this week i went with a group of interns to a small village on the coast of cambodia near the border of vietnam. the drive down on monday morning was terrible - the bus was old, the roads were terrible, and the AC was broken. after 5 sweaty, bumpy hours in a cramped bus with blaring khmer karoake music we finally arrived. it was quickly apparent that the drive was worth it. our guesthouse was on a hill overlooking the ocean. it was beautiful, lush and green. i shared a bungalow with my bff here - grace - and we had an ocean view and hammocks on the balcony. the first day we had the afternoon off, so i spent it reading in the hammock. later on we all had dinner and played cards.
tuesday morning we headed out to the village where we were going to be working. the village is made up of a group of families who had been active khmer rouge until the mid 90s. when they defected they were relocated to the south and formed a village. BAB set up a center to help them out. the center offers classes for the kids, and is also working on establishing a farm on the surrounding land to provide food for the village. our job for the week was to help with the farming and teaching.
after orientation on tuesday grace and i headed to the kampot caves, which is a small rocky mountain with caves all through it. when we arrived we were met by two enthusiastic young men who wanted to be our guides. we accepted their offer and headed into the mountain. it ended up being an amazing afternoon. they took us into some really out of the way caves. near the end of the tour we came out of the back of the mountain and they asked us if we wanted to climb up and over it to get back to our moto driver. we decided to go for it and while it was quite treacherous it was definitely worth it.
wednesday morning we left really early to get to the village to do some farming. grace and i arrived before everyone else and were met by a stern looking man who silently handed us each a hoe and started walking out into the fields. we followed behind apprehensively. he demonstrated what he wanted us to do and then stood sternly watching us as we dug at this field. it was slightly unnerving. the others arrived about half an hour later and we finally figured out what we were supposed to be doing - which was not aimlessly digging at a field. we were meant to plant a corn field. once we got started it only took the group of us about 3 hours. 3 hours of farming in the heat was enough for us though. i was feeling pretty terrible from what i thought was sunstroke.
i spent the next two days in bed with a fever, vomiting etc. decided to try to get up on friday morning to teach. i made it through the class but then felt worse than ever and was eventually sent back to phnom penh in the back of a taxi. so im back now, in bed, feeling somewhat better but still pretty terrible. the trip overall was great when i wasnt sick. i was upset to have to miss out on the last few days. the country side is just beautiful. it really became clear how most of the country really lives. phnom penh is the only really urban area and even saying that feels like a bit of a stretch considering what most people feel is urban.
working with the kids is what effected me the most. they are so enthusiastic, energetic, and very motivated to learn. the problem is that there are about 30 or 40 of them in a tiny class, with very little resources and the age range is from about 4 to 12 or older in one room. it is a difficult environment to teach anything in. they are all desperate for any kind of individual attention and learn quickly when you can take the time to sit down with them in a small group of 2 or 3.
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