Have fun! Help People! Teaching in Cambodia

It all started with a Facebook post. 'Anybody want to join me for a 1-week volunteer trip to Cambodia...?' Well, sure I do! And thus began a life-changing adventure!

On the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, despite the holiday madness, my friend +Mira Wooten was gracious enough to drive me up to SFO. There I met my friend and co-pilot on this adventure, Kyle. Kyle and I have been friends for almost 30 years. He and his husband travel extensively and often ask for friends to join them.  I always wanted to say yes and the time was finally right!

At 5 minutes after midnight, while turkeys were defrosting all across the US, our Singapore Airlines flight took off for Cambodia, by way of Hong Kong, and Singapore.  We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia around 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and were met by our Global Aware coordinator, Alin. Globe Aware, a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) develops short-term volunteer programs in international environments that encourage people to immerse themselves in a unique way of giving back. Alin introduced us to our tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Raht. We were delivered safely to our guest house where we checked-in and freshened up from the 24 hours of travel.  We spent Friday through Sunday sightseeing with an extremely knowledgeable and somewhat crazy tour guide.  He had us trekking the road less traveled as we explored the famed temples of the region.  Angkor Wat was of course, breathtaking. Baphuon and Ta Prohm were incredible. But for me,  the intricacy and history of Angkor Thom were most compelling. There are 54 four-faced spires, representing Compassion, Sympathy, Charity, and Equanimity which watched serely over the out across the provinces of  King Jayavarman VII's empire. We could all benefit from those faces reminding us!

On Sunday we also stopped by to check out the school where we'd be volunteering that week.  Even though it was a Sunday there were about 30 children, aged 2-18 waiting to meet their new teachers. It was exciting and humbling to see the school. The classroom is about 8 rows of benches and tables, under an overhang off of the mother's house. There is a dirt floor and wooden benches with old school posters hanging on the wall of the house and a whiteboard on one end.

In Siem Reap, students attend government school only half a day. During the Khmer Rouge, dictator Pol Pot, in an attempt to socially engineer a classless communist society, destroyed all of the schools and killed or imprisoned most teachers. The impact of this remains 40 years later. Due to a lack of resources and minimum government funding for schools, there is a shortage of teaching material and school facilities. Teachers, like those in this county but with a bigger detriment, are underpaid. Children that live where there are private schools and have the financial resources to attend, go to private school or tutoring for the other 'half' of their day. These schools are usually taught in English, so students are learning English along with additional content. In the poorer villages outside the city, no such options exist.

A few years ago, a mother in the village decided to start an English school for the village children. GlobalAware became aware of the school and decided to bring in volunteers. Which is how Kyle and I ended up in the small village outside Siem Reap.

Sunday night, Kyle, the planner, sat us down to plan out what we would teach.  We'd been given the primer they were using at the school, but the teacher in me just couldn't use it.  We talked about what vocabulary would be most useful to these children and tried to focus on that. So time of day, days of the week, greetings and such were our starting vocabulary. WIn addition, we ended up covering colors, shapes, body parts (head, shoulders, knees and toes) and we also did some lessons in hygiene.

Monday morning arrived and Kyle and I were excited to work with the children. We had hoped to be able to break them up into smaller groups, but since we only had one interpreter, we decided that would be too hard. We started in with greetings and "hello my name is...." It was so challenging working with an interpreter, but it made us really thoughtful and reflective on word choice. We made it through the morning session and Mr. Raht, took us back to our lodging, where we freshened up a bit. I asked our manager there where to get school supplies. Since her children were home for their midday break, she volunteered her kids walk us to the school supply store to pick up art supplies. Everywhere we went during the week, people were just so nice! After the store (where I resisted the urge to buy everything I could carry) we had a tasty lunch before heading back to school for the afternoon group. Several students were there for both morning and afternoon. We covered much of the same material and tweaked our lessons a bit for the slightly older group of students. Many of the morning children were there for all or part of the afternoon sessions. One of the little guys in the front row fell asleep in the afternoon. His friends tried to wake him, to no avail. I told them to let him sleep...learning is hard work! They were all so eager to learn. It was hot, dirty and hard work, but the hugs and smiles made it all worthwhile.

While I was away, I posted some about our experience on Facebook. One comment by my friend and former colleague struck home:

MK As I stand in front of my highly privileged students who are generally so unappreciative of what they have and what others do for them, I think of the students you are teaching who are at the other end of the “privilege” spectrum, and get such joy from simple things and those who try to help them. I think I would take your students over mine any day.

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Sandra: It is incredibly humbling, MK. One of my Bagby friends posted a pic of their lost and found rack. These children would be so grateful for a second or third shirt, much less so many clothes that you can ‘lose’ some. Perspective.

Monday after school we stopped by the lumber yard to order supplies to repair Grandmother's home, which had been damaged in the rainy season's storms. Tuesday we worked with shapes and colors and names of everyday objects. We had to remember that in Cambodia, everyday objects were not the same as in the States. Every evening, after a shower and a nap, Kyle and I would meet to plan out the next day, before venturing into the city for dinner. The days flew by so quickly. The students were so proud of their work and even Mr. Raht, knowing the value of speaking English in a country whose economy was fueled by tourism, participated in all the lessons.

In addition to teaching, we built and installed two walls for Grandmother's home and also built a wheelchair. Another Khmer Rouge remnant in Cambodia is landmines. Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined areas in the world; some estimates run as high as ten million mines (in a country of 11.5 million people), though the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) estimates 4 to 6 million mines. These mines came from many places, likely including the USA. Partnering with Free WheelChair Mission,  Global Aware provides the parts to assemble an easy to build, rugged wheelchair made from bicycle tires, plastic lawn chairs, and a welded frame. For $80, a wheelchair can be built, shipped, and delivered throughout the world, giving landmine survivors mobility, independence, and dignity. We were able to get parts for one while we were there and assembled it on Thursday, but were unable to connect with its recipient while we were there.

Friday came too soon and we said goodbye to our students. I am already trying to figure out how I can come back and teach for a longer period of time.  Being with these kids, feeling their desire to learn and understanding the value of an education in a third world country really reignited my passion for teaching.

Why Sandy Hook Did Not Change Everything

Since 2013, there have been nearly 300 school shootings in America — an average of about one a week. 

(source everytownresearch.org)

As an educator in America that statistic is shocking, saddening and infuriating. I was working in high tech in 1999 when Columbine captured the world's attention. In Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999, twelve students and one teacher were killed by two teenage students. The Columbine shootings rank as one of the worst mass shootings in US history as well as one of the deadliest episodes of school violence. (source CNN).

Like other disasters - the explosion of the space shuttle, John Lennon's murder and 9/11- I remember where I was, what I was doing, and what I felt. On that spring day, I happened to be in Boulder, Colorado visiting one of our field offices. Someone said something over a cubicle wall about a shooting, and we all tuned into the news. We'd all heard of gun rampages, even back in the 1960s, the infamous clock tower shooting at the University of Texas, Austin in 1966. Not to minimize, that was carried out by a 25-year-old on a college campus. But Columbine was different. Children massacring children. What was happening to the world? I was shocked and so very sad. My son was almost the same age as many of the victims. I was worried. I was heartbroken.

After the initial fear and outrage subsided, nothing much changed. Yet, everything had. Santee. Virginia Tech. Northern Illinois University. Too many to name. Hundreds of lives changed. Too many lives lost. Yet, the shootings continued. By December 2012, after a career change, I had been working in education for 7 years. I was teaching fifth grade and the news of Sandy Hook seeped into our classroom. It was horrific. These were babies - many of the victims were kindergartners. What if this happened at my school? I visualized what I would do if a shooter came on our campus, and I know my students did, too. Surely, this would be the wake-up call our country needed to make some meaningful changes to gun access laws and the identification and treatment of mental health issues. Sandy Hook would be a rallying cry. We would not forget. Congress would not ignore the real and present dangers of access to weapons. Surely.

Schools practiced code red drills. District bonds were approved to install fencing and locked gates to elementary campuses. Things changed on a micro-level. Hearings were held on the state, local and national levels. Yet, nothing changed. There have been 186 shootings on school campuses in the U.S. since 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on December 14, 2012, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, an advocacy group. (source LA Times).

Of course, we were wrong. No gun control measures were passed by Congress. And though many states passed laws restricting access to guns, more states actually made it easier to buy weapons. (Source: Vice.com)

Map of US School Shootings since 12/14/12

How is this possible?

I am sure greater minds than mine have thought about this. But here is what I think. It's all about the Benjamins.

Hear me out. When a plane crashes, the FAA gets involved immediately. They study the disaster from every angle and real changes are made to procedure or product. Not to be cynical, but the airlines have a vested interest in making these changes. After all, it was their logo on the tail of the plane. Their lawsuits to settle. Their claims to pay out. They have a financial motivation to make sure it never happens again.

Who has the financial interest in stopping school gun violence? Who is held accountable when a madman (and let's be clear, it is almost always a white male who shoots the gun) fires into a school? His therapist? The person who sold him the gun? The gun or ammo manufacturer? The NRA? No. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. No one other than the shooter, and maybe his parents, are held accountable. So no one financially benefits from stopping the murders from happening again. So no one is putting pressure on our lawmakers to have the courage to stop allowing access to unnecessary firearms for people ill-equipped to handle them properly. So guns keep getting into the hands of children killing children.

And the shock, and sadness and infuriating frustration of inaction remain.

Sadly, I do not see this changing. Our lawmakers simply do not have the will do make the change. So we must. Organizations like the Sandy Hook Promise work to prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide, and accidental discharge so that no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child. So that no teacher has to explain to her students that she will do whatever it takes to protect them, all the while knowing she is powerless against an assault rifle. So that no other confused young man will decide that shooting up a school is his only option. 

Be the change.