When disaster struck the village next to the school we were meant to be visiting in Cambodia recently, the local families were glad for our help but, for us, seeing these events unfold in front of our eyes was horrific.
When we stepped off the plane at Siem Reap airport the humidity really hit us but we were excited about what the following days would bring.
We were overwhelmed at who was there to great us; children from the CBE School in Cambodia were holding signs saying “Welcome Aussies from Australia”.
While making our way to Tom Le Sap lake, we had to drive through deep water from a flood, but finally got on our boat and made our way upriver.
On Wednesday, we had a group meeting to discuss the flood situation.
Our group leader Carol told us that there had been so much water that it had caused a dam gate to burst open.
The outcome was major flooding as the water headed towards a local village 10km away, next to the school that we were meant to be visiting.
The water hit through that night and some people lost their lives. Hearing this saddening story, we agreed as a group that we would all donate money and buy food for the families that had been affected.
After visiting the markets we loaded our tuk tuks with rice, vegetables and water and made our way to the school.
As we made our way up the crowded road we were overwhelmed at the number of people who were there to assist.
When we got to the school we organised food rations and cleaned up the schoolyard.
The families were incredibly grateful for the food that we had given them, but for us seeing these events unfold in front of our eyes was horrific, as we had never seen a disaster like this before.
The following day we went out to the school to see the children and although they had just been through a horrendous experience it did not seem to lessen their attitude as they greeted us with their warm smiles.
We enjoyed playing games with them and even jumped on their trampoline.
Before we knew it, it was time to leave, and we said goodbye to the children.
We shared our culture and way of life with the families of the children, telling stories about some Australian animals and showing them some traditional Aboriginal dances.
We also used this time to present the school with the money that we had raised for them.