My Volunteer Experience in Thailand Part 2
(The Bangkok School for the Blind )
by Meredythe Goethe (International Intern 2009-2010)
During the month of January, I began volunteering with the School for the Blind in Bangkok, Thailand. The school is in operation seven days a week from nine AM until past six at night. While I have visited the Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Guild School in Manhattan and the Subsomboonpittayakom School in Northern Thailand, this has been my first experience volunteering every day in an educational environment.
Most of the school is currently operable even as they are under construction. New facilities will include more classrooms, a much-needed expansion to the cafeteria, dormitories and outdoor facilities that will include a swimming pool. The new buildings will allow for a higher student body and for the inclusion of boarding students. This expansion will greatly increase the school’s endowment and allow for even more students to benefit from a specialized learning environment.
The facilities themselves may not initially seem too different from a typical American public school. There are classrooms and offices, a music room, gymnasium and a library. What makes this school special are the rooms adjacent to the expected classrooms: The specialized exercise room sports ping-pong tables, noticeable without nets. Students roll ping-pong balls filled with beads back and forth to practice anticipating and reacting to moving objects. The library is filled with large-print and Braille books with perceptibly lower shelves are so that students can find books without assistance. The most unique room is the ‘quiet’ room at the end of the hall: filled with huge bean bag chairs that most adults would find comfortable, it is a place where students can go to work out anxiety or frustration. A huge bubble lamp changes colors as kaleidoscopic shapes slowly rotate upon the wall. One beanbag chair is enclosed in mosquito netting so that one can crawl inside and find solitude for even just five minutes.
In addition to the students who attend the School for the Blind all day, supplementary students from surrounding schools come in the afternoons for help with their homework from volunteers throughout Bangkok. Many Universities send their students to volunteer as part of their studies, either for one day or for an extended volunteer experience. Many of these volunteers have graciously assisted in translating while I help students with grammatical English homework.
While some volunteers visit more regularly than others, students are assigned at random based upon the current need for English, Science or Mathematical assistance. Tutoring, even with the most engaged students, can be a challenge. While the language barrier can be breached with the help of other volunteers, it is sometimes hard to know if I am helping the student understand the labyrinth of English grammar or if additional learning strategies are necessary. It is unusual to work with the same students every day and I am beginning to understand the rigors of substitute teaching.
Meals are served family style and the menu changes daily. Many of the students can be seen helping one another bring food to their tables or even simply navigating the crowded dining area. It is very clear that The School for the Blind fosters the integrated values of self-reliance and generosity. Many of the younger students ask to sing a song in English after we have finished their grammar homework.
While the younger children can be shy and reluctant to practice speaking English with me, the older students are very interested about life in the United States, foods I enjoy and my impressions of Thailand. I have benefiting from learning what young Thai students think about the United States. Additionally, I have sat for several interviews with an older blind student who is majoring in international communications at University. I am among several Westerners she is interviewing about the experience of living in Thailand as a foreigner.
The students are very independent and many prefer to take their own notes instead of relying upon a volunteer’s continuous narration. While the school has a Braille machine to print manuscripts for their library, the students carry the necessary materials to take notes themselves, which is an impressive practice to witness as a seeing individual. Many wear watches equipped with a speaker to announce the time, and the school has a system of bells to help the students keep to their schedule. Most of the students have accounts on Skype, and the combination of audio and visual communication greatly benefits those with reduced (“low-vision”) sight. One student, majoring in international studies and business, used a digital recorder to record my singing the American National Anthem. He is also studying music theory and composition and hopes to become a conductor. I had the pleasure of listening to digital recordings of his impressive piano and guitar compositions.
In addition to tutoring, I have also been creating activity sheets for the low-vision students. Using art from my portfolio and my most recent series of animal stencils, I have made coloring pages for students that are more interactive than simply outlines of basic shapes. I have also created puzzles and maps to encourage problem solving while providing exciting characters for the students to color. I am currently creating pages that combine stimulating images with English words to help the younger students practice reading and speaking English.
Most recently, I have begun working with a computer program to record books on tape. The process of recording can be very tedious as the microphone picks up noise from the street and the children as they commute outside of the thin recording studio’s doors. Knowing that you are providing an addition venue for literature makes the laborious process worth every minute. The staff has graciously allowed me to record whatever I deem appropriate. I have recently completed my first recording, ‘Coraline’, by Neil Gaiman, the story of a young girl who must chose between her average life with her boring parents or an exciting life with creatures on the other side of a door who call themselves ‘the other parents’. I am currently recording “ Grimms’ Fairy Tales’ and my next recording will be ‘The Jungle Books’, by Rudyard Kipling. It has been very rewarding to know that I am helping to bring literature alive for children.
The staff have been exceptionally kindl in helping me to adjust to the particular rhythm of their educational institution. Although I have not been able to work with each teacher individually, many of them have approached me to thank me for my efforts and to ask about my stay in Thailand and Children Art Foundation.
Volunteering at the School for the Blind in Bangkok could mean doing several things that are new or unfamiliar, but even the smallest effort yields huge results. I am looking forward to working with the school for the next several months as I continue to work as Children Art Foundation’s traveling intern.