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Published: April 27th 2010
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Stung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump is located in southern
Phnom Penh. It is a part of the city with low-income neighborhoods and slums, previously nicknamed “Smoky Mountain” because of the miasma of smoke that the dump constantly gave off until it was recently finally closed.. The
People's Improvement Organisation, serving over 800 children a day through a variety of programs that include non-formal education and vocational training programs providing for some of the most vulnerable women and children in Cambodia, serving children and families who were forced to scavenge of the massive dump, is located on site... This is to be my placement for my first volunteer project, teaching English as a foreign language...
And so, first day at school... And for some incomprehensible reason my heart is beating so fast I feel like it is about to explode from my rib cage. Why, I ask myself... They are just kids. Why so scared? They are after all just essentially little people really...
...Walking into my first ever class, 40 screaming Cambodian children running around unsupervised, jumping from tables, some chasing a
goat that has managed to find his way through the giant, steel barred rustic yellow gate at
the entrance, as I survey my
"Lord of the Flies" landscape I see in the corner of my eye one of the taller, older girls nonchalantly whack one of the smaller lads round the head... He falls backwards. Bounces. He's still smiling. A wry cheeky smile, mischievous and bright... And she is laughing. Not mocking, no sneer, no taunt. Just happily and freely...
I conclude that he probably deserved it and grapple with the bewildering contradiction of watching South East Asian children throwing each other around the class room with an extraordinary absence of malice, nastiness or anything close to contempt...
Or control.
The Khmer teacher is distinctly absent. My first class teaching English and its unsupervised. I have no idea what level of English the students possess, no workbooks, no curriculum and no resources... Essentially, I am totally unprepared!
As I tentatively make my way in, shifting my feet as two chickens enter to learn English as a foreign language too, I wander how on Earth a skinny, middle-class, Guardian reading, socially awkward backpacker from Buckinghamshire, conveying about as much authority and wisdom as a
natural yogurt, is going to cope with Cambodian Dump kids...
Fortunately, as I stand in front of the class the chaos almost instantly reseeds. Students dart behind their desks, standing, hands clasped in the traditional Khmer greeting and bellow their greeting to
Teacher.
At the same time I am reminding myself of the little Khmer that I have memorised and am trying to assimilate all the wide, expectant eyes that are staring back at me from the
other side of the classroom. So much so, I only hear half of their English volley...
To my joy and relief my frankly shite Khmer is rapturously received, although they inevitably think I speak native and reply in an inaudible, excitable tonal assault on my ear drums... It does not take long for them to work out how proficient I am in Khmer!
So, decision number one... Have fun. Be creative. Try and work out their level of English... Don't die on your arse... The rest can wait...
"Er, right then... Who can guess where I am from? Which country... Country?"
*furious hand gestures, manic pointing at old political world map on the wall that probably still shows the old Soviet Block* "America"
"Cambodia"
"Denmark"
*Denmark?! the third country a Cambodian child can name is bloody Denmark...*
"No, I'm from
England *nodding heads, muted approval* "OK, so, let's go with age. How old am I? Age..."
"Fifty."
"Sixty three"
*bastards* "No, I'm not
FIFTY. Lower..."
"One hundred and twelve"
"Brilliant... No, I'm thirty."
"You're old."
"Thanks".
I cried all the way to school on my first day... 5 years of age, I was adamant that I wanted no part of it... For the first few moments I feel much the same about teaching but I survive the first day, and once I have been able to talk to some of the Khmer teachers and get some workbooks and instructions on what the hell I am actually supposed to teach it gets a lot easier very quickly...
Sheer naivety on my part, no volunteering experience and being used to work in a very structured and organised environment, for the first few days I simply throw myself head first into the chaotic, anarchist schooling environment and run with it... Mountains of litter, children crawling through massive skips and an orphanage ran on the bare bones immediately next
door where many of the students live, it's a world away from anything I have experienced before... But equally, it is surprising how quick you get used to it as the children, bright happy and active, are absolutely fantastic...
Khmer New Year on the horizon, it's party time (for two whole days). Stereo rolls in, speakers ampted up, shite
American Hip Hop and bizarre Khmer imitations blazing across the rubbish slums, the Cambodian kids throw some serious shapes and bust some rather, er
"ripe" moves, some of which I'm pretty sure that don't really understand and had seen on a
Jay Z video perhaps... We won't go into that!
Suffice to say, these guys can dance... Seriously...
Break Dance... No lie... Bloody awesome! Children do not dance like this in
Buckinghamshire, no no no...
As the real New Year comes in, like the rest of the country, the school closes down and the
Temples of Angkor Wat appear on my radar to offer some rest bite after my first inroads in teaching English...
But the madness will be there when I get back... Can't wait!
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Eileen
non-member comment
If you can't teach!
Hi Matthew Have just read your teaching blogg, brilliant stuff. I feel as though I am teaching with you! Look forward to many more entertaining missives....Eileen