Day 4 - Being a khrew part 2 (Teacher in Khmer)

How time flies! It has already been the fourth day we stay in Cambodia.

Our day started at 8 a.m when we went down to have breakfast.  Shi Hui was fighting with NTU Stars System the whole morning, literally a STARS WAR!! After breakfast, we walked to SC again. I still remember the first time we walked to SC that everybody was so curious about everything and taking photos here and there. Today, we seem to have been familiar with the way and just wanted to arrive there faster.

There were 2 sessions conducted simultaneously, one is the Business Lessons with the youth clubs and another one was with the sewing class. For today’s business lessons, there were more interaction and discussion with those lovely students. In the morning, we discussed with them about demand and supply and 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). The girls in my group were quite interested in the topic and were trying their best to understand the concepts by asking numerous questions. They were helping each other and you can really feel their efforts. At the end of the lesson, they taught us some local games and played together with us. The games were quite simple and we enjoyed such interaction with them.

The lesson in the afternoon was quite relaxing; we guide them to analyze the market of their products and write down the business proposals. Afterwards, we chit chatted with them to find out more about their life.

While for the other team, the team had a knowledge transfer session with the sewing girls, which we provided some products’ designs and prototypes for them to sew. 4 days were given to them to explore and sew the products. The feedback sessions will be given when we are back from the village area.

Before the afternoon business lessons, I got a chance to talk to a girl. Her English was very good and she was very active in the class. I asked her that was she going to continue the education and go to university in the future. She gave us very definite answer that she would definitely continue and she planned to apply for foreign scholarship. In the environment that many students drop off at the grade nine and then went out to work to support family, there were still a group of children who had strong determination to change their life by education.

It is heart warming to observe how the team conducted the business lessons, they took the efforts to explain and also to go through the important points with the students slowly. Professional, will be the word I will use to describe my team members. As a Singaporean, we usually speak very fast, and it’s Singlish, the locals find it hard to understand us. Thus, we need to learn to speak slowly and also articulate our sentences clearly.

Business lessons ended off on a high note. All thanks to the business team committee who has painstaking prepared the lessons plans. Certificates were given to the students at the end of the 2 days when they attended both sessions. One of our team members, Taing Meng, told me that, actually this is probably the first certificate the Cambodians received.

Besides that, we had handmade friendship bands for the students. We used the Cambodia’s flag colors; Red, blue and white, each was given to the students. They were elated to receive the friendship bands, many started to wear it on their wrist. The team also started to sing Singapore Town song with the students, who enjoyed it very much. 

While singing the song, it started to rain, which is unusual, because this is the dry season. Many Cambodians also find it bizarre that it rains. This could probably due to the changes in the climate in the region.  All of us put on the poncho and walked back to our guesthouse. The session was ended off early for the members to rest as tomorrow the team is setting off to the rural area to begin the furnishing of the pre-school.

Stay tuned for another exciting journey ahead!

With Love,
The 2 Huis (Zhi Hui and Shi Hui)

Day 3 - Being a Teacher

We have been looking forward to this day. Business concepts and knowledge will be taught to the local students. Back in Singapore, we started preparing the business lessons since September. During the planning of the lessons, the main concern was whether the Sustainable Cambodia students will be able to understand the content. Nonetheless, all of us have been looking forward to interact with those lovely youths.

From the students' response, it's quite a surprise for us that they are pretty pro-active and outgoing towards us after the well-conducted ice-breaking game. Both the students and the facilitators enjoyed the interaction with the students. Lecturer Wilson gave a lecture on "Rural Innovations". The students breaked up into the small group and discussed on the need analysis of those innovations. As the student English proficiency are different, the better students help to translate the lessons into Khmer language for the rest. Their learning attitude has inspired us to teach them even more. The day ended with a prize presentation for the group with best innovation.

The students have make our day. Beside the teaching experience, their passion for learning is something I have yet to see this before. Through the sharing session, it can be seen that they are really working very hard to reach their goal. They grabbed hold of any learning opportunities. Moreover, I noticed that they helped each other in different ways. In order for one to succeed, one has to help the others around to succeed. I believe that one day they will succeed.

PhOtO of the day:

Cheers,
Jing Wei & Li Zhou

Day One/Two - The Beginning

They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and that step began for us when we bade farewell to our loved ones at Changi Airport Terminal One on Monday.

Our journey continued when we touched down and exited from the airport at Phnom Penh (Cambodia’s capital), and started our very very very very (4 verys = 4 hours) long bus ride to Pursat, the Cambodian province our project will be carried out at. On this long and arduous ride, we found out a few new and interesting things we didn’t know before the ride.

1. We passed by 101 crop fields, 120 Shop houses and 1345 motorcycles.

From these random facts and observations, we deduced that Cambodia is a rather self-sustaining country able to grow their own crops such as rice and various vegetables. The locals do their business by setting up small shops beside the main road as it has the most human traffic, which mostly consists of motorcycles, as it is their main mode of transport.

2. Never ever play Munchkin on a moving bus travelling on a bumpy road

For the simple reason that we ended up holding onto the cards instead because we couldn’t place the cards on a flat surface (eg. Chair) without them falling on the ground every few seconds.

3. Wilson did not know about the ‘Club’ suit in poker cards

Shocking but true, he thought it was called ‘Clover’. LOL

After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at the guesthouse we will be staying for the next few days and proceeded to move into our cozy home away from home.

We then had a very satisfying dinner with some of the managers from SC, which left a good first impression of them in our minds, as humble and motivated/driven individuals working together for the common good of the masses.

After a brief meeting to round up the day and prepare us for tomorrow, we retired early and began the next day bright and early.

The following day was filled with just as many new and interesting things, such as breakfast at the guesthouse, which was fantastic. However, some how some people were able to wolf down more food than others (Not going to name anyone … since we all know who haha)

Our walk to Sustainable Cambodia (SC) brought us through the marketplace and past a few state schools, that was refreshing and eye opening as this was the first chance we had to actually walk amongst the locals and experience the atmosphere in Pursat. Of course, Sam had more of an experience than the others as he took part in a rather impromptu fear factor challenge that involved him eating a fried cricket sold at the roadside (Sam is still alright after the event, thus strengthening our hypothesis that he will just about eat anything and everything if he is really hungry).

Setting foot into the SC compound for the very first time today, we were finally able to familiarize ourselves with the place and people that our work/project will leave an impact on. It is very heartwarming to know that there are so many people (both Cambodians and foreigners) putting in effort to make the country a better place for the locals. I remember that the mission (or vision) of SC is eventually, for the Cambodians to help their own people. Seeing that many Cambodians are involved in the projects of SC, I do think that they are doing quite well in that aspect. I am particularly impressed by the foreign volunteers who help SC with its projects on a long-term basis, especially those who stay in Cambodia for a long period of time. I think there are challenges not only with regards to the poorer living conditions, but also having the capability to look beyond one’s immediate demands and concerns to help those who are in greater need.

We also passed by the villages on our way to the floating village. We could see that their lifestyles are really quite simple – there are little facilities; no air-con, fridge or even warm water. But yet, these are things that we Singaporeans often take for granted. For the villagers in the floating village, we were wondering how they bathe in the water that they throw practically everything in it. But like what YT said, it is just their lifestyle – something that forms their ‘norm’ and not ours.

This just reminded me about HS8008 Understanding Culture & Globalization (my AHSS-PER) that different cultures really mean doing the same things differently J

The trip to the school was pretty heartwarming too. It was great to see that most of the students are sincere about learning, and some of them understand the importance of education. Education enriches and empowers and it is great that many developing countries such as Cambodia are starting to see the importance of it. It’s also nice to see that girls are given the equal opportunity to receive education too.

It was also pretty intriguing that the kids were so happy at our arrival that they kept thanking us when we left. But somehow I kind of felt that their gratitude was more than what we deserved because we did not really do anything except to exchange some conversation with them and to try to sing a few nursery rhymes. Anyway, I think we should practice some nursery rhymes so we can sing a proper complete song when we go to the pre-school at ATC. J

In a nutshell, we had a tiring but happy first 2 days in Cambodia haha.

From a very tired Tak Chuen and Mun Yee (YawnzzzZZZ)