Giving Back to Cambodia

Through the midst of endless “beggars”, red dust, transportation scams, high dollar resorts and restaurants, cell phone laden “taxi” drivers, and money being socked into everywhere but the poor Cambodians’ pocket, The Prancers were yearning for some way to REALLY give back to the country of Cambodia. What better than to teach English to children at Jay’s International School?

We answered an ad for committing 1-2 hours of time at a one room wooden stilted school created by a local Cambodian, Jay, for free English studies to all interested children (and adults at a separate time of the day). The experience was very eye opening for studly “I used to substitute teach to middle school kids in Illinois, this will be a piece of cake” man-Prancer, and for unsure “I am good at teaching Downward Dog...but English to Cambodian children???” lady-Prancer…..

We taught two days in a row from 5:30-6:30pm, right as the sun is getting ready to set, turning the precious little Cambodians into moonlight-infused feisty devils, as they would pinch at us and run around and hoot and holler throughout class. Ok, that is an exaggeration, but there were many times we got a pinch and the first day some of the rowdy boys at the back table were found outside playing, without our knowledge! 56 kids of all ages, smashed into 6 tables, is hard to keep a handle on, especially when there is a HUGE language barrier and Jay had disappeared for the hour.

Most of the kids were absolute angels, and others quite rambunctious, but what do you expect?! Most importantly, the Cambodians are the most beautiful population of people we have ever laid eyes on. They are sculpted with finesse and it doesn’t matter how rich or poor each one is. They have confidence and spunk and are extremely intelligent. Their black hair shines like sun rays, their skin a deep golden brown, and their bodies perfect in everyway, very toned and athletically inclined, compared to the Thai people.

So, what did we teach? Jay provided us a lesson book and just pointed to a “word family” page, quite boring we concluded. So, the first day we reviewed body parts (previously taught by an Australian couple) which they boisterously shouted out-loud, proud of their English skills. Then we attempted to teach them the first word family of: bed, red, Ted. Most of the time we couldn’t tell if they were just repeating every word we called, or if they really knew what was going on. There were large obvious gaps in the level of English these kids had learned. What do you expect though with so many ages and different teachers popping in and out on a daily or weekly basis? But believe us, we think these kids are receiving far more than a lot of Cambodian children would ever dream of…..

The second day of teaching, we decided to spice it up a bit and start with bringing the kids outside to play the “Hokie Pokie” (to have a little fun and tie in the body parts). This resulted in laughing, giggling, and following along as we sang and shook our body parts and twirled around in the moonlight. We rounded the kiddos up and went in to start a lesson in “shapes”, this time, thankfully, Jay was present to translate everything we said. The hour flew by and at the end of class, Jay had them sing/blare 3 songs to us, one of which Jill figured out was a rendition of “10 Little Indians”. We said our goodbyes and got a few hugs and went on our merry way, filled with a sense of compassion and dedication to the children of Cambodia.