Saturday, June 22, 2013

Cambodia: Day 7 & Day 8



Day 7

After finishing today’s manual work, I was able to work in the classroom. There is a school close to the orphanage in the slums that most of the children from the orphanage attend every day. Working in the classroom and teaching students was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences I’ve had. I stood at the front of the classroom and helped the children pronounce words such as sharpener, school bag, pencil, chalk, etc. While I taught the students, I also taught the teacher at the same time. Some of the children, such as Levin, are able to speak English better than their English teacher. It’s really hard to see that they are unable to strive higher and push themselves because their teacher can’t teach them further. Levin is so talented and has been studying English for the past 3 years, and every word you teach him he remembers and repeats again and again. At the school we practiced sentences such as, “Grandma’s hobby is cooking.”, or we would work on crossword puzzles with the vocabulary words they learned that day. At the end of each hour, when the class was over, the students would all stand up, bring their hands together underneath their chins (as if they were praying) and recite “Thank you teacher. Good luck to you teacher. See you on Monday.” It was incredible how much these children love school and given the circumstances of where they live, there’s a copious amount of children that value their education.

Day 8

Every day that we put forth the effort and help to build and finish the girls’ house is another step closer to improving the lives of these children. We are almost finished with the girl’s house; today we put on the walls and finished the flooring. I am so immensely excited to see the finished product and when the girls finally realize that this is what we have put hours and hours in of our energy and love and they will be so happy.  

Today we also gave out some clothes that were donated for the girls at the orphanage. I have never seen a little girl as happy as Sachia was when she got all her clothes. Every time Keelin gave her a new shirt, one by one, she hugged her and folded it nicely and tucked it away into her cubby. It’s amazing that such a small gift to us means the entire world to these children.  

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