English Camp in Northern Thailand

I just finished up an English Camp in the Surin Province of Thailand. Jeff Gilbert, a friend from Woodberry who has been working with the Peace Corps for the past two years and helps with local community programs like this one, invited me to join him for this camp. I came in as a volunteer to help the teachers and students learn English for two days. They were about 11 to 13 years old and are not taught English on a regular basis, so these camps are there chance to learn a couple of time a year. They were all enthusiastic, and quick learners. Mostly it was numbers, greetings, and animals; very basic elements of the language. It is good to see that even in a rural part of the country they still understand the importance of learning a global communication tool.

Highlights:

1. singing in front of about two hundred Thai locals, and I really don't sing,
2. dancing in front of them, trying to look like a traditional Isan dancer, which I never knew I had a talent for,
3. and signing autographs after the camp for the excited children.
   
   
5. 
   

Here I am, imitating an elephant in the midst of a song I could not begin to understand, even though it was sung in English.