Teaching Tolerance

I returned from Cambodia 10 days ago and am revelling in the bubbles of excitement as I reflect on my experience of working in an orphanage and teaching English at a high school in Cambodia. The optimism, graciousness and genuine hospitality of the people has convinced me I will return to this beautiful country and its people.

A day after my return I was in front of my Year 10 classes sharing with them my experiences. I chose to use the photographs I had taken on the trip as my primary learning tools. Students love photographs. They are visual and engaging so make great learning tools. Apart from being an excellent way to capture the spirit of an event or idea learning aboout how to interpret photographs can be challenging. So my aim was for my students to not only use the photos to teach about Social Justice but also to challenge my students to think more deeply about the issues the photos presented in story format. I wanted the girls to understand how and why people experience injustices, how and why they take action to address injustice as well as develop empathy for people whose experiences differ from their own.

Some essential questions in the use of photographs as teaching tools are:
How do photographs convey meaning? How do viewers contribute to constructing meaning?
How are photographs similiar to and different from other kinds of communication?
What role can photographs play in revealing injustice? What roledo they play in encouraging people to take action against injustice?
How do photographs show activism and activists?
How can the subject of a photograph help reveal the photographer’s point of view on a topic?
How can the specific details in a photograph combine to tell a story?

The results?

The girls were fully engaged, asked heaps of questions and were very curious about so many aspects of my experience that every lesson went overtime. My students had walked along side me throughout the preparation for the trip, the journey itself and my experiences of teaching English in a third world country. I showed them photos of me presenting the resources my girls had made to the children at the orphanage. Many of the picture books the girls made had activities in them and I spent time with some girls and boys aged 8-11 completing the activities.

This was particularly significant for one student who had exhibited signs of “compassion weariness” at the beginning of the Social Justice unit. She, and a few of her peers, had expressed a negative view of humanity and the future of our world. They believed the constant bombardment of information reporting tragic events had paralysed their responses to growing world poverty. This presented the challenge of how I was going to expand their cultural perspectives yet acknowledge their right to a point of view. As it turned out these girls were very inquisitive about my goals in journeying to Cambodia and offered to make some picture books for me to take to the orphanage. I returned to their classroom after my trip armed with photos of the children in the orphanage holding the resources my students had made for them. I then explained to my students how I had used their handmade resources in teaching English at the orphanage. This had a profound effect on the girls-they were able to see results, progress, social action. The “hopelessness” morphed into HOPE and the expression of a belief that individuals can make a difference.

This reminded me of a Khmer saying I had come across whilst in Cambodia:

TORK TORK PENH BAMPONG (Drop by drop fills the bamboo container)

which means “Do things step by step, small acts accumulate “.

Week 2

The start of my second week in Cambodia saw Brian’s arrival with a suitcase of resources for the children. I had been emailing Brian during the first week and continually adding to a list of items that I thought would be useful for the children.

We had the Saturday and Sunday together before returning to the orphanage on the Monday. There was to be no sight-seeing, however, as I had plans that not even flood waters were going to quash. The roads into town were all “floating” so we decided to wade through the water to the local markets. This proved to be a remarkable experience in itself ( by this stage I had grown VERY attached to the yellow plastic poncho which I had sworn I would not be seen wearing in public and Brian had insisted I HAD to pack!!) Women were perched on sandbags outside their tiny flooded bamboo homes weaving baskets, crotcheting and cooking on open fireplates as their children splashed in the floodwaters or took naps in hammocks. Chickens were piled up on the seats of bicycles trying to escape the floodwater, men played cards together and waved to us as we passed. Their day unfolded with apparent ease yet their homes were underwater.

Upon finally reaching the market we headed for the kitchen “department” as I was on a mission to find plastic tablecloths for the timber tables where the children ate together. The markets were completely under water yet were bustling with people gathering their daily necessities. I had to climb over a wall of sandbags to get to the stall that sold rolls of plastic tablecloths and the elderly stallholder reached out her arm to steady me. She looked into my eyes and asked if I was OK. I replied with a laugh that although I had never been on a shopping trip to a flooded market before I was just fine. I then asked her if she was OK. She replied “I not matter”…I wrapped my arm around her and reassured her she did indeed matter.

Next on my shopping list were school books so we waded to the Siem Reap Bookshop dodging kids swimming in the waters, mad moto drivers and massive carts on the back of bicycles transporting produce. I had learnt by this stage that if I wanted to cross a road I just had to grit my teeth, focus my eyes on my destination and keep walking. (Cambodians don’t stop at STOP signs, don’t giveway, rarely wear helmets and have no idea which side of the road they are supposed to be motoring on!!!).

After foraging through the bookshelves we finally found some relevant English teaching resources.I had found the textbook used at the orphanage and high school to be problematic as it was not culturally aligned with the children’s experiences at all. For example, the textbook lesson on everyday language about celebrations had nothing to do with Cambodia. I attempted to adapt the material to Cambodian festival rituals and realised very quickly that they had limited local knowledge.Constitution Day occurred the week I was teaching the children yet they knew nothing about it. This was followed by 3 days of celebration for the Pchum Ben festival but the children had no understanding of the significance of the national festival. The textbook mentioned Mothers Day and Father’s Day-neither of which are celebrated in Cambodia. Similiarly, it referred to birthdays and significant western rites of passage-none of which had any relevance to the children. A young man in my class softly told me only wealthy children celebrate birthdays in Cambodia. I need to stress here this is no fault of the teachers-who are largely untrained. They rely on donated resources and make amazing use of what they have. Nevertheless, I was delighted when I found a 6 series set of “Teaching English in Cambodia” texts. Each lesson was dulpicated in both English and Khmer and all textual representations were taken from Cambodian cultural traditions. Latter in the week I spoke to the teachers about them and they were delighted. I bought spare copies for the older children who were hugely excited to be reading about their own culture-even local place names were now familiar and this boosted their reading and comprehension confidence.

We spent the Sunday roaming around a number of community development centres ( by this stage we both had webbed feet and I was a walking yellow sheet of plastic!). As I teach the Yr 10 Social Justice program at home I wanted to visit organisations which supported community development programs that generate local employment. So we visited “Mekong Quilts” ( http://www.mekong-quilts.org) which is a non-profit organisation that employs and trains local women in the craft of quilt making. We visited “Mekong Creations” ( http://www.mekong-creations.org) which provides valuable skills in the manufacturing of household goods sourced from local materials such as bamboo, water hyacinth and silk. All profits are returned to the villages in which the women live and work.

Next on the list was the “Artisans d’Angkor” workshelters which currently train 50 young crafts people and employ over 1000 people of which 800 involve craftsmen- consequently increasing families’income and slowing down rural depopulation. This was a truly inspiring project. We joined a guided tour of the workshops where local women are trained in one particular handicraft ( eg: silk weaving and painting, stone or wood carving, lacquer work) and a sustainable culture is promoted. Artisans d’Angkor has pioneered a new social policy in Cambodia with contracted level of pay along with social and medical benefits ( 5% of the crafts people have disabilities..due to landmine devastation).The crafts people have a 20% share of the company and the company is an outstanding model of fair trade.The company plays a huge role in retrieving Cambodia’s cultural heritage ( which was decimated by the Khmer Rouge) and nutures the well-being, dignity and self-esteem of employees. We concluded the day with a tour of the War Museum. Our guide had been a Khmer Rouge enslaved soldier who now spent his days educating people about the atrocities committed under the Pol Pot regime and promoting a peaceful philosophy grounded in Buddhist beliefs and practices. He was a beautifully spoken young man who still bore deep shrapnel ( and psychological ) wounds from the war.

An excursion Cambodia style!

I am sitting at Siem Reap International Airport awaiting my flight to Kuala Lumpur, where I will stay overnight and depart via Malaysian airlines in the morning for Brisbane.

Yesterday I said goodbye to the children at the orphanage…whilst shedding many tears…..

…..but first I need to go back to last Thursday afternoon.It is the end of the wet season in Cambodia and last Thursday the rains made a grand finale exit to 2011. The heavens opened and Siem Reap was flooded…or as the locals say “Siem Reap float”. The already pot-holed roadways and dirt paths that snake through the city have overnight become raging torrents and red muddy concourses. In most places water is ankle to thigh deep!! The locals placidly continue their daily tasks ( selling products at the markets, transporting goods on tuk tuks and mottos, feeding their families and manning street stalls etc) whilst waving their smiling hellos with consistent grace and composure. No insurance cover here just determination to keep going.

An excursion for the children had been planned the following day. The rains were not going to stop this adventure! The outing was a result of funds raised by Rotary in Sydney. 2 Aussie girls ( aged 22) had been volunteering at the orphanage while I was there and one of the girls’ grandmothers was a member of Rotary. She and her friends had raised money and donated it to the orphanage. The girls bought food, teaching resources and a roof for the kitchen with the donated money. The Rotary club ladies had also hand knitted a soft toy for every child in the orphanage which the girls proudly distributed to the children. It was just wonderful to see 2 young women so actively engaged in social action- inspiring role models! At home the girls work with disabled young people. Within 2 days of donating the funds to the orphanage the kitchen roof had been designed, timber purchased and constructed!!! No building plans and engineer reports needed here!! A team of eager teenage boys from the orphanage erected the new roof much to the delight of the 2 resident orphanage mothers who no longer had to cook in the rain. The girls used the leftover donated funds to take the entire orphanage out on an excursion for the day.

Due to the distance we would be travelling all 38 children slept at Savong’s home the night before the excursion. His wife and the older children cooked for them. The following morning a truck loaded with all the children collected the girls and I…..screams of delight could be heard from the back of the truck as we made our way out of Siem Reap and through the countryside to Lake Tonle Sap. The sky had now cleared and we loaded 38 children into what the locals call “river cruise boats” but what I perceived to be canoes!!! I was the only adult on one boat and had 21 children with me. All scampered in single file down the pier and stood to attention in front of me as I laced them into life jackets. The boat was made of wood ( with a very crude looking motor) and I was worried sick the children and I would fall through the middle-it looked so rickety. A young man about 20 was the driver of my boat while the girls, Savong and the remainder of the children travelled on the other cruise boat. The atmosphere was intense with the crackle of the children’s excitement and my raw fear -this was an excursion like no other in my experience!!

School excursion habits from home instinctively had me counting heads constantly! The children laughed when they saw me doing it and used the opportunity to practise their counting skills aloud. It wasn’t too long before they were chanting the numbers in unison.

Upon arriving on an island in the middle of the lake we all managed to disembark with backpacks, drink bottles and 38 buzzing, deliriously happy children in tow. Savong’s wife had cooked a meal for each of the children and they all assembled on the timber floor of the hut to eat an absolutely delicious feast of rice, satay chicken and fresh vegetables(provided with funds from Rotary). Without instruction each child cleaned their plates, put their rubbish in the bin and recycled the plastic bag their lunch came in latter in the afternoon for the wet clothes. A lesson Aussie kids could learn here!!

The afternoon was spent playing in the lake ( with me still furiously counting heads!!!). The children had no swimmers or towels so jumped in regardless. Within minutes they screamed for me to join them and I thought well this IS supposed to be an immersion experience so in I went-fully clothed! ( I might not have been quite so enthusiastic had I known what swims freely in the lake…..found that out latter!!!). The boys were leaping out of a tree overhanging the water and paddling a small canoe they had found hidden under a tree. Some kids fished while the younger ones amused themselves hanging off the aussie girls and I ….singing ( and performing actions to ) the PlaySchool song “Bears now asleep” which the girls had taught them the day before when they distributed the teddy bears! What an afternoon!!! Pure joy-untill we commenced boarding the truck latter in the day to return home. Savong had received a call to say that the orphanage and school had flooded. So the children returned to his home for another night.

As we gathered for an excursion photo adjacent to the pier the heavens opened again. Within seconds we were drenched and the kids were all dancing in the puddles ( while I danced with them but kept counting heads!!) The 2 aussie girls and I could not stand the thought of the younger children being in the back of the open truck in the rain so we swapped seats with them. What an experience that was!!! Having never travelled in the back of an open truck before ( let alone in the wet season in Asia) I was dumbfounded but had an absolute ball!!! The rain pierced our bare skin like needles but no one complained ( so typical of Cambodians!) and all laughed as we hit cavernous holes in the road and fell on top of each other ( yes, I was still counting heads in case I lost anyone off the back of the truck!!).

Exhausted and euphoric we all made it back to Siem Reap late in the afternoon. The truck dropped me of at the guest house where I was staying…..the flood waters had risen since the morning so it was a mission to get me home. The staff at the guest house and neighbours came out in the pouring rain to greet me and wave furiously at the children who were nearly falling out of the truck yelling their goodbyes to me. All I could see was huge chocolate eyes with massive smiles!!

This was an excursion like no other I had experienced in my 30 years of teaching. I feel asleep that night counting little heads!!

Supply teacher Cambodia style!!

I have forced myself to stop for a while to write a new post….time on my blog has been time away from the children!!This sounds a trifle crazy coming from a teacher on school holidays….. but I have been so renewed by my experiences with the Cambodian children!

Last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday flashed by as I fell quickly into a daily routine of being picked up by Hong in his Tuk Tuk, working with the children at Savong Orphanage in the mornings and at Savong school in the afternoons. In the mornings 30 eager children (aged 3 to 16) bounded into the classroom simply bursting with enthusiasm, laughter and utter joy on their faces. We muddled our way through lessons on phonetics, grammar, pronunciation, spelling and speaking skills-with no resources other than what the 2 Sydney girls and I had brought with us from Australia and a few items I retrieved and modified from the “library”. This was followed by “freetime” in the library which meant the girls and I read stories, played vocabulary-building games and helped the children develop their speaking skills.By home standards the lessons were fairly unstructured and free-flowing but the wonder for me was seeing the children’s engagement and sheer delight when they understood a new word or concept…..(at home I call them “light-bulb” moments!)they would reach over to a friend and share what they had learnt ( we call that “peer tutoring” at home). No educational metalanguage and pedagogical styles are foregrounded here-just everyone present fully focussed and engaged in learning. The 2 “mothers” who worked in the kitchen and the young men around the orphanage gathered outside the wire mesh wall of the classroom with wide smiles to watch the children.

Learning English in Cambodia is the gateway to a fuller life. Unlike Malaysia, English is the national language in the Cambodian education system. Unfortunately, less than 10% of Cambodian children complete secondary schooling today due to poverty. Savong, the founder of Savong Orhanage Centre (SOC) and Savong school is just 32 years old and instills in the children a fundamental love of learning. Savong has 3 children of his own, 30 children live at his orphanage and 8 teenage boys live at his home with his wife and children. Through sponsorship from NGOs and individuals his goal is to see each of the children in his care educated to high school standard so they can live full and enriched lives. He works with industries to gain apprenticeship placements for the boys once they have completed high school as well as securing university scholarships for students who have academic aspirations.Embedded in the ethos of this small rural community are values of peace, respect (for self,each other and especially, elders in the community), a sense of giving back more than you receive, compassion, gratitude and hope.

I am so privilaged to have been able to spend time here.

After lunch each day, Hong drove me via Tuk Tuk ( I absolutely love this mode of transport and want to take one home!!) to Savong School (about 10 mins along muddy pot-holed tracks which weave between rice paddy fields). English classes start about 1.30pm and finish at 7pm 6 days a week!!!! Needless to say I was exhausted each evening!!! On my first night I was petrified travelling on an open tuk tuk into Siem Reap in the dark…..by the second night fatigue had set in sooooo much that I was beyond feeling anything and was simply grateful for a seat ( albeit a rocky one!!).

Each evening I spend time reading the history of Cambodia books ( written by Cambodians) I bought the first afternoon I was here. Loung Ung’s autobiography “First they killed my father” has kept me up reading well into the night!!! It is a harrowing story of a young girl’s experience of the Khmer Rouge and her fight to simply survive. Reading such a powerful book while I am IN Cambodia has heightened my insight into the path millions of Cambodians have traversed. By the mid 20th century Cambodia was a society largely resistant to transformation, educationally deprived, more landlocked and isolated than any other SE Asian country and almost mummified by 90 years of French colonial control. By 1954 Cambodia had no tertiary education at all. By the late 20th century Cambodia was sealed off from global mass communications. The borders were closed, books burned, foreign embassies and press embassies expelled, newspapers and television stations shut down, radios were confiscated, mail and telephone suppressed and the speaking of foreign languages punished. Money, markets and cities were also abolished in what Australain historian, Ben Kiernan ( 2005), argues was ‘probably an ideological rationale to prevent the ( Khmer) troops from being contaminated by urban materialism” (The Pol Pot Regime p53). “Careful screening” took all measures so that society was pure ( borisot) and racially homogeneous. The KR were intensely hostile to religion and the monkhood in particular.Under the Pol Pot regime dissenters were met with death 1/5 of cambodia’s population perished in less than 4 years. An entire generation of educators, artisans, intellectuals, philosophers, musicians-
in fact anyone who was not a peasant- was wiped out under the Khmer Rouge in what Ben Kiernan describes as a “tapestry of tragedy” ( p xiv).

The resilience of Cambodians commands my unconditional respect.

Wednesday afternoon I arrived at the school after spending the morning at the orphanage…..I was booked to observe an English class with children aged 14-16 years. The children had met me the day before and greeted me with immense courtesy. I seated myself at the back of the classroom and whilst chatting with the children waited patiently for the teacher to arrive. Next minute a library assistant stepped into the classroom and informed the class the teacher had not turned up and they did not know where she was…..I was then asked to take the English class in the teacher’s absence!!! There was no UbD handed to me, no lesson plan, no class list! The students told me today’s lesson was supposed to be about silent letters and everyday expressions relating to celebrations. They had a very rudimentary textbook and that was it!!! So next minute I was on my feet and hoping 30 years of western-style English teaching would help me through the afternoon. What a learning curve! I had no prior knowledge of the student’s skill development, no CSIs and no academic, pastoral or medical history of the children. During the lesson the Director of the school stood at the doorway with his arms folded and seemed to take immense interest in the goings-on in what became “my” classroom for the afternoon. He interrupted at one point and declared to the class “very professional teacher here”-little did he know my insides were in knots!It appeared I had made it as a supply teacher in Cambodia!!!!

Savong Orphanage Centre!

4 days have passed since my last entry-I have been been swept up in a mutlitude of experiences which I will treasure. I have taken some time out this morning to write as I want to savour everything I have seen and learnt.

So I will go back to the moment where I left you ( not even sure anyone is reading this!!)in my last blog…..

With Hong guiding me along the muddy track which cut through the rice paddy field we took a sharp right-hand turn and I looked up to see a little muddy coated, chocolate eyed smiling toddler playing in orange mud! She quickly abandoned her muddy construction and screamed aloud “madame” and children came running from everywhere. They screamed welcome
and danced in the dirt around me. I was quickly dragged past the high wall and into the orphanage grounds. The children were sent to the “library” while I was taken on a tour of the orphanage.

At home I teach Yr 10 about “Social Justice” issues’ sustainability and particularly issues related to impoverishment. My research, readings and prior learnings had not prepared me for what I saw….30 children sleep in 2 rooms with no windows and only bars for safety. In the corner of the first bedroom was a perky looking hen guarding her eggs while a baby about 22 months took his nap on the bamboo bed. Soa is the youngest child at the orphanage ( the eldest is 16) and his parents are too poor to look after him. When Soa sits at the bench for his meals older children sit either side of him and place their arms around his back to support him. He wonders around by himself and when he falls or cries either a child or one of the 2 resident mothers scoop him up and sooth him with cuddles. A magical sight!!!

After viewing the children’s 2 bedrooms I was taken to the “dining room” which consisted of 2 wooden tables and bench-style seating. In the corner was a cluster of pots and lids and a very rudimentary fire. There was little to no roof
and it is the wet season here!! In the dining room 4 children had cast a line out ( there are no windows)to the catfish farm ( literally next to the dining room). They told me they catch the fish every day and the “mothers” cook it with rice for their lunch. The children seemed so proud of their fishing talents and gave me a lesson on casting the fishing line but told me I had to be very quiet or the fish would swim away under the lilly pads and sleep!!!!(by the way the lilly pads are used for soup at breakfast-nothing is wasted here!)

On the lefthand side of the dining space was a timber slat window on one side and a small wooden door ( lower than my height!) I thought it was the pantry it was so small. Hong opened the door to show me his bedroom!!!!!! He is 6ft tall.It is the size of a tiny chicken coup with no ventilation. Hong has been my driver each day-it takes about 50 mins on his Tuk Tuk to travel to the orphanage after he picks me up in town and then another 10 mins to Savong school. Both are located about 25klms out of Siem Reap.

Hong is about 20 and 2 years ago he left his parents and brother (who live in another province) to find a better life in Siem Reap. He is desperate to learn English and is the Tuk Tuk driver for Savong school. When he is not transporting people in the tuk tuk he sits in the classroom at the orphanage reading the children’s books in an attempt to learn English. I spent quite a lot of time with him trying to help him pick up basic English words-he is sooooo inquisitive, softly spoken and gentle in spirit. He spends his mornings driving scholarship students from Savong school to the University in Siem Reap and also collects volunteers and visitors and drives them to the school. About 1.30pm each day he goes to Savong school and sits in English classes till 7pm. The English classes run every hr and Hong attends just about all of them. Each hr a lesson runs for a different age group starting fro children aged 6 years old to 16. He gets frustrated sometimes and walks out of the classroom, hops on his moto, goes for a spin and comes back to try again. He lives at the orphanage and does odd jobs for Savong as well. A wonderful young man who embodies “courage”.

It was time for me to see the “classroom”. All the children raced to their seats. There are 4 benches on the left and right hand side of the classroom and they have to seat 30 children. The littlies squash up in the front rows with their chins barely reaching above the wooden desks. Older children help them hop up on the benches.There is a whiteboard ( which apparently does not get used very often as they cannot afford to buy whiteboard markers!), bars on the window frames and nothing else. Each desk ( they have 8) has been donated by volunteers and costs $45US each. The volunteers names are etched on the desk.

A local young woman comes to the orphanage a few times a week to teach the children. Resources are basically non existent. Not all the children have a pencil or pen ( my overly stuffed pen holder at home came to mind!!!! ) or copy book. The children tend to sing a lot -they recited “the wheels on the bus go round and round” complete with actions for me with immense pride. My insides churned with emotion.

2 Australian volunteers had been at the orphanage the day before and written up the words to the song “Hokey Pokey” on the whiteboard but the class did not know the actions. So the teacher asked me for help!!!!! Next minute I had 30 children eagerly forming a circle around me and after a quick demonstration my troupe were ready to perform. I used the opportunity to extend the singing lesson to include some whiteboard work on nouns!!! We listed each part of the body mentioned in the song on the whiteboard (hand,arm,leg,toe,nose,head,eyes,ears,tongue etc. After much hilarity the children raced back to their seats, I distributed exercise bks I had brought with me from home and the children wrote sentences in their books using the words from their new song. Their desire to learn astounded me.

I teach in a secondary school where the students also have a great love of learning. At home in Brisbane while I wait at the train station after school it is usual for me to see my students sitting on the railway station reading novels. The children at the orphanage also have a thirst for learning-they crave it!!! I had bought sheets of stickers from home with me and placed them on their pages as they finished a sentence. They were so proud and their faces lit up with what I have come to learn is the ‘signature Cambodian smile’. There was no fighting or pushing in the classroom only a buzz of little minds at work. Keep in mind these children had never met me and by now the teacher had left to go to Savong school for afternoon classes-so I was It!!!! I LOVED IT!!!Next we ventured next door to the “library” which has a collection of donated books and games on shelves.

The children all raced to the shelves and searched for their favourite book and thrust it in my hands. 30 sets of huge brown eyes beseeched me to read to them. So we all sprawled ourselves on the floor ( complete with 3 resident dogs and a couple of chickens ) and I read every story I was given. As I read the story the children repeated every line aloud-right from the 3 yr olds up to the 16 yr olds. Older children had littlies perched on their laps and the chucks squawked a bit when we laughed. On my right hand side I noticed the children had schuffled themselves into a line but were still repeating each line I read aloud-whilst one eye rested on the page I read from the other eye was cast over the head of the child in front… searching for headlice!!!!! No time is wasted here!!!!

Cultural barriers encountered by me here??? At this stage,
NONE!!!The children spoke rudimentary English and we could understand and communicate well enough. They wanted to learn and I wanted to teach them-it was pretty simple really!!Their beautiful smiles told me what I needed to know and that we were all doing OK. We took a short break for lunch-everyone raced to the benches with older children pausing to collect a little one on the way. All the children feed themselves. Rice, catfish and beans appear to be staple for lunch. Rice comes from local fields, they grow the beans and the catfish is from their farm and caught by the children. 30 silent children ate together. Large pots of rich were placed on the table by the 2 “mothers”. Manners were impeccable.

At the end of the meal the children all bowed in traditional style and gave their thanks for the meal. Each child carried their plate to the bucket where the utensils were washed. While some children swept the floor with a handmade straw broom, others helped the littlies down from the benches. Some toddlers took themselves off for a nap!!! After lunch the children aged between 6 and 15 wore white face masks and took turns to clean the toilet ( there is only one toilet for 30 children and the adults) which is simply a concrete
hole in the ground…with no toilet paper!!) Nearby the mothers washed the children’s clothes in a low bucket. Hong offered to walk me to the chicken coup ( which he had proudly constructed from tin offcuts found on the side of Road 6) but I was still reeling from the sight of the toilet and thought a tour of the chicken coup would just about finish me off!!!! All I could think of was Bird flu and all Hong could think of was proudly displaying his construction skills. Certainly was a little cultural disequilibrium there so I settled on taking the baby to his room for a nap and taking a photo of Hong with his nesting hen ( who lived in the bedroom!!!)

About 2pm that day Hong drove me to Savong school and I met the Director of the school. He graduates from University at the end of this year and teaches English. I was then shown the “library” and purchased some Tshirts ( the money goes towards running the generator for the school). Next door were the 4 classrooms. I was introduced to a class with students aged about 13-15 yrs. The children cycle or walk to Savong school 6 days a week in the afternoons for a one hour English lesson. The young teacher introduced me to her class and the children -though somewhat shy- they asked me lots of questions about myself and Australia. Next minute I had a whiteboard marker thrust into my hand, the teacher sat up the back of the classroom and asked me to keep teaching as the lesson did not finish for another 40 mins. She had a cassette tape recorder with the “makerina” on it and some questions written on scraps of paper. So as she turned the music on, the kids would pass the marker around and whoever was holding the marker when the music stopped had to stand up, select a question from the pile and answer it in a full sentence!!!Hong was in the class with me and really hammed it up for the kids. We had a ball judging by the happy faces and the queue of kids peering through the bars from outside the classroom!! They were lined up at least 4 deep trying to glimpse what we were up to. Did I mention the chickens in the classroom????3 dogs as well??

At about this point a young man wandered up to the classroom door and started to close it. I asked him to leave it open please ( I was already drowning in sweat, dried crusted dirt clung to my feet, no mascara, no lipstick!!!!-not the most professional look but no one seemed to mind!!) He said he had to close the door and wash it! Who was I to interrupt the cleaning program of the school so he jostled all the children waiting outside my classroom door and window into the room. Keep in mind I already had about 20 kids in the classroom, 3 dogs and a few chickens!!!!!! The temperature soared, I dripped in sweat, the children listened and laughed with me as we shared stories, played games and learnt together. Meanwhile the young man was outside the classroom door washing the door with the pools of rain water that lay on the ground. Such resourcefulness! Don’t think I will tell my Principal about this experience in case my class sizes skyrocket at home and I am asked to teach in the locker room!!!!

This blog entry has just hit 2000 words and I have only got to day 2 in my teaching -I have had such an amazingly rich , joy-filled and happy time!! I want to imprint every experience on my soul-along with the faces of the children in my Cambodian classes!!!!! Hopefully I will come back to blogging tonite.

Tuk Tuk town!

Beauty in all its simplicity and rawness,, resourcefulness and resilience paint a mindful picture of this beautiful country for me.

I have been operating on “Cambodian time” since arrival which is far more relaxed than home time. Nevertheless, I am trying to squeeze in as much as I can each day and to savour all the new experiences. Hence, I am behind with my blog!!

The flight from KL took 2 hrs and I landed in Siem Reap at 2pm last Sunday. By 3pm I had flagged a taxi, found my hotel (Sonalong), showered and changed and by 4pm was on my first Tuk Tuk to take me on a tour of Siem Reap. Traffic confronted me first-or should I say traffice CHAOS! The road system reminded me of fish swimming in a stream….they never appear to collide do they??? So it is on the streets-bicycles, motos, tuk tuk and the occasional car race along with no apparent regard for which side of the road they drive on!! I quickly learnt pedestrian crossings are obsolete after I calmly waited at a few crossings expecting the sea of traffic to part like the Red Sea and let me pass….Oh no!!!!…..it just kept on flowing in every direction so I decided to “immerse” myself in this “cultural experience” and dogged the traffic as best as I could to get to the other side of the road. I am still alive!! – though still recovering from the sight of a child about 4 clinging to her father’s back with an infant in her arms whilst on a moto ( motorbike)!!!!

Sunday eve I strolled around the markets and found myself in a bookshop that I had already located on the internet before I left Australia. I had an exquisite time rummaging through the random piles of books and purchased some history of Cambodia books written by Cambodians. I had a very lively conversation with the owner who went out of his way to give me every assistance.
After flagging another tuk tuk….there are 100s waiting on the sides of every street with drivers all screaming “tuk tuk madame?”……and headed for Sonolong, where I was staying. I called Savong, the principal and founder of Savong school and he informed me a driver would pick me up the following morning and take me to the orphanage first and then to the school. I was so thrilled as this is the reason I had come to Cambodia.

As a lone traveller I am very fortunate to be staying at Sonolong. The owner, Mr Han is soooo hospitable and checks I know where I am going each day as well as cooks me a fabulous breakfast that keeps me going all day. I have had a swim each morning to wake up the senses a little.
Need not have worried about that though as Monday morning’s experiences had my senses on overdrive!!!!! Hong, the tuk tuk driver from Savong school, collected me and we began our trek to the school. My senses felt assaulted with the sights, sounds, smells on the trip. It took 50mins in the tuk tuk to reach the school and that was after a trek through the city dodging chickens, cows, dogs, toddlers playing on the roadside, bicycles loaded with enough goods to feed my Yr 10 classes back home for a week!!!!!!Then we turned off to the “highway”……buffuloes in paddy fields, food stalls on the side of the road, children playing in the puddles splashing each other….and then there were the trucks which seemed to just forge down the highway like they were the only vehicles allowed to use it!!!I did not know which way to look or whether I should just close my eyes and pray!!! Hong, turned the tuk tuk off the main road after about 45 mins and pulled up next to a paddy field. We were in rural Cambodia now and all I could see was the odd bamboo hut, paddy fields, a few cows ( they are kept for milking only) and the odd chicken racing around. At least I think it was a chicken!!!!!!

Hong then told me we had to disembark and walk the remainder of the trip as the tuk tuk could not travel up the lane. The “lane” was a mud path as it is the wet season…..and did I mention it was POURING rain???? What absolute fun!!!! OK I thought, this is fine-I am a middle-aged woman in the middle of Cambodia trapsing through muddy lanes with a tuk tuk driver I only just met ..I stumbled out of the tuk tuk and looked up at a “lean to” straw building with a hammock rocking to and fro. In the hammock was a tiny baby-maybe 9months old- appearing to enjoy the sight of me trying to make my way through the mud!! ( I will treasure the look on his face….by the way I could see no other human so I guess mum was in the hut!!!!…..so off I went with my backpack feeling like I could tackle anything!!!!

My next post will share my thoughts on what confronted me!!

Cheers Susan,GOOD FOR YOU! YOU ARE TO BE CONGRATULATED FOR HAVING THE WILLINGNESS TO TAKE THE PLUNGE AND DO SOMETHING NOT ONLYSO ADVENTUROUS BUT ALSO VERY CHALLENGING. WHAT WITH BEPI AND ENJOY IT ALL BUT SET ASIDE SOMETIME WHEN YOU CAN RELAX AND UNWIND. I GUESS IT WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT WHEN BRIAN ARRIVES. I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING MORE ABOUT IT. KIND REGARDS MAREE.

Step 1: Kuala Lumpur

Well, I am at least in the right continent today. Landed at Kuala Lumpur at 7am to the news that it was really 5am!! Not a coffee shop in sight-not an open one anyway!! So I took a stroll through the airport jungle enclosure and did some power walking to get rid of the swelling in my legs.
After a few really strong cups of coffee I logged on to the airport’s free wi-fi account and sent some emails off to family and friends-just in case someone is worried about a 52 yr old woman travelling alone to rural Cambodia!
Had my first cultural misunderstanding-the ladies on the PA at KL international airport only speak
Malaysian (funny that!) and I hopped on a train to the international terminal in KL but had no idea where to get off. Thankfully a thoughtful young lady turned to me and sent me on the right path to the plane to Siem Reap, complete with boarding pass. Amazing the effect a smile has when you can’t understand a word someone is saying.

Looks like my plane to Siem Reap is boarding now so I will sign off.Am a little scared, excited and thrilled all at once! Talk to you again in Cambodia.

On the way……

It is 6.40pm and my plane departs tonight at 11.20pm-bags are packed, passport and tickets in place and nerves are on edge!!
Thought I would take a moment to centre myself and reflect on the challenges I may face in the next 2 weeks……
naturally I expect to experience some culture shock, acculturative stress which may indeed challenge my basic values. I may face issues re. unfamiliarity with social manners and rules, language barriers and limitations re. intercultural knowledge. I expect to be confronted by cultural disequilibrium on a variety of fronts ( re. the host culture and in relation to teaching English in the host culture).

BUT enough of the negatives!!! What do I hope to gain by this immersion experience in Cambodia?
-personal growth and development of inter-cultural literacies
-cross-cultural social skills and cultural awareness
– ability to nurture my students to be better equipped to deal with the globally interdependent world in which they will live
-professional benefit in regard to reflective practice ( eg reflect on past experience and continually integrate new insights in order to increase my effectiveness in the classroom)
-living and working in a school community very different from the school where I teach in Australia I believe will be highly valuable for recognising the value of cross-cultural experience and for more broadly integrating a global perspective in the process of my teaching.
-stretch me beyond my existing personal experience and hopefully lead to a greater level of self-efficacy

According to Jarvis ( Teaching Education, 25 Feb, 2010 ) an outcome of globalisation is awareness thet the world’s citizens are new members of a global village through which we share a common belonging that previously was limited in scale and scope……..if I can grasp some understainding of this concept whilst in Cambodia it will be both my students and I who benefit!!!

Well time to pack the luggage in the car (PS my students made bookmarks, picture books, friendship bracelets etc for me to take to the Cambodian students) and head off on my adventure!!

Next post will be from Siem Reap, Cambodia……

Savong School

Take 2!!
Passport-check! Tickets-check! First Aide kit-check! Teaching resources-check!
Not long to go now and I will be in Siem Reap. I will be teaching English as a volunteer at Savong School-12klms due east of Siem Reap, Cambodia for the 2 weeks of my school holidays. It has not been an easy road thus far regarding planning for the trip but I am proud that I did not give up on my dream.
according to the school’s website the purpose of Savong School is to give rural children language skills in English so that they may have better work prospects in town when they graduate. The school also organises University scholarships for the top students so that they may be supported througha degree program.
The school was founded by Savong who grew up in the years following the Pol Pot disaster. His father, a monk, was one of the individuals who latter collected the bones, skulls and human remains at the Siem reap killing fields. Despite these memories, the focus is on the future and helping the next generation receive an education. Savong began by constructing a classroom on the side of his dad’s house. With assistance of overseas supporters who helped him realise his dream to serve children in the counrtyside, he built the school in 2005 and each year adds more services to assist local children.
The school operates from approximately 1.30pm to 7pm amd Sunday is a day of rest. The Savong Orphan Centre was constructed near the school in 2008. Many of the children have at least one living parent but come from very impoverished backgrounds.