Volunteering abroad is full of highs and lows. Choosing to do that in Cambodia, one of the least developed countries in the world, has it’s own set of issues. Seeing the body pits from the genocide by the Khmer Rouge regime, to the ever cheerful village children, Lauren Dickerson (not her pictured above) sits down for an interview to explain her experiences over at inTravel Magazine.

“From riding my bike to work and being chased in the street by smiling children screaming “HELLO!!!” to seeing those same children play in a sewage canal around the corner from my house, my experience in Cambodia was a total emotional roller coaster. Every day I would think that I’d seen it all, and the next day something else would happen that would make me say the same thing.”

My favorite; “Lauren, what made you decide to pick up and leave Paris?”

“I was working as a legal assistant and wanted a breath of fresh air from high society and the corporate world.”