Palmera Projects
Beginning of the second week
Posted on Saturday, Jan 2 2010
Monday 28th December 2009
The beginning of the second week began with a visit to Angkor Wat. Arriving there was an experience in itself. Before our tuk tuk even stopped we were chased by eager children wanting to sell us their goods. It was sad to see school aged children not studying but working to make a living. Later we were told children in these situations are often working in order to support themselves through school and often their families as well.
It seems desperate times can make even children lose their moral senses. In one particular occasion, having walked away from a kid offering their goods on the way in to the temple we found ourselves in a difficult situation attracting unwanted comments. Although, it was shocking and disappointing to hear these words from a child, we understood fully the game of survival.
Experiences like this became a natural occurrence at the Angkor temples.
Angkor Wat was an amazing place to visit, even for someone with very little appreciation for ancient architecture, walking through the corridors left me in awe of its beauty and the rich culture of the Khmer people.
At school, Caroline and I experimented with a rewards system involving stickers with the children, to encourage our quieter beginner class to participate more in class. It was rather successful, we found that little things can make a big difference to helping a child learn. We carried on our usual lesson plan as per usual involving learning new and simple vocabulary through repetition and spelling games. It is always fulfilling to see the children learn and develop their English vocabulary.
Tuesday 29th December 2009
Today was a day that changed my life. I saw first hand children in poverty. We visited an orphanage /school at Veal Village, 20 mins from central Siem Reap. This orphanage/school known as SOID, has been established with a mission to provide basic needs including food, shelter and education to some of the poorest kids in the slums of Siem Reap province. Prior to arriving we visited a local market to purchase two large bags of rice costing bout 60USD. Little did we know, the rice we had bought was going to feed 30 families for a whole month.
We joined in Breakfast Club , which is a program where SOID provides breakfast to kids in the area whose families could not afford to feed them, for most, this would be their only meal for the day. We helped Tammy, an enthusiastic and loving volunteer, distribute their daily ration including a piece of bread and one small banana. The kids were all very thankful for the small amount of food we had given them, it was a humbling experience and made me appreciate some of the more simple things that I often take for granted.
I left the SOID with a stronger urge to really make a substantial contribution to further the work that SOID has already began. To help children to get what they deserve which is really just your basics, food, clothing, shelter and education which gives them a chance to change their lives and that of their family.
At school today we had a dictation test, where we encouraged young toddlers to sound out and spell 10 simple words. There was one rather memorable and cheeky little boy. He was seen staring at his knee for most of the dictation. On observation, we caught him cheating with all the words written on his knee yet he still did not pass the test.
We took the boy aside and had a chat with him explaining the importance of honesty and learning. We told him not to be afraid of failing but to learn from his mistakes. Hopefully he has taken something away from that.
Wednesday 30th December 2009
WE WOKE UP AT 3.00AM. Yes, you heard right, 3.00am. On this memorable day we dragged ourselves out of bed and in the pitch black of the night made our way to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. It was a rather unfortunate morning, as our tuk tuk driver failed to wake up and take us there. We ended being ripped off, as there was only one tuk tuk driver along main street of Siem Reap which is a very rare event.
At Angkor Wat, under our close friend, Karthik’s vague instructions, we got ripped off again on the street kiosk in front of the temple. We were advised, that we should purchase coffee that came with a free chair to sit and see the sunrise. This was not the case. After purchasing the coffee and confirming that we did receive the chairs, we were told that this is not the location of the sunrise. In actual fact we had to enter the temple and pass the front gate, there in front of the lily pond we would see the infamous daily event. Lesson? Trust no one.
We were approached a rather helpful teenager who took us to the correct location and provided us with that coffee and chair required for sunrise. We then realised that the sun doesn’t rise at 5.30am as per Karthik’s informative talk, it rises at 6.45am and here we were, 4.30am in the morning, pitch black with one torch, coffee in hand and being fed to mosquitos for breakfast. The challenge was to entertain ourselves for the next 2 hours and make it to sunrise.
Afterwards, we went to The Bayon and was stunned by the mesmerising and numerous faces of the large and intricate temple. There we spent our morning before meeting Chamnan and Sophea, teachers from the school who kindly showed us the around Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat. Chamnan, a licensed Spanish guide explained the history and architecture of the temples and enriched our experience of them.
At school today, we had a fun day taking out the kids to make handprints for our invitation to our fundraising event. In addition, we played vocabulary games where the children were asked to run from the back wall to tag a particular word that was shouted out to the correct match on the board. The kids loved this game as it combined learning with fun. We also used singing and dancing as a method of learning English, by singing songs like twinkle star.
Anna & Ada