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We arrived in Chiang Mai after a long but pleasant train ride. We had heard Chiang Mai was a lovely city. Backpackers originally planning to stay only a few days end up staying a few months. The city is laid back and full of cultural/educational activities. Our first activity was a tour of Wat Phra Singh. The area surrounding the Wat was a bustle of activity, the Wat not being the main point of interest. We watched kids at the nearby school play volleyball and takraw (volleyball played with feet), we chatted to friendly locals and we met a few monks. One monk asked if he could practice his English with us. We sat with him for an hour while he talked to us about his life. We were interested to learn his motivations for becoming a monk. His family is poor and cannot afford to pay for public university, instead he became a monk so he could go to "monk" university which is cheaper. When he graduates he will quit the monkhood.
The next day we enrolled ourselves into a Thai cooking course. We learned how to make curry (from scratch) and other Northern Thai specialities. The locals love to eat spicy food and chilies are a staple in most of the recipes. Our instructors told us they usually use about TEN chilies in each dish. We were encouraged to use 3-5 chilies. I used 2 and still ended up burning my tongue. In all we made (and ate) 6 dishes in about 5 hours, all delicious.
The next day we were to be transported to our volunteer spot, Love Children International Club (LCIC). We were picked up by a man and driven about 40 minutes outside the city to a small village called Sanpanyang. We had no idea what to expect when we were greeted by 25 kids who shook our hands and introduced themselves. They had the greatest names! A little boy named Best ("Hi, I'm Best!"), a little girl named Boy, a boy named Not, King, Deer, Ben (a girl), Ja, Ing, Ma, Pung and the littlest one named Apple. They were so sweet and polite. They gave us a tour and everyone asked questions about us. The boys were so excited to see and play with Matt. After 15 minutes Pa Deang, the amazing woman responsible for everyone, appeared and welcomed us home. We had originally thought LCIC was an orphanage but it is actually an after school club. The kids come 7 days a week to study English, music, learn how to use computers or just play. Some of the kids are orphans, others are neglected and abused and some are suffering from HIV but despite all this they were incredibly happy and bright. Pa Deang has a college fund for each kid which she will give to them when they turn 18. This is an incredible opportunity for these children as many people in the area end up as poor farmers, prostitutes or dead from HIV/AIDS.
We spent the next two weeks teaching the kids English, how to play baseball, how to do animation on the computer, we even went camping in the front yard one night. Needless to say, we were sad to say goodbye at the end.
To learn more about LCIC go to their website: http://www.lcic-thai.com /
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