Genevieve and I volunteered as english teachers at a buddhist monastary for about a month and a half while we were in Chiang Mai. We worked with poor children from the far north of Thailand who head down to Chiang Mai for the free education and food, or to get away from a troubled home life. Drugs, alchoholism, unemployment and their attendant domestic violence are a rising prolem in the hilltribe villages and refugee camps near the Burmese border. The kids we worked with were Hmong, Lihsu, Karen, Akha and Thai. We designed a basic conversational English lesson plan and came for an hour every day to teach them. Their dorms were located behind a large Buddhist temple where many people come to make offerings of money and food and be blessed by the Father Monk. The temple ground were filled with monks, kids playing football, dogs, cats and big black pigs that roamed free. Sometimes dogs and pgs would wander in while we were teaching. The kids were really sweet and eager to learn. Being from small villages in the north, they seemed much younger and more innocent than they acctually were, which was between 12 and 20. I like to think that we helped then start learning a bit of English taht will help them get to university or get jobs. We will publish more soon about how you can donate to help these kids get to university. Overall it was a very rewarding and fun experience I would reccomend to anyone.