Volunteer Teacher on the Mountain

I joined a volunteer teacher trip into the highlands around Phu Khat Wildlife Sanctuary in Phitsanulok. The group photo at the wooden gate, Thai flag over the trees, is how the days started: a long ride, then a school that sits in red dirt and green hills.

The classroom was not always a room. We stood in the yard with the children until they pulled us into the same joke, one hand to the forehead, looking out like we were searching for something far away. Hoodies, embroidered jackets, a metal roof, a yellow playground frame. Teaching there began with play, because play is how you earn the next hour.

After the school we walked into homes. Bamboo slat walls. A pink mosquito net. Sacks of rice and shrink-wrapped water on a low wooden bench. An older neighbor in a blue plastic chair. COVID masks stayed on. The work was both the lesson and the doorstep.

I did not go as a hero with a plan. I went as one more pair of hands in a team that already knew the road. What I keep from that trip is the closeness of it: a child laughing in the yard, then a quiet porch where the same day turns into rice, water, and sitting still.