26th of July to 14th of September, 2024.
Volunteering in Cambodia: Kong Pisei
My volunteering in Cambodia has many sides and many possibilities of why it was how it was. Time gave me the perspective that, perhaps, I was a bit spoiled by my life in Thailand, during which I was teaching for about one year, and living by my own, so for that reason I was not accustomed to volunteer work any more, with it’s unexpected conditions and obstacles, etc; and, of course, the fact that I was just coming from a traumatic experience, and was not really myself yet. Let’s get to the details.
Kosol is my host, and I’m staying in his home. Together with his wife Kim, they run a private school, very small, with only four classrooms, and not so many students. Some of them pay a small fee, but some others, coming from less privileged, can study for free. Kosol and Kim have two kids, Falina (12) and Kevin (10). They both help at school, with Falina actually teaching one of the classes already, as her English is quite good.
The room I’m staying is very small, and there’s a bunk bed. The conditions are very simple but everything is OK, I don’t really need lots of space. Although it would be nice to have a small desk and a place to read / write, as there are no common rooms in the house. The bathrooms are new and fine, just like the kitchen, way more sofisticated them the houses around us. But it is from the kitchen that it comes the first problem: it is not clean. There is a nice, brand new marble counter, but it seems as it was never cleaned before. There’s always food left out, which attracts ants and flies, even though they have a fridge (which is very rare in the small villages in Cambodia). And there’s not a proper place for the dishes, like a cupboard or another counter, even though there’s lots of space where shelves could be built, for example.
Apart from that, I was not feeling really welcomed by my hosts. Perhaps that was just their way, and they were really happy to have me there, who knows. But I just didn’t really feel as y work was being appreciated. After my time teaching in Thailand, I got a lot of experience with teaching, plus the already big experience which I have with kids, so I know I was doing a good job on my classes.
I teach Kosol’s advanced class, they are teenagers around 15 years old. They are great! I love talking to them and they seem very excited with my class, my methods and my games. Just as in Thailand, they are the reason why I keep going and why I decide to stay for the three weeks I was planning at first, as during my first two days, when I was not working (it was the weekend), I was decided to leave after one week only.
On Sunday, another volunteer arrives, Andeep, from the UK. I know it will sound a bit crazy but I can swear that Kosol and Kim treat her differently since the beginning. I don’t know if it is in my mind or what, but I think it has something to do with the fact that, I cannot help or support the school in a financial way, as the school has sponsors and depends a lot of donations. Many times, Kosol made it clear that previous volunteers helped the school with donations, as money a very common topic of our conversations, unfortunately.
Andeep is a lovely lady and her optimistic perspective of everything it probably helped me to decide to stay a bit more. It was her first volunteer work abroad, so I think that at her eyes everything was acceptable. I remember when I was like that, for the first few years of my travels, the first 15 volunteer works. But as volunteering became my life, I had to be more strict about rules and what I want or not. In anyhow, I am very grateful that she came.
The food was another part of the experience which was not great. Andeep and I had only eggs as protein source, which can be super boring after one week, having eggs three times a day. Again, for Andeep that was not big of a problem as she was eating very little for different reasons. As for me, after loosing five kilos in three days back in India, and having my health in need of an upgrade, I was very unsatisfied with the food, which would mostly consist on fried eggs with one other vegetable, and rice. Ironically, and I really don’t know how this it will sound but as it is the ugly truth I must say it, my hosts would have a different dish for every single meal. And there was even a time when they had two different types of meat plus some oysters, while I was having rice and one fried egg. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is their home, their money and I want them to eat whatever they want, as much as they want; but as I am here volunteering with them, they should also provide me with 1) decent food with some variety, 2) in a decent amount (yeah, because at some point I felt bad for the small amount of food which I was expected to eat, as I was a bird or something).
Another small thing, but when added to the others, it is annoying, is the fact that, Andeep and I were mostly cooking our food, and many times we were cooking also for the kids, as many times dinner was not really there. That is not the problem per se, I love cooking and Andeep was also happy to prepare something, but the problem is, after cooking for ourselves and the kids, we would have to do the dishes of everybody else. I am always fine with the system if I don’t cook or don’t help cooking, I will do the dishes and vice-versa, which was happening during the first few days, when Kim was cooking. But when we shifted, and Andeep and I were making all our meals (plus for the kids), it only made sense that we would only clean after ourselves. It took us a few days to start doing that though, as we ere feeling a bit awkward with the whole situation. But seriously, among everything that was happening, it only made sense. It reminds me of Norway, during the most excellent volunteer work experience I have ever had, when after cooking and baking a cake, I wouldn’t mind it at all to help my hosts to clean the dishes (while other volunteers who should be doing that were not), in order to not let them doing all by themselves. That’s because my hosts were so awesome, but so awesome, that, again, it only made sense. Did you get it?
After some time and some talk with Andeep, I decided to be honest with Kosol and tell him a few things he could do to improve our experience. I didn’t have the heart to tell him everything, as I thought it would be too much, but I told him a few things. I asked for wall hangers for our room and for the shower (there wasn’t a single hook for the towel, for example) and he got us both. He listened to me carefully, but for some reason, deep inside me, something was telling me, by the look in his face, that he was not really taking me seriously, or truly considering to follow my suggestions. To be completely honest, they were also saying that, even though they have had many volunteers in the past, we were the first two to stay with them in this new accommodation, as before they used to leave in another house by the school.
A bit more about the students. We held a small celebration day for the “International Day of Literacy”. The simple idea was to have the students coloring / drawing in a kind of paper mural, which would be later hanged in the classrooms walls. Andeep and I draw different things, for the different levels of the students. My advanced class had four incredible artists, who were making their own drawings and lately coloring. One of them, for my surprise, told me that the beautiful woman she was drawing it was me. Noticing the resemblance between her and her drawing, I told her that it most likely to her and not me, as it was a gorgeous girl she was drawing. To my complete astonishing and inflation of my ego, she says: “No, that’s why it’s you, because for me your are perfect!”. How sweet! I was helping Falina with her drawing, another incredible and beautiful girl she was also drawing, by giving her suggestions of how she could colour the hair in different shades of blue, fading from one to another. Again, for my surprise, when she finished her drawing she wrote the sweetest thing ever: “Perfect day at Cando School with teacher Lei”. I got tears in my eyes by reading that. Following her example, the other student also added a little note to her drawing: “Girl Perfect! I love teacher Lei so much.” Ah, my students! What would I do without them. So, yeah, they were lovely, enthusiastic and super cute, so for them I carried on at the school, through all the obstacles, for the whole tree weeks.
In our first weekend off, Andeep and I took a trip to Kampot. She to the town, me to the National Park just by it. She wanted to hitchhike with me and I was thrilled with the idea, of course! We got picked up by a man from the army at first, and then by a lovely couple who even bought some sugar cane and tangerine juices. Delicious! Thy dropped us off right at the night of Kampot. Andeep was very happy with her first experience of hitchhiking and I was even happier to, in somehow, help her with that.
Even though the weather was shitty at the National Park (and only there, as in Kampot City the weather was just fine), raining all along and all the time, so I couldn’t enjoy a thing; I still totally recommend to anyone to go, as I believe that there are beautiful views and the other “attractions” I couldn’t visit seem pretty nice. So in terms of exploration my weekend was actually shitty but in general everything was fine.
10 Years Around the World 