village, the vast majority of houses were without electricity, children have to find other ways to amuse themselves such as skipping stones down by the river, before heading off to help their parents work in the rice fields. I think one main lesson we drew from the year, was a greater appreciation of the simple things in life, to take pleasure in things we did such as rice farming, picking peach fruit in an orchard as the sun went down or just simply the cool mountain air whistling past whilst riding your motorbike. For me it’s something that I tend to forget, and I always have to remind myself to be more content with what I have, rather to become fixated and obsessed with what I don’t.

Finally I’d just like the highly recommend this journey for anyone who would like to delve a little deeper, and experience things that you would otherwise never be able to see as the Two Wolves programmes are certainly an unique and once in a lifetime opportunity which will provide you with unforgettable memories and lessons.

Hugo Vlachos (Service Year in Huay Tong 2015)

Thailand – Halfway Through the Year

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As Harry Ryan reaches the halfway point in his service year, he looks back at the first six months fondly…

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Looking back and realising that I have almost completed 6 of my 12 months in Thailand is very hard to believe. As many boys have said previously time is moves incredibly fast over here. I am extremely pleased that I embarked on this incredible journey for 12 months, as I would be thoroughly disappointed if my time in Thailand was to come to an end now.

I consider myself extremely lucky to be one of the three Riverview boys that have committed a year of service in Thailand, and to have the help from boys over here now, and previous service year boys, which has been incredibly beneficial.

There are currently 13 of us here in Thailand at the moment located in villages called Huay Tong, Bangkad, and Mae Pon. We regularly get together in Huay Tong and occasionally in Chiang Mai city to meet up and exchange stories and ideas on our service in our schools and communities, and to help each other learn the Thai language.

As cliché as it sounds, every day in Thailand presents something different however one thing that never changes is a constant generosity and good nature the people we work with. The teachers, and even students, at the school are more than willing to give up their time to help you either learn the language, or get to know the rich culture of Thailand.

One of the countless stories that show their endless generosity happened to me during the first month. The boys at Huay Tong were looking for one of the many waterfalls that surround us when my motorbike broke down.

After encouraging the boys to leave me behind to look for a mechanic I found myself at the bottom of hill and, after attempting to push to bike up the hill, a local boy, who knew very little English and I knew very little Thai at the time, arrived on the scene.  Half an hour later he managed to somehow fix the bike and, before he sent me on my way, he told me that he went to school at Huay Tong and knew that we were the new boys working for the project, and was incredibly happy that he could help. This is but one of a many stories I could tell of problems we have had and the local people cheerfully helping us.

To finish this very brief reflection, I can’t begin to tell you how great it is to finish a day with a kindy student cheerfully yelling out “good morning teacher” at 3:30 pm while riding your bike home from school.