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The initial trip to Phapang impacted me greatly. All aspects in the trip -the village, the team, and Thailand- were so fresh. Living in Phapang comes with a steep learning curve for us Americans, but that's a beautiful thing. We can't be comfortable babies over there. You have to kill the scorpion in your bed and then go to sleep. It builds character. Those things just happen in Phapang.
During my second jaunt back to Phapang I felt very comfortable and at home. Because I had stayed behind in Thailand on my first trip for a month and a half extra after the team had gone home, I had the time to discover the rest of the country. What I learned was that Phapang is not like the rest of Thailand, and that our relationship with our friends in the village was exceptionally valuable and rare.
Two years before going to Phapang I traveled extensively through Europe, but I returned home wanting a different experience than what I received. I realized that I needed a purpose in the travel. Rather than just bumming around a country, I wanted to engage. The Expedition Club is the ideal example of traveling with a purpose and goals. The remarkable aspect of this, I think, is that the purposes and goals vary for every individual. The team does go to Phapang for a shared purpose -to live, and exchange cultures- but while there I discovered that the team members develop their own reason for living in Phapang for those weeks. Most often, the reason seems to revolve around Phapang's children. Although, it could also be to interact with the monks at the temples, or to develop a relationship with our Thai family at the restaurant.
My main reasons for being there were settled in learning to teach, living in the paradise that is Phapang, and escaping daily life in this nation.
To give a solid and tangible value to The Expedition Club is tricky for me. One can ask most anyone who has ever stayed in Phapang about the experience, but to put into words that would really translate the whole picture has to be impossible.
What I tell people when they ask why I go is generally, "Why? Why not? I have the rare opportunity to actually take part in this adventure in a place I honestly consider paradise."
The question to me is silly, especially when I am asked why I would want to go twice.
I feel that going to Phapang multiple times is a wise decision for both the team and the individual. It cannot be stressed enough how much Rob takes care of us, and aids us along without being overbearing or with any sense of micro-managing. That being said, he shouldn't have to be the only person we have to answer the team's inevitable questions. It's difficult to remember a day going by where someone on the team wasn't asking me, or another returner a question about why something was done in the village. We didn't have Phapang figured out, of course, but we used what we knew and experienced to answer these questions.
The team was just that: a team. We strove to be a community, and whether or not we reached it can be debated. We were all heavily impacted by one another, and we built significant relationships while in that paradise.
Going to Phapang matures and humbles you...drastically. I would venture to say that for those two reasons alone, this club is worth all the generous donations the community has ever given us. To have so many youths experiencing such an environment sets the stage in a major way for their lives to come.
It is incredibly rare to actually have a large number of people (young people, especially) thinking and caring constantly about the lives and welfare of a community an ocean away.
Well, this has turned into an essay. I do hope you can find what you're looking for within the text above. I'm fairly certain it won't be dramatically different from what you'll hear from others. Let me know if you need elaboration on anything. Thank you for taking the time to read, and also for deciding to start such a massive project. I think it will have a major effect for the Expedition Club.
I'm 21 now, and I graduated from PTHS in 2007. School wise I have acquired my Associate of Arts degree from Seattle Central Community College. Currently I am enrolled at the Seattle Culinary Academy. However, I don't wish to be a lifelong professional baker. My true aspirations are in writing and teaching. I would love to be a novelist who teaches high school English, and owns a bakery/cafe on the side. Yep. Shootin' high. Thanks again for hearing and sorting all this. I can't wait to see the finished product.