What Terri Gained

Above: Sunrise at our Chumphon beach/classroom.

Academic Gains:
From this program, it became clear to me that there are other more effective ways to learn new material than just from lectures. I feel that when our learning process is interactive and I immerse myself into the activities, my new knowledge becomes that much more significant. For instance, instead of just learning about coastal ecosystems in a classroom, the Chumpon beach became our open classroom. Community-based learning, service-learning, experiential-learning constituted a large part of the learning process. We encountered a combination of these various learning processes when working on our final project with the women’s batik and tie-dye groups in Kamphuan. From the women, we found out about the livelihoods that they used to raise their families and empower themselves. You can say that this trip inspired me in many ways.

Sweet mangosteen roti drizzled with condensed milk.

Cultural Gains:
What is cultural gain without picking up some Thai and sampling the delicious Thai food? Our Thai teacher and dear friend, Kun, made learning a new language fun and painless. I was not afraid to apply my elementary-level Thai whenever the situation calls for it. I made mistakes, but that was okay because I learned from them.
If only vegetarian food in the States can taste as good as Thai vegetarian food, there would be a lot more American vegetarians. Thailand was where I developed a newfound love for mangosteen fruit, mangkut, and Thai-style pancakes, roti, especially, mangkut roti (new flavor roti that my project group insisted the eatery make). And I had a Thai iced tea (Chai Thai yin) almost everyday, mainly from my favorite store, 7-11 (seVEN, raise the second syllable when pronouncing it).



Left: Thai iced tea, made by Pii Ta, our cool translator.








Right: Kun and Suza having a great time at the beach.
Personal Gains:
I am really glad that I joined the program otherwise I would not have been able to meet so many great, funny friends. The program was only five weeks, but because we hung out with each other the whole everyday, we became close. Seeing so many people make a difference within their communities, be it protecting endangered water lilies and mangroves or generating income via eco-tourism and microbusinesses, has me thinking that I, too, can leave a positive impact on the environment.

Left: Terracing the hill at Home & Life orphanage then planting lemon grass to prevent soil erosion.

Right: Me excited about having planted a mangrove. The mangrove is anchored by a wooden stick.