During May 6th to May 11th, 112 grade 7’s went to Chiang Mai, Thailand accompanied by 10 adults from our school. We were in the country part of Chiang Mai by the Burmese border. We stayed at a resort known as the Maekok River Village Resort during our stay in northern Thailand. During our 6 day stay, we did many activities, such as: jungle survival, kayaking in the Maekok River, visiting a local school, hiking, rock climbing, doing community and service by helping to build a canteen for the students, a challenge course, archery, mini olympics and a Thai cooking class. We were split up into 8 groups of 14 students and one or two teachers. I think the focus of the trip was to have an opportunity to see a different culture.
During the course of our trip to Chiang Mai provence, I felt like I have been open-minded and a communicator.
I felt like I was open-minded because before the trip, in English class, we went over what the culture is like and how to greet people in Thai. While on the trip, I was being open-minded with the Thai culture by bowing our heads slowly and saying “sawatdee kaa” which means “hello” in Thai. For the Thai, the head is very sacred, so when we were playing “duck, duck, goose” with the children at the school, we tapped them on the back instead of on the head to respect them.
Alongside being open-minded, I felt like I was a communicator as well. At the school, it was quite hard to communicate with the kids because they didn’t know much English and we didn’t know much Thai. So when giving instructions, we acted it out. My friend Sam and Henry and I drew with the kids as well when we visited the school. We used paper and pens we brought to donate. At one point, we drew an easy animal to recognize, we said the animal in English, and they repeated, then saying the animal in Thai, and we repeated it in Thai. It was a good way to communicate with them. Then, I would write my name in English and they would write their name in Thai.
The 12 activities we did were each different. On day 1(May 7th), in the morning, we had Jungle Survival. During jungle survival, we learned how to build a shelter, make chopsticks, a bowl, and a pot out of bamboo, and how to make a fire.
In the afternoon, we had kayaking. I was partnered with my friend Sam to kayak with. We were always in the front of the pack because we both have kayaked many times before. At the end of kayaking we got to swim in the river which was a blast!
On day 2 (May 8th), we went to the local school to play with the students there. Most of the students were little (5-11 years old). We were in groups of 7 (we combined with another group) to play with the students. We started off by saying our names and then we would ask them their names. I really bonded with one of the students who was 6 years old name Thun (pronounced as “dune”). He was really cute and was a really good artist. We communicated through drawings and a bit of Thai and English.
In the afternoon, we hiked through the hill tribe village. The hike was around 3 kilometers long and we stopped at the village to take pictures. There was an amazing view from the hills. After the hike, we ended up at a Temple. We got to go inside and take pictures.
On day 3 (May 9th), we had rock climbing! I’ve rock climbed many times before this. There were easier sections of the wall and harder sections. At first, we all started on the easy part of the wall. When I climbed it took me only 30-45 seconds to reach the top. I then decided to go blindfolded up the wall. That was a challenge, but I made it to the top. Then I decided to try the harder sections of the wall. It was really hard, but I made it to the top and at the end my lower arms were sore and shaking, but it was worth it!
In the afternoon, we had CAS (community and service) which was making bricks and painting the canteen at the local school. Our group came in 3rd overall for making the most bricks! We made 16 bricks, but one of them broke, so we made 15 that they could actually use!
The morning of Day 4 (May 10th) we had the challenge course/archery. First, we did archery. This was my first time doing archery and I did pretty well for my first time and got a bulls eye on my 4th shot. We played a few games that had to do with archery. Then we went to do the confidence course. It was really hard when we had to walk across the chains, but the rest was pretty easy. Out of the two times we got to do the course, I didn’t fall in either time. It was challenging, but a lot of fun!
In the afternoon, we had a Thai cooking class! We first went to the market to buy the food we need and then we went back to the resort and to the cooking school and we cooked baked vegetables and green curry. Both were really good and the curry was quite spicy but I liked it.
Overall, Experience Week was defiantly the best trip I have been on for school so far! I got to know people that I didn’t know well before this trip and I tried a bunch of new things such as food and building my confidence. I will hold on to a bunch of memories that I had during the trip for the rest of my life! I have learned a lot about myself and others on this trip and learned a lot of different things too!
Giving donations to the kids at the local school
At the local school!
Thai cooking class!
Rock climbing!
Evening games
Infront of the Buddha at a temple
Drawing with the kids at school
\
The hill tribe village
The temple
Going blindfolded up the rock climbing wall!
One of the other buddhas at the temple
{ 5 comments }
100300