We woke up bright and early on our 2nd day in Siem Reap, all ready to go to the Floating Village. Father Heri had kindly lend us a room in the church to store our items – stationery, donated clothes & toys, slippers, art material and so on. As such, before we embark on each visit, we would gather at the Catholic Church of Siem Reap to collect the stuff.
This would be a first visit for most of us to the floating village, Tonle Sap. In particular, we would be visiting Presek Toal Village. There are about 500 families scatter around the river and according to Father, each house has 2 families staying together. Because of the living condition, the houses need to be repaired every 2 – 3 years as the bamboo holding the houses will start rotting.
The children at the village were very friendly and waving to us when we were on our way to the floating church.
This is the typical living condition of the floating villagers.
We arrived to receive a warm welcome from the volunteers and children awaiting at the church.
The children singing a song in Khmer to welcome us. Though we do not understand the lyrics, we were pleasantly surprise.
So in return, we also tried to sing a few Christmas songs to entertain the children. I must confess, we would be better with a few more practices. For future trips, we must be prepared with song books, and perhaps choreograph our actions. 🙂 Right, guys?
This is our first time serving the rice soup to the children. We naturally formed a human chain and with the help of the volunteers, dished out the rice soup and ensured that each child has a bowl of slurpy good soup in front of them.
The children were disciplined and wait in turn for their hot bowl of rice soup. Before tucking in to the delicious soup, all gave thanks and said their grace.
As the soup was very hot, some of us went round to help feed the younger children, lest they hurt themselves. Here, Dave was helping the young girl.
Play Time! We went around giving out coloured papers to the children. Jeff would be teaching the children on how to fold paper angels.
We sat among the children to show them exactly on what to do. Ange patiently folding the paper for the attentive kids to follow.
Language is definitely no barrier here as Terence showed to the children, step-by-step on how to make paper angel. Most kids were delighted with the angels. A lot of the mothers and volunteers who were there, also helped to make the paper angels. We had lots of fun!
Deborah giving the stationery and exercise books to the teachers-in-charge. We also left 500 sets of donated clothes to the village.
We just couldn’t resist taking a group picture with the children. Although we couldn’t understand each other, but the smiles on their faces more than make up for the language barrier. We saw kids laughing and running around with the balloons and swinging the paper angels. These are moments that even photographs would not be able to capture but I am sure these memories would stay in all our hearts.
Happy and tired. And ever ready for our next day’s journey.
