“After a 40 days of riding on my motorbike around in the beautiful nature of Laos, I reached this northern Thai-Laos border town. At Reading Elephant Laos’ reading room I saw that they were looking for volunteer conversation partners. So, I walked in and sat for a 2 hours with the kids, I told them about my much loved home country, Hungary and showed it to them on the globe, and we exchanged some words in our languages. We laughed and played by using the English exercise books, to practice the language. It was also nice to experience when the young monks came from the local monastery. They are also frequently visitors of the Reading Elephant reading room, to widthen their knowledge about the world, and if there are foreigners like I was, to practice their English. One of the guys also mentioned, that while he is following the rules of being a monk in his young age, he is looking forward to the end of this mandatory period to be able to travel and meet people from around the world like me.
So, Reading Elephant Laos is much more than just a library with books and games for children. Many thanks to Keo and all the team for their enthusiasm, Laos is proud of you and as a child of a teacher parents, I can tell you that the main values in life are often hidden. Hidden, in the spirit of those children who you are helping with this initiative. Beautiful people!”
Máté, Humanizer from Pákozd, Hungary (July 2018)