Today was the second morning in a row that I've woken up in a sparkling clean, quiet, air-conditioned room after a full nights sleep.
No rats fighting in my kitchen woke me up in the middle of the night. No rooster crowing at 430am before its even light out. No cacophony of geese ducks and chickens waking up (and having a lot to say about it apparently) with the sunrise. And I wake up a little bit disappointed. Why? Because this means I'm not out at the school anymore. And I've only been gone for two days, but I've already been trying to figure out how my loop around SE Asia will bring me back for more time here in Siem Reap at the school.
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| The classrooms! |
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| Pumping water for cooking |
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| The poor kids had to put up with my awful handwriting |
When you read any tourist literature about Cambodia, the introduction will almost always have some statement along the lines of: "despite the horrors that have taken place in Cambodia's recent history, the humility and optimism of the Khmer people will no doubt earn a special place in your heart." And you read that and don't quite understand the extent to which this is completely and entirely true. You don't talk to anyone who has spend a significant amount of time here who's heart hasn't been touched by something here.
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| Four girls from one of my classes. |
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| My walk to school |
I got the opportunity to spend two weeks living out in a village outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia for two weeks and volunteer at a school that has been running for just shy of nine months. For many of these kids, I was the first foreigner that they had any contact with, much less contact on a regular basis. It took about three of four days before my "Hello, how are you?" was greeted with anything besides a shy smile and a rapid retreat. There were exceptions to this of course, like the directors two year old daughter. She is not afraid of anything. I think she's going to grow up bilingual.
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| Ching Ly!! |
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| Instead of jump rope they have a long rubber string that they fling back and forth along the ground using the weight of someones flip flops |
The director, Mr. Sophean, started this school, and it teaches six hour-long English classes as a supplement to the government school that all these kids go to. Government school does not teach English here. So all the children go to school, then they come to BFOK to learn English.
I was pretty much tossed in and was teaching all six hours of class, only about three quarters of the time with someone to help me translate words.
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| Rainbow over a rice field |
I stayed in a room that was about a five minute walk from the school. The family living in one of the other rooms had one very curious kid, one pretty indifferent kid, an adorable dog, and a bunch of ducks, geese and sheep. You know your day is off to a great start when the ringleader of the geese chases you all the way across the yard until you reach the gate and quickly get on the other side of it. Fun fact: they straighten out their neck and put it really close to the ground right before they charge. I also taught the dog how to sit and shake, so if I have done nothing else in Cambodia, one dog learned two tricks.
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| The directors six year old boy |
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| They used the stick fence to catch fish swimming down the stream. |
The room I stayed in had a nice little bathroom with a toilet, spigot, and shower hose. An adjoining little alcove had a shelf with some cooking supplies and a gas burner. Explaining to the director that no matter what his wife bought me at the market I couldn't cook it was fun. "I know its weird, I just really don't know how to cook many things except eggs." It also signed me up as the (rather useless) assistant cook for lunches and dinners. The best thing I learned was how to quickly chop up garlic cloves. Step 1: find the biggest knife in your kitchen. Step 2: SMASH the garlic on the cutting board. Step 3: Pick out the papery pieces. Step 4: SMASH SMASH chop chop chop.
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| What dinner looked like |
In addition to teaching and cooking (talk about out of my element) I also got to spend part of a day building a shade structure for a giant pig. The big pig that didn't take to fondly to the hammering and the rustling and the people walking around its pen. It tried to eat me! And pigs have teeth! We got back on better terms a few days later when I learned she like to have her back scratched. On my second to last day I was walking to school and a motorcycle zoomed by me with a pig tied legs up on the back of a bike. My first thought was "awww pig going to the market to get sold for eating." Then I realized the pig was alive! And apparently just needed to go somewhere! Anyway, the reason that the school keeps the big pig is that when she has babies, they sell very nicely and it helps to fund the school. There were also a lot of hens running around and a couple of them had lots of babies. I asked Sophean what he does with the chickens and he said "sometimes, when I need to pay the electricity bill, I sell them at the market."
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| Big pig has shelter! |
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| Nom nom. |
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| One of the little pigs. |
Teaching was a really eye-opening experience. Standing up in front of a bunch of kids. Gesturing and repeating yourself over and over because you can't think of an alternative to try to get your point across. Fielding questions about the English language that you can't even answer. (Teacher, can you explain the difference between talk, speak and say?) Realizing that two of the example words you just chose to demonstrate a vowel sound don't actually make the right sound because they are rule-breakers. It's really amazing how excited the younger kids would get over the simplest things. They loved coming to write words on the board, yelling out colors and singing songs. The slightest things could be turned into a game. All of the people loved watching me stumble over the Khmer words they were teaching me left and right. Watching me struggle with those words definitely broke the ice and made many of the more shy teachers/students more willing to try to practice English with me. I think I'm walking away with a Khmer vocabulary that consists of Thank You, Hello, How are you?, Fine, thanks, Puppy, Dog, Hen, Buffalo, Cow, Chicken, Rainbow, Teacher, and Stars. Oh and I can count. Not so bad right?
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| Puppy! |
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| Moo. |
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| Some of the girls in one of the evening classes |
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| The morning teachers |
Getting to spend two weeks at the same school meant that after a couple of days, I joined the normal school routine. I got to do a lot of people-watching, and one of my favorite things to notice was the social groups of the kids and how similar many of the dynamics were to what I remember from school. The loud rambunctious younger boys, the pre-teens that are too cool for anything, the fourteen year old girls who love Justin Bieber. The best was the group of teenage boys that came every day to play football. Maybe because they reminded my a little bit of my bro when he was in high school. They all come in walking all serious and macho, not talking to any of the younger boys or letting them play. Thing is, catch their eye and one of them a smile and you get a giant smile and a wave. Adorable.
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| Teacher! Draw an elephant! |
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| Artwork! |
On the last day of school, apparently the teachers and the director helped to plan a joint goodbye party with a birthday party for the directors six year old son. They blew up a ton of balloons and brought out the big speakers for dancing. Today, I am still floored by the amount of kindness and love that was shown to me in just two weeks. They don't have a lot of material things to give, but the number of flowers the kids picked, bracelets they made, and high-fives and hugs I got just about blew my mind. They seemed to be amazed that I had the ability to take two weeks (or any amount of time really) away from work in order to come volunteer. And in return I was amazed about the heart and generosity they showed. Especially my director and his family. The director running the school has the biggest heart of anyone I have ever met.
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| The kids kept picking and bringing me flowers. |
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| Loving the pictures. |
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| Happy Birthday! |
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| Group photo! |
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| A picture with the trainee teachers and some photobombs |
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| These girls would dance as long as there was music playing |
The school needs a bit more time and structure before it will have any type of set volunteer or donation program but if anyone would like to donate to a wonderful wonderful cause that is still getting itself on its feet, please let me know. These are some of the most hardworking, generous people I have ever met.
