“Heart-wrenching” and “eye-opening” is how Philip Coté describes his first trip to Cambodia.
Invited on a volunteer mission with his church, the Alberta born and raised Coté was not widely travelled. He had been to Winnipeg and Disneyland once for his honeymoon, and said he had “no desire to travel” before his first mission three years ago.
“It was awesome to see the world and heart-wrenching to see how they live,” Coté explained.
The 29-year-old mechanic from Cochrane, who initially went to help with an English camp and aid in a livelihood project aimed at preventing human trafficking in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2014, now has spent his last three years using his holidays to go on volunteer trips overseas.
“I didn’t feel I brought much to the table,” Coté said humbly.
“But to bring the little skills I do have to be able to help was really cool.”
Combining Coté’s two passions of mechanics and giving back, after the first trip in 2014, the hybrid master technician was invited back to teach automotive repair. Realizing his passion was bigger than individual mission trips, Coté started raising funds to bring himself, his wife, Alicia, and three daughters to Cambodia in February 2015, where they were able to build a small automotive shop and teach five to six local people basic automotive repair.
With daughters aged four, eight and nine – Cote’s goal is to one day call Cambodia home and start a family-operated automotive training centre.
“My wife is my hero for being willing to let me go on these trips,” Coté explained.
“She homeschools my daughters which is already taxing and when I am gone overseas she has to be alone with three very energetic girls without a break.”
The avid 4x4 enthusiast also sold his Toyota 4Runner “dream truck” to pay for half the trip with the rest of the funds raised through the side photography gigs – a hobby he picked up on his first mission trip – and the rest through donations.
“(Alicia) has sacrificed many normal family vacations – like Disneyland or long camping trips – so I am able to go and help. She also has the courage to take our girls halfway around the world to follow my dream,” Coté said.
While the Coté family has not been back to Cambodia in the last two years, the mechanic father continues to travel with volunteer groups, last year helping repair and maintain vehicles on a mission in Guatemala and has an upcoming trip scheduled for April with Mercy Tech Mission to teach trades to workers at an orphanage/farm site in Swaziland, Africa.
“I am blessed with this opportunity to give back,” Coté said.
