When I decided a year ago to leave my job to travel, I knew that I wanted service work to be apart of my journey. I spent a lot of time last spring researching and learning about NGOs and different volunteer organizations. I scoured the internet. Read blogs and articles. Bought a couple of books on service work and travel. With so many different options out there my first step was to narrow my focus on what volunteer work I wanted to do. As an educator, I was interested in helping young people. As a coach, I was interested in helping girls. As a woman, I was interested in learning how other women live. I decided to let “women empowerment” and “education” be my key words when searching for programs.

The second thing I had to decide on was what organizations to use. There are so many different ways to do volunteer work abroad. Some people pick a location and once they arrive find ways to volunteer in the local community. I knew that wasn’t my style of travel so I spent time researching exactly which organization I would work with. I was flexible with location so kept my search broad when it came to geographic location. I also wanted to make sure I understood exactly where my money was going when signing up. A common theme that kept coming up in my research was being careful when using organizations, especially NGOs, that had a fee associated with the project. Unfortunately some NGOs don’t always use the money collected for reasons they claim to.

After looking into multiple projects, I came across a women’s empowerment program in Luang Prabang, Laos. After calling the parent organization, GVI, and speaking to someone about the specific project happening in Luang Prabang, I knew I had to sign up and go.

As mentioned in previous blog posts, I spent six weeks in Luang Prabang teaching English to girls. If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to read my post entitled Teacher Kelly to learn more about my time and experience as a teacher in Luang Prabang. I loved teaching the girls. It was incredibly rewarding as an educator.

One of the reasons I choose GVI Luang Prabang Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP) over other teaching programs was the opportunity to participate in their menstrual health initiative.  In addition to teaching English, I taught a women’s health workshop.  GVI Luang Prabang WEP had recently partnered with the organization Days for Girls (DfG). DfG is about empowering women and girls throughout the world providing them with female health education as well as sustainable, washable menstrual kits. DfG partners with organizations and relies on volunteers and donations to help reach women and girls across the globe. According to information on their website they have reached more than ONE MILLION women and girls around the world. These are women and girls who didn’t have access to clean, sustainable menstrual options.

There were two components of the project – menstrual kits and menstrual health education.

Menstrual Kits:

Each DfG kit contains the following: 8 liners, 2 shields, 2 pairs of underwear, 1 wash cloth, 1 bar of soap, 1 plastic bag, a menstrual tracking calendar, and instructions on how to use and clean the items. Each of these items is placed into a colorful cloth bag.

The design and construction of the liners and shields are patented to DfG. The shield has a polyurethane lining in between the two pieces of fabric that helps with absorption. The liners are made of two pieces of flannel cotton material sewn together. The liners are folded into thirds and the ends are tucked into the shield. The shield can hold one – three individual liners so that a female can adjust to the needed protection. The shield is then placed on a pair of underwear and snapped into place.

The shields and liners are designed to be washed and then dried in direct sunlight. Even in circumstances where clean water is not available, hanging the items in direct sunlight is enough to help kill bacteria and allow females to reuse the items. With proper care the kits are designed to last up to three years.

The kits were a labor of love. The shields, liners, and cloth bags were all machine sewed by local volunteers and women as well as volunteer groups from abroad. All the kits were based on donations. Some people donated money for the materials while others donated their time to sewing. Leyla, the Program Director for GVI Luang Prabang projects, did an amazing job collecting materials and kits. Some of the kits and materials came from DfG chapters in Australia while some of the materials were actually sewed and made in Luang Prabang.

Through donations, GVI Luang Prabang WEP has been able to acquire a couple of sewing machines. Local women and girls in Luang Prabang were learning how to sew. This way the liners, shields, and bags could be made right there in Luang Prabang instead of always having to come from volunteer groups in other countries, making it more sustainable while contributing to the local economy.

 

Menstrual and female health education:

Menstrual health education is the second component. Most of the women receiving the kits are unaware of what is actually happening when they are menstruating or they lack complete understanding of the menstrual cycle and how it relates to pregnancy. By providing girls and women with knowledge about their own bodies, it empowers them to understand what is happening each month. It also helps dispel some misconceptions.

One aim of GVI Laung Prabang WEP Menstrual Health Initiative is for it to be locally led. This means instead of Westerns leading workshops in the field which then have to be translated, local, native speaking women and girls lead the workshops.

Since my skill set is not sewing, I was fortunate enough to help with the educational side of the program. I helped to lead a course in female and menstrual health to local young women who in return would be the ones to lead the workshops in the villages.

Using the DfG curriculum and certification program, I spent four weeks going through the following topics: puberty, male and female anatomy, reproduction, and the menstrual cycle along with how to use and clean the items in the DfG kit. I had two girls, ages 17 and 19 respectively, in the workshop. They were accompanied by a young Lao woman who is one of GVI Laos’ Community Liaisons. She acted as a translator when needed in the workshop but she was also preparing to help lead workshops in villages as well.

What’s important to keep in mind is that I was teaching this material in English so that the young women could understand the information and then be able to teach it to others in their native language. As someone who only speaks one language, it was not lost on me how remarkable these young women were. I’ve taught biology in American high schools. I know how hard some of the material was for my native English speaking students. While their English was pretty strong, they were not fluent English speakers, yet! The girls had to work extra hard at focusing and paying attention to not only the biological information but the English language as well.

After weeks of sewing, assembling kits, and preparing to lead menstrual health workshops it was time to head out to remote villages in Northern Laos. I was very fortunate to be one of two volunteers who joined the Program Manager along with two of the young women in my health workshop.

We went on a five day trip in the Mung Ngoi area in the mountains of Northern Laos where access to education and menstrual products is limited. Over the course of the five days we visited five villages and delivered seven menstrual health workshops in the locals’ native ethnic languages (Khmu and Lao).

 

In total, 317 DfG kits were distributed to girls and women over the course of seven workshops.

I failed to mention that permission was needed by each village chief. The GVI Luang Prabang Program Manager and her husband, a Lao native as well as GVI Community Liaison, worked hard to meet with each village chief months earlier to gain their permission to come into the villages. The village chiefs, known as a nai bans, were incredibly welcoming and gracious hosts. They provided shelter and prepared our meals.

We used every means of transportation to carry the kits. We traveled by truck, tractor, foot, and boat.

 

Here are a few other images from the trip:

 

 

 

I figured since it’s still January I can still get away with saying “Happy holidays” and “Happy New Year”! I really wanted to get this post in during the holiday season but between travel time, being sick, time with family, and then being busy seeing all the sites of New Zealand (I know excuses, excuses!) it just didn’t happen…until now!

I hope the new year is off to a great start for everyone. I can not believe February is around the corner. That means I only have one more full month of travel ahead of me before settling back down again. So much to catch up on but I am going to keep focused on the topic of this blog – the holidays. Here’s a recap of the holiday season!

December 23rd – my birthday! I spent the day (my final day) in Luang Prabang. I went to my favorite coffee place – Saffron – to soak in the views of the Mekong River, drink the wonderful local coffee, and snack on my favorite treat, banana bread with espresso butter! I took some time to journal and opened up a card that a follow volunteer friend had given to me before she departed earlier that week. It was also a lot of fun getting messages and emails from friends and family back home. Being far from home on my birthday and Christmas was new and different, but hearing from people was awesome!

Because I was done with my program I had to find a new guesthouse for my final night in Luang Prabang. I stayed at Cold River, a guesthouse a couple of doors down.

I enjoyed one final Beer Lao on the balcony before getting ready for dinner. Luang Prabang had good coffee and beer!

I met some wonderful people while volunteering in Laos. Helen was a follow volunteer from England. We both had the opportunity to participate in the female health workshops in rural villages. We arrived back from our trip the evening before so it was fun celebrating both a birthday and our recent adventure on my final night in Luang Prabang.

December 24th – departure from Luang Prabang. I was really sad leaving Luang Prabang. I spent six weeks working, living, and exploring in that area. I met some wonderful volunteers who have become friends. I worked with some incredible people at GVI who are doing amazing work teaching and creating opportunities for others. I taught really sweet, friendly, appreciative students. I wish I could have been there for longer.

I had a mid-afternoon flight from Luang Prabang to Bangkok and then a red-eye flight from Bangkok to Sydney. So I arrived into Sydney on Christmas morning.

December 25th – I arrived early in the morning and was lucky enough to be able to check into my hotel. I was feeling quite jet lagged but thought it was nothing more than needing a little nap. I woke up not feeling great but blamed the travel. I rallied for a stroll down by the harbor.

After walking around for an hour I decided I needed another lay down and that’s exactly what I proceeded to do for my entire 72 hours in Sydney. As it turned out it was more then just jet lag and I ended up with the flu. Fever, body aches, loss of appetite, zero energy. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for Christmas or my time in Sydney but I am so thankful that I had the opportunity and time to rest and a comfortable place to spend three full days in bed.

I probably would have spent another day or two in bed but had to rally on December 28th to catch a flight to Auckland to meet up with my sister, Casey!

Casey and I spent a couple of days in Auckland before flying down to Christchurch for New Year’s. She joined me for a two week road trip on the South Island. She left two weeks ago while I remained here on the South Island. New Zealand is amazing. I’m so lucky to be here in their summer when the weather is warm and the days are long. There is so much to do and it’s so easy to be outside until the final light of the day is gone. It’s wonderful! It’s just harder to find the time to sit at the computer and write! So more blogs to come when I can steal myself away from Mother Nature!

This is why there have been so few posts. I just want to be outside from sunrise to sunset!

I am writing this post from my favorite cafe in Luang Prabang, Saffron. It has amazing coffee along with riverside seating. As I take some time to reflect on my time here in Luang Prabang as a teacher I think it’s only fitting that I do it from my favorite viewpoint with a strong Americano in hand.

It’s hard to believe that five weeks ago I was beginning my teaching adventure with orientation and yesterday I had my last class in the classroom. The past five weeks have been some of the most rewarding weeks of my life. We took pictures yesterday and I wish I could post a picture of their sweet faces and wonderful smiles. For privacy reasons I am not allowed to post pictures of students’ faces so you’ll just have to believe me!

My weeks have been busy between lesson planning, travel time, and teaching. Despite the long days I went to bed every night feeling happy and content.

My mornings were spent on a buffalo farm teaching three young women around 18-19 years old. They have an internship on the farm helping in the kitchen and eventually the cafe when it opens. They help make mozzarella, ricotta, and blue cheese along with ice cream and yogurt from the buffalo milk. My time focused on helping them with vocabulary as it related to working in a kitchen and cafe. Some of the grammar focused on understanding prepositions (on, in, under, behind, etc.) and single/plural sentences using the verbs is/are. For example the coffee is on the table and the eggs are in the refrigerator. The girls loved to sing! So we often had fun breaking out into song. The Beatles Here Comes the Sun, James Taylor’s You’ve Got a Friend, and Justin Bieber’s Baby Baby were on repeat! Saying goodbye to them may have brought a few tears to my eyes!

I had a more traditional teaching assignment in the afternoon. Students would come to an English learning center after their regular school day.

The students came in everyday saying “Hello, Teacher” and smiling. They were engaging, polite, and eager to practice their English. Class started every day with the students standing up and saying, “Good afternoon, teacher, how are you today?” I would respond and proceed to ask each individual student how they were. Common responses included “I am very happy” or “I am very tired” or “I am very sad”. My response back was “why are you happy/tired/sad?” They were usually happy because they got to study English or see Teacher. They were usually tired because they had to ride their bicycle long distances or if it was a Thursday afternoon they were often tired because they spend Thursday afternoon’s cleaning the classrooms and bathrooms at their school. Yes, the students are responsible for cleaning the school each week. This past Friday a couple of students said they were sad because it was Teacher’s last day. Indeed it was sad for me, too.

On any given day I would have 2 – 7 students in my afternoon class. Friday was usually the lightest of the days. Most of the students I worked with lived away from their families. Their families were still in their home villages but they had moved to Luang Prabang to have access to education. Some of the girls live with family members i.e. a sibling or distant relative that had moved to Luang Prabang while other girls live on their own in a dormitory/guesthouse. As a result, many students traveled home to their villages on Friday afternoons.

Class ended with the students standing and saying, “Thank you, Teacher, for your teaching. See you tomorrow.” This was typically followed with hugs and high fives as the students left the classroom. I had six female students and one male student who had a sister studying English at the same time. The students ranged in age from 13 – 17.

Since the students always said “see you tomorrow” at the end of every class the song Tomorrow from the movie Annie always played in my head. Since the students enjoy singing my last class with them was learning the words to the song and singing it together. The students love reading and learning new words. We spent time going over the words and adding them to their ever growing vocabulary list. I quickly learned that miming and acting were handy tools when trying to explain vocabulary. My acting skills have really improved and I would be a great charades partner at the moment!

My afternoon English class was followed by a female health workshop. The goal of the workshop was to inform and empower Lao girls to know more about what’s going on with their bodies as females. Many females in Lao do not have access to menstrual health knowledge and/or sanitation materials especially in remote villages. The organization I am volunteering with has set up a partnership with the organization Days for Girls. Days for Girls partners with organizations across the globe in order to bring sustainable menstrual health kits and knowledge to girls and women in remote areas. The ultimate goal of the evening workshop is to have these young women be the ones to deliver the presentation instead of strictly translating the material from a westerner.

The exciting news is that some of the menstrual health kits and presentations are happening my last week in Lao. I have been invited to join a small group of people who will travel to five remote villages in Northern Lao over the course of next week to assist in the presentation and help hand out the menstrual health kits to girls and women.

I will dedicate an entire post to this project and trip so more to come.

This is my last full weekend in Luang Prabang. We leave early Monday morning for the villages. We return Friday or Saturday, and I leave Sunday. Here are a few other pictures from my time here as a teacher.

 

The second weekend in Luang Prabang was filled with adventure. A couple of volunteers and I signed up for an elephant walk. We spent our second Saturday in Luang Prabang with elephants – feeding, bathing, and walking along side of them. We were not interested in a facility that offered elephant riding or mahout training. After doing some research we selected Mandalao. They are a more recent elephant program in Luang Prabang and it was interesting to learn about their different projects and goals when it comes to elephants. They do not offer riding tours or mahout trainings and their mahouts on staff do not use any physical commends with the elephants. Some of their projects include reducing the number of elephant camps that offer riding and mahout training tours, finding ways to reduce poaching, along with developing a DNA database of elephants that would prohibit poachers from being able to move elephants to other countries. They were very passionate about providing a happy, healthy environment for their elephants especially since the elephants led a hard life prior to coming to Mandalao.

It was a truly magical day hanging out with these massive and majestic animals. In addition to spending time with the elephants it was nice spending time in the country side. Not only does Mandalao provide opportunities for the elephants, they also incorporate the local village into their project. What follows are pictures of the day. Enjoy!

After two hours of trekking with these beautiful creatures it was time to say goodbye. It was really nice spending some time outdoors. In addition to the elephants we saw some amazing and beautiful wildlife.

When we got back to our starting point we had a lovely lunch that included traditional Lao food. The trek with the elephants will definitely be a highlight for me.

My first free weekend in Luang Prabang was a busy one. On Saturday I managed to fit in a river cruise up the Mekong River to Ban Xiang Hai, aka Whisky Village, and Pak Ou Buddha Caves in the morning and a drive out to Kuang Si waterfall in the afternoon. Here are a few pictures from the excursion.

The boat left from Luang Prabang in the morning around 9am. I went with three other volunteers who started the program at the same time. We spent an hour and a half on the boat heading up river. Our first stop was Ban Xang Hai, the so-called “Whiskey Village”.

The area we saw was a bit touristy but it was still fun walking around the village and seeing how they make their rice wine and whiskey.

After our stop at Whiskey Village we continued to travel up the Mekong to limestone cliffs around Pak Ou – the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou rivers.

Pak Ou caves are limestone cliffs above the Mekong and Nam Ou Rivers. There are two caves, the lower Tham Thing cave and the upper Tham Phum cave. They are referred to as the “Buddha Caves” because of their collection of Buddha statues dating back to the 16th century.

After our visit to the caves we traveled back to Luang Prabang.

When we got back into town we had lunch before our drive out to Kuang Si waterfall.

It was a pretty busy day but we managed to keep it going with dinner at Dyen Sabai, a restaurant on the other side of the Nam Khan. In the dry season there is a bamboo bridge that people can use to cross the river.

Sabaidi from Laos! I am two weeks into a six week stay in Luang Prabang. It feels good finally being caught up on past adventures so I can start blogging about my time in Laos.

I am volunteering for six weeks teaching English to girls. My schedule is very busy. I have lesson planning in the morning for the four classes that I am teaching. Around 10am I take a van or tuk-tuk out to a buffalo farm about 40 minutes away from the guesthouse.

The farm recently opened up to the public selling their homemade ice cream from the buffalo.

I teach two one-hour classes to girls. The objective of the lessons is to work on English with a focus on the kitchen, cooking, and working in a cafe.

Around 1pm we drive back to town where I grab a quick lunch and break before heading to a learning center where I teach an English class to six girls after school.

When I am done with the English class, I help teach a women’s health workshop with an other volunteer to some of the older girls. We are helping them understand female health topics like puberty, menstruation, reproduction, and childbirth. More to come on this project in a future blog dedicated to this topic!

Once the workshop is done around 6:45pm I make the mile and a half walk back to the volunteer house for dinner. So it’s a full day and busy week but I am absolutely loving it!

Luckily we have our weekends free and I’ve been able to take advantage of some free time to explore the local area, enjoy some meals out, and take advantage of the great coffee and pastries in the cafes.

More blogs to come from Laos about the different weekend trips and adventures as well as on the work we are doing with the girls. Kop chai (thank you) for following along!

Singapore was a quick stop in between adventures. I slowed down the pace in Singapore and spent a lot of time resting and relaxing. Nepal was a busy six weeks and I wanted to be rested heading into my next adventure – teaching english to girls for six weeks in Luang Prabang. I was able to take in a few sites and really enjoyed exploring this city. It was very easy to navigate and the people were extremely friendly and helpful. I wish I had given myself a few more days to explore this interesting and diverse city.

My flight from Kathmandu was at 10:30pm so I arrived early Monday morning into Singapore. I was pretty tired so spent much of the day working on my blog at the hotel but I managed to muster up the energy to walk around Orchard Street and the area around my hotel. I could not get over the shopping! And the number of stores – above ground, below ground…shops, shops and more shops!

It was fun walking around because the city was getting ready for the Christmas holiday season so lots of decorations, music, and lights. I enjoyed seeing “Christmas” because I won’t be seeing any in Laos. The next time I see any signs of Christmas will be on Christmas Day when I land in Sydney!

While still warm and very humid, the weather was overcast on Tuesday. When I left the hotel it had started to rain so I picked an indoor activity. I spent the afternoon at the National Museum of Singapore. I joined the free tour and had a wonderful experience walking around the exhibits while learning more about the history of Singapore. It was really very good and I recommend it to others. It made my time in Singapore more enjoyable knowing more about the history of the people and country.

Luckily the rain stopped about an hour later. I took the metro to the Gardens by the Bay and spent the rest of the day exploring the garden and watching the evening light show.

Wednesday was all about walking around the different neighborhoods of Singapore. I took the metro to Little India. I walked around the streets and temples of Little India before walking to the Malay Heritage Center, Masjid Sultan and Arab Street. From there I took the metro to Chinatown. I loved that within a span of a few hours I was able to be in Little India walking around a Hindu temple, Arab Street visiting a Muslim mosque, and Chinatown taking in a Buddhist temple.

Singapore was a great layover city to explore. I left a lot unexplored but I figure it’s just another reason to visit again! Up next – Laos!

 

I had an amazing six weeks in Nepal. As with any good travel and adventure there were ups and downs, but I would not change any of it. Before moving onto Singapore here are a few final images and memories of my time in Nepal.

Shrines and temples were everywhere in Nepal. I passed these four alone getting from my hotel to Kathmandu Durbar Square which was only about a mile and a half away.

I could not get over the traffic and narrow streets especially in Kathmandu.

It was a long travel day to get from Pokhara to Kathmandu. It took nearly 10 hours on a bus. Once again the ride was bumpy especially since I found myself in the last row again. There was lots of construction as we approached Kathmandu which made the trip even longer.

I had two full days to explore Kathmandu. I spent Friday doing a tour of Boudhanath and Pashupatinath.

After spending some time at Boudhanath I went to Pashupatinath, the holiest Hindu pilgrimage destination in Nepal.

Pokhara was a great place to visit and I really enjoyed using it as a homebase for three weeks. I loved being by water again. Here’s a few highlights from my time in this town.

 

 

 

 

 

Day two was pretty low key although we did an other Jeep safari ride in a different part of the park.

 

It didn’t take long to find the next adventure after the trek. One of the other women on my trek had some free time, too, so we decided to travel south to Chitwan National Park. We spent four days doing a jungle safari. It was a fun visit to an other part of Nepal that was so vastly different from the mountain region we were in the week before. Here are a few pictures to summarize the adventure.

Day 4: Tadapani – Ghandruk

Day 5: Ghandruk – Nayapul – Pokhara

 

On October 14th I traveled to Pokhara to join a trekking group through 3 Sisters Trekking. They had a 5-day trek to Ghorepani/Poonhill starting Oct 16th so I decided to join as hiking in the Himalayas was a bucket list item.

I joined 4 other women – an other American who is currently living in Nepal, a French woman currently living in Dublin, a German woman currently living in the the UK, and a Brazilian woman currently living in the UK. We were led by a Nepali female guide and 5 female assistants. Our group was diverse, interesting, smart, and fun! I really enjoyed my time with these women.

Here’s a photo summary of my trek:

Day 1: Pokhara – Nayapul – Hille

 

We had over an hour and a half long drive to our trail head in Nayapul which was made a little longer with a few traffic jams along the way!

 

Views from the trail.

 

 

We had the occasional traffic jam on the trail, too!

 

Each day we would trek to a guest house where we would have an afternoon tea/coffee and snack and spend the rest of the evening. So we would have dinner, sleep, and breakfast at whatever guest house we were at. This was our guest house on night one in Hille.

Day 2: Hille-Ghorepani

Day 3: Ghorepani- Poon Hill – Tadapani

Day 4 and 5 will be covered in the next post. Having a hard time adding any more pictures!

 

 

Greetings from Pokhara. It’s been a while since my last post so it’s about time I catch up on my blog! Since my last post I’ve been on a 5-day trek in the Himalayas, spent a couple of days relaxing in Pokhara with new friends, went on a 4-day jungle safari in Chitwan National Park, and most recently finished a 3-day retreat with a focus on meditation, yoga, and introduction to Buddhism. It’s been a busy couple of weeks so I am taking the next couple of days to catch up on sleep, update my blog, and just relax in Pokhara before moving on to Kathmandu at the end of the week. I plan on blogging about each adventure so more to come in the next couple of days!

 

Namaste!

Hard to believe I am 12 days in. My appologies for the delay in a post. The internet is weak here at the farm making it difficult to get online. There have been a handful of power outages (2 alone in just trying to get this posted!) and the internet is often off. When it is on there usually isn’t enough bandwidth to do more then send a message through WhatApps or post a picture to Instagram. I am not sure how much I will be able to post during my stay at Her Farm but stay tuned! More posts to come when internet connection is better!