Aw Kohn!

I have been here for exactly 3 months. It seems like only one month, but I came into this knowing how fast the time will go. I am thankful I can extend my stay and enjoy the kids for two additional months.

Three weekends ago we took the kids to the beach, which is about a four hour bus ride from APCA. For those of us who weren’t vomiting into plastic bags (most of the kids aren’t used to driving, so they get really motion sick) we sang “If You're Happy And You Know It”, watched Korean pop music videos, and watched the big wide world pass by. For some of them, it was their first time seeing the ocean. For two days we swam, played football on the beach, and made ‘sand temples’. It was fun to see the kids sprawled across their hotel room beds watching Khmer cartoons after a long day in the sun and a real shower. Even after three weeks, we still hear the kids referring to their beach trip; “Like at beach! The lady with the paint on her body!” (tattoos).

So, I want to say thank you to everyone who has donated to these kids. Jessica and I were able to take care of most of the beach trip hotel bill, which was one of the main reasons we were able to take all the kids. It also allowed us to finance a second trip to Siem Reap!

This week is Khmer New Year, and Diana and I were able to take 10 of the older kids to Angkor Wat thanks to our donated money from friends and family. The kids who were selected were so pumped to visit their country’s world-famous landmark for the first time. We were pretty excited too! The great thing about Cambodia is how cheap the hotels and guesthouses cost; there were 14 people and it was about $50 for both nights TOTAL!  We took the kids to eat out for all the meals: pizza (their first!), sushi, veggie burgers….and then they said, “We want rice!”.  

We also splurged and took them on a hot air balloon ride with a beautiful view of Angkor Wat. Some of them were nervous, but the 15 minute ‘ride’ wasn’t climatic, so they were all smiles once we were in the air. Now they think they’ve basically experienced the equivalent of flying in an airplane.  It was a perfect trip and the kids were excited to return to APCA to tell the others about their waterfall swim, temple visits, and exotic feasts.

Their Future:

Every night I sit outside soaking up the cool(er) air and visit with the older boys as everyone else is busy Khmer dancing or studying. Our conversations are incredibly varied – Michael Jackson is always a popular topic, as is the Khmer alphabet (I’m trying to learn!) and past participles (no joke). But every night, it seems like our conversation always ends on a gloomy note: their future. When I first got here I remember hearing dreams of becoming doctors, math teachers, and interpreters. Two nights ago I couldn’t go to sleep because one of the most studious boys said, “I don’t know anymore. There is no money for university and Khmer school is almost finished.” The truth is that the older kids will graduate in one to three years and although university in Phnom Penh isn’t expensive by our standards ($400/year), it’s overwhelmingly unrealistic for some of them. Not only do they have to have the money, but their English needs to be improved. In addition, most of them have zero computer skills.

Last week in class I taught about world geography. Most of the big kids (some in their early 20’s) couldn’t point to Cambodia on the map. We discussed population and every day since I write the updated world population on the board. Instead of being amazed at how many billions of people there are, the students were amazed at how I could find out that information. As I did my best to explain the Census website, I was bombarded with internet-related questions. “How do they know this information?” “Does the person who makes the internet make a lot of money?” “How do you know this is really true?” “What is the website with the world map?” One boy in the first row asked me if I knew of any other websites and how I know about them. I tried to explain Google. In my head I was saying, “Tyler G Cole! Come to Cambodia right now, please!”

Then I tried to explain that at university a lot of schoolwork is spent researching, and that the internet is a great tool for finding all sorts of information. I wrote a few sites on the board that I had referred to for that day’s lesson, and the students frantically scribbled them down in their books.

So, over every meal we share together, Diana and I discuss what the heck we can do for these older kids. Yep, we’re here to help them with their English – and I’ve seen improvements already, but we’re confident computer skills are another necessity.  We decided that with the remaining donated money each of us have, we are going to buy a few netbooks and install a typing program and Rosetta Stone on them. The same wonderful $300 netbooks Diana and I both have are sold in PP for the same price. This will allow the older kids to become more comfortable with computers while they practice typing, pronunciation, conversation, and grammar.

Our hope is that this will instill in them a little more hope and confidence about their futures. Cambodia’s enrollment rate for upper secondary school is only 9.3%; Diana and I feel that we should do whatever we can to make their learning fun, consistent, and exciting. We won’t be able to change the dismal enrollment rates in Cambodia, but we can do our best to inspire the APCA kids to continue their education.