Lotte and Luce

Lotte and Luce - two young travellers from the Netherlands - write about their experiences of volunteering with SSF:

Sarin with Lotte and Luce.

It was Luce who came up with the great plan to volunteer in Siem Reap for a couple of weeks while we were staying in an adorable blue bungalow in a small village in Laos. Lotte had already been travelling for four months, and had seen beautiful things in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. But the Khmer people from Cambodia had the most effect on her. After seeing so many things it is nice to settle down and give something back to this beautiful country.

It sounded like a terrific plan: to help the children take one step closer to a better future, and learn more about the country and the people in our spare time by being a part of the city. The only thing that held us up was the short time we were planning to be in Siem Reap and we  hadn’t  planned anything. Luckily, the first day we arrived we stopped by at ConCERT Cambodia, a bureau that helps people volunteer at  schools, hospitals or other places. After some talking they told us to come back the next day, there was a chance they would find a place for us. The next morning we met Loll in the office of ConCERT. She told us everything we needed to know about the Spitler and Kurata schools and invited us to come with her and Nick to the afternoon activity. A few hours later we arrived by tuk-tuk at the sandy playground of the Spitler  School. In no time we were surrounded by those lovely kids: "Hello miss!" "What is your name?" "How old are you?" asked the daredevils of the group.

Lotte works on a mobile with two children.

The class began with the ABC.  We were surprised by how clever these kids were. With the age from 8 till 12 they were already so good in English. They listened in silence to the story about the Hungry Caterpillar, were making their own paper butterflies with such patience, sang so happily and loud the English songs about the Wheels on the Bus, and the coloured butterflies. After these two hours watching these children with so much happiness, we were sold.

Actually, we were already sold the first moment we stepped on the playground of the Spitler School. This was exactly what we wanted to do: helping teach the children English in a fun way.

Luce works with one of the children in the library.

Now, one week later (we have three left) we have been helping Loll and Nick during the afternoon activities, and decorating the library by drawing and colouring pictures with the children to hang on the wall and the ceiling. During these hours the kids let down their shyness and make jokes with us, sing songs - and the best, they have a good time!