Alice Bennett's Roughley Trust Gap Year Grant report 2025

Alice Bennett's report

I am writing to you as I was a recipient of the Roughley Trust's Gap Year Grant back in August to aid my fundraising for my current placement teaching in Thailand. I'm very grateful for this help from the Roughley Trust and wanted to send an update on how I've spent the last 5 months of my volunteering year. I update an Instagram page regularly with photos and videos about what I'm up to day-to-day (@ThailandwithAlice), however I'm aware that not everyone uses Instagram, so I thought I'd send you a summary of my 5 months so far via email instead.

I arrived in Thailand on the 14th of September 2024 after around 15 hours of flying, along with 12 other volunteers from Project Trust. We spent one night in Bangkok and then all went our separate ways on overnight sleeper buses to our individual volunteering projects. I am placed in Phana (pronounced: puh-naa), Thailand, which is in the Northwest. This is part of the 'Isaan' region of the country which is very close to the Laos border and therefore borrows a lot of its culture from that country. The traditional dress, dishes and even the dialect all interact and overlap directly with the Laos counterparts.

We spent our first 3 weeks living with a host family in Phana which was a lovely way to immerse ourselves in Thai culture. We had to get used to the noises pretty quickly! We were living right next to the central Buddhist shrine for the Municipality, out of which came very loud (electronically amplified) chanting, very early in the morning. The geckos, lizards and crickets don't keep to themselves either and the Isaan propensity for singing windchimes means there's always a constant rhythmic hum in the air. We may be deep in the countryside, but it is anything but peaceful!

We were also lucky enough to eat traditional, homecooked Thai food every night which was such a blessing. Even though we have now moved to our own house, we still go round for family dinner every couple of weeks as we miss our host mum's cooking! Our host family doesn't speak any English, so it was a baptism of fire, quickly learning the basics of communication and a plethora of hand gestures to get by in those early weeks.

We then spent three weeks in Chiang Mai which is one of the most Northern cities in Thailand and home to 'Doi Su Thep', the country's highest temple (we hiked up the 'monks' trail' to visit the temple while we were in the city, which is not an easy feat in 30+ degree weather, but the view was definitely worth it!). We were in Chiang Mai to learn as much Thai as possible and spent our weekdays during the three weeks at an intensive Thai language school. By the end I knew how to order food, shop at the market, say hello, thank you, goodbye and sorry, and some useful classroom phrases like 'behave', 'repeat', 'sit down' and 'speak up', as well as some very rudimentary skills in reading Thai script. There are over 40 consonants and over 40 vowels in written Thai making learning to read a big and continuous challenge.

After we returned from Chiang Mai we went straight into teaching. I teach in Phana's Kindergarten (7 classes, ages 4-6) in the mornings and the primary school (ages 6-11) in the afternoon. I lead lessons in the kindergarten, which often involves lots of running around, and copious amounts of singing (Christmas time showed me that there is a limit to how much 'Jingle Bells' one can bear). They also have a brand-new keyboard suite in the kindergarten and the director is very passionate about introducing music to the curriculum, so I have been assisting with music lessons as well.

As a music graduate, I'm understandably quite excited about this. In the primary school I teaching-assist with a Thai English teacher, helping with pronunciation and less-obvious grammar points as well as coming up with activities and teaching the kids English games to help make learning more fun. The days are quite tiring, but rewarding when you see a child has learnt something. Every time a 4-year-old comes up to me in the market yelling 'Teacher' and then promptly 'moo-ing' at me and emphatically yelling 'cow!', I know I'm making a difference.

As well as teaching I've been trying to soak up as much Thai culture as possible, my project partner Elspeth and I have been regularly revising our Thai language skills as well as picking up specifically 'Isaan' words. In Thai 'aroi' means delicious, but in Isaan you can say 'sep' as well, for example. I also love to cook (and eat!) so I've been asking anyone willing to teach me how to make authentic Thai food. Our host mum has taught us a lot of dishes, as well as one of my colleagues from the kindergarten and one of the mums from the primary school. I am determined to return from Thailand with an invaluable recipe book!

We are also incredibly privileged by the kindness and generosity we find in Phana every day, as well as their willingness to involve us in all of their activities. We have been to numerous festivals, celebrations and sports days. Most recently we took part in a traditional Thai dance with over 400 other dancers at the annual celebration of Isaan's oldest temple (which is in Phana). It was a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I want to thank the Roughley Trust again for their help in getting me to Thailand and the support that Project Trust is able to give me while I'm here through my fundraising.