Teaching at a Rural School in Kampot

I'm temporarily back in Scotland and it is scary how easily I seem to have slipped back into normal life; sometimes it seems like I've never even been away.  Of course, this is not the case and my travels are still very much with me in memory, in the form of new friendships, how they've shaped my view of the world, fueled my passion for life and all the places and people in it.  I've always had a desire to travel so that hasn't changed, but my 5 month adventure in Cambodia and Thailand has really made me realise how intrinsically important travel is to me and I now have a genuine interest in global issues; including human rights, poverty, geopolitics and the environment, to name a few.  It is cliche, but my experience has made me appreciate how lucky I am to have a loving family who support me, an education that gives me opportunities and independence, a UK passport that allows me to travel easily to any country I choose and an economy where I am able to save money to travel to those countries.  

Coming home was full of mixed emotions; I was so sad to leave - I felt there was still so much to see and do - but knowing I had family and friends who missed me and who would be there to welcome me home was a wonderful feeling.  Coming home is, in a way, as much a part of traveling as actually being away; being reunited with friends and family, sharing all your memories in the form of photos and stories as well as giving little souvenirs; you're still riding high on the travel adrenaline bursting with tales of your adventures! It is the static of being at home day to day that seems so dull and even boring after the exciting adventures of travelling.  Since coming back to Scotland, I've tried to keep the momentum up and keep busy - I managed to get a part-time job, I've seen most of my friends, spent time with family and completed an online TEFL course.  This blog has become a little more sporadic than I would like, but I truly believe there is no point in writing if you don't have time to write with feeling, so today I have a rare day on the sofa before work and I'm taking time to update 'notesfromasc0tsgirl' ! 

Teaching at a Rural School in Kampot

Teaching at a rural school in Kampot was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.  The school was in a very rural area of Kampot on a small island known to the locals as 'Fish Isle'.  Each day to get there, Sokhun the Cambodian English teacher at the school picked me up on his scooter and we drove about 20 minutes out of Kampot town, over the 'new bridge' and across another bridge (in the picture below) to Fish Isle.  Once on the island, the roads changed to red dirt track and its uneven pot-holed surface made for a bumpy ride which took a bit of getting used to since I'd never been on a motorbike before! 

I loved the journey to the school, the landscape was beautiful and watching people go about their everyday lives in this rural area was fascinating.  

A typical house on stilts on 'Fish Isle'

After a couple of weeks in Kampot the weather took a turn for the worse and the rainy season well and truly arrived! It made the journey to the school very difficult as the dirt track became a slippery, muddy obstacle course round deep puddles.  On two occasions the rain was so heavy and the road so bad that it was too unsafe and pretty impossible for us to make the journey to school.  Whilst locals usually managed to style it out driving with umbrellas, I did the unthinkable... donned a plastic poncho! In bright orange, no less! They do the job of keeping you dry well, but in the unbelievable humidity they are hot and sticky to wear!  Arriving home to Little Garden, from the school, on days like these was always funny - Saran the House Mother and Sokhun's wife, would laugh at the state of us looking like drowned rats and covered in a splattering of orange all up our legs and backs from the muddy track!  Saran showed me to the hose and brush where I scrubbed my legs before going into the house!

One day, on a Khmer holiday, I cycled with another volunteer who had come for a visit from the orphanage to teach the children.  Although it was a school holiday, the children are so eager to learn that they want to come to school anyway, so as a volunteer of course we were up for going, even although Sokhun wouldn't be there.  Half way there the weather closed in and the heavy rains came! We got absolutely soaked, but a kind Cambodian man waved us into the shelter of his home which was nothing more than a small shed made from corrugated iron pieces.  Below is a picture I took from his home.   

After the rains the rice paddies were drenched and the water buffalo loved it!

When I first arrived at Kampot, it was still dry and I often saw local salt farmers working in the salt fields.

One of my students and her mum outside their home on the island.

Teaching at the school was one of my favourite experiences of my whole time away.  The children were full of energy and enthusiasm and so receptive to me.  I have never taught before; so it was a challenge to come up with lesson plans to fill an hour, capture and hold their attention, but teaching the children was so much fun.  Sokhun gave me a copy of their English book: one each for the older and younger class, so for the initial few lessons I was able to plan them around the material in the book.  The benefit of native speaking English teachers abroad is the students can learn the pronunciation of words and practice their conversational English.  I found, as I'm sure is the case with most classes universally, that some children were more confident in participating and speaking than others.  I found that I grew to know the children quite well and could guess who would be finished their worksheets first, who would have their hand up to participate and who required more than a little encouragement!  How at ease I was standing in front of the class surprised me; making silly noises imitating animals, encouraging the whole class to repeat words and sentences after me, feigning sadness when no-one wanted to come up to the front of the class, shouting loud praises of "wohoo" or "well done" or "tres bien!" when they got something right and making them all erupt into fits of laughter; I felt compelled to show them the same enthusiasm as they did me.  I spent my evenings lesson planning, coming up with games and creating worksheets.  The reaction from my classes was fantastic and it really was the best, most rewarding feeling when the lessons went well.  Only on a couple of occasions my lesson wasn't a success - it was too difficult and I had to improvise with games like hangman!  A particular treat for them were word searches, if they spotted me taking them out my bag, they would go wild!  The children were super enthusiastic, but really well behaved.  Sometimes, they would grow too noisy and I would laugh and cover my ears and making a shh sign with my finger over my lips and they'd soon quieten down.  The boys responded well to humour and joking and I often high fived them when they done well! 

The children who came to the school came from humble homes, a lot of their families were farmers harvesting rice and salt on the island.  Fish Isle has a large Muslim (or Cham as they are known in Cambodia and Vietnam) community so many of the women were covered and wore a hijab.  Despite their poverty and humble lifestyle the children were always smiling, laughing, running around or playing games.  When Sokhun and I arrived they would rush over to us; the children would encircle me, ask me questions, hold my hand or shout my name, keen to show me something!   These were children not to be pitied; although poor, they had families to go home to and access to education.  Their lives are simple, yes, but compared to the children I had lived with in the orphanage and the street kids I saw in Phnom Penh they were happy and loved.

Sokhun, their normal English teacher, was just as happy to have me there.  He told me that because of Cambodia's past it's difficult to find good English teachers.  He was a very busy man, travelling to several schools to teach.  He explained that growing up it had been forbidden to learn English, but his Mother had insisted and he was eager to learn: he learnt in secret over the years.  So it was due to his Mother's forward thinking that Sokhun now has a well respected job and reasonable lifestyle today. 

Lesson Preparations:

The classroom:

Colouring Disney pictures on my last day.

One of the pictures student Lita gave to me:

Cycling on one of the sunnier days

Me with all the children. 

My last cycle home.

3 Cafés Not to Miss in Siem Reap!

Hey, and welcome to this mini blog post! 

Everybody loves a café and when I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia, there were plenty to try.  Siem Reap town centre was fairly compact and feeding off of the rather seedy and aptly named 'Pub Street' were much quieter, quirky little side streets with boutique shops, art galleries and a variety of restaurants and cafés to suit all tastes.  

Those of you who know me, will know that I follow a coeliac diet, so whilst traveling in more touristy areas I've searched for places I can find gluten free food.  I found two cafés in Siem Reap that had specific gluten free options, but were still wildly popular with all tourists.  

Sister Srey Café is a fabulous enterprise which helps to support young Khmer people to continue their studies whilst supporting other family members.  You can read all about their ethos here: Sister Srey Cafe

They provide delicious freshly prepared food and there is a real friendly bustling atmosphere in this little cafe which looks out onto the street and river. 

I opted for the pumpkin soup which was gluten free and served in this uber cute mini frying pan! 

I then decided to splurge a little more and ordered the RAW (gluten free and vegan) passion fruit cheesecake... delicious!

New Leaf Book Café was another of my favourites whilst in Siem Reap.  Tucked away on a quieter street, but still just round the corner from the main hub; I found this to be a little escape from the busy Siem Reap town.  It had a very relaxed feel about it; just the effect a good book should have! It had shelves stacked with plenty books to choose from.  Here's also where I had quite possibly the best coconut shake - and I should know, I've certainly tried enough! New Leaf also supports local NGO's which was another great plus.  You can read more about it here: New Leaf Cafe

CAKE! Who, may I ask, doesn't like cake!? That's a rhetorical question, because of course the answer is no-one! So everyone would love Blossom Café.  It serves a delicious range of cupcakes and specializes in cake art.  Their cakes are simply amazing; with so many fabulous designs - I spent a good 15 minutes or so deliberating over whether or not the handbags in the window were in fact bags or cakes!!! That's how good they are.  When I was in, a little girl came in with her parents and after much indecision picked the 'rainbow' cupcake - she was so excited when she cut it open and saw all the colours and it was fun to watch, but whether you're a kid or an adult this café is a fantastic treat!  It has a good selection of gluten free cupcakes too - so it was heaven for me! Like the other two cafés it also has a charitable aspect and is in fact a not-for-profit organisation that supports local women.  Here's the link to their website if you fancy a browse: Blossom Cakes .

Sweet Treat Heaven!

So there they are 3 cafés you definitely shouldn't miss if you're traveling in Siem Reap! I hope you enjoyed this little post! Thank you, as always, for reading. 

Kais Kids: A Reflection of Volunteering at a Cambodian Orphanage.

So, I'll admit, I've been putting this post off for a while now. It's a biggie: the reflection of my whole time spent at Kais Kids Orphanage.  Honestly I have no clue where to start, especially now looking back; the beginning of my experience at Kais seems so long ago and there is an overwhelming amount to reflect on.  I'm not sure that I can describe my time at Kais wholly or comprehensively enough in order to justify the experience I had there.  Nevertheless, in this post I will endeavor to give a frank and all encompassing view of my time at Kais in order to hopefully paint a picture that does it justice.

When I initially planned and booked my volunteering project at Kais Kids Orphanage I did a fair amount of research which included reading the Personal Overseas Development (POD) project booklet, talking to a couple of previous volunteers via Facebook and of course talking to my personal volunteer project manager from POD via e-mail.  I wanted to be prepared, but at the same time I didn't want to take all the excitement that comes with the unknown out of my adventure.  As it turned out, I really don't think any amount of chatting and bombarding of questions to previous and then, current volunteers could have really prepared me for Kais.

I tried not to have too many pre-conceived ideas of what it might be like: but when it's all I could think about for months before it was difficult not to build up some kind of image in my mind.  I had imagined a tiny village in the middle of no where nestled in the heart of rural Cambodia with dirt tracks, sprawling fields and rice paddies with only tiny shacks and wooden huts dotting the landscape.  To a certain extent I was right and that definitely does exist; but what I hadn't anticipated was the huge National Highway Four (primarily funded by the Americans) to run straight through Treng Trayeung.  National Highway Four is the major road which connects Phnom Penh city to Sihanoukville where Cambodia's only port is: this makes the road busy with transport lorries and of course buses taking people to Sihanoukville beach resorts.  Take Route 4 away and Treng Trayeung is completely rural and rustic like I had imagined; but this road drastically altered the image I had in my mind.  The increasing number of transport lorries along Route 4 has triggered the development of many 'gasoline service stations' along the roadside, most of which have modern marts attached to them, again something that took me by surprise.

I discovered the landscape I had been expecting when I made the journey across country to Kampot (I was lucky enough to be given a lift, but normally taking a bus this way is not recommended as they have a tendency to drop you in the middle of no where!)  The journey across land was beautiful: giant tall palms, with the backdrop of the Dâmrei Mountains (translated as Elephant Mountains), rice paddies on the brink of turning lush green, cows wandering along the roadside and through the fields, water buffalo in the swampy ponds, traditional Khmer houses on stilts as well as far more humble abodes.  There were children playing barefoot and farmers working in the paddies wearing the Vietnamese conical bamboo hats.  It literally was picture perfect - and I did wish I could stop for a photo opp every 2 minutes! 

Sketch of National Highway 4 and Surrounding Area

So that's all about the setting! What about the orphanage itself?

There are lots of pictures on Facebook of the orphanage, so again I had little images - built from the photos I'd seen - in my mind.  The orphanage is only two minutes down an orange dirt track road off Route 4.

I'll never forget driving into the orphanage for the first time: there was a strong sense of I'm finally here, after months of build up, this was it.  I was so excited to start already!  I remember meeting the two other girls volunteering there and some of the kids were curious and came to say hello.

My first night was novel and exciting.  I'll never forget gracelessly climbing to my top bunk and trying to make up the bed and assemble my mosquito net! I was all fingers and thumbs and one of the older girls and the nurse in the girls' house came to my rescue; showing me how it's done they deftly balanced on the bunk neatly assembling my bed and net.  I couldn't help but laugh and soon we were in fits of giggles! Curious to all the commotion the other girls came bounding in and soon joined in laughing at my ungainly attempts! It was such a bizarre moment.  I progressed to getting ready for bed and proudly put on my full length, long sleeve pink cotton pyjamas - especially sourced by none other than my Mer to be mossi - proof and 100% cotton.  Well, cue more bouts of laughter! I felt so funny in my less than attractive nightwear choice, but was sure they were necessary.  Well, I have NEVER been so hot in all my life as I was that night  - but I stubbornly kept them on, buttoned up and tried to ignore the sweaty mess I had turned to.  The bucket shower was another escapade that I found hilarious and had a least 3 trips to and from the shower to my room before I had everything I needed - needless to say the shower routine took me a good few days to perfect.  All in all my first night set the standard paving the way for a series of "funny moments by Joanne".  Jokes aside, I look back on my first night with great fondness and it always gives me a little smile.

I don't remember a lot of details from arriving to going to bed that night; but I do remember we all spent most of it in the nursery.  It was a shock  - I'm not sure what hit me first, the smell or the swarms of flies or the way the babies were left crawling and rolling around mostly unattended.  Bearing in mind it's intensely hot and the babies are in cloth nappies, a lot of which were urine soaked, the smell was pretty overpowering.  This of course attracts flies and they were literally everywhere and all over the babies and tots and in the corner of their eyes.  I like babies and it's always cute to pick them up and get a cuddle, but being blatantly honest this scene was overwhelming and having literally just arrived it didn't draw me to be in amongst them; but that definitely changed.

The nursery was the area that I took longest to get used to, probably because for the first few days I avoided spending much time there.  Naturally, I knew that it would be worlds apart from a nursery in the UK or another developed country, and after all it is an orphanage, but I think it would take a particularly unfeeling person not to be affected in some way.  As I settled into the orphanage I became accustomed to the nursery and it was impossible not to fall in love with the gorgeous babies there.  Myself and my roommate, the other volunteer, often talked about how we wished we could scoop the babies up, give them a bubble bath, wrap them in a fluffy towel and tuck them up in bed!  But of course this was only a little bit of dreaming. 

Inside the Nursery: Fantastic, Colourful Wall Paintings.

There are several local nannies employed at the orphanage to care for the children 24/7, "Nanny Chun" has been there for 10 years or so and was in my opinion a matriarch figure in the nursery.  I recognize that it is a difficult task caring for many babies and toddlers round the clock, but I can't help feeling that there is a slightly lazy approach when it comes to providing care for the babies and children in the nursery - I feel a simple rota for checking and changing the cloth nappies would improve things enormously for both babies and nannies, but alas the Cambodian laid back approach prevails! It has been my experience in Cambodia generally that work ethic is lacking, which surprises me a great deal considering the country's past, but maybe it's just the Khmer way of living in the severe heat, I don't know.  To me, in a relatively small village with few jobs this would be an opportunity to be relished; however the director of Kais tells me it is exceedingly difficult to find good staff mostly because Treng Trayeung is considered an undesirable place to live.  I was also told that in the past nannies had been known to steal supplies from the medical hut; it seems bizarre to me that they'd want to jeopardize a reliable job with a fair salary, but I guess they live a life that makes it worth the risk and I can't pretend to relate to that, but to a certain extent I do understand that poverty and deprivation drive people to take such risks.  

Another thing that oddly didn't really occur to me much before this experience was the fact that I would actually be living in the orphanage - this seems a preposterous statement, but I thought of being at the orphanage, teaching there and even what the sleeping accommodation would be like, but I didn't truly think of what it would be like to actually live there.  I was sharing a room with another volunteer in the girls' house.  There is a boys' house too: where the older boys and Phirom the manager sleep - together with the nursery this accounts for all the sleeping accommodation at the orphanage.  

Living in the girls' house was nice as I felt I grew to be really close with the girls there - there were two older girls: ~ 14 and 16, another girl aged around 12 as well as three younger girls ~ 5/6/7.  Living in the same house as the girls meant that we shared little moments quite naturally together.  They would always be popping in and out of our room, curiously browsing at all our bits and pieces and always managing to find something they took a particular fancy to! Whether it be getting a splodge of anti-bac. hand gel or a sprinkling of baby powder it was always received gratefully and - if they weren't already there - shown off to the other girls.  Whilst this was really sweet most of the time, sometimes it could be tiring, there is a lock on the door which we used at night, but it seemed hard to use this during the day when the girls were just desperate to be around you, have fun and attention.  It was a very rare moment when either of us actually shut them out.  

A moment that sticks in my mind was the very first time I did my washing at the orphanage.  There's an outdoor washing area at the back of the girls house or you can sit on the steps at the front.  I collected the washing basin, washing powder and scrubbing brush, ready for the job.  As with everything, it wasn't long before the girls were there watching me with fascination and soon helping me too.  One of the younger girls insisted on showing me how it was done; taking the clothing stretching a bit of it tight across her palm and scrubbing it hard, this process was repeated on all the dirty areas and more rubbing and scrubbing in the water was done!  It's a laborious process, but this little girl was so keen to show me how it's done and help me.  Looking at her as she determinedly scrubbed away at my clothes she looked so much older than her years and in that moment an overwhelming fondness swept across me.  I set out with the attitude that I would not have "favourites" but it's very difficult not to get attached to some of the children more than others, especially as there is so many.  However, this early moment is one that will forever stick in my mind and she was one of the girls I was particularly fond of, although I was always careful not to differentiate between her and others.  

Then it was pant washing time; I tried to convince the girls I was almost finished and I would do the rest, they accepted this but as soon as I brought the first pair of pants out the bag they looked on with cheeky little smiles and exchanging funny glances with one another.  Now, I've generally gone with a theme of light coloured underwear to suit my mostly light clothes, but out I brought my solitary black pair of pants and completely unexpectedly the girls all erupted into uncontrollable howls of laughter, pointing at my black pants!! Who knew black pants were so funny... ? But again it was another funny memorable moment.  

At night in the girls' house the older girls would sometimes come into our room for chats.  They're keen to talk about their future, school, boys, all about our lives and family back home.  Other times  I painted the girls' nails, plaited their hair or we would all have a movie night; the girls tended to sleep out of their rooms in the little seating area where the ceiling fan is.  They would push the chairs against the wall, and make sleeping forts out of their mattresses and a mosquito net all sprawled out together! Other times they would just crash out on the tiled floor sometimes without even a pillow - I would always get the urge to scoop them up and tuck them into bed, but it was their choice and for whatever reason (I never did find out) they seemed happy enough.  Some of them used cuddly toys as comforts and pillows which somehow seemed to highlight their age and vulnerability. 

Teaching at the orphanage was a challenge and involved less English teaching than I had anticipated.  I have already done a blog post on the daily teaching schedule we followed; with the younger nursery children we didn't do more than the alphabet, numbers 1-10 and colours.  We also did story time with them and educational English TV time watching (what felt like endless) episodes of Barney and The Magic School Bus.  In the afternoons we set up lessons in the outdoor classroom for the older children, but it could get incredibly hot in here and more often than not the children would struggle with the heat and concentration. (If they were struggling with the heat you can imagine how I felt!)  A couple of weeks in and we started lessons in the nursery TV room where there were ceiling fans and it was a lot cooler.  We did lessons like 'The Body' and 'Under the Sea'.  On Friday's they practised their English writing by writing a mini film review on the film of the week - which was usually a Disney film like Tarzan, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid or Mulan.  When in Phnom Penh one weekend, we bought The Jungle Book film to tie in with our 'Animals' lesson: another personal favourite moment of mine was seeing them watch it for the first time.  When Baloo the bear is scratching himself on the palm tree they erupted into fits of laughter, there were lots of other funny points in the film like this and their laughter was contagious! The Jungle Book in my opinion is a classic and was a strong favourite with me growing up so it was wonderful to see it was such a hit with them too! They instantly picked up the songs too and for days after they were singing 'The Bear Necessities'.  Needless to say, we watched The Jungle Book again while I was there. 

All in all, teaching was generally done through crafts, activities, English films and TV shows, some simple worksheets and cooking class.  It wasn't the typical TEFL style teaching or in front of a blackboard style I had envisaged, but I had to adapt and in a way it was fun coming up with creative ideas.  It was teaching, but just not in the conventional sense.  

I found my time at the orphanage rewarding even although there was a little less English teaching than I had expected.  I found the situation at the orphanage frustrating and challenging at times; I feel the orphanage would benefit hugely from a mother figure in the girls' house and father figure in the boys' house - additional to the manager and nurse - to give constant care to the children and provide structure to their day.  A lot of the time the kids are left to their own devices and run wild which often ends in disaster (fighting or injuries, albeit minor).  The time I spent at the orphanage really was so much more than simply walking in and out of a classroom; it involved caring for the children, disciplining them when things got out of hand and couldn't be settled by rock, paper scissors, entertaining them throughout the day, teaching and ultimately just giving them attention and time that they craved so much.  I found this made my time at the orphanage even more rewarding though and being around the children constantly meant I got to know them all quite well and their individual personalities. 

A huge amount of controversy and negative media surrounds volunteering just now and in particular volunteering in orphanages. This 'voluntourism' concept is one I was acutely aware of months before my trip, when it was only in the planning stages and made me ultra careful, paranoid even, in my choice of NGO and subsequent charity.  I scoured the internet and did endless amounts of research before deciding on Pod (Personal Overseas Development) and Kais Kids Orphanage.  I was convinced by their 'Responsible Volunteering Policy' and their 'Children's Home - Education - Cambodia' project seemed positive and ethical due to their claim that they were working towards becoming fully sustainable at the orphanage by means of living off their farm and supporting the home financially by the local mart owned and run by Kais.  There is also a minimum volunteering time of 4 weeks and background checks for working with children and vulnerable adults.  To me, this all pointed towards a responsible volunteering experience.  

Having now completed my time at Kais Kids Orphanage I do think it is a wonderful, positive, safe-haven for vulnerable children from horrific backgrounds who would otherwise be trapped in awful situations, or left homeless on the street.  I still think it has a way to go in becoming fully sustainable and maximizing its potential in terms of cultivating its farm land.  I also think the staffing could be improved to give the children more structure to their daily routine; I felt that as part of a volunteer group we were watching and looking after the children throughout the day when really any volunteer should be additional to the running and operation of the orphanage.  If we weren't providing activities for the children they'd be left to their own devices.  

The question was always at the back of my mind: "Is my volunteering here really benefiting the children?"  Anyone who claims their volunteering is completely altruistic would be in denial of the truth - I wanted this experience for myself as much as I wanted to help the children and Cambodia's development.  In order for me to have a positive experience it was important to me that my time spent wasn't in vain.  A lot of the children at Kais have much better English skills than other children in the local village - this is a direct result of having volunteers teach English and really fortified my belief that volunteers do have a constructive impact to the children in the orphanage. 

My time at Kais was a roller coaster of emotions, full of good times and difficult times, I challenged myself, made new friendships, learned a lot about myself and experienced a very real Cambodia.  I have some very special memories I will never forget from here and at the heart of all of this were the children.