Avoiding a Burnout with Volunteer Service
Volunteer: John Fairman
Age: 56
From: Seattle, WA
Occupation: Owner of an Asian Art Antiques Gallery
CCS Program Site: Bangkok, Thailand
Why did you decide to volunteer abroad?
My wife Laurie and I graduated from college in 1977, got married, and 10 days later started our art and antiques business. We’ve worked at it for 30 years with very few breaks. I found I wasn’t enjoying my work as much — not even the two or three buying trips to Asia every year. I needed a sabbatical, a chance to have my own experience. I researched opportunities online and really liked what I saw on the CCS website, so I made the arrangements. I cleared it with Laurie, and she was all for it. Three months after I returned from Bangkok, Laurie took her turn. She volunteered in Morocco for two months through CCS and then traveled on her own for a month.
What made you choose Bangkok?
I come from a family of expatriates. My grandfather was born in Lincoln, NE. He was an adventurous spirit and in his youth, he jumped on a freighter to Shanghai. He stayed for 19 years, from 1920 to 1939, and then he moved to the Philippines when it appeared that the Japanese would take over Shanghai. My dad was born in Shanghai, and he served in the U.S. Construction Battalion. After World War II, my dad graduated from Harvard Business School and ended up getting a job in Tokyo, where I was born. When I was seven, we moved to Thailand. I graduated high school from the International School of Bangkok. I had grown up in Bangkok, knew the language, and was really eager to go back and re-immerse myself in the Thai culture.
What did you do in your volunteer placement?
I was posted at the Mahidol Faculty of Public Health and expected that I would be teaching English as a second language. But when the faculty realized I knew the Thai language and understood the culture, they had me helping them with their accreditation. They set me up in my own air-conditioned office with a secretary, and I worked 10 hours a day as their interface with the Center for Education in Public Health (CEPH), the U.S. accreditation agency for public health institutions. My primary function was to decipher the two-inch thick document of accreditation requirements from CEPH. It was something I knew nothing about, but that made it more challenging and enjoyable. I also did spend some time teaching English.
What surprised you most about your volunteer experience?
I was somewhat apprehensive about living with 23 other volunteers, mostly ages 18 to 26. But as it turned out, I was really inspired by these kids. They weren’t your average kids. They were different just for the fact that they were there, giving back and immersing themselves in a different culture. Many of them were returnees from previous volunteer trips. As it turned out, my best buddy on the trip was an 18-year old from London.
Where did you travel on weekends?
Our program director, Pimsuda, was wonderful. She gave us advice about all we might want to do with our time off. I went on a number of trips with the other volunteers, but some weekends I just stayed at the Home-Base, walked around, made friends and ate street food — just like when I was a kid growing up in Thailand. One of our most memorable trips was to the Tiger Sanctuary near the Burmese border. It’s a temple where a monk had been given two tiger cubs by a poacher some years ago. The monk raised the tigers as Buddhists, so they were vegetarians. Even though there were pigs and other animals walking around, the tigers ate vegetables. Now there are 20 or 30 tigers there. One of our volunteers was terrified, but I eventually got pictures of her petting the tigers. It was great because we learned about Buddhism at the same time.
How has your CCS volunteer experience impacted your life?
The whole experience was life-changing. At the end of my volunteering, my wife came to join me and we traveled for two weeks in Bangkok. I had made arrangements for a room at a really nice hotel we had often stayed in when we traveled to Bangkok on our trips for the business. After my three months in the country, it made me feel sick to spend so much money on expensive meals and accommodations when I knew how much that could buy for someone in need. And I found that staying in high-priced hotels made it easy to lose touch with the culture and the people. So we got a room at a bed and breakfast and ate street food. That made the experience more authentic.
