Volunteers

For a week now I've been constantly impressed by volunteers.

It takes a lot to give up two years of your life. I suppose it is not so much home comforts, but missing out in vital points in the lives of friends and family.

This becomees a lot easier when you know that the work you are doing is counting for something - and changing lives.

I feel really lucky to have been able to see first hand how lives are improving by fantastic individuals back by an insightful organisation

Over the past week what I've found is that it is not always 'big things' that evoke change.

Many of the volunteers I have spoken to have reported a series of baby steps, slow and sure movements in the right direction.

These can be really little things, like in the case of student farmers who at the end of a project wrote a newsletter about their experience.

Big deal you might normally say at home.

But when you are not used to a tradition of freedom of expression, it is a big thing. Writing something down passes on learnt skills to others too.

A simple newsletter still makes Canadian volunteer Sam smiles as he talked to me on a model farm in Chiang Mai.

More about him and an amazing day harvesting rice and the kindness of strangers later