SE Asia

For only the next week I'm volunteering at a school in Siem Reap. I'm staying with Paul and Sar at the school, which is where they live and are also the founders of. The school I'm staying at is called the New Life Centre and is based only a 10 minute drive from the city centre. They also run two other schools out in the villages, providing free education and also a meal to those living more rurally.
Sar grew up poor in a village like these, but she was sponsored by a guy from Canada who put her through school, university and teacher training. After being a teacher for a while, she opened up the New Life Centre 14 years ago with the help of her sponsor. He had told her he couldn't pay to put every single kid through school like her, but if she could set up a school he would fund it. I think she met Paul before setting up the school, and they did it together. Paul was born after the Khmer Rouge regime but the country was still in civil war, so his parents sent him to get education with the monks for 10 years, and he later trained as a teacher. I didn't find out all this information straight away of course, I learnt it over the week talking to them at dinner time. They have two young boys, age 3 and 5 who I'd sit and have breakfast with.
Was a bit of a shock to the system to set my alarm for 6.30am. The morning school session starts at 7.30, but kids start coming in around 7. The first morning I accompanied three other teachers outside the school gate. They helped kids climb down off their parents motorbikes (how 90% of them got dropped off). Older kids cycled in, often with a younger sibling on the back clinging on for dear life, and even a few had motorbikes!
For all greetings or goodbyes, Cambodian seem to put there hands in a prayer shape and bow, so I got some very cute 'good morning teacher's' this morning.
The school was pretty small, with a small courtyard and climbing frame, then two downstairs classrooms, two of the first floor and a final one at the top.
The kids ages ranged from 3-12, and were separated by ability into kindergarten, grade 1 or 2 depending on their English level. This is an English school, most of them also attend public school on the alternative morning/afternoon and get taught a curriculum in Khmer.
The bell went off at 7.30, and everyone lined up. I was thrown straight into the deep end and was made to stand and speak in front of the 50 kids! I got them to do good morning, questions on the day/date, numbers, the alphabet and then some general questions like what they had got breakfast 😅. I was saved by another bell at 8, where everyone dispersed into classrooms.
I was in kindergarten, which was a little chaotic, and for my first day they actually had tests to do! I'm in no way a teaching expert, but I think 3-year olds in England would have struggled with the concept, let alone kids with only bits of English. They had to circle two photos that started with the stated letter (circle apple and ant but not cat for A). There were three photos for each letter to choose from, and I'd say 90% of the kids just started circling / drawing on all the photos 😂 It was also a mission just to get them to stay in their chairs or pay attention. Luckily there were two other teachers in the classroom with me haha.
Most of the teachers here are also volunteers, all Cambodian, who have come to Siem Reap to study. The school puts them up in local accommodation if they need it in exchange for work. A majority were younger than me, in their early twenties or even 19. They were all very lovely and helpful, but also work so hard, going to study at university in the evening after a whole day of teaching!
After an hour, everyone had a 30 minute break, followed by another hour of school.
Kids were dismissed at 10.30 and left in drabs over half an hour. The afternoon session of school didn't start til 1.30 so I had a lovely gap to chill out and have lunch.
Was the exact same session in the afternoon, just with different kids. They are all so cute. I get called teachaaaa, emphasis on the 'aaa' 🤣.
Kids got released after 4.30, and I opted to help out in an evening class full of older ones 5-6pm. These were 13-17 year olds learning English. They had booklets they worked through with the teachers, reading comprehension and listening activities. Reminded me of being in school myself and trying to learn Spanish!
I felt a little more helpful in this class, as I could have a conversation with the kids and explain things to them rather than just trying to get them to stay in their seats.
By the end of the day, I'd only really done 5 hours of helping out in the classroom but was absolutely exhausted!!
I had dinner with Sar and the family before crashing in my room, which is 5 steps away from a school classroom, for an early night.
The next day was much the same. Every break I'd go to the corner shop and buy a snack and drink, and learnt quickly to eat it as I slowly walked back to the school, instead of eating in the office/ reception and having loads of tiny eyes on my crisps 😂
Thankfully there was no more tests, so me and the other teachers just did some alphabet learning with the kids.
In the evening, I decided to venture out into the city and find some food. I had a delicious veggie curry but it was so rich, I couldn't actually finish it all.
I'd usually get two 'days off' a week, but seeming I was into actually here for a week I asked if they needed any help at the weekend. I had mentioned I was ok at art, so got roped into painting! I hopped on the back of a teacher's motorbike early Saturday morning and we drove 20 minutes out to one of the village schools. The rest of the teachers were there doing lesson planning for the week (on a saturday!), so a few helped me out.
The amount of trust I've been given this whole experience is crazy. Paul the night before said to me he'd left some paint out for me, there's a small building that's got nothing on and that I could paint whatever I wanted!
I didn't actually realise I'd have a team of people with me so changed plans to a mural that was easy for multiple people to work on at once. We had the extremely creative idea of painting the alphabet, then surrounding each letter with animals and objects that started with said letter (unheard of I know).
I made friends with the guy who drove me in, everyone calls him 'little boy' as he looks 16, but is fact 22 and in his final year of studying international relations at uni. He was super talkative, and was eager to learn about 'british culture' and places I've travelled to.
Talking to him made me realise how lucky I am to be travelling, he really wants to go to Spain but the cost of a flight would be equivalent to 6+ months of work!
We had a break for lunch, then continued with our masterpiece. Some people were perhaps more skilled at painting than others so there was a variety of funny looking animals, but it was a fun day!
In the evening I moved rooms from the private into the small dorm they had as I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos in the night! Then again, headed into town for some food.Leggi altro