We were sitting on a park bench enjoying some local fruits
whilst looking out over the river that runs through Siem Reap when a gentleman
introduced himself as Waha. He explains that he is the director of a small
school, located an hour out of town in a village called Sam Bat.
The purpose of the school is to give children in the area that cannot afford school English lessons.
Some of the children are orphans whose parents have either passed away or went to Thailand to make more money and never returned. The name of the school is under privileged school Cambodia. You can volunteer to help teaching English, and for $5 USD a day you get shelter, water and 3 meals a day.
We looked at the pictures and took a flyer, the next few days we saw the temples and explored the town centre and decided to extend our stay in Siem Reap and spend 3 nights in Sam Bat.
The following day we took a tuk tuk an hour of town, off the main road and down a dirt road through many small villages, it’s interesting how differently people live just an hour out of town. Modern concrete homes are replaced by wooden stilt houses, the cars disappear and so does the power.
The purpose of the school is to give children in the area that cannot afford school English lessons.
Some of the children are orphans whose parents have either passed away or went to Thailand to make more money and never returned. The name of the school is under privileged school Cambodia. You can volunteer to help teaching English, and for $5 USD a day you get shelter, water and 3 meals a day.
We looked at the pictures and took a flyer, the next few days we saw the temples and explored the town centre and decided to extend our stay in Siem Reap and spend 3 nights in Sam Bat.
The following day we took a tuk tuk an hour of town, off the main road and down a dirt road through many small villages, it’s interesting how differently people live just an hour out of town. Modern concrete homes are replaced by wooden stilt houses, the cars disappear and so does the power.
We arrived and met our fellow volunteers David and Sjoerd from the Netherlands.
We took a walk with Waha and a few of the local boys. We climb a small bamboo structure in a field as it catches a nice breeze and spend an hour or so talking to Waha he tells us about his school, his mission, the children and their stories. Waha explains that there are 3 classes a day ranging from 1-2 hours. In between these times the children are at home helping. Not all the children go to all 3 classes, some make it to 2, and some to 1.
After this it’s time for lunch; a family living next to the school made our lunch
of small fried fish and rice which was very tasty.
After lunch the children started turning up with pens and books in hand, with huge smiles but a little too shy to say hello. Once sat down Waha gave them some info about us in Khmer then encouraged them with “Good…” then an almighty “GOOD AFTERNOON TEACHER!” roared through the classroom.
After lunch the children started turning up with pens and books in hand, with huge smiles but a little too shy to say hello. Once sat down Waha gave them some info about us in Khmer then encouraged them with “Good…” then an almighty “GOOD AFTERNOON TEACHER!” roared through the classroom.
We found the classes a little frustrating as we didn’t speak
Khmer we couldn’t ask them if they understood and couldn’t explain rules such
as “A” vs “An” but I think after many examples and big circles on the board
they got it. It seemed a little bit like the children just mimic what you say
without understanding what the words mean, and with the language barrier it’s
hard to figure out how well they understand. But in saying that there were the
more advanced classed where the children spoke pretty good English so it seems
like it works.
That night we slept in the newly constructed library building which is a small concrete building with a tile floor which with a few thin reed mats made for a surprisingly good sleep. Unfortunately the next night and the days following there was a wedding party down the road which had super loud booming music from 5am till midnight for a few days on end, which is surprising seeing that there is no power in the village. So with the heat and the music sleep was a little harder; fortunately between classes there was time for naps, my favourite nap spot the bamboo stilt hut we had met at earlier.
That night we slept in the newly constructed library building which is a small concrete building with a tile floor which with a few thin reed mats made for a surprisingly good sleep. Unfortunately the next night and the days following there was a wedding party down the road which had super loud booming music from 5am till midnight for a few days on end, which is surprising seeing that there is no power in the village. So with the heat and the music sleep was a little harder; fortunately between classes there was time for naps, my favourite nap spot the bamboo stilt hut we had met at earlier.
The next day Bruno from a local NGO was visiting and he and
Waha were discussing a proposal to supply the children with uniforms. Waha had
to create a proposal document outlining the details of the request and the
goals of the school. This was difficult as his English while good didn’t
translate to formal documents, also without a laptop this didn’t look easy.
Bruno explained to me and Waha that if any one of the criteria or documents
didn’t make it to him by X date the project would be scrapped as there are many
other projects that need funding. So I volunteered Hannah’s excellent written
skills and suggested that I get a ride back into Siem Reap to pick up our
netbook.
We went back into town I shared Bruno’s tuk tuk as he was heading home and Waha followed on his motorbike. Waha had some things in town to do so we decided on a meeting point and after I gathered the netbook, some medical supplies, and some flip flops and clothing from a nearby 2nd hand shop (some of the kids didn’t have shoes and their clothes were torn and mouldy); Waha and I met up. By now it’s night and very dark, as we were heading out to the village on the main road we got a flat tyre. Now in New Zealand this means calling AA or hoping you’re near a garage. In Cambodia, like a lot of south east Asia, there seems to be a bike repair shop every few kilometres.
We arrive at someone’s home and he opens up his garage. 15 minutes later we had a new inner tube and we are on our way. A few kilometres after the turn on to the dirt road it goes flat again (maybe something sharp was still lodged in the tyre) and we find another fellow to change it for us.
By this time it was around 10pm we have been gone for near on 5 hours and I was sure Hannah was getting worried. About a kilometre down the road the chain on Waha’s motorbike starts to make slipping noises and it gets to the point where it stops and the bike makes a lot of noise but doesn’t go anywhere. So after multiple failed attempts to wake up local repairmen we start walking the bike with quite a few kilometres to go. We come across a group of tipsy locals that Waha knew and after maybe 30 minutes of group discussion and pulling and prodding the bike they gave up.
Waha called the family that lived next to the school and soon after two guys turned up on another motorbike/scooter. We all jumped on his bike; one guy on the front, then me behind him and the other behind me; we must had looked like an oreo on a bike. The guy on the back reached behind him and grabbed Waha’s hand and pulled him while he was on his bike, and with this human tow rope we finally made it back to the school, what a long trip but a truly south east Asian experience.
Once we got back it must have been 11pm and everyone was waiting for us so we could go to the wedding down the road. We arrive and most people had left but there was still a group of maybe 15 men dancing, and with drunken excitement they quickly invite up us to dance. With twirling hands and bopping up and down we danced away I paired up with the fiancées father; our dance consisted of facing each other and bopping up and down with the music clapping and a paddy cake style hand clapping game. We retired home and finally made it to bed only to be woken up at 5am with more wedding music. The next day classes continued as usual and in between some games with the children; mostly the south east Asian version of hacky sack, which is a group of flat plastic disks and a group of feathers poked through them; it works really well, makes a reassuring sound when kicked and the feathers ensure the unit comes down controlled which makes it easier to hit.
We went back into town I shared Bruno’s tuk tuk as he was heading home and Waha followed on his motorbike. Waha had some things in town to do so we decided on a meeting point and after I gathered the netbook, some medical supplies, and some flip flops and clothing from a nearby 2nd hand shop (some of the kids didn’t have shoes and their clothes were torn and mouldy); Waha and I met up. By now it’s night and very dark, as we were heading out to the village on the main road we got a flat tyre. Now in New Zealand this means calling AA or hoping you’re near a garage. In Cambodia, like a lot of south east Asia, there seems to be a bike repair shop every few kilometres.
We arrive at someone’s home and he opens up his garage. 15 minutes later we had a new inner tube and we are on our way. A few kilometres after the turn on to the dirt road it goes flat again (maybe something sharp was still lodged in the tyre) and we find another fellow to change it for us.
By this time it was around 10pm we have been gone for near on 5 hours and I was sure Hannah was getting worried. About a kilometre down the road the chain on Waha’s motorbike starts to make slipping noises and it gets to the point where it stops and the bike makes a lot of noise but doesn’t go anywhere. So after multiple failed attempts to wake up local repairmen we start walking the bike with quite a few kilometres to go. We come across a group of tipsy locals that Waha knew and after maybe 30 minutes of group discussion and pulling and prodding the bike they gave up.
Waha called the family that lived next to the school and soon after two guys turned up on another motorbike/scooter. We all jumped on his bike; one guy on the front, then me behind him and the other behind me; we must had looked like an oreo on a bike. The guy on the back reached behind him and grabbed Waha’s hand and pulled him while he was on his bike, and with this human tow rope we finally made it back to the school, what a long trip but a truly south east Asian experience.
Once we got back it must have been 11pm and everyone was waiting for us so we could go to the wedding down the road. We arrive and most people had left but there was still a group of maybe 15 men dancing, and with drunken excitement they quickly invite up us to dance. With twirling hands and bopping up and down we danced away I paired up with the fiancées father; our dance consisted of facing each other and bopping up and down with the music clapping and a paddy cake style hand clapping game. We retired home and finally made it to bed only to be woken up at 5am with more wedding music. The next day classes continued as usual and in between some games with the children; mostly the south east Asian version of hacky sack, which is a group of flat plastic disks and a group of feathers poked through them; it works really well, makes a reassuring sound when kicked and the feathers ensure the unit comes down controlled which makes it easier to hit.
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| A game of hand tennis |
Meanwhile Hannah spent most of the day with Waha on the netbook
writing up the proposal for the uniforms.
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| writing the proposal with many proof readers |
We spoke with Waha about his plans for the school and he mentioned that he
would like another small building for computers as the school had just had a
generator donated. This being a topic I am interested in I had a long
discussion suggesting that he uses ex lease laptops or something similar as the
generator was fairly small (as we found out we couldn’t charge our netbook
while the family watched TV). So on the way back to Siem Reap we stopped by a
hardware shop and brought 160kg of cement to donate to the project. This isn’t
a lot as Waha said they will need around a ton to get started but every small
bit helps.
I won’t forget our time in Sam Bat; the great feeling of being somewhere and having such friendly locals that aren’t trying to sell you things but are glad to see you and the HUGE smiles on the children’s faces.
I won’t forget our time in Sam Bat; the great feeling of being somewhere and having such friendly locals that aren’t trying to sell you things but are glad to see you and the HUGE smiles on the children’s faces.
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| Schools out |
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| Cheeky and shy |
You can view the school site at http://underprivilegedschool.blogspot.com/
If you’re looking to do similar work in other countries visit http://www.workaway.info/
If you’re looking to do similar work in other countries visit http://www.workaway.info/
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