Cambodia: Volunteering Diaries

Charlotte Wood-Dow

Hello to everyone at the Leap from all of us in Cambodia!

We are now safely in Battembang and have already been to see the school, which is busy decorating for new year and their school competition this weekend. Everything has been great so far. The hotel in Siem Reap was beyond amazing and all the staff were lovely. We managed to go and see the floating villages at Tonle Sap and all the girls have already had a full body massage!  
Many thanks Charlotte x

Hello, just a quick feedback email. 
I'm having a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoying the experience of living in Cambodia. Both hotels are beautiful. I was expecting to live in more of a shack when I signed up, but thinking about it now, the home comforts of fans and western food would definitely have been missed every once in a while!

The projects are brilliant. Ever since the end of Khmer new year and we've been teaching, the time has whizzed by! We are having to make lesson plans for each of our classes and are teaching a class by ourselves, with a Cambodian teacher there just for translation. A real challenge : )  Now that any little problems have been smoothed over, all is great.

Many thanks Charlotte W-D (now known as Char!)

Georgie Mason

Dear Guy,

Thank you so much for the quick response. We really appreciate your help and advice. As we mentioned before, we are thoroughly enjoying our time here and the placements are fantastic; providing both stimulating and enjoyable experiences.
Kind Regards and Best Wishes, From us all in Cambodia

Dear Alice,

We had a fantastic few days in Sihanoukville - rested and relaxed we are ready for the last week ahead of us. The field trip yesterday was great and very interesting - we visited an animal sanctuary and were educated on the problems that Cambodian wildlife has to face.

I would like to thank you and the rest of the leap team for everything you have done in the last couple of weeks - I understand that we have not been the easiest of clients! We all appreciate the hard work and effort that you have all put in to trying to make this project work and once again would like to offer you our thanks.

Kind Regards, Georgie Mason

Charlotte Clark

Hello,

I am feeling very settled here now and I feel we are all getting on well and working as a team!

We are on the second day of our teaching at FEDA school and preparing our lessons! We have all been assigned to a teacher for two separate lessons and teaching a range of levels! I find this project very rewarding as I feel we are contributing to both the pupils and the teachers' learning of English! We are all trying to establish some of the western teaching we are familiar with into Cambodia as the here the system seems to be that the pupils write what the teachers write on the board.

We have tried to introduce more interactive learning to make it more fun and to get them speaking more as they seem to fall down on pronunciation!

Battambang is the opposite to Siem Reap in that it is far less touristy so there is A LOT of staring, especially with my red hair! We are all beginning to feel very familiar with it though and will be sad to leave!The hotel is nice, and the air-conditioning is AMAZING once we worked out how to use it! 

We are going out to Battmabang's one and only club called "sky" with some of the Cambodian teachers on Saturday night as it is our last weekend in Battambang! Should be fun!!

Charlotte x

Madalena De Sa

Hello Guy,

Hope everything is keeping good. I am very sorry for this late reply, I believe I am finding settling back in a lot harder than moving out!

My travels with Ben were absolutely amazing, a unique experience and yes, very different from Cambodia in many good and bad ways. The saddest part was not finding the typical Cambodian smiles and having to cope with a more hostile and protective culture, contrasting to the warmth and eagerness of the Khmer people.

All the best, Madalena

Kat Brashaw

I thought I would write on my own wall and let you all know what I am up to!

Have settled in well and am getting ready for our first full week at work. We rise at 6.30am and cycle to work- which is an experience in itself! There are not many cars, mainly scooters and bikes and we all do look rather conspicuous 6 girls cycling along not really knowing the rules (although I don't think there are many) everyone is fairly polite on the roads, which is lucky! Pretty exhausting and when we turn up to work we all need another shower. Socheat our translater doesn't even break out in a sweat.

First job of the day is at Trailblazers the water charity here we sift and wash sand, wash granite - quite tiring and not good for ones nail polish. This is all for the water filters they build and then take out into the community. Over the fence is a really scary crocodile farm, am hoping that will not end up on my plate for dinner.

In the afternoons we go to Osborne House orphanage to teach. There are three classes of different ages so they are learning at the moment about colours, how many brothers and sisters they have and about verbs and nouns (lots of bad grammar in that sentence!) The kids are great and very beautiful. There is such a vast difference in age in the classes, that the kids understand at different rates so it's quite a challenge.

Our house is nice, we are sleeping under mosquito nets like princesses. Our hosts are lovely, so is the food, but we are having cravings already, luckily one of the girls has brought some marmite with her.

Lara Chapple

Alice,

Thank you so much for your email. I really appreciate all your efforts to rectify the honestly, small inconveniences that inevitably spout when traveling.

I mainly wanted to share with you, what an incredible experience we are all having. Though I am speaking on behalf of the others, we all talk a lot about how we feel about Cambodia, and I well and truly believe that you have given us every angle on the country. For that, I am eternally grateful. I have never been so involved, and felt like I'm truly being of service in a place before. Siem Reap is beautiful! I am very excited about returning there, and the new arrangements sound superb. Pnom Penh is fantastic! I was shocked (in a positive way, if that makes sense) byt the poverty that is ousted from the main city. It is a real privilege to be able to see how the majority live, and, not to sound overly cheesy, but it is certainly teaching me a lot, as it's a true awakening.

The highlight at Trailblazer was certainly going out to deliver the filters, and seeing the rural communtities. Teaching at the orphanage there was such fun, and they have made tremendous progress in building the place in the short period I was there for. The children's English is surprisingly fluent!

Here, the work is beautifully hard. I love waking up knowing I will see something that I am sure to remember. The Monks are a dream, they really are. Though I feel very attached to those adorable kids at the pagoda already. They are fast learners, and refuse to have a break from their lessons. The Nuns and kids at the afternoon school are just as bright and gorgeous! It is a pleasure teaching them. Plus I have aquired a new flower-making skill from my visit ti the community this morning.

Of course, I have so much else to say, but I thought I would touch base and thank you for allowing me such an experience. It is more than what I could have asked for on this placement, and I really mean that.

Hope all is well in England, will be in touch soon. Lara.

Kat Brashaw and Joelle Dunne

Hi Guy!

The actual living conditions are fine. In Siem Reap we used our bikes to get around which gave us more freedom. In Phnom Penh, the house and family are really really lovely. But this location is 30 minutes from town in an area that to be honest is not that great. There is loads of rubbish opposite and water that smells of sewage. We eat our food on the balcony.

In terms of the work I have really enjoyed everything we have done. It's great that we have had such variety but at the same time I have felt as though we have had enough time to make a difference.

Socheat is brilliant. If we need anything we ask him and he is very helpful. He is doing the volunteer work in Phnom Penh with us as well so he really cares.

Project tasks are as decribed. We have generally had enough to do and it is quite exhausting even though we only work about 5-6 hours a day! I guess we are in heat and it's pretty emotionally draining some days. The only place where I felt as though we didn't necessarily have enough was Trailblazers.

As above I think the accommodation location especially in Phnom Penh is not that great. Especially if there are all girls on the trip, no westerners are in this area at all.

In terms of work, I think it is worth maybe speaking to Trailblazers to see how busy they are. Unfortunately Joelle and I didn't get to go out into the community as we would not be back in time to teach our class at Osborne House. Maybe for the next group it would be a good idea to get everyone visiting the community where the water filters go early on before they have a responsibility of a class.

Other comments would be that it is hard work and you most defintaely get out what you put in. People should be under no illusion that this is a 'holiday'.  It can be very rewarding. There was a sick boy in the village near school and we gave sister some money and she is now delivering rice and milk to the family. The family are very poor, but also not very good at making sure the boy eat and takes his medication.
 
Any questions about the above let us know
 
ta
Kat & Joelle

Rosie Cornick

Hi there,
 
I am so sorry it has taken such a long time to send this email, I meant to do it sooner after the placement ended but the travelling has made everything quite hectic and I didn't get round to it!
 
I just wanted to send a general feedback email for the trip in case it's any use for future trips.
Firstly I would like to say a massive thank you. Overall the trip was more amazing than I could ever have imagined and it was a deeply profound experience that will stay with me for life. You have made it possible for me to do things that I would never imagine possible and not only did you organise them you made the whole process run so smoothly which is more than I can say for the other company we are volunteering with!
 
First Siem Reap Section:
In retrospect the trailblazer section of the placement was a really good thing to do, I was lucky in that I was one of the first people to go 'into the field' and see where the filters were going and who they were helping. I certainly would keep that part of it, it's a brilliant thing to tell people we did! Although they often ask if it was one of those psychological tests to see how long they can get people to wash sand for : )
Osbourne house, the orphanage was a wonderful place and a really good introduction to teaching and made later teaching sections of the trip far easier due to the relaxed nature of the place.
Phnom Penh:
The volunteering in Phnom Penh was without a doubt the best and has been the part which affected me the most out of the whole trip. Nothing should change about this. It was amazing to work with the monks and help in the slightest way with the work they were doing. We felt like we were really helping them as they were so grateful to us and also the days were always different, mixed up with teaching and visiting families. It was certainly harrowing at points, and this is largely due to the general atmosphere I found in Phnom Penh (I don't know if you found this, but I thought it was a really haunted city) but it was by far some of the most rewarding work.
At first I couldn't see how helpful we were being at Don Bosco, but when we left, again, they were so thankful to us for being there for just two weeks that I think you definitely have to continue sending volunteers there. I would also say that you reccomend your volunteers to continue trying to teach the phonetic alphabet which we found was quite good but only decided this near then end! The teachers also really appreciated us teaching this to both the children and themselves.
Oudong:
This section was pretty funny. The school was bizarre in that we got a glimpse of what it must be like for celebrities. We were quite literally followed everywhere, but again, we were made to feel really welcome and because we were'nt there for very long they arranged lots of activities for us to do-I still have the rose I made-and it was very enjoyable.
The well was brilliant! We were lucky that the main days we were doing the really hard graft it was overcast, but it was so good to have a project to start and finish! Definitely keep this bit in. The week in the countryside also meant that I read about 5 books which was brilliant!
Final Siem Reap:
The morning work in Samrong village was amazing. It was really good fun weaving the baskets (although I struggled a bit with the mats)! What was so good for us was that we just went to see who needed help with anything and that's how we came across the lady whose house and paddy field we built. In the same way as the well, it was amazing to see a tangible finished project. I have so many pictures of her house in various stages of being built and finally when it was finished! It was a really amazing thing to be a part of. Building the paddy field was the hardest work I have ever done! It was particularly bad when it got to the point when Socheat turned around on the way back home and said, "It's getting really hot now". You can only imagine how hot Lara and I were!! It is also very cool to know that the next placement is going to be planting that field we laboured over!
Teaching the tuk-tuk drivers was actually alot better and easier than I thought it would be. It was a little tricky at times as we never knew who was going to be in the class so planning could sometimes be a bit tricky but we managed. We started off by just going over politer ways of asking people if they wanted a tuk-tuk, it was wicked when we heard one of them using it in the street! They were all really eager to learn and made our job really easy. It was made a lot easier by Socheat being there to translate though.
 
I don't even know where to start with Socheat. As long as he is prepared to do it you should use him as your co-ordinator. He is quite a remarkable man. He was so sweet and lovely but at the same time cared so intensely about all the areas of the programme. His wife was amazing too, and cooked us amazing food, and we had so much fun playing with his son William! Socheat went out of his way to help in anyway and make sure everything was ok, I just don't know what I would have done had he not been there. Please keep using him!!!
 
I hope that this is useful. There isn't a lot I would say should be different in the trip, this email is more me wanting to tell you how I felt about all aspects of the trip, which is hard to do as so much of it I cannot even articulate.
Cambodia will forever be a very special place for me, everything that you put together for us enabled all of us to see a side of the country that so many never get to see and I am so thankful to you for that.
Please keep the Cambodia trip going, as a country it doesn't get enough attention and the more groups like you who send people there for extended periods of time to do more than just see the Angkor temples, the more the country will grow and flourish.
 
I'm going on a bit now and I'm sure you have more important things to be doing than reading a never-ending email, but once again I can't say thank you enough for everything!!!
 
I hope the next group has as amazing a time as I did and I know the rest of the group did!
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
 
Love
Rosie x x x

Will Minton, Cat Morpeth and Rowan Gaffney

Hi Guy,

Everything is great here thanks. The house is lovely and we are really enjoying the placements and the tuk tuk driver are really funny!

No problems to report and all three of us are travelling afterwards around Thailand as well.

Thanks,

Rowan Will and Cat xx

Cat Morpeth

Hey guys,

Apologies for not getting in contact thoughout the last ten weeks, internet time was so valuable and went so quickly!

But it was the most amazing experience that I'll never forget, and it's all thanks to you at The Leap, because I'd never have heard about it otherwise. So thankyou!

Thankyou so much for all the support and help, it's been invaluable.

Catherine x

Madalena Moreira De Sa

 Hello Guy (and Alice),

I thought I'd write as I haven't been in touch in a very long time. I was in the first Cambodia group, April 2008, and I was looking through both my own photos, the photos of the new teams on the website and all the reviews. The result was nostalgia and pride, and an overriding desire to return to Cambodia, where I left my heart.

Just thought I'd say hello, and also say that I am more than willing to write about Cambodia and our experience as Leapers if you ever need anyone to. I've got all my memories fresh and present in every second of my life and ready to share.

Love,
Madalena

Becky Richards

Hi Guy and everyone at The Leap,
 
Sorry it has taken me sooo long to write this email - I've been meaning to for a while now! I've just been looking over all my travelling photos and reminiscing about my time in Cambodia when I realised I still hadn't sent you an email! I just wanted to say a huge thank you for everything you all do when it comes to the projects. Cambodia was truly amazing and with such incredible people - both the team in country and everyone we met along the way - I have to say that I well and truly miss it!

The kids at COSO and in Phnom Penh are beautiful, and Cambodia is an incredible country - I know that we all left a part of ourselves there and I definitely wish that I could be there now!

Siem Riep was the highlight for me. The town itself was vibrant and so friendly - a great starting place to settle in, especially for me who had never been to Asia before! COSO was amazing - what topped it off was that we were there for Khmer New Year and they involved us all in the celebrations, from running around with the kids throwing flour at each other (a completely crazy but really fun tradition) to being able to sit with them for a meal. The kids were just beautiful - lively, adventurous and so full of life, despite the harsh reality of their situation.

We were truly welcomed and I had a brilliant time there. The orphanage is really well run and we could all tell how much the director cared – even about the small things. All I can say is that I have been touched by that experience alone.

Trailblazers was a whole world away. Sifting all that sand and cleaning rocks was hard work in the heat but worth it all in the end (even if we didn’t appreciate it at the time ) It was unbelievable to see the condition of the water which the villages drank - which only really hit home when we saw it first hand at the deliveries. I hope the project will go on to save many more lives.
 
Phnom Penh was fuelled by emotional highs and lows, but in retrospect more than worthwhile. While the city itself was an entirely different world to Siem Riep – chaotic, noisy and dirty – working at the pagodas and seeing the people affected by illness totally brought me back to reality. Working with the monks was for me brilliant. I found them out to be normal, funny guys – even though it took me aback the first time one of them whipped out a mobile phone from his robes after it started ringing from the back of the class it kind of became the norm. Lovely people!

Walking around the slums was sobering to say the least. I don’t think anything could have prepared me – totally different from how I imagined it. Just hearing the people’s stories was hard at times but they never seemed to give up on hope. Genuinely a world away. Everyday became a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but it was definitely worth listening to these people even if it was for a few minutes – they are incredible and have the most amazing stories to tell.
 
And then there are the team leaders. Both Socheat and Sambath were amazing – always there if we needed something and tried their hardest to sort out any difficult situations we experienced. We deffinately would have been totally lost at times without them! A big thanks to them both!
 
So thank you so much for organising this amazing project – I hope that future leapers get to experience just a little of what beautiful Cambodia gave to me. Thank you!
 
Becky x