Running Through Cambodia

One of my main questions when discerning my placement for this year of service last year was whether or not I would be able to run there. I assure you I got quizzical looks from many when I posed this question, but I knew it was important for my ability to adjust, adapt and thrive. In the past running had always been my “me time” my time to let off steam or think through problems and it always left me calmer and more at peace at the end- so there was no way I was giving that up.

Fortunately the streets of Phnom Penh have been friendly to me and I’ve been able to maintain my passion for running here. You could call me the runner of Tuol Kork…because I’m the only one that regularly does it….but trust me, it’s not that glamorous.

I stick to the streets around our school that are paved and a bit busier for safety reasons, but it’s comfortable as well. During the week when there is school I’m able to put in about 3 or 4 miles a day as I stay around the school, and then on weekends I have time to do from 6-10 a day where I venture down to the Royal Palace, the river, Koh Pich (Diamond Island) and more.

In May I joined about 100 runners (mostly ex-pats) in the Phnom Penh International Half Marathon. I loved the race through the city, across 2 bridges (reminded me of Pittsburgh!), many neighborhoods, and barely any people. I was alone almost the entire race- not because I was at an unpopular pace, but there weren’t enough people for it to be dense. When there was a crowd cheering it was mostly companies advertising or locals taking videos of these strangers doing something weird like running a ton of kilometers for fun.

My race bib…because I may or may not have actually registered haha
The starting and finish line at the Royal Palace

Post race selfie- a must

 

I’ve been able to keep up the miles although my legs will be happy with some lower impact swimming at home. While running, though, I’ve seen many things that I don’t see while riding tuk tuks or walking places that I thought were notable. (These are in no particular order and have all happened throughout the course of this year):

1. 3 men in Pittsburgh Pirates hats
2. Dogs chasing after me (this has led to my fear and dislike of stray dogs here)
   1. Actually, this one time I was being chased head on by a German Shepherd so intensely that a tuk tuk swerved at the dog to get it away from me! Saved by a tuk tuk!
3. The same man and woman playing badminton in front of their store before it opens in the mornings
4. Amazing sunrises over the rivers in the morning
5. The same lady with the beautiful Golden Retriever down by the Royal Palace
6. The same four turkeys (French chickens the Khmer call them) that show up randomly on a route of mine
7. Students of mine on their way to school! This is actually really funny when this happens
8. Past tuk tuk drivers that I’m friends with that wave, smile and say hello
9. The guard from the seminary where I teach once a week
10. I’ve had friends see me when they are down by the river and I’m going past
11. I’ve run through six inches of standing water when all the streets are flooded during rainy season
12. I’ve run through storms when they come on quickly
13. There are people that I pass every day-mostly guards, some trash collectors, some shop keepers, that I recognize and we acknowledge each other
14. Huge Buddhist funeral trucks that are decorated and have people singing and playing music inside of them
15. Weddings-they start early and go late
16. International Yoga Day
17. Group exercising – especially down by the Royal Palace – badminton, martial arts, dance/aerobics, and many other games (which I really just don’t know the names haha)
18. I’ve been caught in traffic where it feels like I’m running with the bulls

I’m sure there are many other funny things, but I forget quite often as soon as I get home. I’m so grateful to be able to run and explore here! Sometimes I wouldn’t leave our school for days if it weren’t for running and that’s helpful for me. I also am able to have a much greater sense of direction and where things are here in the city. I find myself being able to converse with my students better about where they go, or live in the city by knowing that I have seen these things on runs too.

Although I may not miss the heavy cotton shirts and baggy men’s shorts that are my running uniform here, I will miss the streets and the people who I have found comfort in during my runs. I will always remember running through Cambodia.

Goodbye to the 2nd years

Class 2″A” and me- my 2nd year class

This past Monday was a hard, but exciting day as our school celebrated and said goodbye to our 2^nd year students.

The 62 2^nd year students started their OJT (internships) on Tuesday that they will continue with for the next two months. They completed their finals early last week to devote all of their time in June and July to their training. It’s been a whirlwind preparing their finals, having our last class, grading their finals and saying good bye, thank you and good luck, but through it all it has been so fun and meaningful.

Before all of this final stuff, though, we got to spend a long weekend all together, the 2^nd years and the teachers, touring Siem Reap and Angkor Wat! We left on a Friday early morning, travelled about 7 hours to the north to Siem Reap. We had three busses filled with the 75 of us. We caravanned first to the cultural village. There we watched about six or seven programs from 2-8 pm all about Khmer Culture throughout history. It was beautiful to see the dance, costumes, acting, gymnastics, and they were so interactive and funny! One student, Pisey, was chosen out of the crowd to play the role of the “King’s daughter” in the Peacock Dance performance. She dressed up and played along and we all laughed and cheered her on like wild fans.

Pisey as a peacock

On Saturday, we headed out early to Angkor Wat to see the temples. This was many of our students first time in Siem Reap, so it was so exciting to be there with them. It’s the pinicle of Khmer history and pride and students and the youth here learn from a young age how beautiful and special this place is and how it attracts millions of tourists every year. However, very few have the opportunity to make the journey to this touristy, thus more expensive, town.

Most of the group!

We started at the market where the girls were excited to buy the linen shirts with Angkor Wat embroidered in them (a fashion staple in many girls’ wardrobes here) as well as new kroma (scarves) to wear to protect their skin from the sun. I was gifted with a new kroma and looked soooo Khmer throughout the day. We spent the morning at Angkor Wat touring, taking pictures, sharing stories and laughing. I spent much time with my student Pean who is from Siem Reap and had a lot of historical information to teach me about all of the temples. I called her my guide and her payment was some ice cream. Also, on the bus before arriving at each temple (they are a bit spaced out), some students and I would take turns reading from a guide book that the Theology and Religious Studies Department at JCU bought for me before I left. We would read about when it was built, who built the temple, for which religion (Buddhism or Hinduism), which god in some cases, and much about the symbolism of the temple and the carvings. The girls were excited to read and learn about the temples in English and I was thrilled to see so much learning happening before my eyes!

Clouds over Bayon

At Bayon and Angkor Thom, maybe the second most famous temple with the four faces, elephant terrace, lepper terrace and more, we finally got some shade from the sun, but as I had forgotten through the long dry season- shade means pending rain. The rain came quickly and we were going through the temple half-protected from the rain, until finally sprinting for the bus. We were all soaked, but laughing so hard.

Pean and me at Bayon Temple

We saw another temple or two that day and were so tired at the end of the night, but there was not a single complaint. These girls are resilient and positive. Don’t get me wrong-I do hear many complaints when I say that a certain subject is going to be on an exam, but that comes with the job description.

I’m in the yellow in the back of the group…

Finally on the last day, we went to Kulen Mountain and swam in the waterfall. It was such a beautiful sight and so fun to swim and be crushed by the waterfall. I splashed, swam around, was crushed by the waterfall and laughed so hard with all the girls in the water that morning. Prior to swimming I dressed up as Pronong, or a tribal group in Cambodia, with some of the girls. I asked how much it was and all the girls said “100 Riel”! So I said yes! I’ll pay for us four- 400 Riel is like 10 cents! So we dressed up, took pictures and laughed because the same skirt that was so long on one of the high school girls was so short on me…I guess they’re not used to fitting 5’5’’ women. After we changed back into our clothes I went to pay with 400 Riel and my girls stopped me laughing, “Noooo teacher, it’s $10!” So…they confused 100 Riel with 10,000 Riel ($2.50), but no harm no foul. *I taught numbers in class this week though in attempt to correct the problem haha.

Sokly, Srey Nech, Youri, and me dressed as Pronong

We spent the rest of the day Sunday riding home on bumpy, unpaved, wickedly potholed roads balancing a busy schedule of eating, sleeping and singing. The sights were beautiful and I loved experiencing the culture, but my time spent with the girls was a high point of my year. I got to talk to so many girls about their time there, we had so many good laughs (they tried to teach me a Khmer song…hence the laughing), so much learning and overall a blessing to be together. It was a perfect way to begin my goodbyes to them.

I have always been really close to my second years. Maybe it’s because some of them are older than me and many around the same age, so we relate more. Or maybe it’s because they have been so honest, open and joking with me since day 1. I don’t know how it happened, but I’ve been excited to teach their class and talk to them every day and it is a blessing to know them. So when I walked into our last class last Wednesday and they asked if they could reserve the last 15 minutes of class for a program I emotionally agreed. They sang four songs to me-some Khmer, some in English; I cried through all of them. They wrote and read to me a letter of gratitude for the year spent with them; I also cried through that. (Keep in mind I have to use artificial tears daily to keep my eyes from being dry and I was just a machine that day!) Finally, they gave me a clock of Angkor Wat with the correct Khmer time because my watch, as they have all come to learn, is still in Eastern Standard Time because I never figured out how to change this cheap watch 11/12 hours ahead.

Monday we celebrated their leaving the school and going out for their job training and I was so excited and proud. I compiled a video of our year and everyone really enjoyed it. Many of the girls stay outside the school for training so I do not get to see them every day any more, but I keep telling them and saying to myself that I will see them at graduation July 18!

Girls saying goodbye at our “Farewell Program”

These were some of my first goodbyes and they are honestly “see you later”s because we know we will reunite July 18. But we are all acknowledging that it is an end of an era and with that we are sad, but I am so grateful. It’s been a blessing being their teacher and I know they are out kicking butt at their jobs now, not because of what I necessarily taught them, but because they are hard-working, determined, patient, kind, honest and smart girls.

And this is just one of my amazing classes. Stay tuned to my ode to 1^st years!

Khmer New Year

The past two weeks I had the great experience of traveling through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. My students have been anticipating April for about three months now, ever since they came back from their weeklong holiday in December. Cambodia celebrated their Khmer New Year April 14, 15, 16 and the cities shut down as the residents retreated to their “homelands” in the villages to celebrate. Our school had holiday from April 2-19 for Easter and Khmer New Year. We took our second semester exams the two days before and the students were free to relax over their holiday as were the teachers…as long as we finished grading exams and lesson planning!

    Sister My Hahn and Sister Blanchi crafting on Easter

Holy Week was very beautiful in Cambodia. Specifically, Saturday night at Easter Vigil mass we watched the Easter candle be lit from a flame that slid down a wire from two stories high! An amazing sight to kick off an exciting two days. We hunted for Easter eggs in the trees and bushes after Easter mass, made our own decorations of chicks in eggshells and had a feast for lunch with the other FMA community of sisters and volunteers!

Sarah and Clare on our night bus to Bangkok (with Flat John…)

Easter night Amanda, Clare, Sarah and I boarded the night bus to Bangkok. The trip was easy for me; I pride myself in travelling like a baby being able to fall asleep any transportation starts moving. We arrived at the border in the morning, were casually kept on the bus until our connecting bus had departed, then crossed, got our visas and found an alternative route to the city about three hours away.

Bangkok was immediately exciting with its nicely paved roads, people obeying the traffic rules and a city-scape that I haven’t seen anything like in seven months. It was fast, developed and orderly. I was expecting a much greater resemblance to its next-door neighboring capital city of Phnom Penh, but didn’t find much. In Bangkok we contemplated the difference in histories between Cambodia and Thailand despite being so close. We explored an art museum and reflected on how while Thailand was beginning to develop and create a stronger appreciation for cultivating the arts, Cambodia was undergoing war. For this reason, I experienced a tourist scene that was new to me in South East Asia, which resembled more of a tourist destination in Western Europe. There were many streets and neighborhoods devoted to the nightlife, souvenirs, shopping and eatery demands of tourism on cute, well-kept streets. There were never any communication barriers and I haven’t been around so many westerners since leaving the U.S. With a van full of other travelers we ventured out to the floating markets about an hour and a half away from Bangkok city center.

 Beautiful street lights!  Well, if this isn’t a sign of development Thai art  Thai flag at the Grand Palace —>

 The Standing Buddah-huge!!

Let me first note that Bangkok resembles Venice slightly with all of the canals that run through the city and the floating markets only heightened my senses to that similarity. We took a long boat down a canal where we saw homes right on the water and landed at a market where we transferred into smaller boats to weave through the sellers also on their boats. It was an amazing sight to see-people selling things like handicrafts, artwork, scarves and more from a stand bordering the canal or fruit and other foods from the boats passing by. If we wanted something we had to alert the “captain” of our boat, who would then signal to the seller to reign us in with long poles with hooks on them and then they would try their hardest to sell you everything in their shop to you until you pushed away with your own hands. It was a fun, but slightly nerve-wrecking experience for the casual browser-Mom, you may have hated it.

  Floating Markets   

After a fun, exciting time in Bangkok, we ventured up north to the city Mukdahan, which borders Laos on the Mekong River. We had dinner at a simple restaurant near where we were staying and chatted with the only English-speaking person there and happened to be the nicest girl and helped us order and plan our time in the city. The next morning we ventured towards the river and found the Indochina Market and explored the area. Around noon we caught a bus to the border and were once again left by our bus as we went through the visa process. This time the bus had our bags still, so, after minor complications, we managed to get to the Savannakhet bus station, gather almost all of our bags and meet our friend. I cannot express how wonderful it was to be welcomed into such a warm and loving home in Laos. Our friends are Fulbright Scholars at the local university there and have really become part of the community. The introduced us to some of their Lao friends, we celebrated Lao New Year with another group of their friends, experienced a Lao casino-where Lao people are legally not allowed to go… and more! Laos is a communist country, but the only thing I really noticed that seemed much different than Cambodia (which has a monarchy, but is ruled by the Prime Minister in a “representative democracy”…) was that their gas stations were “State Petroleum Service Centers”. I wasn’t there for long, but to see something that is typically private be state owned threw me off my game a bit.

Sunset over the Mekong River-we are in Laos-across the river is Thailand!  Me and Mysee our beautiful hostess!

We spent a day in Pakse, Laos where I rented and rode a bike along the Mekong with mountains across the river. It was a beautiful day and people were lining the streets playing with hoses celebrating their Lao New Year. I had to swerve out of their way or fully embrace the hose every time I went past and I would yell “Happy Pi My!” (or however you spell it). Crossing the boarder was so easy to get back into Cambodia. It was very deserted and simple, especially because we already had our Cambodian visa.

 Pakse, Laos

Our next stop was Siem Reap-home of all the old Angkor temples and the Khmer New Year celebration. We explored the old temples built in the 11-14^th centuries for both Hinduism and Buddhism. Tomb Raider was filmed at one too! They were amazing to see and walk around and I’ve been studying more about the styles and meanings since we’ve gotten back because we go again with our second year students in a month! At night we would venture towards the party street where over a thousand people-both Khmer and foreign- would line the streets listening to the live concerts going on and spraying everyone with water from super soakers then coating with baby powder. Day 1 and 2 we managed to avoid getting covered, but day 3 we fully embraced the celebration on the streets and were covered from head to toe in powder, as well as eating some accidently. We danced for hours showing off our Khmer dance skills finishing our trip on a high note.

  The Angkor temples

Khmer New Year celebration with the baby powder

This trip was an amazing opportunity for me to be able to reflect on the many different ways people travel, see the world and learn. We were with a lot of tourists, which, despite being in an up and coming backpacking destination in Phnom Penh, we aren’t really around tourists too much, and it allowed me to look at my experiences from another perspective. While I was so intrigued by all of their stories of what cities and countries they hit up and what cool adventures they had, but after being in Siem Reap and talking casually with a lot of Khmer people I felt blessed that I have the ability to get to know the Khmer people and culture on a personal level. I knew I loved my girls like crazy, but I found myself missing Khmer people when we were travelling through Thailand and Laos and was so excited to speak, smile and laugh with every Khmer person we interacted with in Siem Reap!

    I missed these girls-it’s good to be home 🙂

This experience also got my brain turning a lot on the different stages of development for each country and the different factors: government style (Thailand is run by the military-which we did get stopped by once on our bus and they took our passports, took our pictures, gave us our passports back and left), wars (Cambodia has really suffered in the last fifty years and during that time Thailand really capitalized on developing and it shows greatly!), all of the educational standards that have been implemented in recent years that have helped their people and much more!

Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach S.J., Superior General of the Jesuits, once said of Jesuit educated students that it’s what they do with their education that tells of their education and I hope that the same goes for me with both my Jesuit education as well as my experience in Cambodia through the Salesian Lay Missioners. I’m processing everything bit by bit, but I expect to continue to learn more from my experiences in the future as well. I hope I can take this experience with me and let it change me in any way that can be of any help to society.

A Busy Month!

Helllloo!

It’s been an unusual February/March-not just because it’s the hottest I’ve ever experienced these months (yes, the heat and humidity’s back!), but also it’s the busiest! Usually these final winter months are a lethargic time where there’s not much activity, but since I’ve last written we’ve done so much! We’ve had a speech competition, a critical thinking debate, we went home with one of our fellow teachers for a weekend, went to a Khmer wedding, met the ambassador and company at a performance, went on our staff outing to Sihanoukville (beaches and a mountain), had gratitude day and celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day!

First, the speech competition and debate were the same week, so we were crazy busy. The first years were preparing for their speeches: writing, correcting, working on pronunciation and memorizing. Memorization is a large part of the educational system here, so it’s not a scary idea when I suggest it. This is good and bad. Good because it’s what usually gives me anxiety when I’m learning because I can’t memorize anything. But it’s bad because they end up memorizing a lot more than just their speeches and then I begin to wonder how much a student actually understands and comprehends. Despite my pros and cons, my first year students did wonderfully with their speech competition and two of my students won! I was so proud of their hard work coming up with good topics of “The Importance of Water” and “The Advantages and Disadvantages of Watching TV”.

Romduol, me and Dalay after they won the speech competition

The debate was a huge stressor that week, but I couldn’t have been happier with the way it turned out. So I may have said before, but there were 6 debates with different topics: Preserving Khmer Culture, Women in Cambodia, Tourism in Cambodia, People Emigrating to Work in Other Countries, Minimum Wage in Cambodia and ASEAN Integration. I started giving my class articles to read in English in November and we would read together, go over words they didn’t know, discuss concepts, and ask and answer questions. I would have them break into small groups to discuss the issues and to ask critical thinking questions to each other, then to the whole class. I saw a lot of minds working through these activities and it was so exciting to witness them learning not only about how to read English articles, or about issues in Cambodia, but also how to challenge the society. This is not part of Khmer culture-to challenge authority or ask why, so to get these gears turning was a little difficult sometimes, but an amazing sight to witness.

On the day of the debate the girls were nervous, but they were giving each other pep talks and I was giving my own version of a motivational speach to get them going. Each girl had to speak for at least one minute and up to five about their topics and I encouraged them to speak freely, but not to memorize. The hardest part for both sides of the debate was listening to the opposing side and rebutting with an appropriate and relevant response. Some girls were very dynamic and intimidated ME and I wasn’t even on the other side! Regardless of whether they spoke exactly against what the other side was saying, the girls all gained a greater sense of debate, how to speak in English, how to respond quickly and how to work as a team. I was so proud of them, but most importantly, they were so proud of themselves.

English 2A hard at work

Right after the debate Amanda and I went home with one of the teachers at our school. Her name is Sopheap, she is so ridiculously nice and generous. She graduated from our school last year and is teaching this year. She’s from a village in Kampot Province about two hours away. Her village was very remote and rural, but so lively! The small village of Chim Kiri is centered around their Catholic Church center in the middle. I really felt like I got to experience Cambodia that weekend and I was so happy to be there! Her brother climbed a really tall coconut tree to get us fresh coconuts to eat and drink-it was so crazy! Her church community was amazing and welcoming with a youth retreat going on and mass and many meals. I felt so welcomed there by every person and we didn’t even speak the same language! I had a really sweet conversation with an old woman who spoke only Khmer about her family, her village and basic Khmer phrases. It was humbling to experience how much we could get to know each other without speaking the same language. We were both tearing up when we said goodbye and for that I am very grateful.

 Sopheap’s brother, the sunset from the local mountain and Sopheap and me!

The day after we got back from Sopheap’s we went to one of the sisters in our community’s blood sister’s wedding. It was so fun to get ready for and go to a Khmer wedding! A couple weeks before we went to the market with two teachers from our school and with their translating, bartering and navigating skills we successfully picked out the material for our Khmer dresses and had them made at a tailor near our school. The tailor was so sweet and had us pick our designs out of a Khmer wedding magazine and she took our measurements and then spent the next three weeks making them. I was so excited when we picked them up!

 Our tailor helping me look Khmer

The wedding was on a Monday and the ceremonial part happens at the bride’s house in the morning. This is where there is traditional dancing, fruit giving ceremony, blessing by the Buddhist monks and more. We weren’t able to make this because it was during the school day, but as soon as the school bell rang at the end of the day Amanda and I recruited some of the girls to do our hair and make up in preparation. This was the best part of the entire event. Our girls are not allowed to do their own hair and makeup for school so I’ve never seen their skills with this, but we had five girls working on us at a time just going to town! I think they could open their own businesses doing this professionally. While we had about ten girls in the health clinic working on our hair and makeup, about twenty or thirty were outside the window watching and ooo-ing and awww-ing at us. When I came out after changing into my dress the entire school was in the hall waiting and erupted when they saw me. It was so fun and Amanda and I joked like it was our wedding the way everyone told us how great we looked.

The wedding was a lot of fun. We sat with the sisters and there were about 700 people there and every one was dressed to the nines! We got to see the bride and groom walk down an isle towards a huge gathering of fruit on the table, they made three rounds around the table, then stopped in front of their families on the stage. They said their thanks and then proceeded to jointly throw the bouquet. Amanda tried to go in to catch it, but had to duke it out with a bunch of men, so she ended up on the floor with her hair pulled and no bouquet and I had a good show.

Next on our busy agenda, we went to a concert at the other Don Bosco school in Tuek Thla of a group of Chicago musicians. They tour the world playing music for kids who have never gotten the chance to hear these more classic types of music. They were really fun and the U.S. Ambassador William E. Todd helped welcome them. He spoke to the group expressing how proud he was of the students and motivating them to continue to work hard. I was fired up and ready to work by butt off for them. We had met him once already when we visited the embassy a few weeks back with our painting class teacher and he was really kind. He told us he came to Cambodia to try and help the kids and if there is anything he can do to help us help this country to just let him know. It was so generous of him and I keep praying that I can use him and many others as resources to help in some way. The ambassador also goes to church with us every Sunday, so it’s been fun to wave hello and goodbye as he comes in or goes out.

Last weekend we went to Sihanoukville with the staff of our school, the kindergarten and the elementary school run by our sisters as well. We went to the beach and Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province. I have loved all the opportunities to see mountains and breath the fresh, cool air. There was also a waterfall on the mountain that I hiked around with two of the other teachers because it was dried up due to the dry season. There was a pagoda at the top of the mountain and all the clouds impaired the view, but it was so beautiful! We ate lunch on the mountain and just laughed the whole time as we ate and spilled our food on the rocks.

  The pagoda at the top of Bokor Mountain

 Me at the dried up waterfall

The beach was so fun and beautiful! It was a holiday weekend, so it was a little croweded, but the water and sun was so warm. I feel so spoiled to have some of the most amazing beaches in the world so close and that our school chose to go there as a staff outing! We all played in the water for a long time and trying to teach some of the teachers how to float was hilarious. I didn’t even get that sunburned!

 One of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen

Finally (and I apologize once again for this being so long-but I wish I could personally communicate all of this with each of you so here it is!), there was no way I was not celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year, so I rallied the troops (Amanda, Sarah and Clare from Tuek Thla, and Victoria from the Children’s Fund and a volunteer from Australia) to go to an Irish pub by the riverside for a Guinness and some authentic Irish food. It was so great to have some Irish around me and we continued to celebrate dancing to a Filipino band and at our Indian guesthouse. It was an amazing weekend and another Saint Patty’s day I will never forget!

With all of these events going on I’ve still been having a very busy class schedule and I’m still loving teaching and everything about being a friend, teacher and mentor to the girls here. The girls have really been more inclined to open up to me and we share so many genuine laughs. Girls that could barely communicate in English at the beginning of the year are opening up and speaking more and more and we are all becoming closer to each other. I, once again, had a really bad spout of bacteria and the girls have taken to calling me “Princess Diarrhea” after “The Princess Diaries” which they were reading with Amanda. It’s a pretty fitting nickname…stay tuned for it perhaps replacing my current blog title.

Me, Teacher Sina and Teacher Kanha at Bokor Mountain

I hope everyone is doing well and I can’t wait to see and talk to you all! Love always and happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Watching Cambodia Develop

It’s once again been a while since I’ve posted, but my computer broke a couple weeks ago. Fortunately, living in a big city offers perks like having iOne (Apple) stores all over town and I was able to have my computer fixed in two weeks very cheaply. There are many things that are made easier for us because we live in a big city. For example, if I need contact solution I can find it at the stores, if we miss pretzels, Oreos or some other food from home we could find them if we wanted and if we want to experience any kind of entertainment we could find shows, movies, concerts, games, anything all in town! However, all of these nice department stores, restaurants and forms of entertainment are all pretty cost preventative to the majority of the people in the city.

It’s amazing how quickly this city is growing. I’ve heard it before how Asia is experiencing a developmental boom, but I didn’t realize that would mean that I watch buildings go up in a week, streets paved and widened in a month, sky bridges being built and so much more right before my eyes.

One thing that did shock me, however, was driving through a large deserted piece of land in the middle of the city. The entire city is crowded, busy, buildings or homes everywhere-except this area where a road cuts through from our neighborhood to city center. It baffled me at first why it was there, why no one lived there or anything. I read a little later that a foreign development company bought the land, which I believe over a thousand people had been living on, evicted them, demolished all structures, and now the land sits barren because the development company defaulted or something. We’ve got a whole lot of gentrification going on here in Phnom Penh.

I’m a confused soul. I see the benefits of all the international business, the tourism industries and much more, but I also see these coming at the price of increasing the living standards in the area without increasing the incomes of the poorest workers. The minimum wage for factory workers in Phnom Penh has recently increased from $100 a month to $128 a month. Sounds substantial. My class read an article about it in December and thought it sounded promising. However, since the January 1 increase, the costs of housing, food and necessities in their surrounding areas also went up and many workers do not seem to be taking home any more money than they were before. There are structural issues here that need to be resolved, or improved before this city can transition into a comfortable development.

My second year class is doing a debate in two weeks. It’s game on from here on out. We’ve been reading articles for months, practicing our vocabulary and critical thinking, and now it’s time to formulate these ideas into arguments. It’s amazing to see them get so passionate about topics like the minimum wage for factory workers in Cambodia and ASEAN integration, but it’s also hard for me to see them realize the negative sides of these topics because they could be affected by them. For example, ASEAN integration has the potential to provide many new jobs to Cambodia and really increase the livelihoods of thousands of Cambodians, but what my students have successfully understood is that this decision may not help the unskilled laborers in Cambodia who need the most support. These unskilled laborers are made up of farmers, sellers and factory workers, which are many of the careers of their families.

I’ve always been fascinated with the development of countries and being here in Phnom Penh has allowed me to watch and learn about so much more of the story. The stories of my students and their families and how laws, policies and societal changes affect them are what stimulate my mind to think of alternatives. I am so lucky to have this opportunity to learn and to share with my students, other volunteers here and community members about all of these changes and experiences.

Holidays Across the World

The last month has been very busy at our school. Despite being in a Buddhist country, our community of Catholic sisters celebrates holidays in traditional ways. For Christmas, our students all performed in a dance or song and they all contributed to making and selling food at the Christmas Bazaar the Sunday before Christmas. The community all came out to support their efforts and all the money raised went to their class outings later this year to the Killing Fields (First Year Students) and Angkor Wat (Second Year Students). They worked so hard on all of their dances-I taught 20 girls how to Irish Dance and it was pretty good!- they organized dozens of fun games and cooked and sold food all day! Through all of this they were so excited to hear “Jingle Bells” and Christmas was the common celebration for all of them-even though most are Buddhist!

It was amazing to me to see the girls rally for a holiday many didn’t know until they came to school here. We had a Secret Santa exchange throughout the whole school with a limit of 5000 riels or $1.25. Everyone got so creative with gift giving, wrapping, and all gifts were from the heart. The excitement on each girls face when she received her gift almost brought tears to my eyes. Simple gifts such as candy or little things for your hair were received like gold. After our school-wide celebration the students went home for almost a full week to spend time with their families.

Amanda and I stayed at school to spend Christmas with the community. Christmas Eve was wonderful! We spent the day cleaning, singing, relaxing and praying. We went to Mass at 7:30 to a fully packed outdoor auditorium-like room. The music was beautiful and the community was so fun with many people from the Philippines, but also people from all over the world. On our way home, with two students, four sisters and two volunteers in the back of a truck, we sang Christmas songs in the dusty air under the stars.

We had desserts with the sisters and retired early. Christmas was another beautiful day! We ate with the sisters at breakfast and lunch and continued to help with cooking, cleaning and preparing the place for our Christmas program with the other community of sisters in the evening. The other community is only about 10/15 minutes away so we do a lot of things together. They have two SLM volunteers there too, so we all get to spend a lot of time together, which is great! The other community came over for Mass, a prayer session, dinner and a program to follow. The sisters ended up singing Christmas carols in their native languages and it was amazing to hear over ten different languages being sung beautifully. It was a different, but very special Christmas. I went to sleep overwhelmed with how happy I was that night.

The next day Amanda, Sarah, Clare and I (all the SLM volunteers in Phnom Penh) boarded a bus to the north-Strung Leoung Province. We knew it would be a long day of travelling that Friday, but it was an opportunity to see some place new, so we went for it! After about 8 or 9 hours on the bus, we had just past Kratie city by about 10km and the bus was more empty now and we were finally starting to pick up the pace a bit. All of a sudden we heard beeping (which is a normal part of Cambodian driving), but it was followed by swerving, then a thump and finally slamming on the breaks from the bus driver. I was on the opposite side of the bus, so I didn’t see anything, but I was thrown to the floor from my seat. A man behind us said he was going to go check out the little kid that just got hit. My heart stopped. I ran out of the bus to see what I could do or how the child was. He was screaming. He was maybe 8 or ten years old and he had been riding a moto when he got hit. The front bumper of the bus was in between his legs, his helmet was cracked in the back, he had some scratches on his back, but he seemed to be in more shock than anything else. Many local people began to crowd around the child and started trying to help in different ways. I realized everything was under control and went back to the bus to find that the bus driver had run away with the keys. I had seen him run, but I had given him the benefit of the doubt that he was trying to find help… We learned after that running away is a typical action in order to keep you safe from the local crowds that gather, because they’re often out for blood.

So, with no bus driver, no language skills, and no phone, we started walking back to Kratie. We made it no further than about 500m when a van drove by and the man who went to check on the child from the bus waved it down and secured us all a ride to our destination of Strung Leoung about 2 hours away. The whole situation was just bizarre! We found our hotel Friday night, no problem; got dinner with our new friend from the bus and we all made plans to go on a day tour in Ban Loung the next day. Our tour was amazing! Rotanakerie Province was so beautiful-mountainous, fresh air-it looked so much more untouched than the city! We saw three beautiful waterfalls, an elephant, a volcanic lake and a village built to undergo extreme flooding. The views were breath taking, but the time spent with all of our friends was just as great! We had so much fun and fully lived up our day up north. The next day, Amanda and I caught an early bus back to Phnom Penh and had a much less eventful 12 hour ride home.

      

Getting back to school after a week off is just as hard for teachers as it is for students I can now attest. It was made a little easier, though, with having New Years Day off. On New Years Eve our community went to the other community’s for dinner, a program where we all laughed so much again and we all played with sparklers! Later that night, all the boarders at our school woke at 11:30 and we went up to the roof to count down for the New Year. We danced, reflected on all the highs and lows from 2014 and wrote what we were looking forward to in 2015 down on paper and put it in a balloon. When we counted down the New Year we threw our balloons off the roof and watched them fly into the city streets. We danced for over an hour more, and the girls had these little biscuit cookies that they would shove in your mouth and say “Happy New Year!” It was kind of my dream to be fed cookies while I was dancing under the stars! It was such a beautiful night and beautiful memory that I am so happy I can share with everyone here. There was no champagne and I don’t even think we were correct on our timing of counting down, but it was a night I will never forget. This has been such a warm and blessed season here!

Studying Women in Cambodia

It’s been a while since I’ve last blogged. It’s partially because I’ve been very busy, but it’s also partially because I found all of the Harry Potter books in the upstairs library and have reverted to my adolescent self with my addictive reading habits. We also have been preparing for our Christmas Bazaar next week, and the volunteers visited S21, Tuol Slang, a Khmer Rouge prison on Wednesday, Human Rights Day.

That alone is a large reflection- so many thoughts. Regardless, I was very overcome today in class and felt it was time to put the book down and make time to share.

A few weeks ago our principle suggested that our second year students hold a debate in February or March. I loved the idea and started brainstorming topics. I thought of all the topics that interest me about life in Cambodia and how I would love to hear their opinions on them.

I also thought about how wonderful it would be to have the girls reading articles in English, discussing in English, and applying their minds in a critical thinking form. I am a product of a liberal arts university and it has been very natural for me to conduct seminar classes of discussion around certain topics.

I started this project of critical thinking off with introducing them to an article I found in ‘The Cambodia Daily’, a newspaper we receive daily, that discussed the raise in minimum wage for workers in garment factories from $100 a month to $128 a month in 2015, hopefully. I told them this would be the first of six articles that we will read – all concerning a different topic relating to issues in Cambodia. At the end of the six weeks of reading and discussing a different article each Friday, we will divide into six groups, choose a topic and begin to prepare for our debate against the other class.

Well, they’re nervous about the debate. They’re shy with their English, and they’re nervous to speak in front of authority figures and the American Ambassador might be coming? But, when we started reading this article in class, first them on their own, then together and they asked me questions about words and meanings, then reflecting on the article and writing questions about it for homework, I could see them really apply their experiences and education to this topic.

They asked about the pros and cons of raising a minimum wage-why the government would not want to increase the minimum wage to help the workers. We talked about competitive industries and cost of living. Cost of living was a new idea for the class, but I put it in terms of how living in Phnom Penh is more expensive than living in the villages because food, housing and transportation is more expensive, they understood. They began to see how maybe $128 is enough for some, but not for people with families.

I was a little uncomfortable when we talked about the difference in minimum wage in America, but I was happy to teach. I said how in America our minimum wage is hourly and it is relative to how expensive things are in America. The girls responded saying how in Cambodia, even if they increase the minimum wage, they will just increase their hours worked during that month. That idea hadn’t occurred to me, but that’s the reality for them.

They were so interested in the economics of Cambodia and they were asking so many great questions. Maybe my excitement showed because many of them continued to ask me questions even after class. Now, I chose this topic because of my own personal interest in economics, especially here in Cambodia, but I left it up to the girls to choose the five remaining topics. I had them submit ideas or issues they’d like to discuss and learn about regarding Cambodia. The list was amazing.

We voted on which five we will study, and we decided on:

-Emigration to surrounding countries for work

-Preserving Khmer culture

-Tourism in Cambodia

-Women in Cambodia

-Asian Integration

I found an article in the paper this week talking about two Cambodian women returning from China after they were “lured there by a broker” to marry Chinese men in order to make money and send it home to their families. But they found themselves in abusive relationships. So, I first asked the girls what were some sub-categories of women in Cambodia and they came up with how women can work the same as men, how they can have freedom like men, education for women, women in business, women in families and sex trafficking. After reading the article alone and as a class, I had them discuss it in small groups while I went around listening to their discussions.

What I heard was amazing. I expected to hear a lot of Khmer being spoken and a lot of off-topic conversations, but the girls were focused and got down right to the issues. Girls who are typically very quiet in class, even students who do not have very good grades in the class, were very involved in the discussion. Everyone seemed to have an opinion or an experience of a friend, neighbor, or relative to contribute. I choked up when a student, at the end of the class, was presenting what her group talked about and she shared her own experience of a foreigner trying to persuade her to come with him. Another student shared how her sister was harassed by a man from China asking for her bank account so he could give her money. I witnessed girls passionately speaking and listening.

It was a somber class. The girls discussed what the government could do to help, how the women could make better lives for themselves, and what precautions should be taken. Obviously we don’t have the answers to systematic problems, but they get it. They see the problem. They almost took this as a lesson on what not to do, too, because it can be such an appealing option.

Once again, I’m finding some of my greatest joys here happening in the classroom. It’s amazing to watch the girls develop, but also be able to learn from them.

4+ Reasons Why Being Sick Isn’t That Bad

I always tell everyone that I love it here. The students are wonderful and the sisters are so great. But I don’t know how much I really say. So many things happen each day that I think: Geez, I wish I had a Go-Pro attached to my head so everyone could see what I’m talking about when I say the girls and sisters are wonderful. I’ve taken approximately five photos here at the school, but the memories are endless. I think on my second day here I journaled that I wish I had a pensive (nerdy Harry Potter reference) that I could pour my memories into and revisit with vivid detail and show people as well.

Well, I don’t have a pensive, nor do I anticipate that I will become one of those National Geographic photographers who is just able to beautifully capture the unbelievable smiles and scenes I experience every day, and I don’t really think a Go-Pro is very realistic either.

But I can try and recount my last two or three days to you as best as I can to show how amazing this place is.

To start, I ate this delicious sticky rice and banana thing wrapped in banana leaf on Monday night. I snacked on it while a priest friend of ours, Fr. Kevin, visited. He, Amanda and I all ate one and enjoyed it very much. That night we talked about how some of our girls’ families are affected by human trafficking. This shook me. I’ve seen KTVs here with girls in skimpy clothing out front. I’ve seen documentaries about the sex trafficking in Cambodia. But I didn’t really know about men being trafficked by boat and the psychological repercussions that go along with it.

To go along with being shaken up a little by that, I have had a student missing for the last week. I was originally upset because I learned last Thursday that her birthday was the day before and I didn’t wish her a happy birthday and then she wasn’t in school. Then she wasn’t in school again. And she still isn’t. I’ve inquired daily about this. It scares me. They called her sister with whom she stays and the sister says she’s not there. Let me add this student is really smart. One of the best in the school. She works at a clinic on the weekends to get medical experience because she wants to become a doctor. She plans on getting a secretarial position to earn money to pay for med school. In her free time she watches surgery videos on You-tube. She is smart and has a great deal of “street-smarts” too. So, yeah…I’m still worrying about her.

Tuesday, I proceeded with my daily routine. I believe it was the banana, sticky rice thing from the night before which stopped me early in the morning and told me I was not going to have a “normal” day. I took it easy Tuesday, but it was not quite pleasant. I followed the strictly rice diet and managed okay. Wednesday was a different story. I thought I was on the upswing of things, but I was proved wrong basically all day. The sisters, however, have been wonderful about it!

Example A: They ask me very detailed questions about my body functions. Upon giving them the latest statistic report, their faces froze a bit and everyone started to scramble. Surprisingly they weren’t running away from me, but one was getting basic crackers, one was telling the cook to make me “bobo” for dinner-rice and water, another was making up a homemade Gatorade type of thing, which I have now been drinking for two days and letting it work it’s magic.

Example B: Sister Blanchi has been making me this water mix stuff, which makes me feel a lot better, and she has been making me these sandwich things that are good for your stomach-she’s like a miracle worker!

Two reasons why the girls are fantastic:  (and there are a hundred more, but ain’t nobody got time for that)

1. I wore my glasses yesterday-this was the first time I’ve worn them over here. Primarily because I just feel like my face sweats so much they’d be running down my face so much it’d be annoying. But I wore them because I was too tired from being up the night before and I was just not feeling putting my contacts in. How do my girls respond? “Teacha, you look beautiful today!” “You look like supa sta!” (One did say I looked cute, like Angry Birds…I don’t really know what that’s supposed to mean, but I’ll take it!) “Teacha, you look more beautiful with glasses!” They were loving on the glasses. Meanwhile, I wore them because I felt so awful. My glasses are usually a symbol of my state of energy and these girls just ignored that and ran with it-how could I not be flattered or “high blood” as they say.

1a. Also, we’re going over different ways to use “look” in my second year class and they basically used all of them on me. “Teacha, you look better today than yesterday!” Last night I got “Teacha, you look like a ghost.” “Teacha is not looking good…” and they went on – but hey what a great teaching moment!

2. I’m teaching Irish dance to a group of about 25 girls-which is a blog post in and of itself. I missed practice yesterday because there was nothing getting me up from my bed at 4:30 in the afternoon. Today I rallied from my nap and walked/shuffled down four flights of stairs to our practice on the terrace outside. When I get there they have a chair waiting for me. I start to instruct, because we received about ten new girls into our group yesterday and we really needed to catch them up. One of my first year students looked at me and said, “Teacha, stop. You’re sick. We will take into groups of three and teach.” My first year students lead the pack of girls and went over every move teaching the new girls and reviewing with the girls who needed more help. I have a first year student who was self-conscious, shy, and not very good at English for the first month. Today I watched her lead a group of new students in a dance she herself only learned two weeks ago in English.

I’m not an emotional person-I sound like the Kinks’ song ‘Lola’- most anyone could tell you about my chronic dry eye and the drops I put in multiple times a day, how my eyes don’t water when I cut onions-the works! But I tear up quite a lot here. Like today I think I teared up at least twice. Once during Finding Nemo ( yeah I showed a movie cause there was no way I was standing up and teaching) when Nemo and his dad call his small fin his “lucky fin”- just Monday we got three new students with disabilities. Some of the girls here help carry the wheelchair up the stairs and the other girls take turns giving the girl a piggy back ride. So Nemo’s “lucky fin” was like these girls’ “lucky legs”. Watching these girls instruct my dance class also made me tear up.

Maybe this is how they say these experiences change you.

Festivities in Cambodia!

Since my last post I have been very busy with teaching and learning here! The holidays are such an interesting point of conversation between this American teacher and the Khmer students and teachers as well as the international community of sisters with whom we live. For example, for Halloween Amanda and I got very excited about celebrating in whatever way we could. Cambodia doesn’t recognize Halloween much, but there are some little signs of costumes and pumpkins popping up around Phnom Penh that Westerners are able to indulge in if they so choose. So I spent time explaining what Halloween was, how we celebrate by going “trick-or-treating” –which is simply dressing up and knocking on doors asking for candy. I explained the origin of the holiday coming from the eve of All Saints Day where people used to dress like saints. I showed them pictures of houses at Halloween and some examples of costumes. You can imagine the looks on their faces as they were shown something so weird! The first question I got was, “Why do you do it?” Well… because it’s fun? Amanda and I showed our classes Hocus Pocus, the 1993 Disney movie about Halloween and that helped show some of the themes behind Halloween. Overall it was really cool to be able to share some of my culture with them and I can’t wait to talk about Thanksgiving here in a couple weeks! (I tried explaining Groundhogs Day the other day and I think I lost them there…)

There are a lot of holidays in Cambodia that I have never heard of. We have had an average of at least one day off a week since I got here due to a holiday. Last week Cambodia celebrated Water Festival in Phnom Penh. Prior to coming to Cambodia I had never heard of it. I think my mom looked it up before I left and we saw that it was so crowded a couple years ago that people died because of stampedes… but I didn’t know what it was all about. Through asking my students, talking to them in class and after school, talking to the teachers, and having the sisters explain, I learned that Water Festival is a traditional festival celebrating a past Cambodian victory over another territory that is now part of Cambodia. In part of the celebration at the time of victory the champions sailed down the river to show off their win. In more recent times it is celebrated by groups of men from differing towns and provinces racing these long boats down the river with mass amounts of people watching and cheering.

Kimmi, Sarah, Amanda and me with some of the girls

 Just some of the boats- probably a hundred!

I was able to make it down to the second of three days of festivities. We had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off school for the occasion and most of the girls went home, but a few stayed at our school for the holidays. Amanda, Kimmi (another volunteer here for a few weeks from Singapore), and I joined about ten other girls from our school and went to the river to take part in the festivities. We had been warned against mass crowds, because three years ago there were a lot of deaths due to there being sooo many people and there isn’t much safety there either, but we didn’t have a problem! I guess there were less people there this year than in the past, but it was still crowded. I’d say it was kind of similar to tailgating for a busy or popular Steelers or Pirates game, not Browns or Indians because who goes to those? The girls navigated us through the crowd and onto makeshift bleacher seats along the river and watched all the teams prepare and race. The colors were all so bright and beautiful! It was great to observe a new sport-it was fascinating to see the different techniques of rowing be it standing, kneeling, sitting, or all of the above. The uniforms were also interesting- some were just plain t-shirts of the same color, some had the team name on the shirt, the pants were usually different as well as the hats. It just me think about the money that goes into uniforms in the United States.

After we watched the races we walked around the Royal Palace. I RAN INTO TWO PEOPLE THAT I KNEW! I love knowing people wherever I go out in Pittsburgh or Cleveland, or even D.C., but I had no expectations that I would know people in Phnom Penh and I loved it! I saw a student of mine and a priest that we had met at the seminary. Then we joined the other ex-pats in the restaurants on second floor buildings looking out over the river. I say joined them because I didn’t really see any along the river, but once we got up to the restaurant to look out over the river as the sun set to watch the boats with lights on them and the fireworks, I didn’t see many Khmer people. There were boats with big displays of lights on them floating down the river. It looked like fire on the water, but really it was like a Christmas display of lights on a boat reflecting off the water and it was so beautiful! After that they had a wonderful display of fireworks over the water. I was a little nervous because just a few weeks ago, for the King’s birthday maybe, they had fireworks and one person died because a firework misfired and impaled him, but all was good! We left at the end of the fireworks and took a tuk tuk home through all the streets lined with lights. Even though I’ll miss seeing all the Christmas decorations next month, I did get to experience some of the lights this past weekend.

  The lights on boats- so amazing!! And there were a ton of them!

When we came home we danced with the girls on the rooftop of our building overlooking the city with the full moon. It is a Khmer tradition to eat dried rice (Umbaw) and bananas and coconut water during Water Festival, so we ate that on the roof too! It was a beautiful memory. Water Festival always falls during the full moon and there is a belief that you can see a rabbit, like a shadow, in the moon. One student explained to me that the Buddha, when he was at total peace, was said to be like a rabbit…? And once a man tried to kill the Buddha when he was in his rabbit form? And when the man went to put the rabbit in the fire to cook he didn’t die and you could see a rabbit in the moon. I may have butchered the story, but it was something like that. We couldn’t see the rabbit or the moon because it was cloudy, but the moon is always beautiful here. Easy to say my Water Festival 2014 was a huge success and our weekend wasn’t even over yet!

 Umbaw nung jaik (I probably spelled it wrong…)

Following our wonderful day at the Water Festival, Amanda, Kimmi, Sarah (the other SLM at a Don Bosco school near ours) took a cheap bus to Sihanoukville to explore the beaches. I had heard how beautiful the beaches in Cambodia from internet sources saying “Top places to go before they get famous” and two of them being beaches in Cambodia, as well as the shout out the beaches here got on Orange is the New Black-the Netflix hit series, so I was even more intrigued to check them out. We found a very inexpensive bungalow 200 meters from the ocean and on the first night we ate dinner under the stars on the beach for $4. While we sat at the restaurant and on the beach on Saturday, we had a lot of children coming up to us trying to sell bracelets, fireworks, lanterns, manicures and all sorts of things. All of the begging really makes me think about how to help them – I think about it economically and individually and I am still undergoing a lot of processing here (maybe stay tuned for further reflection?). But I will say, I kept thinking about the movie August Rush. In the movie, Robin Williams’ character is an adult who orchestrates musically talented children to perform their instruments on the street to earn money, then to bring the money back to him and he will (poorly) take care of their needs. I couldn’t help but wonder if similar situations were going on with these young children who spoke English very well and were very good sales-people.

  the beautiful sunsets   

On Saturday we got a big, delicious breakfast for $2 each, then boarded a boat for a $15 trip that would take us to three different islands from 9am to 4pm. On the trip our food and beverages were covered and they supplied us with snorkeling gear as well. This was one of the best decisions we made. There were a wide variety of about 40 people on our wooden two-story boat coming from all over the world. We met two guys from the United Sates who were returning to Cambodia for the first time since they left when they were young in 1979 right after the Khmer Rouge. It was so fascinating to hear their stories about how they know the language, know the culture, but don’t remember much since they were so young. To come back for them was amazing to see how much everything had changed and how their hometowns no longer looked the same. I am amazed that I am casually meeting people who have undergone the horrors that this country experienced in its recent past.

   I was excited to see the first island…   

Our transfer boat

  The four of us in the clear blue waters (from left to right: Kimmi, Amanda, Me, Sarah) Also…it’s not Khmer culture to wear bathing suits so we followed suit.

On the trip, though, we swam at all three islands. The first island we were able to jump off the boat and go snorkeling. I had never snorkeled before – frankly the shared mouthpiece grossed me out so I just used the goggles and swam over and saw coral reef, schools of fish, jellyfish, sea urchins and so much more. That was the view below water; the view above water was just as beautiful! We did the same at the third island, and the swimming in open waters was so fun! At the second island we caught a smaller boat, did a quick little transfer a hundred yards out from shore, and docked on the beach. There we ate a fresh lunch of just-caught barracuda (or that’s what someone told me at least), vegetables, rice, a baguette and a coke or water. I was nervous to eat the food afraid of getting sick, but 4 days later and all is good! After we ate we swam, lay in the sun a little, and relaxed on the beach. The water was so salty and blue!

 Eating dinner on the beach watching fireworks

Finally on Sunday we went to Mass at one of two of the churches that survived the Khmer Rouge. It may have survived because it was so well hidden-our tuk tuk driver had a hard time finding it. It was a Khmer Mass, but beautiful to see the community in action. The church was small, A-framed, and probably originally naturally lit with open spaces between the bricks in the walls. It was an overall amazing weekend.

 I swear we weren’t taking pictures the whole time… just needed a little visual aid for my friends back home!

Another long post, but I there is so much I always want to share with everyone!

I am an educator?

The scariest thing for me coming to Cambodia was how I would be able to teach. My friends teaching at schools in the United States studied for four years on the tactics of teaching and spent a semester or so honing in on their teaching skills through student teaching. While I studied how to analyze, write, think critically, and many other valuable skills, I was nervous that I did not know the proper methods of teaching. There are different kinds of learners out there right? How was I to address each kind? How do I get my message through to a group of students who do not understand my language?

Amazingly enough, seventeen years of education proved enough of a prep course as I needed. I have found that each and every single day I reflect on past teachers’ techniques. I think back to my German classes in middle school where the language was new to me and how I was able to grasp different vocabulary words to prepare me for my high school classes. Every day I think about my high school German classes where I was challenged to speak in front of the class, to read aloud, to know vocabulary words, to know cultural differences, and to be able to talk around words I don’t know.

I am teaching English first years, English for second years, and Speech for first years. For first and second year English I base my lessons off the book, but adjust when I feel necessary. I recall in 4th grade when my long term sub told us to take out our work books and we all moaned and groaned because we knew that meant another boring activity, but she joyfully responded and went on to make the dry activity lively. I try to spice up the potentially dull activities by breaking up into groups, both large and small, calling individual students up to the board to write answers, to make games out of the activities, but sometimes the activity becomes homework and it is very straightforward then.

I brought a pack of notecards with me, and along with my mad post-it note addiction, I have been utilizing them along with the white board in class. We do not have many other resources, so where in the U.S. I would print out a hand out, or project something on the board, I make the activities more interactive. I think this has helped me become more creative when I usually consider myself uhh… very lacking of creativity. Both my second and first year English students have played the “describe what’s on the card” game with the class, which helps them with forming questions while practicing proper word order, articles, plurals, tenses, pronunciation and many other skills that we have gone over.

This week we have our monthly exams and for the first time I am left responsible for creating a test that will help the girls learn and show me where I can focus more. I heard that the speech classes last year did not have monthly exams, but I thought back to one of my most dreaded memories of high school and how it helped me learn to speak German much more confidently. In German 3 my teacher would have us periodically take part in a three way translation test. He would act as a person who only spoke English, one student would act as a person who only spoke German, and a second student would act as a translator for the two to be able to converse. During the conversation it was the German speaking student’s responsibility to keep the conversation flowing by asking questions and responding appropriately to the teacher’s responses. While this test was stressful at the beginning of the year, I gradually became more comfortable speaking German and being able to converse more easily. I don’t want to use a translator yet, but I plan to have three minute conversations with each of the girls, one on one, to test their pronunciations, word order, comprehension, and ability to keep conversation going. I am thankful for my learning experiences to have prepared me for teaching.

I am also teaching a course at the seminary this year as a side opportunity. There are I think about 4 Cambodian priests in the country and less than ten seminarians. In my class there are three and the English knowledge levels differ greatly. One student is in his third year of theological studies, but has studied English for a long time in university settings, and the other two are in their first years of theological studies and their English is not as proficient. The book I was given is a combination of a New Testament and a Christology book. I wish I had my notes from college…or my professors to refer to weekly. Now, as I prep for this course, I think about my courses in college in Theology and Religious Studies and how my professors prepped for these courses. Despite having a lot of information to convey they engaged us in multiple ways in one class period. I think about my three hour long night classes and how my attention was kept by mixing up the styles of teaching throughout the class. While my classes are only an hour and a half each, or on Thursdays a little over 2 hours, I still want to keep the attention of my girls. I’ve really grown to see how engaging students helps them learn even more.

I had the opportunity to check two of the girls’ marketing homework the other day and it was basic Economics. At that moment I realized how everything has come full circle. I guess this is how Econ and Theology majors come together. While I still feel like I am behind the ball each morning, when I step into the classroom I relax and get so excited as I begin to teach. When I get back to my office after class I am wired after teaching and am so excited about how I can see the students learning.

Sorry this was so long, I have so many reflections and so many thanks to give to teachers and professors I wanted to make them public. I can’t wait to keep learning more!