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> Eric & Melanie
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Eric & Emily

How Did You Find Out About Warm Heart?
Through the Cultural Exchange Program at Chiang Mai University.

There are many volunteering opportunities around Chiang Mai. What attracted you to Warm Heart?
The cheap rent, the location far from a big city, and we heard from CMU about a lot of interesting projects.

You said you wanted to be in a location away from the big city. Tell us about that.
Melanie: “Where am I?!!!! It was a bit scary, at first. We had made a commitment of three months. Were we going to stay at the side of a dirt road for three months?”

Eric: “I said ‘Come on’, and we walked up the road, and there were children everywhere, laughing and shouting, welcoming us.

I had no previous experience of a foundation, and so I was expecting a big building. Instead, we found small houses amongst the banana trees.”

How did you get on with the Thai staff at Warm Heart?
Eric: At first we were not close with the staff but as we got more quality time together - sharing a meal here and a beer and karaoke - with no-one to translate, they would invite us. I took the Lonely Planet Dictionary.

Melanie: When we had no plans at Songkran water festival time, the staff invited us to visit their families in Lamphun (a city about one hour south of Chaing Mai).

(cont’d….) Eric: “We went in the back of the truck with the ice, there were so many water fights along the way. When we got to Lamphun, the staff took us with them when they went to pay their respects to their parents and families. Nobody translated, but we got it, they spoke a little English, we spoke a little Thai, we had fun, we were never left on the side, we took care of ourselves.

Tell us about your projects.

Melanie: “I designed a discovery day for the silk farm. The idea is that tourists can be taken and shown all stages of the silk production and weaving processes. The project is ready to go, but Warm Heart need a volunteer based in Chiang Mai to market it to tourists there!”

Eric : “From the beginning I was interested in a cultural project on stories. Michael Shafer gave me different ideas and different ways of exploring, It was only a 45 minute meeting, but there was so much information, I had to write everything down and later I organized it into themes.

We started a week before the Songkran festival, working with six kids from (name of village). We could not complete the music part but I was very happy that we got the history and the stories done.”

A word I hear a lot around Warm Heart is “flexibility”. Tell us about that.

Eric: In French we have a saying “walking backwards to the office”, but we enjoyed coming here and it was all about being flexible. If something’s not going the way we expected it to go, just be flexible, especially in Thailand. We also were able to help out on the other projects, for example, the micro enterprise, or at the children’s home.

In my project I had to be very flexible, especially as I only had a limited command of Thai. You need a good relationship with the kids, to find the right words to get them to do what you want them to do.

I was lucky to have P Dao help us, she is a Thai volunteer who has a shop in Phrao. She would bring sweets and juice to the kids every morning, and help them with writing the stories. Several times she wasn’t able to come, and then I got them …to draw pictures, and when P Dao came back, she was able to use the pictures to help them write the stories.

On the other hand, Warm Heart was very flexible with us - always considering what would work for us, we really appreciate that.

Highlights of your stay?
Eric: Meeting with Thai people, I heard some old songs from 90 year old people, saw some very old pictures, heard about the life of 80 years ago.

We went to the village of the kids in the Childrens’ Home. Some tourists pay to go and do that. We were treated as guests.

In one sentence, how would you describe your volunteering experience at Warm Heart?
Melanie: “Souris a la vie - helping the other people with a happy face.”
Eric: “Fantastic deep dive amongst the Thai people.”
Both: “The time went very fast!”

Recommendations for new volunteers at Warm Heart?
Eric: “A volunteer who was here when we first arrived suggested we would need time - and we did.

We spent the first three weeks helping people, but not doing a lot ... we were not able to produce anything - except maybe helping other people with their projects, we were building the relationships, discovering the community, and the community discovering us, learning where we could help.”

Melanie: “There are lots of old Warm Heart newsletters which are great to read when you arrive here. It would be great if these could be put into a book and left on a coffee table - the story of Warm Heart.”

Eric: “I would recommend to my friends - go to Thailand and help people and make a difference, after 3 months here I know the smiles here are for a real reason, because I have brought something to them that is worthwhile.

We have email, we will stay in touch.”