Summer English Camp

A crazy five days were had at the summer camp for first year students of Uttaradit Ratchaphat University. There were plenty of farang volunteers which was quite weird to start with because I hadn't spoken 'real' English for a while. The Volunthai crew were Michael (our leader), Dan (from Canada), Renee, Anna (both from Netherlands) and myself. Another group of volunteers, three British guys (Dan, Ian and Adam), joined us to ensure that the students only spoke the Queen's English rather than one of the dialects from a lesser known country in the Americas. There were a few farang and Thai teachers also making up the numbers. Then came the students, all sixty of them, of which there were less than 10 boys — and even they were ladyboys.

Each of days were quite varied. We were supposed to get up at 6am for exercise, then breakfast at 7.30am. The morning activities were usually some games or task that required a tiny bit of Engilish. Some of the students spoke quite good English, but for others it was as easy to speak Thai. It was also a shock to meet so many farang that spoke Thai, in fact I felt the odd one out not being able to speak enough Thai. I think this was why the camp was so successful — the students were there to speak English, but also the farang wanted to speak Thai, so it was a great atmosphere for everyone to learn something.

Lunchtime was at 12pm and then every afternoon we went out on a trip. We visited the beach at Cha-am (twice!), including a ride on a banana boat for some of the braver girls. Another afternoon we went to the royal palace of Kng Rama 6, and another we went to some gardens that were part of a royal project. Dinner back at the camp at 6pm, followed by activities in the main hall the rest of the evening. One night was a newspaper fashion contest. At the start of the week us volunteers had been assigned a group to work with which I had named "The Gecko" and later I established a group chant:

"Team gecko, team gecko, team gecko,

let's go eat some mosquito!"

The evening of the fashion contest, the group had to nominate a model. I thought this was going to be a difficult task because there were plenty of pretty girls, but it wasn't at all — they picked me! For the next hour I had various items of cloithing made out of newspaper attached to my body (including a grass skirt and bikini). The result was quite impressive, as were the other groups — it is amazing what you can do with newspaper. However, when it came to walking the cat-walk I think the gay training I have had recently (and all that moisturiser) really paid off. I was crowned Miss Newspaper 2005, and the group won a huge box of biscuits which was much more important.

By the end of the week I had built-up a good relationship with all my group and especially the girls from house six: Min, Pang, Tao, and Shi (you all need to practice your English!). The volunteers were great fun too. Hope to see you all again sometime.

On the final day we all went our separate ways, but a few of us went with the students to the floating market. Dan and myself got on a boat with a group of girls and caused some fun trying to sell ourselves to other boats — the word for foreigner (farang) is the same word as a type of Thai fruit. We had plenty of offers! After this I had to find my way back to Bangkok with Dan. It had been a tiring week, but it had gone so quickly and it would have been nice to spend more time with our new friends from Uttaradit.