Day 3 at Treak Community School

Today was a day that, in many ways, represented a microcosm of our trip, with highs and lows all squeezed into the one day. Our day up to 1pm was spent at the school. The initial shyness for many of the Cambodian students has quickly faded and the UniSQ students are now the "cool kids" in the playground that the children love to play with. Our day at the school ended after lunch so we could visit The Lake Clinic (TLC), an NGO in Siem Reap that provides access to health services for the thousands of Cambodians who live in very remote and underserved regions of the Tonle Sap Lake Area (aka "floating villages"). This was the "tough part" of our day that saw most of us really struggling. Not only were we all experiencing fairly intense physical discomfort, crammed into a closed room in high heat for two hours to hear about the clinic's work; there was also a collective sense of grief hearing the stories of the poorest people and the work that TLC conducts, and viewing the photo gallery depicting the lives of those in the floating villages. The night brought a welcome cooler evening after an intensely hot day, and we visited Phare Circus; a group formed originally in a refugee camp after the Khmer Rouge regime. Now a successful social enterprise, Phare trains up many young performers with skills in music, acrobatics, art and dance to give them a living wage and hopeful future. The performance was spectacular, and the story of Phare, shared during our pre-show back-stage tour, was equally inspiring.Read more