I've been very satisfied with watching how L.E.A.F is trying to help Mondulkiri's forests and its inhabitants as well as continuously trying to change Cambodia's old traditional ways of looking at animal welfare and the importance of the eco-system. The organisation itself is not old and is growing wiser every day. I see the people I work with, in the administration, trying to teach themselves, e.g. languages, in order to of course get knowledge but absolutely also to provide better customer service in the future. People here are very passionated about their work, and that suits me perfectly, as I too, serious about my internship and the help I can bring the NGO. The volunteers I have met, are very informative to the customers and the ones who know little English, are constantly trying to learn the language. It's making me feel like, "I should probably start picking up some Khmer fast too! Otherwise it just does not seem fair, right?" I met a volunteer from the past, Cambodian Tom, who is now considering coming back after traveling. His English is perfect after some volunteering and traveling, wow! Progress, all over! But it's going slow, when the seasons sometimes decides whether the tourists come to visit or not. Moreover, we need more volunteers in this season and I can totally stand for doing it in the rainy season, here is why:
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The province is truly Cambodian, and not overfilled with western culture.
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You learn Khmer faster.
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The rain is really soothing to me, (people from the North will like it, 100%).
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As we do not earn money on volunteering, it's nice to have prices be lower, which they are
in this season (May – September).
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Lovely and stunning nature! So peaceful in the hills, just lush and clean air.
There are many more things I could say, but I think I'll summon my thoughts for the next blog post on how it's going (;
