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Day 1.
0700 hrs. You are collected from your hotel in the city by an
English speaking guide /interpreter, and transported by minibus
to the designated school – 45 minutes from the city, at the base
of the hills that separate the Chiang Mai and Lampang valleys.
0800 hrs. Meet the headmaster or the senior English language
teacher, and take a brief tour of the school facilities.
0830 hrs. Meet the class teacher whom you will be assisting for
your first lesson, and go through your lesson plan with him or
her. You will actually conduct the lesson under the Thai
teacher’s guidance, whilst the teacher and your guide keep
discipline in the class, and assist with translation as and
where needed.
The morning continues in this manner, with you going through
your lesson plan with a teacher, and then delivering it to a
given class. Your guide / interpreter) is there to assist
wherever you want him or her to do so.
1130 hrs. Lunch with the teachers and students.
1230 hrs. Continue your teaching role, either in the same
school, or another school close by – as dictated by the
program coordinator.
1430 hrs. Say your good-byes, take some photographs of yourself
with the teachers and children, then depart for Pang Soong
lodge, Outdoor Education & Research Centre some 20 minutes
further up into the mountains.
1500 hrs. You arrive at the Lodge, check in, and relax – perhaps
exploring the nearby village of Ban Pang Mano with your
guide/interpreter, or opting for a walk up the main Pang Soong
Nature Trail to the first big waterfall (60-90 minutes) there
and back.
1800 hrs. – You are briefed on tomorrow’s nature trail related
task by the project manager.
1830 hrs. Dinner – a set Thai meal, followed by time around the
campfire – often joined by the village headman and others as
keen to know about you, as your are about them and their
project.
Retire to bed at your leisure.
Day 2.
As part of Track of the Tiger’s VWB Initiative, voluntourists
are assisting the villagers of Ban Pang Mano to develop the Pang
Soong Nature Trails into a world class ecotourism product with
appeal to numerous niche markets; ecotourism, education,
corporate team building and adventure racing. In addition, the
trails are being developed as an axis along which scientific
study is conducted, and NTFP (non timber forest products) are
farmed in a low intensive manner – all with the aim of
alleviating poverty and protecting the forest habitat.
0700 hrs. Breakfast served in the open air restaurant
overlooking the pond.
0800 hrs. You meet your co-workers, and are provided with
gloves, tools and drinking water. There will be a minimum of 2
villagers, but otherwise one co-worker per voluntourist.
You and your co-workers set off along the nature trail to the
task area, accompanied by your guide/interpreter and led by a
community forest guide, and commence the work allocated to the
group for that day.
1130 hrs. Break for lunch with the workforce.
1230 hrs. Either return to work with your co-workers, assuming
you did not explore the length of the main trail the day before,
do so at your leisure, escorted by your guides, before returning
back down the trail to Pang Soong Lodge, Outdoor Education &
Research Centre, wash up, return your work tools.
Note* Your village co-workers, paid for the day, will continue
the work until 1700 hrs.
1600 hrs. Or thereabouts, depart Pang Soong Lodge, Outdoor
Education & Research Centre and return down into the Chiang Mai
valley, to the city beyond.
1700 hrs. Check into your hotel.
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