As promised, here’s a description of my typical day volunteering in Thailand. My day starts in very much the same way as Lauren’s typical day, though I leave the house 10 minutes after her for my 2 minute “commute” around the corner.
One of my NGO staff lives in the office (seriously, his bedroom is upstairs), so he’s always there when I arrive at 9. The rest of the staff trickle in over the next 1.5 hours. The first thing I’ll do in the morning is check the latest Burma-related news. The rest of my morning is spent working on English lesson plans and helping my co-workers create English content for the paper. Their budding webmaster lives in the next village and often works remotely, but if he’s in the office I’ll help him with the current overhaul of their website (actually 3 websites once you include all the different languages).
Often, one of my co-workers will make “breakfast” between 10 and 11:30 (today “breakfast” was at 14:45). These are rice-based meals that include lots of vegetables; usually a soup, a stir fry, and a spicy dip/chutney/salsa. Sometimes we’ll have lunch in the office as well, otherwise I take a walk down the street and grab a tasty Thai, Burmese, or Shan meal for about 30B (< $1). The afternoon is similar to the morning, except hotter.
On Monday and Friday I’m out the door and heading home by 17:00. The rest of the week I teach English class to five of my coworkers from 17:00-18:00, which usually runs a little over, and I’m home by 18:30.
Unsurprisingly, I spend my evenings in a very similar manner to my wife. We’re managing to keep each other entertained, and it’s quite relaxing being in a small town for a few months.
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