Patrik Dudáš got hooked on the idea of volunteering while he was in the university. In the beginning, he got interested in the student organization AIESEC. He started as a buddy for the exchange students from Asia, because he was always attracted to its countries. Now he spent few months with us in Thailand and told us everything about it.
“I don’t even know why, but somehow I was drawn there. When I talked to people form Asia, it was always just nice conversations about the people, the culture, the landscape, the nature, which made me even more convinced that I had to go there.”
His life was, however, going slowly in a completely different direction – work, moving etc. In February this year, he suddenly started to feel the urge to go back to the old plan: “I said to myself, when if not now can I help someone, some community, contribute a little to someone and finally visit my dream Asia? After a short googling I found a project in Thailand and the choice was clear. The only thing that bothered me was that it wasn’t for the long term,” he said with smile.
He didn’t believe it until the last moment
Patrik remembers the interesting tingling sensation the night before he was supposed to fly to Asia. But it was more of a excitement of the unknown and great joy than a fear. He recalls that the whole beginning of volunteering was a bit punk: “Until the night before the flight I just looked at how to get from the airport to the bus station in Bangkok and I left everything in the “what’s going to happen is going to happen” motto. I completely trusted the people from both Mladiinfo and the Thai organization and my trust paid off.”
Before this volunteering trip, he hasn’t travelled abroad for such a long period before. The longest trip for him until then was 2 months long. As a student, he worked abroad every summer, but this was the first time he left Europe at all.
How did his Thailand routine looked like
“We left home at 7:30 in the morning. When I arrived at school, I was immediately surrounded by kids who each had a compulsory high five and then had different requests for games. Either they wanted to play football, volleyball or basketball, different card games with anime characters or they just gave me something sweet,” he smiles as he speaks.
Around 8:00 am the kids and all the teachers lined up in the courtyard where they said grace, the national anthem was played, the flag was raised, and they moved on to the classroom. From 8:30 am to 11:30 am they had 3 classes on a schedule that was rotated by Patrik and two other volunteers. One from Austria and one from Romania. Before noon they had lunch and until about 1:00 pm the kids had free time where they played together again, mostly the aforementioned games. Then the children continued their lessons and they had some free time until 3 pm.
“That was when we mostly prepared our lessons for the next day. From 3 pm onwards we had an hour dedicated to physical work around the school. However, one of the schools changed this after a month and assigned each of us a club, I was in charge of the football club. Otherwise we helped with building the basketball court, painting, building new climbing frames, cleaning weeds, that sort of thing.”
Around 4:30 they returned home, and when Patrik wasn’t on the duty in the kitchen, because the volunteers took their turns in the dinner cooking, he would run to the village with his camera and take pictures of the local people. They often invited him to their homes where they treated him with a meal, or he would go to the school again, to spend some quality time with people from all around the village there. “We played football, volleyball or I was taught to play a very interesting sport called Sepak takraw. The evening was different, social debates with colleagues, or Netflix, series friends and chill.”
Free time was equally varied
Patrik’s days were all different. First, they all visited the Buddhist temples in the area, then the national parks (or for example Ayyuthaya, the previous capital of Thailand). When they had a longer time off due to public holidays they visited Bangkok, or the family members of the family they were staying with. “There was not a weekend when I was bored. We also went to the county town a lot, where we went to concerts and acted just normal like young people at a party.”
Patrik is very happy that he always had a scooter at his disposal. With it, he could easily discover the beauties of the surrounding villages on his own, what he enjoyed the most. After the project was over, he visited Phuket for another 5 days so he was finally able to say goodbye to Thailand. However, with the conviction that he still has to go back there sometimes.
And what about the basic cultural differences? “I don’t want to sound heroic, but I really didn’t feel any cultural rivalry. I knew what I knew about Asia and Buddhism, not only thanks to the volunteers I met during my studies at the university… Among the interesting things that we can call a surprise was how easily they took everything. I wanted to have everything ready exactly according to some plan that I had created and they didn’t bother with anything, in the sense of “don’t worry, it will happen somehow and it will be good in the end”, he laughed.
A dose of kindness for every day
He has been very lucky with the community and the people he has worked and lived with. It wasn’t a typical tourist destination, so they weren’t that used to Europeans. As he mentioned, when he used to go out on the streets to take pictures he used to walk by foot. “Even after a couple of weeks, when people in the village knew me, they kept stopping by to give me a ride. It took them a long time to learn that if I was walking, I didn’t need a ride. Even though they didn’t speak English they kept calling me to their house, offering me food, asking where I was from. Eventually I took screenshots on my phone to speed things up when I was showing the distance between Slovakia and Thailand.”
What he remembers most are the kids at the school. “I can’t compare with our kids in Slovakia, but the humility and joy in the little things was something that made me fall in love with them right away. The gratitude when I gave a kid a candy was priceless. Every free time they wanted to spend with me and I with them.”
In the village, farming is the basic livelihood, people live modestly but would give themselves away for the sake of others. Patrik didn’t encounter bullying or ridicule. They respect each other, stick together and help each other. That’s why he fell in love with all of them and why he knows he has to go back.
The adventure had a huge impact on him
What did he learn what he values most? According to his word, he is a better planner now. He knows better how to speak in front of other people and his English skills are much improved. “But besides that, I feel like a better person. I came back happier, I cleared my head and it kick-started me for other projects. I realize that people on the other side of the world are dealing with completely different problems than we are, and ours/my problems seem suddenly completely stupid,” says Patrik with modesty.
After coming back to Slovakia, he misses the children the most. So far he writes to some of them, they keep sending him pictures and texting him back, as well. “I loved running barefoot with them after the ball. I miss them yelling after me “Teacho! Teacho!” (as in teacher). How they hid from my camera lens, how they were happy when they won the aforementioned anime cards or scored a goal, how we watched the Pat and Mat story together, how we fished, how we chased each other, how we traded food, how we practiced yoga together every Wednesday, I miss my 70 year old friend who used to be at the store and we had long conversations about nothing, I miss the coconut milkshake, I miss the family I used to live with, they were great people! It’s really a lot.”
He is sure to be visiting them as soon as possible. If everything goes according to his plans, he will be travelling to Thailand again sometime in March / April next year.
The new kind of spicy
Food and overall dining is a big thing in Thailand. He was slowly getting used to the spiciness of food over there. “Even though all my life I thought I liked spicy, there it’s a whole other level. Of course, they know how to prepare food without chilli.”
Before his trip, he made one rule and that was that every day there has to be something new. Whether it’s a new experience or a new meal. Many times that “something new” was food for him. “My favourite is Gai Pad Prik Gaeng, chicken in red curry paste, a bit of chilli of course, and green beans, then fish, in different ways and desserts. I guess there wasn’t a dessert I didn’t like. My favourite is Kanom Krok, but also others, fruit in different ways, cooked, fried…oh…there’s really a lot,” remembers favourite recipes from Thailand.
But the wors from the “other side of world” were the insects for him. He didn’t find them to his liking at all. “They eat it like chips. Once we had rat on the table, the meat looked like chicken, but when they told me what it was, it was the only time I didn’t dare to taste it. And then there was octopus, which I didn’t make friends with somehow either.”
If you travel somewhere, enjoy it to the fullest
It went by very quickly. He says this were the shortest 3 months ever. He is sure that if he had the opportunity to do something different, he would try to see and experience even more. Although he don’t know if that would be possible, he feels like he has seen only few things.
And would he recommend volunteering to young people?
“Definitely! It was something unrepeatable. Personally, for me it was a period full of new things. Everything was completely different from what I was used to, but different in the best sense, and I believe I will draw from it all my life. It gave me a completely different view of the world, it pushed me mentally and in the skills I mentioned above and last, but not least, it was one great adventure! If anyone is reading this who already knows about this opportunity, please email volunteers@mladiinfo.sk and in a month’s time you can be somewhere and have your own, unforgettable adventure. You will learn a lot, laugh a lot, meet great people and you will definitely have a good time!
The only negative thing was that he had to visit the doctor twice. However, he is sure there is nothing to be afraid of there, the health care in Thailand is on a great level, he felt completely safe, the hospital looked like something out of an American TV show and he was taken care of first class.
“It’s really hard for me to pick the happiest situation, it was varied. I’ve been to a wedding, to a party of a guy from the village who decided to become a Buddhist monk, a trip with the kids when we travelled by party bus and the kids enjoyed it, or when we camped in the nature, fished and swam, a sports day at school when parents and people from the village created a mini Olympics atmosphere, a trip with a local memorial for his family or even my last day at school when each class prepared a farewell programme for me. A tear fell there too but it is one of the good memories.”
Finally, I would just like to thanks the organization Mladiinfo for this opportunity and all the background during the preparation and duration of the project. If anyone who is considering something like this, I definitely recommend! The main thing is, the longer the better 🙂
