On Monday 6th June I headed to the volunteering base, known as the Mirror Foundation. I left my hostel in Chiang Rai and was driven further north into the sub-district of Mae Yao. Here the Mirror Foundation is found surrounded by fields and mountains of gorgeous lush greenery and red soil. The Thai people who set up the foundation all live on site with their familys and it is a very calm and peaceful place to be. The volunteer's dorms are also on site along with a volunteer office, a sewing room and shop where hilltribe goods are made and sold, a canteen and kitchen, a small computer room and another larger office. What this list fails to convey though is the beauty of the community which has been created. With it's wooden houses, lilypad pond and gorgeous scernery I feel as if I'm living in a fairytale land.

The organisation's aim is to help the hilltribe people around the area with issues such as citizenship, drug abuse, erosion of culture and the trafficking of women and children through various projects. It is a very worthwhile cause to work for. Along with the other indoor volunteers I have to plan and take English lessons for children in schools and even younger children in day care centres, the ebannock ladies who work onsite making things for the shop and the monks at a nearby temple. The children are all so willing to learn and extremely happy and excited to see you.

The dorms have been built by previous volunteers and at present the outdoor volunteers are buillding a wall to protect the main road to the foundation collapsing in the heavy monsoon season.

There are only cold showers and non-flushing toilets! And a lot of bugs and snakes! But I am enjoying my time here and it has been great meeting and working with my fellow volunteers.