Why The Kingdom of Cambodia?

If I was asked 2 years ago ‘would you ever go to Cambodia?’ I would’ve shrugged and said ‘Cambo-where?’ I had no interest in the country at all. Its history, its country, its language…nothing. There was no deterrence, just no inherent interest. But Cambodia found me.

My initial interest in NGO work was stemmed by the guy I ran away with- my ‘good fortune’. He was the one who introduced me to the idea of humanitarianism. However, this interest didn’t evolve until I had resolved my restlessness on the Great Barrier Reef. I had the epic epiphany that this life of self serving indulgence wasn’t enough to sustain me (c'mon, I played on the beach every day and got paid for it) and I wanted to infuse more meaning into my life…by following my dream to fill someone’s need! The next step was how. What was my dream and what was the need?

2 weeks after my epiphany I was presented with the opportunity to go scuba diving for $20 with another guest on the island (oh the benefits of staff discount!). This guest was a sweet-looking Asian lady who I quickly connected with.

‘So, what are you going to do after the island?’

‘I’m thinking about doing some volunteer work with an NGO…just don’t know which NGO or what to do…’

‘Oh, I have a friend in Vietnam working for an NGO. They deal with displaced Vietnam War refugees who ended up in worse situations than they ran away from. Or something like that.’

The clouds opened up and the sunrays beamed around her. The angels sang. Doves flocked. The crowd went wild.

MY parents were refugees from the Vietnam War. THEY ran away from the same war as those people. But they were lucky and ended up in Australia. I was lucky to be born under THEIR parentage. There were still people out there living my parents’ past suffering!

I found the NGO online and an email address:

My name is Debra Ly. I have a Bachelor of Education and 6 months of my time to donate. Are there opportunities at present? Please let me know.

Hi Debra! Thank you for your expression of interest. We’ve just opened up a preschool in a Vietnamese Ep Chai slum village in Cambodia. You can run it! When can you get here??

Kingdom of Wonder? Why not?!