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Published: January 18th 2011
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Before we left England, we knew that we wanted to do some volunteer work in Cambodia so we arranged to stay in rural Bospo village for a week to help Khmer New Generation Organization (KNGO). KNGO is run by a local man Saveth Sun who works very hard to help village children (who would otherwise have a very limited education prospects) to have daily free English classes and other educational benefits.
We needed to test all the children in the school (over 220 in total) to find out their english ability so we could sort them into groups. This involved one-to-one testing and we were surprised by how good some of them were, particularly when you consider that the Khmer language is not formed from the alphabet. It was great chatting to the children as well and helping them practice their pronunciation. We were then let loose to teach some classes. When you say hello to the class, the pupils will universally say "Hello teacher!" and then when asked how they are, they will shout out "I'm fine, thank you, and you?". We taught the class some new phrases to express how they are feeling by singing the song "If
you are happy and you know it", with all the actions of course. Afterwards, we played alphabet games to help them remember the order of letters. We concentrated on the letter "I" and got them to write it without tracing and construct simple sentences. We finished the lesson off with a game of 'Alphabet Bingo' which descended into chaos when we used sweets as a prize for winners. It was cute hearing them shout Bingo though. We also had an older class who we taught about using tenses and the correct use of "first,second third...etc" They made paper airplanes which they flew to decide who was first, second and so on. After that was finished, we got them to write sentences on the board using those words. As a little treat, we played that universal game of hangman and the class got the answer 'second' very quickly but we stumped them with 'winner'.
The poverty in Bospo was very apparent with many of the children being orphans and many wore ragged clothes. Older sisters are often used as babysitters for younger siblings while the parents go to work in the fields, so it wasn't uncommon to see an 8
year old carrying a 6 month baby on her hip as she went to class. What struck us the most was that these children were so eager to learn. They really wanted to achieve a standard of English that could help them improve their future prospects and break the cycle of poverty.
Everyday, during the early afternoon, around 15 children would come to Saveeth's house to have computer lessons and also to read storybooks, do puzzles and draw pictures. We had great fun talking to the children and reading them some of the stories. It was great to hear some of them able to read some of the stories themselves or even just recognize some words.
It was fantastic living in the village with Saveth's family. We enjoyed tasty authentic Khmer food everyday and got to see rural life in Cambodia. It was easy to wile away a hour sitting in the hammock watching village life and having chickens literally running and chirping underneath you or through your legs sitting at the table. One morning, we got up early to go to the market with Savi (Saveth's wife). The local village market was very different to the ones
that cater for tourists and it was interesting to see how the market was used as a social gathering as well as a place to purchase items.
One day, Saveth took us to ride on the Bamboo train. The Bamboo train is soon to be phased out, so it was great to have a go while it is still operating. It is literally just made up of a flat bamboo-constructed floor placed on wheels with an engine attached to the back. Our driver started the motor and we flew along the rails to a nearby village. We passed through rice paddies and people working in the fields which was an exhililerating, although bumpy experience. As there is only one rail track, if another bamboo train was heading in the opposite direction, the one with the lighter load has to be disassembled on the side of the line while the other passes by. It is then quickly reassembled and we would continue on our way. This happened quite a few times and one occasion Adam helped to reassemble our bamboo train. Whenever we had spare time, we took the opportunity to go cycling around the nearby villages and into Battambang
centre. Our time in Bospo was a great experience and insight into village life and we were very sad to say goodbye. If anyone is interested in finding out more about KNGO, you can visit their website at www.kngovolunteer.org
We planned on having one full day to explore Battembang so we checked into a small hotel and headed back out to get a tuk-tuk to three temples in the surrounding area. On the way to one of the temples, the tuk-tuk driver stopped on the way to allow us to see a local in a village making rice paper in the traditional way, by using fire stoves and hand made tools. Rice paper is used in foods for things like wrapping spring rolls. The first temple we saw was Wat Ek Phnom, an old ruined temple with intricate carvings. On the way to the next temple, the driver stopped off somewhere in the rural area to show us dozens of bats sleeping in the open daylight, clinging to the top branches of particular trees. Next was Phnom Banan, another old ruined temple, but this one was on top of a very large natural mound. The way to the top
was a steep ascent of over 300 stone steps, which was lined with warnings of landmines off the path. The burning thighs was worth it though since the view of the cambodian landscape was extraordinary. Cambodia is quite flat so we could see for miles, of fields filled with well-tamed farmland mixed with natural trees, bushes and streams. Scanning the 360 degree view through the ancient temple made it more quaint. The last stop on our day tour was Phnom Sampeau , which is a more modern temple had provided another great view. This temple was on the pinnicle of a small cliff. To enjoy this view, we had to walk up around a path that curved around up to the top. This cliff was home to another dreadful Khmer Rouge killing site, this one known as 'The Killing Cave', located half way up to the top. Over 10,000 victims were brutally killed and thrown into this cave during the Khmer Rogue regime. The small temple on the path was used as a prison for the victims but it is now being restored to its former purpose. On our trek to the top we saw 2 large colorful snakes slither
amongst the ground. They crawled away into the reeds, not wanting to be disturbed. We were more than happy to obey this simple request and were extra careful from then on. The view was another great, this time we were able to see the mountainous Thailand border to the north.
We loved the rural feel of the region and left Battembang and Bospo with great memories and new friends.
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