I was in Thailand for a month with the SOHO association .


During my stay I could live with a local family, eat local food, using local transport, living with local rhythms. So I immersed myself fully in what is everyday life in Thailand !!

I worked as a volunteer SOHO with children in one of two orphanages in Phuket, as a teacher of English. Which in reality, engagement with children is 360 degrees. Li excitingly, do their cuddling, drawings and games with them, wash them and helps them to eat. So you take care of them. And their smiles when they see you arrive in the morning, shouting "PI! PI! PI!" (Big sister in Thai, name indicating respect for the teacher) will warm the heart and make you realize that you're doing the right thing . Working with these little guys then is funny, because they're funny, and have a zest for life that overwhelms you. Many of them come from extreme situations. The lucky ones are "only the poor"; some of them however, have behind them a history of violence and abuse. Being able to work with them was for me doubly important, once known their situation. Give a hug, give my time and try to make children laugh became my fundamental purpose during the stay, because, at least during the hours in an orphanage, I wanted these children were carefree without there also had to be compared with a reality that is too big and too heavy for them.

Through the association, we volunteers had the opportunity to do two experiences, I believe to be fundamental for the personal growth of each. We visited some families in slums and are able to enter the women's prison in Phuket. A punch in the stomach. I talk about personal growth because it can come into contact with the extreme poverty that you see when you walk into a tin shed, it allows you to re-evaluate yourself, what you have done and are doing, your values ​​and your priorities. Start a conflict between who you were and who you are after seeing a world far removed from the comforts to which we are accustomed. Visit the prison, to see the conditions in which they let the women and know that some of them are the mothers of the children you work with, he gave me an extra input to give my best in the orphanage and allowed me to overcome the obstacle of "Oh God now burst into tears" because I realized that the last thing these women need is to see a volunteer who cries at the sight of them. I wore the best of my smiles and I danced for them. Enter these two worlds has made me stronger.

The food in Thailand is very good. A little 'repetitive but good. If you avoid the bugs (which in any case are only the stalls and are sold mainly for show), there are many tasty dishes based on rice. How Not to mention the Pad Tai, the dish with noodles and peanuts.

Then the place is a charm. Phuket Town is full of stimuli and its oldest part has a unique charm. When you move in coastal areas, you can enjoy a dream sea and beautiful beaches. Not to mention the temples and the big Bhudda, magical places full of intensity that I had never known before.

What about the people? Well Thais make themselves either love or hate. I'm very solar, laugh and always ready to help you if they see you in trouble. People are very simple and therefore it is impossible to feel uncomfortable with them. To play against them but the bad (actually nothing) knowledge of English and their convulsive attachment to the money, which in some situations is heavy to accept. But all in all, after entering a view to their way of thinking, it was great fun rapportarmi with people.

A month is not enough to enter into the dynamics of a country, however, it is a time frame that allows you at least get close to a reality different from yours and take a look at the cultural and behavioral differences between you and the locals. I come home with more questions than you had at the start, exhausted by a thousand things you've done and a thousand emotional input you received, but yet return immediately back taking the first plane available. And at home you reflect and think it was worth it. I come home with a light heart and brain burdened information that perhaps you will understand, calmly.