A Day in the Life of a Volunteer English Teacher

I knew before coming to Southeast Asia that I wanted to do some volunteering at some point while I was there. When I realized that I would be 2 weeks ahead of my travel partner, Leah, getting there, I knew that would be the perfect time to do it. I had some friends, that were also teaching in Korea, that had come and done some volunteering at an orphanage in Cambodia after leaving Korea. So I got the information from them, got in touch with the orphanage, and I was ready to go the day after returning to Siem Reap. I would spend the next two weeks teaching English to children at the Chres Village Orphanage. 

Chres Village Orphanage

Classroom at the Orphanage

The Orphanage is about 15 km outside of the city of Siem Reap and also serves as a school for the poor. About 60 orphans live here all the time and about 150 students bike in from the neighboring villages to attend classes. To my surprise, the majority of the orphans were not true orphans in the sense that they had no parents. Most of them had parents and siblings living in the nearby villages, but the parents were just not able to provide enough food or shelter for them, so they sent them to live at the orphanage. 

I was lucky enough to meet a Scottish girl named Kirsty at my hostel that was also looking to volunteer and able to get a spot at Chres as well. So every morning we would meet at 6:15 AM, scarf down some breakfast at the hostel and hop on our bikes. We then had an hour long, 15km bike ride through crowded streets of the city, down a long national highway, and a couple of pot-hole filled dirt roads to get there. It was a long trek, in very hot and humid weather, but the faces that were waiting there to greet us made it much more bearable!

I then spent the next 3 hours teaching Continents, Countries, their food and sights, and Baby Animal names to these guys...

At the end of that class period, all of the village children headed home and there was a three hour break before the next classes. We passed this time playing with the orphans, having lunch, and taking a rest. I spent most of my time in the Girls dorm, listening to the older girls sing their favorite Pop songs and having the younger ones braid my hair!

Break time in the Girls' Dorm

At 1:30, the next round of village students started biking in and we had the second half of the teaching day. I had the youngest, lowest level class...very challenging. I did everything I could to teach the days, months, shapes, colors, weather, body parts, and clothes...with a few games of Simon Says and I Spy fitting in there...to these little guys...

At 3:30 the "bell" (aka someone beating a piece of metal onto a piece of metal) rang it was time for everyone to head home for the day...

The School "Bell"
It was then time for Kirsty and I to get back on the bikes and start the hour long trek back into town...getting caught in multiple storms along the way!! The constant waves and excited "Hellos!" from the villagers in the fields along our ride made it much more enjoyable though!

I really enjoyed my time at the orphanage. It was such a different experience teaching English here compared to teaching in South Korea. In Korea my students came from very wealthy families and I had tons of resources at my fingertips to help me out. Here, I depended completely on my creativity and experience from the last year. There were curriculum, no books for me or the students, no paper or colors...all I had was a white board, a marker, and my imagination! But the students' love of learning and giant effort is what kept me going. These kids have next to nothing to their names but they are some of the happiest kids I have ever seen. They are just happy to have someone there to teach them and will take in whatever you are willing to give! It was extremely rewarding and not an experience I will soon forget!

The orphanage is kept afloat by an Australian volunteer named Clare. She is an amazing young woman who has volunteered the last year and a half of her life and countless amounts of money to make sure these children are well taken care of. The money she raised is running out slowly and she is afraid she will have to leave if it does. I don't know what those kids would do without her. A handful of them have been in the hospital with viruses the last month and all of their hospital bills have come straight out of her wallet! If anyone would like to make any kind of donation, I am going to attach the link at the bottom of this blog where you can do so. Anything at all, including the smallest of donations, can make a huge difference! The money goes straight to Clare and you can be assured it will go directly to whatever the children need!  These kids are truly remarkable and I really hope they will be able to get out into the world and make a life of their own one day!

To make donations: http://www.cambodianorphanage.org.uk/donate.htm

Walking Through Cambodia's Dark History

Coming into Cambodia I was familiar with the terms Khmer Rouge, Cambodian Genocide, and Killing Fields. But I had no real knowledge of the dark chapter of Cambodian History they referred to. I knew they were main attractions to be visited while in Cambodia and that I would check them out while there. Going into it, I thought I would be fairly okay since I had spent a day walking in the footsteps of the German Nazis at Auschwitz Concentration Camp (the largest, most cruel and brutal of all) a few months ago. Boy was I wrong! I'm not sure if the loads of exposure I had to the Holocaust and what had occurred at the Concentration Camps had prepared me a little more for what I saw there, but nothing could have prepared me for the eye-opening experience I had learning of the cruelties of the Khmer Rouge!

From 1975-1979 The Khmer Rouge, led by a radical man named Pol Pot, ruled over Cambodia, enforcing a radical social reform process that was aimed at creating a purely agrarian-based Communist society. They rejected all things Capitalist, and wanted to form an entire society based solely on agriculture and physical labor. All city dwellers were deported to the countryside and joined with the local farmers in forced labor camps. Anyone considered educated or intellectually elite was particularly targeted. Over 2 million people are estimated to have died from the murder, torture, starvation, and arduous labor forced by the Khmer Rouge. In terms of the number of people killed in proportion with the population, the Khmer Rouge was the most lethal regime of the 20th century. 

We started our day at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

This five building complex previously served as a High School for students in the heart of the capital city, Phnom Penh. A few months into his regime, Pol Pot had it turned into a "secret" prison referred to as S21 Prison, used for questioning and torture for anyone accused of seeking education or plotting against the regime.

The classrooms were turned into cells and torture chambers.

The entire complex was enclosed with barb wire fences, including the outsides of the hallways on the individual buildings to prevent escapes or suicide attempts.

The complex has now been turned into a museum, informing people of all of the horrors that went on there. The Khmer Rouge were very similar to the Nazis in the fact that they took very meticulous records of every prisoner that came through the gates. The rooms are now filled with row after row of mug shots taken of the prisoners upon arrival. These pictures were the most disturbing part of the visit. You walk into room after room filled with pictures of real people, looking them dead in the face, seeing the pain and fear in their eyes...men, women, and children alike.

After leaving there we drove 14km south outside of the city to arrive at the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. It was here that the prisoners of S21 were disposed of once the officials at the prison were done with them. Prisoners were blindfolded, loaded in the back of a truck, and driven out here. They were then murdered one by one and dumped into mass graves. Once they were finished, they covered the grave up and simply dug a new one the next time around. Speakers were hung on trees in the fields playing music and various sounds to try to hide the horrific sounds resounding from the killing spots, as to not "alert" local villagers. 

In the middle of the site now stands a Memorial Pagoda, housing 8,000 human skulls and articles of clothing belonging to the victims. 

Overall, the day was very enlightening and extremely overwhelming. I was feeling very sad for the Cambodian people and all that they had been through. But then I was walking through the city, receiving huge smiles and eager hellos from people of all generations. The genuine happiness and kindness that exudes from the faces of the Cambodian people make it very hard to remember that they endured such brutality only 30 years ago. It's very encouraging to see how much this country has bounced back in such a short time. It's no doubt they have a much brighter future ahead!

A Day & Sunrise at Angkor Thom

The Temples of Angkor Thom...the largest religious structure in the world and the pride of Cambodia! This 10 square kilometer temple complex is definitely not to be missed when traveling in Cambodia and is the sole purpose for many travelers to even make their way to the country. You could spend weeks exploring the expansive grounds and hundreds of temples...Alysha and I had a day! With such a small amount of time, we thought it would be best to hire a tour guide and set out early in the morning to see only the three most popular temples. 

First stop: Bayon Temple

Front Gate

This temple is most known for the 4 enormous faces of Buddha that can be seen sprinkled throughout the grounds, standing guard facing in all four directions: North, South, East, and West. Each one representing Compassion, Sympathy, Charity, and Equality.

The four faces of Buddha

This was also the site where we ran into this group of people dressed in Traditional Cambodian Apsara costumes...

Beginning my new obsession of becoming an official Apsara Dancer...It only takes a year of training and extremely bendable fingers. If the American Job system fails me upon my return, I might just jump a flight back to Cambodia and sign up! Not too bad of an option I think! I've already started practicing...

2nd Stop of the Day: The Temple of Ta Prohm or "Forest Temple"

This temple was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. It is known for the enormous ancient trees that have spread their roots right over, on, under, and through the buildings of the temple. Some of you might recognize it from some scenes in the Angelina Jolie movie "Tomb Raider". I'll just let the pictures do the talking for this one. 

Last Stop: Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat or "Big Temple" is the largest and most well known of all the temples in Angkor Thom. You see images of this temple everywhere you go: on the National Flag, currency, buildings, shirts, stamps, etc. It is easily the most recognizable image of Cambodia. And its not hard to see why. It is a massive three level temple with five huge towers on top. It was originally built for the king Suryayarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city of the Khmer empire. 

Angkor Wat Temple

Main Tower of Angkor Wat

Depiction of Apsara Dancers at Angkor Wat

Alysha and I jumped in a Tuk Tuk a few days later at 4:00 in the morning to catch the sunrise of the main temple at Angkor Wat. We got there in plenty of time to join the throngs of Asian tourist prepared with their plethora of cameras, tripods, and all the accessories, along the bank of the pond just in front of the temple. It was a slow sunrise, but a very beautiful sight to see!

Reunion with a Travel Buddy

Three and a half years ago, while doing a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, I met a tiny little Jewish girl from Los Angeles, named Alysha. I was there with 4 college friends and we immediately hit it off with Alysha and her two roommates. We spent the semester enjoying the city and Italy together, then Alysha and I realized we were both wanting to do some traveling once the semester was over, so we decided to join forces and do it together! We had a rocky (yet pricesless) first day, when we missed our flight from Pisa to Prague because we had all decided to watch the sunrise from the Ponte Vecchio on our last morning. But it was smooth sailing after that and we spent two weeks exploring Prague, Budapest, and the Dalmation coast of Croatia as what I referred to us as "Shrek and Donkey"!

Us in Budapest, Hungary 2008

 In the little town of Split, Croatia is where we had the revelation of a lifetime thanks to two Aussies, Paul and Ben, who had quit there jobs, picked up and set out on their way from Australia to London, where they were just going to find jobs when they got there. This completely blew my mind..."You mean I dont have to get a job right when I finish college?" As an American it has been drilled into my head that that's what we do...High School...College...Job...thats it! This thought of traveling for a couple years had never crossed my mind! Nor had the thought of traveling through Southeast Asia! "Why would you want to go there?" we asked them? Well it took about 2 mins and a few pictures for Alysha and I to be hooked...we had to go there! So...on the deck of an overnight ferry from Croatia back to Italy, over a couple of bottles of wine, we both made new life plans! Both of which included meeting up and traveling Southeast Asia together in the coming years!

Fast forward 3 1/2 years....We both finished out university, Alysha went into working in Politics while I spent a year teaching English in South Korea. We have actually done a really good job keeping in touch despite the distance, but haven't seen each other since we said goodbye in Rome. A few months ago, I just happened to be nosing around on facebook and noticed that Alysha's status said she had just purchased a ticket to Southeast Asia for a 6 week adventure before starting Law School! I immediately sent her a message since I would heading that way at the end of July, never thinking that it would actually work out for us to be able to see each other. Well call it Fate..Alysha would be in Bangkok, Thailand for the one day that I was flying in and then we were both planning on heading straight to Cambodia, where I was going to spend two weeks volunteering, waiting for Leah to catch up with me. We couldn't believe it...we were actually going to finally see each other again and in the one place we had vowed to travel together!! It was too perfect!

                                                   Reunited in Thailand!

We spent the night in Bangkok and then made the 12 hour journey across the border and to the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia. We were both in love the second we got out of the Tuk Tuk! Dinners for $2, full body massages for $5, and a night market that had every souvenir my heart could desire!! We spent 3 days stuffing our faces, getting rub downs, and exploring the city, spending one day in the massive temple complex of Angkor Wat (separate blog on that to come!) And also, taking in a traditional Apsara Dancer Show!

                                                With the Apsara Dancers

It was then onto the capital city Phnom Phen on a 6 hour bus ride. We were only there for about a day and a half and weren't very impressed, especially coming from Siem Reap, which we were absolutely in love with! We spent our full day there walking through the terrifying footsteps of the Khymer Rouge and all of the torture and sadness they brought to such a beautiful country. (Separate blog on that as well). Phnom Phen would bring an end to our amazing reunion...Alysha was heading to Vietnam, where she would spend the last week of her six week trip with her best friend Jen, and it was back to Siem Reap for me to get on with volunteering.

It was too short of a time together, but we were thankful for the few awesome days we had! We spent our last night together in true fashion...over a bottle of wine discussing the next stages we thought our lives would take us (which most likely we will both be living in Boston by January!), much wiser (and slimmer) girls than the last time we had said goodbye. I was very sad to see her leave, but atleast this time it wasn't goodbye...it was "See you in Boston!"