Volunteer Coordinator

Michael Dove (Volunteer & online volunteer coordinator from England)

I volunteered for HVTO for 2 months. I did a variety of jobs for HVTO: working on the website; (lots of) English teaching, alongside a Khmer teacher and alone; and designing and promoting a newly opened shop in a market. All in all I had a wonderful experience with HVTO. The people in the village were incredibly warm and welcoming towards me. My homestay house was nice and clean, and the family were helpful. It was very interesting to be able to experience genuine Cambodian culture - from which I learnt a lot.

The countryside surrounding the village was beautiful and it was nice to go for bike rides through the rice fields. My favourite thing about the village was probably the children's reaction towards me. They were always sweet and smiling, and coming up to me at the end of lessons to hold my hand and hi-5 me. The people in Siem Reap city were also generally nice to me, and I often got remarks such as "thank you for helping Cambodia" when I told them I was a volunteer. I think I grew in a big way due to the responsibility I was given while I worked for HVTO.

I was entrusted to do a lot of things on my own (such as plan and teach a 4 week adult teaching course alone, with no previous teaching experience.) I gained a lot of confidence from being able to pull this off! I also appreciated the respect Sim Pisith gave my thoughts even though I am younger than him. He listened to my ideas and took them seriously. Overall I learnt a lot from my experience, and I felt loved while I was in Cambodia - the people were gentle and kind towards me. If you want to ask me anything, don't hesitate to email me at:

wotsit2004@hotmail.com

 

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