The biggest journey of my life

5 years ago, I had an internship as a community coordinator in a Karen village in Chiangmai.

I packed my stuffs in a big backpack and left home in an evening without anyone in my family to say byebye to.

No one told me....

my going to Chiangmai that time was going to change my life forever.

My gal team

There were 10 girls went to Chiangmai for this project. We were separated into 5 teams and lived in 5 villages which quite far from each other.

Our responsibility was to do a project which was useful for the community we stayed. Some teams joined NGOs or GOs and became a part of their project. Noon and Bow who were in the closest village did a project about local wisdom and youth in the village.

For Track and me, while we were getting to know people in Nong Tao, the Karen village we stayed, walking and talking with every households there, we noticed that there were just elder and young generations there. Karen youth went downtown to work and left home forever.

That was the beginning of our project.

My buddy and I

During the first several days living there, well.... I confess... I had homesick. My family (my mom, uncle in law, aunt and my nephews) had a trip in the north of Thailand and visit me for only an hour.

For some reasons, when I saw my mom, I ran to her suddenly. I hug her tight and cried because I missed her so much.

"Is it hard for you to stay here?" my mom asked. She's worried about me there. She thought I could not be in the Karen village since lifestyle there was such different.

I never minded tough lifestyle. I even like to try to live in different culture place. But.... well... as I said, I knew it's homesick.

After my family got back, I lived my life there as usual.

Our lifestyle there was to wake up at 5.30, wash face, brush teeth, have breakfast, leave to work, back home in the late afternoon, prepare dinner for the whole family, shower, watch TV or chat with them and then go to bed.

Some days we just stayed home, did nothing and chatted with Mu Por, the youngest daughter of the family.

The family we stayed with

Actually, it was just 8 of them that we stayed in the same house.

Some days we would follow Sae, a son of the family who's 2-year older than us, to the family's field and help him do fieldwork.

Chompoo, the right one, a girl who always followed my steps wherever I went.

Some days there were some friends took us around the village or we would leave the village to downtown by asking passing truck to ride with them.

My first time riding on motor bike

Saithong ran follow me to watch my back.

Some days we would follow Joni, the father of the family, wherever he went or walk around the village to get to know people there and learn local wisdom.

Village view from a field

Dressed like local people, trying to be one of them.

Day by day.... and day by day....

Something inside of me was changing without me knowing it.

The day we had to leave the village to get back to Bangkok, I realized that things would never be the same.

The path I have left behide once led me to a place that changed my life forever.

My life got such things from living there.

We learned many things while our lives went on in the village.

They're felixibility, open mind, sacrifice, helping each other, friendship, hope and love

Most of all, freedom.

And since then, I knew I much grew up.

I became a girl who was seeking for freedom, eager to searching for something I have never seen before and ready to exchange anything I have just to see the world.

As we know, experiences shape our lives.

Although I realize that I must have homesick much at first but I know that I will get thru it.

Now I am looking forward to see my another great journey and excited to know who I will become afterward.