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“I wake up late, and I don’t have time to eat breakfast. As I try to get dressed, I notice that outside the sun is already bright and the heat emanates from the earth floor. I put my backpack on and make sure I add two bottles of water before getting on my bike.
The way is the same every day. During half of it, I slowly cycle on the asphalt giving good morning to everybody I see. During the other half of it, I cycle as fast as I can. Thai street dogs don’t like bikes, and I have to balance myself so I don’t fall or run over any chicks.
I arrive at the school and am greeted by 327 smiles: “Good morning teacher!” - they shout in unison. Meanwhile 20 children rush in my direction to paste heart stickers all over my clothes. Today is Valentine's Day in Thailand. And I can assure to you: they love this day.”
It’s hard to point out what exactly makes you fall in love with a place. It could be the flavors or the smells. It could be wonderful landscapes like you've never seen before.
It could be the feeling that place brings you, of peace or euphoria. It could be the sounds of singing birds in a morning or of a low music coming from somewhere nearby.
Genius loci, the Latin word that describes it like no other. The spirit of a place. You may notice it when you turn a corner of a city neighborhood you've never explored before, when you see a half-open door.
You may notice it when you hear the ringing of a bell that fills the empty alley of a medieval European town. Or as you walk down an ancient temple in Southeast Asia.
Moments, in which you can recognize the strong presence of this collective memory. Of the people that once were there or are there now. The sum of the years that have passed and the stories that have been told in such place.
Genius loci - something that has no shape and can’t be captured by a photograph. The accumulation of knowledge and experiences from thousands of lives.
But today I want to show you my overview in what really creates the spirit of a place. After all, it didn’t take me long to realize that actually, people make places.
I've always been fascinated by the unknown. This continuous search for the discovery of new experiences that makes my heart beat stronger. That light that sparks in my soul. Even when the unknown represents leaving behind my ideal of what is common in my routine.
If I had to tell you why I decided to come to Asia, I would start here:
Think about the basic things of your daily life. The way you sleep, shower or eat. We all have a very specific way of executing and visualizing these tasks, right? They flow unconsciously, in an automatic mode.
Now think of a bed. Deconstruct this image that you have in your head of what a bed is. Think that sleeping does not have to be on a soft king-size mattress but that it can be on the floor instead.
Forget your showerhead adjusting the temperature and water level. Forget your bathtub. A bath can also be taken with a bucket, and the only option is cold water. And how about the way you eat? Try to replace your morning croissant with cheese. For flavors and combinations you've never experienced before. Now it's rice for breakfast wrapped in banana leaves.
For years, I have had much respect and admiration for this ancient culture that has so much to teach me. I always saw documentaries about these distant places. All so different from everything I knew. I used to dream of one day seeing these places with my own eyes, and not through a tv screen. I wanted to experience how it would be like to live the different and completely change my lifestyle and my view of the world.
I’ve been on the road for some time and although I enjoy traveling, after a while I tend to get a little aimless. Going from one place to another when I have no specific activity or goal to work with. I didn’t want this to happen to Thailand, a country that I had been so curious about for many years.
So, it costed me many days of research and hours spent on the computer. Just seeking out information I thought would be easier to find. How could there be so little information available about volunteering abroad? Why didn't I find more people talking about the importance of this kind of cultural experience as a traveler?
There was lot that wasn’t being told and I wanted to go and experience this for myself. This way I could offer to people with the information that I didn’t have before. And that was how I decided that I would move to Thailand. For a period of two months and become an English teacher at a primary school in the country's countryside.
My first week in The Land of Smiles was a test of self-knowledge and resilience, to say the least. As soon as I arrived in Bangkok, I went straight to a small village called Bang Pa In. There I had the privilege of teaching young monks at the monastery school.
And what a week that was. The only person who spoke English in the whole village was the Thai school teacher. The food was always so spicy that at every meal I needed to drink a quart of water to be able to finish my plate.
Day by day, several preconceived ideas I had about Buddhist monks were gradually deconstructed. They loved talking about Brazilian football. They wanted to know everything about my cuisine. They were all the time taking selfies on their phones.
How ignorant could I have been to look at them so differently? At the end of the day they were like any other kids and teens in the world.
On the second week in Thailand, it was time to get on the road again. After a five hour drive, we finally reached a small village, an hour and a half away from the Cambodian border. Small eyes of curiosity look at me from all over the place, with shy smiles.
This was where I would stay for the next few months. And that feeling in my gut says I could not have chosen a better place to start.
I wake up late, and I don’t have time to eat breakfast. As I try to get dressed, I notice that outside the sun is already bright and the heat emanates from the earth floor. I put my backpack on and make sure I add two bottles of water before getting on my bike.
The way is the same every day. During half of it, I slowly cycle on the asphalt giving good morning to everybody I see. During the other half of it, I cycle as fast as I can. Thai street dogs don’t like bikes, and I have to balance myself so I don’t fall or run over any chicks.
I arrive at the school and am greeted by 327 smiles: “Good morning teacher!” - they shout in unison. Meanwhile 20 children rush in my direction to paste heart stickers all over my clothes. Today is Valentine's Day in Thailand. And I can assure to you: they love this day.
One of the greatest treasures of my travels is being able to say that I have known all kinds of people. People of a single day, some happy, others sad. People with beautiful and powerful souls. People who lost something, people looking for something. People who came to my life, to stay. And people who was not easy to say goodbye to.
All of them who, like me, still believe in the kindness of strangers. In a great deal of generosity that must be shared. All them that, wherever they go, take and leave a bit of their history with us. And, something even more precious: their memories.
My first contact with Southeast Asia was not the contact that tourists usually have. I didn’t go to parties in paradisiacal beaches or even got drunk on Khao San Road. Instead, I threw myself into the most immersive cultural shock experience I've ever had in my life. And in just these 2 months, I've learned a lot more about myself, my capabilities and my limitations than most people learn in years.
This week I leave Thailand to continue a very important part of my journey in Vietnam. I go, but one part of me will always remain here. Attached to the memory of the person I was 2 months ago, and the person I am today. I came here to teach, but the truth is, these people taught me much more than I could ever teach them. While I put all of this into words, my heart is filled with gratitude in ways I can’t even explain.
I’m about to board in a plane in some days, having again the unknown as a destination. And, once more I realize that people make places.
Always let the essence of the people you meet and the places you travel to, stay within you. Because, just as Anthony Bourdain once said:
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. And hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
*Want to read more about how volunteering abroad changed my outlook in life? Check this post here!
Ameiiiiii!!! Quanta verdade, sensibilidade e amor nas suas palavras! S2