Serendipity is the act of finding something valuable or delightful
when you are not looking for it.

Hello,

This is an unreal story.

In Siem Reap, I have a volunteer coordinator that helps me identity organizations in need and then match those to my skills and desires as a volunteer. When I met the volunteer coordinator yesterday, he told me about my volunteer plans for Siem Reap.

I will be working with the Green Gecko project for street kids. The children arrive around 9:00am and shower and get ready for their day. They have play time and attend a Khmer class and then an English class. After classes, they get lunch and any of the children leave around 1:00pm. These are children that beg and sell on the streets of Siem Reap. Many of them are forced by their parents and most of them are the primary money earner for their familiar. It is often a challenge to convince the parents to let their kids come to Green Gecko, because the parents want them the make money on the street rather than be in class.

I also learned that I will assist a school for disadvantaged children. The school is run solely by volunteers. I learned that the school was started by a monk and has three volunteer teachers. A couple weeks ago, three monks were travelling down the road after conducting a funeral service. They got in a car accident and two of the monks died. One of the monks that died was the founder and director of the school. I learned that the children and other people are very upset, because this was a great man that gave his life to helping these poor children. The monks funeral was paid for by the school and their were concerns about whether the school could continue with the limited financial resources that they have. I will be teaching two classes at this school.

Today, I rented a bike and rode it through Siem Reap. I took my bike and rode north into the country. It was an amazing trip, since I took many dirt roads and the living conditions of the many people that are not located in the more touristy areas. There were dirty little children running everywhere. Many of them were half dressed or not dressed at all. It was definitely a very poor area. Everywhere people smiled and I bought chips and drinks for many of the children as I stopped my bike along the path.

I took one dirt road and then turned around after I realized there was nothing more down that dirty road. I was in the middle on nowhere. As I rode my bike back along the path, I waved at a man and he signalled for me to stop. We started talking and had a nice conversation. He told me that he could tell that I was a special person and that I was very friendly. He knew it when he first saw me. He told me that he was a volunteer English teacher and asked if I wanted to see his school. He got on my bike and I sat on the back and we road 5 minutes to his school. The school is basically four classrooms that look like huts. He told me that they rent the land and have classes for the many poor kids in the area that cant go to school otherwise.

As I walked around this school, there were many little children playing in the yard. The man then told me a story. He told me that this school was started by a very special person. He told me that this person died just a couple weeks ago in a car accident. He told me that he was on his way home from conducting a funeral. This was the same place were I was going to start teaching ion three days. You have to understand that I was in a very remote area of the country. I had no idea where I was going to be teaching. And, I was there today.

The new Director of the centre told me that he was very sad about his best friend dying. He told me that he was worried about the school being able to stay open. He told me that he was going to do everything he could to keep the school open for these children and for his dearest friend.

When we talked more, he told me that he was having a horrible day today. He told me that he was so worried about being able to keep on with this project that his friend started. He said that I changed things for him today. Perhaps, it’s not just chance that I was sent there many days early to meet him. Literally, I was stopped by a stranger on a remote dirt road way outside of the city. When I arrived, he was in one of the huts, trying to figure out how to keep the school going.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. It’s beyond reason that I ended up here at this school on this day. Some may say that it was God’s will. Others may say it was SERENDIPITY. Perhaps that it’s one in the same . Whatever you may believe…. today, I arrived for my volunteer work at the perfect time and in the most perfect way.

I would like to introduce you to one of my next projects, Volunteer Development Poverty Children School Education Against Poverty. Please look at the pictures on Flickr of this school for around 300 of the poorest children from Siem Reap.

Luv Gerry