Loi Krathong is a celebration of welcoming good wishes and letting go of the past, which is symbolized by floating away candle-decorated offerings, called krathongs, in rivers. Some Thai villages, especially those located along the rivers, also hold other events, such as night markets, talent performances, and fireworks shows. Ban Pak Phu is one of those villages.

Located around 5 km away from Yaowawit, Ban Pak Phu invited Yaowawit’s students for Loi Krathong celebration. Yaowawit’s Dance Club took the opportunity to show a Thai traditional dance that included some movements especially modified for Loi Krathong. The dance was highly praised by the show moderators and widely cheered by the audience. In addition to the dance club, groups of highschool students also joined the celebration and stayed there till late in the night for the fireworks show above the river.

However, groups of kindergarten and primary school students stayed at Yaowawit and released their krathongs in the creek at Yaowawit’s farm. These groups spent their morning that day making krathongs. The experience seemed very fulfilling as they proudly showed off their krathongs on the stage.

Along with this celebration, we wish you a happy Loi Krathong occasion. May you be blessed with best wishes and success in the future.

Yaowawit’s partner Jungle Life Camp (JLC) invited 15 Yaowawit’s highschool students for a workshop about surviving in a jungle. Such skills are useful for our students who often spend time at Yaowawit’s farm, which is also a jungle of its own kind.

JLC resort is about 42 km away from Yaowawit and is located adjacent to Khao Sok National Park. Such a jungle area was fit for our students’ weekend getaway.

On the first day, the workshop talked about the forest protection initiatives by young people, outdoor recreation in nature, and first-aid demonstrations for various incident scenarios, such as fall and injuries. The second day, the students were guided to explore the national park as they learned about the significance of forest conservation for the next generation. The experience could be applied to the conservation of our own jungle around the school.

Our students are always eager to learn something new or applicable to their lives or their further education. If you have any of such educational activities, please let us know at info@yaowawit.org. We can be partners and bring a new educational experience to our disadvantaged students.

This time, 10 CKY’s students, led by Khun Keenu, carried out their social activities at Yaowawit. Additionally, they also enjoyed experiencing the sceneries, rural ways of life, and the green area around Yaowawit, which are different from their city hometowns. As they had never been to Thailand before, everything was a new experience for them. Khun Keenu, who has been to Yaowawit before, introduced them to Yaowawit’s students and showed them the classrooms where they would later teach English and maths – and also showed them the green gardens and the greenhouse on the farm where they would later work in tending soil and tree seedlings.

For the rest of the week, they spent daily activities, such as playing games and sports, reading, singing and dancing, and teaching, with different groups of Yaowawit’s students from kindergarten to highschool. With highschool students, they also attended workshops on papaya salad and lemongrass tea making and took a trip to a local market in Kapong and to beaches in Khao Lak. And new in the agenda was their overnight stay with Yaowawit’s new partner Jungle Life Camp in Khao Sok.

Yaowawit hopes that CKY’s students takes this social experience back home with them, and the memory will one day bring them back to Yaowawit. If your school group also wants to join such a social programme, please contact us at info@yaowawit.org. Activities can be customized to suit your students.

As Yaowawit is two hours or so away from Phuket, British International School Phuket has thus sent many groups of students to Yaowawit over the years. Some students have returned to Yaowawit to volunteer in various other events. The friendship has been very helpful for Yaowawit.

This week 47 students and 7 teachers from BISP took part in Yaowawit’s social programme. Although most of them were new to Yaowawit, they got to know about Yaowawit much earlier from their fellows who had already been to Yaowawit. Long before their arrival, these students including their teachers carried out a fundraising session at BISP as Yaowawit needed their help to fix the broken ceiling in the hospitality room. During the ceiling reparation, the students in groups took turns to do the manual work from cutting the wooden planks to nailing them onto the ceiling. The reparation took three days to complete.

In addition to this work, the BISP’s students also took part in various other regular activities with Yaowawit’s students, such as reading books, teaching English, and playing sports like football and swimming. Furthermore, the BISP’s students also worked on the farm where they helped clean up the goat house, nurture tree seedlings in the greenhouse, and plant young trees at the green gardens. The experience of being at Yaowawit and interacting with Yaowawit’s students has been so rewarding for this BISP’s group that many have expressed an intention to come back again in the future.

Yaowawit is now looking for more school partners to introduce international students to social and cultural experiences at Yaowawit. The experience will help students develop intercultural tolerance and understanding as they are growing up in an increasingly diverse society. If your school is interested in such a programme, please email us at info@yaowawit.org.

Over the years, volunteers from different parts of the world have come and helped Yaowawit in various functions — teaching, classroom assistance, sports coaching, farm help, and management. Their involvement in daily activities at Yaowawit has enabled us to learn from one another. Early this month, we welcomed our new volunteers who are going to spend 6 months at Yaowawit. Below is a brief text-based interview with them and is presented here verbatim.

Kru Tobi (aka Lou), from Germany

How did you know about Yaowawit?
My step mom visited Yaowawit School two years ago and told me about the volunteering opportunity here.

Which information channel did you find to learn more about Yaowawit?
Before I came here, at first I read the info on the website, in particular the “about us” page.

What was your expectation?
I myself wish to become a teacher in the future, so I wanted to get involved in teaching or assisting classes as much as possible and at the same time being a friend for the children. The assignments I have got are as I expected.

What is your responsibility/task/assignment at Yaowawit?
I work in the kindergarten half of the week. This is a lot of fun. I also assist in English and science classes. Besides that, I have planned to run an Audio/Video club for podcasting and filming with the high school. On Saturdays I help out in the swimming class.

What are you going to do after Yaowawit?
I will go to university in Germany. But I am not completely sure if I want to major in children education yet. That’s why I am here. I want to experience teaching children first to find out whether I have what it takes to be a teacher.

Kru Lucie, from Germany

How did you know about Yaowawit?
My sister visited the school during her travel in Thailand. She was so impressed with this place that she told me to come here too.

Which information channel did you find to learn more about Yaowawit?
I got most information from the school’s website.

What was your expectation when you decided to be part of Yaowawit?
I expected to experience the culture and share many special moments with the kids. I always wanted to see what kindergarten is like, because it is the only age group I have not worked with yet. So, luckily I am now volunteering full time in kindergarten.

What are you going to do after Yaowawit?
I want to study psychology and educational science. Afterwards I want to work with children with disabilities and special needs.

How do you think your Yaowawit’s experience will help you then?
Yaowawit is a place where I can practice to appreciate each other for the way things are, learn to have patience, and see things in the big picture, as a whole and not only parts of it. That way of learning will help me not only in my job but also in my daily life in the future.