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| The whole gang! |
Jo and I have two weeks in total in Cambodia; one week down, one to go. We’re staying in SIem Reap but the main reason for our visit is to volunteer at Kampuchea House, a home for orphaned and deserted children. The orphanage is about an hours drive outside of Siem Reap, near a small village. There are 36 children, and I think about 9 or 10 adults living there. We have been fortunate enough to coincide our trip with Belinda’s (from Australia, works for Kampuchea House) so she often drives us out to the orphanage. When she’s not around or busy with other things we get a tuk tuk out there, which takes a bit longer but there’s always so much to look at, making it interesting for us. Recently we’ve seen a lot of dead animals strapped to carts attached to motorbikes, being transported along the highway. Almost makes me consider vegetarianism.
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| Chayna & Rea wearing our sunnies! |
The orphanage was started by a few Australians; a friend of my mum’s friend works with the orphanage and that’s how we got the gig! Everyone there is so lovely. The kids are incredibly polite, and every time we arrive they come running towards us; similarly, every time we leave they give us hugs and wave until we’re out of sight.
Initially we were told we’d be teaching English, but there’s not really any organised time for us to “teach”..Instead, we play! We play table tennis, we do drawings, play board games, we often just make up games! It’s fun. Most of the kids don’t speak much English, but they’re adorable and very keen to be entertained.
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| CUTIE!!!! |
The kids all go to school, except little Samnang, who is only two years old! The primary and secondary school are combined, going up to grade 9. Then a bit further down the road there is a high school for grades 10-12. The high schools spend most of the day at school, but come home for lunch. All the other kids do half days of school, which seems to be the most common way in Cambodia. Some of them go from about 7am to 11am then the rest go from about 12pm until 4pm. This means that there are always kids around for us to play with!
We asked if we could see the school and they promptly arranged it for us. I was surprised to find that there were only about thirty students in each classroom; I was expecting over-stuffed classroom with minimal supplies. I guess I was half right. They sit at quite small and old desks, and only have a few books and pencils each. The good old black board is still in use; though, they were using black boards at UMass, so maybe it’s just Australia that’s put them in the past!
We watched a couple of minutes of a grade nine (ish) maths class, and although the talking and writing was in Khmer (their language) numbers are written the same as ours, so we could follow. It seemed like he was essentially teaching out of a textbook. But I was quite impressed with the way he went through the problem; didn’t seem much different to what teachers would do at home. However he would ask individuals to stand up and read their method out to the class, which seemed intimidating but I suppose that’s their way of teaching here.
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| One of the many pictures Pich's taken of herself! |
Each time I get my camera out the kids are all over it. They let me take maybe three or four pictures before they decided it was time to take over the camera. I often get it back 200-and-something pictures later! Usually when it’s out of battery or has no more space. Mostly they love taking pictures of themselves. Very cute.
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| The tough choice.. |
On another day we had a “girly” day, but I think the boys loved it as much as the girls! A few of Belinda’s friends had sorted through their jewellery and given Belinda what they no longer wanted. We laid out all the necklaces and bracelets on the table and the girls came up one by one to choose something they liked. All the boys were at the side, pointing and shouting out which ones they thought the girls should pick. At the end, when there were a few left over the boys got to take some too! It was like Christmas for them, they loved it.
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| Thai, Rea & Ith with their necklaces |
Then we got out some nail polish and painted everyone's nails. Again, the boys were joining in! I had one of the girls paint my nails with a bobby pin, drawing flowers! She did an incredible job.
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| Painting Nu's nails |
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