Teaching English - Week 3

After we left our homestay on Sunday, we took a field trip to the White Temple, one of the most famous attractions in Chiang Rai. The White Temple is a modern Buddhist temple that is completely white on the outside. Its color makes it sparkle and shimmer radiantly in the sunlight. The temple is the unique work in progress of Thai artist, Chaloenchai Khositphiphat. Khositphiphat is also famous for his bright acrylic paintings, which can be viewed in a gallery next to the temple. A major theme visible throughout much of his work is the clashing of the material world with the austerity of Buddhist spirituality. Inside the White Temple itself is a giant mural showing the steps to nirvana. On the bottom are paintings of modern-day consumerism - everything from cell phones to Neo (from the Matrix) to oil. This is supposed to represent hell, with a giant devil watching over it. In one of the eyes of the devil is a portrait of George Bush and in the other eye is a portrait of Osama Bin Laden. As your eyes move up the wall, materialistic images become scarcer and icons representing Buddhism, such as the lotus flower, are introduced. At the top of the mural is a meditating Buddha. I thought it was really neat the way Khositphiphat uses surrealism to share his message.

The White Temple...doesn't it look like something out of a fairy tale?

Statues lining the entrance of the temple are supposed to represent hell.

Me and Jess, with the back view of the temple behind us.

A close up of one of the statues that guard the temple...pretty freakin awesome!

All volunteers at Mirror are treated to an elephant ride at a nearby village. Leslie, Jess, and I, along with a couple others, went for our ride on Monday morning. I am always blown by how big elephants are when I come in close contact with them, and I strongly feel that humans do not have the right to control such impressive creatures. It makes me pretty sad to see them tied up, especially because they are so gentle and actually quite emotional. Leslie and I caught two elephants nuzzling and kissing!

The elephant was looking for food in my hand.


These two elephants were nuzzling just a few minutes earlier.


The ride itself, although brief, was pretty exciting. Both Leslie and I got a chance to ride on the neck of the elephant, where the guide usually sits. Holding on to the elephant's giant head reinforced just massive these creatures are. During the ride we passed by a elephant being trained. I was shocked by how brutal the training was. The elephant had heavy chains around his neck and the trainer kept knocking the top of the elephants head with a wooden hammer. It was obvoius that the elephant was not happy from the way it struggled and wailed. After that, I wished I had not supported the elephant riding business.

Riding on top of an elephant

The rest of the week was quite slow and uneventful because most schools were closed for exams. We played with the kids at the Chiang Rai hospital for an hour on Wednesday and went to Childcare (preschool) one last time on Friday. I also tutored a couple of the mirror staff members a couple of evenings out of the week. This was the most rewarding for me because I could tailor my lessons to their specific needs, so I could actually see them learning. Also, everyone is there by choice, so I could see that they were very enthusiastic to learn.

Leslie and Jess hanging off the back of our Songthaew

Overall, I am happy that we decided to volunteer at Mirror. I was disappointed by the lack of organization and the fact that I didn't get to teach as much as I wanted to. But I got the chance to really immerse myself in the Thai and hilltribe culture, play with cute kids, take a break from traveling for a few weeks, and meet some really cool people. All these reasons made the volunteering experience really worth it.