So there are currently about 6-7 volunteers with me. It’s an incredibly enriching experience sharing this experience with them. There is the 16 year old Belgian girl on her own, the gap year students: 18-19 German Girl, the 19 year old dutch girl, 19 year old dutch man (separate), the 22 year old American (Indiana) who I share a room with who is on his work vacation (he program robots). The Indian-American girl (22) (New Jersey) on her university break who is here with her father (Indian but first generation American Immigrant). These last 2 are on the Siam tour with me. The American girl (Californian now Colorado) who is in IT and is on a vacation but spends every weekend back home skiing. When we arrived they expressed how few Americans they’d met here.

So lots of these people came through different volunteer groups and their programs vary but all are run by Green Lion in country. Green Lion is a charity here setup by people who’d volunteered overseas and then come back to Thailand. Last week apparently there were 13 volunteers here. This location does the Siam Culture, the Building Clay House, Thai Boxing, building Temple School, Teaching locations. Some of them are going on at the end of the week to the Gibbon Sanctuary. The Aussie I rode with from the airport went onto the Elephant Sanctuary that night. Some of the others are going to Teach and Beach (teaching and beach cleaning), some to Muay Thai which are in different locations.

I am amazed by the courage and exploration in these youngsters – knowing that I didn’t have that lack of fear at my age. I know I’ve always been an old soul in some respects and I was focused on the future, it has worked out well in many ways for me however I do wish I had longer and more time to live this experience. It has been a real break from my normal which I wished for. Sure lonely at times, scary, uncomfortable but also enriching and exhilarating.. everyday I have to learn to let go and step into the unknown. It’s not like I know exactly where we’re going or doing. It’s an adventure.

New Years Eve was lovely spending it with these young people at a little bar across the street, sure they might have drunk a bit to much but often at night we ended up playing cards – uno, Idiot, Asshole etc and talking about life, the universe and everything. It has been a great joy.

I wonder who I’ll meet next week as I start construction.