A few days to go...

Sawadee...

As I'm only a few days away from my volunteer placement, I thought it would be a good idea to start my blog!

Since stumbling across AfID a couple of years ago, its always been my intention to volunteer abroad...I've just had to wait until I qualified!!

I've wanted to volunteer for a number of reasons; to challenge myself, to get out of my comfort zone, to learn new skills, to experience different cultures etc...but the main (and cheesiest) reason is that its always been my ambition to use my skills & experience to help others!

I've felt a number of emotions since securing my placement; relief, excitement, doubt, anxiety, doubt, anxiety, excitement, and then some more anxiety! The anxiety and doubt stem from the fear that:
a) I wont be able to achieve much in 3 weeks; and
b) I wont have the skills required to help The Rain Tree Foundation as much as they (or I) would like.

I believe the above concerns are the 'common fears' for volunteers, so hopefully my blog will help prove that although these fears are common...they are unfounded!

I've never been to Thailand or travelled alone before, so the whole time should be an experience and hopefully a positive one!

I'm sure there will be some tough days, but I'm equally sure these will be outweighed by the good days. I plan to experience, help and learn as much as I can over the next three weeks. I'm sure there will be things I miss, like work (just in case my manager/colleagues are reading!), and playing football with my 5-a-side team, in fact another concern of mine is c) My football team will win all their games without me and realise I'm not needed!!!

Finally, thanks to AfID for making this happen, work for letting me have time off, The Rain Tree Foundation for agreeing to have me!

Anyway, enough of me talking the talk, time to walk the walk! I'll update this blog when I can!