KSR student finds fun, challenge and deep inspiration during three-month Play Around the World experience in Thailand

Lourdes Masa in Thailand for Play Around the World

When Lourdes Masa was nine years old, her family moved to Canada from the Philippines. While much would change in her world during that time, one of the constants she remembers is how much she — like most children — loved to play. “The thing I remember most is the sense of freedom, and the way I could just be myself through play,” she says.

Thanks to a $20,000 donation from the Alberta Thai Association, Masa — now in her final year of a bachelor of science in kinesiology — and three other lucky University of Alberta students had the chance to bring that love of play all the way to Chiang Mai, Thailand last summer as part of the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation’s Play Around the World (PAW) program.

PAW was founded in 2001 by then professor Jane Vallentyne as an annual service-learning course that would provide a three-month global education and cross-cultural experience in the area of physical activity and play. In the ensuing years, the course has grown to include multiple locations, not only in Thailand but as close as Calgary and as far away as Peru. 

And then came COVID-19. Suddenly, not only was international travel impossible but opportunities for students to fundraise for PAW also disappeared. For two years, the international portions of the program were put on pause. Once travel restrictions had finally eased, the lack of fundraising posed significant challenges to getting it back up and running. That’s when the donation from the non-profit Alberta Thai Association — which promotes friendship, goodwill and understanding within the multicultural Canadian community and which has been helping support newcomers from Thailand since 1985 — proved particularly useful.

While PAW was unable to fundraise during COVID, the association had the opposite problem — after two years of having to suspend their usual programming, they were left with a surplus that they needed to use or lose. On the hunt for organizations whose work aligned with their mandate — to improve intercultural understanding and connection between Thailand and Canada — president Rex Carey discovered PAW and it felt like the perfect fit.

“We wanted to contribute to this experience that introduces Thai culture to western students, and to expand their growth and knowledge,” says Carey. “It seemed like the kind of educational and recreational programming that would benefit both Thai and Canadian people.”

Once the funding was in place, and after four months of in-class preparation, the students headed overseas at the beginning of May. They settled in small apartments in the bustling neighbourhood of Nimman and soon headed out to schools throughout the city and beyond, offering recreational programming to toddlers, preteens, and everything in between. The team also got to explore a bit on their days off, taking small trips to tourist destinations such as national parks, street markets and even an elephant sanctuary when time allowed.

Looking back, Masa still marvels at the freedom the group was allowed by teachers and administrators at the schools they visited. “They were really flexible and open, letting us try whatever activities we wanted. This gave our team plenty of room to make adjustments and try new things,” she recalls. 

The team soon decided to offer themed weeks and, considering the 40 C-plus temperatures of a Chiang Mai summer, it should come as no surprise that “water week” was a perennial favourite with the children. Masa laughs, remembering how she would be outside setting up play stations while “a lot of the kids would be peeking out the window or running over to us, giggling and laughing and waiting impatiently for it to start.”

Working against the backdrop of an unfamiliar culture was a powerful learning experience, says Masa. “It was so rewarding learning how we could build on each other’s strengths to make this really fun and a growing experience for one another. We learned early on how important it was to find different ways of supporting each other, since we were each other's main support system."

One might imagine that a three-month program based on play would be nothing but fun and games, but as Masa says, there were challenges as well. “It was a lot of work designing the programming, being in a different culture.” And of course COVID-19 was an ever-present threat. “But as hard as some days might have felt, not just physically but emotionally, a lot of our learning came from those challenges.”

Sometimes on the harder days, Masa would find herself wondering if they were having a real impact. But then she would remember the smiles on the children’s faces, and the crafts and paintings the team received as a show of appreciation. “For me that really stuck,” she says. “Even if we just brought one day of joy, it clearly had an impact.”

Alberta Thai Association president Rex Carey has seen that impact and is very pleased to have been a part of it. “I feel like we achieved our objective,” he says. “I had very nice reports from the students and it looks like they learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I’m so glad to see that our funding did some good.”

Masa was drawn to PAW because of her love of play and her interest in working with kids. “Intercultural experiences have always been really interesting to me,” she adds, “which is why I'm also completing certificates in international learning and global citizenship as part of my degree.” PAW helped her see a future where she can make a meaningful contribution in all of those areas. “This experience reinforced my passion for working with different cultural groups — especially immigrant children, having been one myself — and it’s changed the way I view communication across cultural barriers,” she says. “It’s opened my eyes to all the different opportunities we have to create connection.”