Tales From a Female Traveller

A Cambodian Learning Curve

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When our 7 day Angkor pass ended we were supposed to head back to the School to teach English for two days and live and eat with the kids, but because I wasn’t feeling the best and slept for almost two days it took up the extra two days we would have had and we no longer had the time to stay the length of time Luckyman wanted us to. This made me feel quite guilty and I thought it would be a good idea if when we went back to the school that we didn’t turn up empty handed, so we stopped into a local "book shop", which is actually a stationary supplies store, and bought some writing books, English books and a box of pens to take with us. Luckyman was really upset that his "disciples" could not stay and teach for a few days but he seemed to understand why we were on a tight schedule.

When we arrived there were two girls from Canada already teaching a class, so we decided that we’d make ourselves a part of the class along with the kids and it went down well. It was actually kinda fun to sit with the kids and make jokes along with them. We all got to introduce ourselves and say a few things about ourselves too and all the kids loved the fact that they got to tell us all something about themselves. One girl took a particular liking to me because we both liked pink as our favourite colour. After a while it came time for Luckyman to take the Canadians to the rural orphanage school he had taken us to previously and left us to teach the class. We weren’t too sure what to do so we thought it would be best to just try and start from where they had left off and that happened to be a lesson on different flags of the world. So using their text books we taught the class about the flags from Australia, Germany, England, Spain, France, Italy and a few others and the kids loved getting the answers explained to them. Halfway through our class the rain started and we all had to move inside to avoid it. The rainy season had set in by this time and every afternoon at about 2 or 3 you can bet on the fact that for about an hour it’s going to pour down with torrential rain. So class had to be temporarily cancelled (all the classes are held outside).

I’d always wondered about the kinds of things the children learn in these English schools and visiting the school has opened my eyes to a few things. One, the kids actually WANT to be there as they feel it’s a stepping stone away from the poverty they are born into. Two, they rely solely on donations and volunteers to keep their doors open because many of the kids are orphans and take up permanent residence at the schools and three, a lot of the time it is Christian orientated, so many of the kids practice Christianity and not Buddhism. So while the rain was forcing a cancel to the class, the kids were inside in the library (a section of the main building with a few bookcases of books) reading… yes… these kids actually took it upon themselves to continue class by reading books from their donated library instead of using the rain as an opportunity to slack off… B was talking to one of the other volunteers in the kitchen, and I was sitting thinking about these kids. They want so much to climb out of their poverty that they dedicate themselves to mastering English and they’ll do anything to learn it. It was actually very impressive to watch a boy pick up a copy of War and Peace and sit there and read it of his own accord. Schools in Australia don’t even use War and Peace as a text in senior high school and here’s a boy who is only 13 years old, placing himself in the only corner with light coming through the window so he can see (there’s no electricity) and attempting to actually read this highly difficult piece of literacy. At first I thought it may have been for show, that the kids might have selected books with pictures, but when I took a closer look he was actually reading it, sounding out every word as he went along and repeating it to himself once he had the word down pat. I was in complete awe.

As I made sure all the kids were occupied with something I went back outside to the school desks to take a look at a text book and came across an open page in one of the younger girl’s notebooks… I shall transcribe it below because I feel it is important to understand something about these kids and about why they consider school to be so important… it reads as follows…

"…and by the way the people in my village say that for the girl when grown up No go to class Because family is poor and busy earn the money for family just they are stop study. So the women of Cambodia most of doesn’t knowledge. If the girl in my village who was studied in pouk high school is a lucky, if our girls can’t go to school it is a terrible waste. When girls are able to study they can be more alive then instead of hiding away. The women of Cambodia will have a voice and be able to speak out for themselves same for man too."

I was so struck by this piece of writing that I just had to inquire as to its origin. Apparently the children were asked to write a short essay on anything of their choice, and this is what this 14 year old girl had chosen to write about. From the mouths of babes. That paragraph, probably a short snippet of a larger essay spoke so many volumes about human rights and equality that I finally understood why these kids are so hell bent on being able to go to school. In their country, school is a privilege, not a right, and not just reserved for boys… they are starting to understand that they need into educate their girls too… for through knowledge, is freedom from poverty.
With my head filled with questions and my heart filled with compassion, the rain started to ease and it was time for us to head into the market to shop for some food for our lunch.

It was certainly an experience. The market is set up under whatever piece of cloth can be found and stitched together to make low canopies above muddy ground, and underneath all this sit women and children with a space dedicated to whatever they are selling. You can get virtually everything in these markets, from toothpaste to pig’s heads… anything you need. B and I paid for the ingredients to make our lunch and when we arrived back at the school the older girls took charge and got underway with making pork Lok Lak with rice and egg. The kitchen in the school consists of one small room at the rear of the building, with a pot on a mounted open fire and a few dishes and utensils. The girls are so mature and learn to be this way from a very young age as it is their duty to help raise younger children and help out the adults with the running of the household, so it was no surprise they cooked up a great tasting meal and afterwards we all sat around the table and appreciated it together. A very peaceful experience.
Eventually it came time for us to leave and because I was starting to feel a case of travellers gut coming on I thought it best we leave after the next class. I was sad to have to go but I feel I had learned more about the Khmer people at the school than I did anywhere else in Cambodia. A lot of the time Khmer’s think that travellers only want to hear about the Khmer Rouge times and how bad things were for them, but I want to know more about their daily lives and that’s what the school taught me. It sure was a really big learning curve and I was thankful for every moment of it.

By the time we had moto’d it back to the Miss Oud Dom Guest House I was so sick with Dehli Belly that the toilet became my friend for quite some time afterwards. This sickness would stick with me for over a week and a half, maybe more, and it would force us to miss our bus to Battambang, throwing our schedule out by days and not leaving us much time to see Viet-nam or Laos, but I would not trade having that market meal with those kids for the best 5 star steak in the world.

posted by Lucyspeak @ 12:57 pm