First day of teaching...Oh Shi* (literally)

I just got back from my first day teaching. I was assigned to the Kindergarten classroom at Borey Keilah this afternoon. Borey Keilah is the school that is in the slums of Phnom Penh. The picture to the above is a picture of a child who lives in those slums. I was pretty nervous about teaching there because that entailed walking through the village, aka peoples’ homes. I was not sure how the community would view these foreign girls walking in their homes and taking over as teachers to their children. Well my fears were alleviated this afternoon when we were standing outside of the slum under the blistering sun. The bus had just dropped us off to teach and we were waiting outside of the school for the RUPP students who had gotten lost. An older, weathered woman with a shaved head, a couple of teeth and scarred arms came up to me, Dr. Lewis, Lisa and Brittney and started pointing and talking to us in Khmer. I could not understand if she was asking for money or yelling at us. Dr. Lewis was on the phone at the time (giving directions to the lost RUPP students), so she could not talk to the woman or translate what she was saying. I used all the Khmer I knew and told her we were neakkroo (teachers).  She kept on talking and pointing, first to us and then to a place across the street. It seemed like forever until Dr. Lewis got off the phone. Finally Dr. Lewis translated what the woman was saying to us. It turns out she was inviting us into the shade of her home, which was a piece of tarp attached to the building and held up with 2 poles…wow! I felt like such a jerk. It is scenarios like this that I have experienced from this culture. No matter how little these people have, they have offered it to me with a smile. Here I am thinking she is asking for money or cursing at us in Khmer, while she is only trying to provide some shade to a few sweaty American strangers. It really touched my heart and has made me love and respect Cambodian people even more than I already do.   

We gave up waiting for the RUPP students and walked through the village to the classroom. Just to paint the picture for you, when I was creating my lesson plan, I took into consideration that I would have a Khmer teacher who would help me translate and learn the students’ names and that I would also have 2 or 3 RUPP students teaching with me to help translate and settle down the 50+ rambunctious children in the Kindergarten class. So I walk into the extremely small classroom expecting to have at least 3 to 4 translators and there is all but zero. Suddenly this lesson plan is going to have to work with me flying solo. No teacher, no RUPP students and 50 or so students in my class…yikes!! We teach English in the afternoons on Thursdays. Needless to say, it was hot, it smelled terrible and I was so nervous. But none of those things could have held back or kept away the smile that emerged on my face when the students started to greet me with their angelic voices. They start every class with the cutest chant that they have memorized; they stand up with their hands in the praying position belting at the top of their lungs. After they welcomed me, I walked to the front of the room, so nervous, because I now knew that I was in charge and responsible for these kids. I unloaded my bag of goodies that I brought along to assist me in teaching the colors of the rainbow,which was my lesson plan for the day. For whatever reason, their regular teacher just didn’t come to class that day, I guess she figured I was going to be there so she didn’t need to come (I’ve found out that in Cambodia, a lot of things get lost in translation). 

The room is tiny, stifling hot and smells pretty bad, a little like sewer. I look over at the 3 boys in the front row of class and they are trying to tell me something in Khmer and are pointing to a corner, I glanced at it, didn't see anything and obviously couldn’t understand them so I went on introducing myself and the lesson. Finally the RUPP students arrive, or should I say student, only one RUPP student made it and she had to leave early. Her name is Kalyan, I was relieved I had her, even if it was only for one hour, because her English is very good. I asked her to help me figure out what the little boys were trying to tell me. She conversed with them for a while, looked over at me and said, “Shit,” I looked at her confused (and wondering why she is saying shit). Kalyan then pointed to the same corner and sure enough there it was, a piece of shit in the corner, yes I mean human feces, and it wasn’t from a child either, it was adult poop. Since this school is in the slums there are very few, if any,  restrooms, so I am thinking either someone wandered in at night and used the classroom as a toilet, or some one thought the window of the classroom was a sewer, used it has a bathroom and their business dropped into the classroom. (the class is kind of underground, so the window looks out to the “pavement” of the street).  Who knows how it got there, but it was definitely there. I looked up at the boys and they were holding their nose and waving their hand in front of their face, the universal sign for peeeeeee- uu! I mean these poor kids are having to learn with shit on the floor. I almost lost it and freaked out but I kept telling myself to stay calm and ignore it but it did smell AWFUL! Unfortunately I think my nose got used to the smell because it didn't bother me after about 10 minutes, mind over matter, right…I just ignored it and went on with my lesson. The children were fabulous, the language barrier was difficult but smiles and clapping can transcend that very easily, so that’s basically all we did. Kalyan taught me how to say “What color do you want?” in Khmer, so I could finish the art project after she left. (Above is a picture of the children I taught while they are on their break).

For the art project I wanted to make something that involved the whole class and something that could be left in their classroom after we leave, unlike Kindergarten classrooms in America, the classrooms at this school do not have much color or posters that decorate the walls. Studies have shown that young children love color and animals on the wall, and a room with educational value on the walls is conducive to a better learning environment. Since they are learning colors today,  I came up with the idea of a handprint rainbow. The first part of class we went over all of the different colors, they knew them pretty well. I had flashcards with a Red circle and the word Red, and the same for all of the other colors. When I was going over the colors, I went out of order to see if they could still identify the colors and they could! They could say them and spell them, which really surprised me. I wish I could have engaged the students who sat in the back more, they did not know how to say the colors as well as the children in the front, but this was hard to do with just me in the classroom. If I went to the back of the classroom all hell would break loose in the front, so I had stay at the front and try to give them extra attention, practice and directions when they came up to put their handprint on the rainbow. The handprint rainbow was a HUGE success. 

Here is a picture of the finished rainbow! And also pictured here is the corner that had poop in it, the bottom right corner of the photo. 

Before class, I taped 16 pieces of paper together (they don’t have poster board or butcher paper in Cambodia) to make one big piece of paper and drew a rainbow on it. During class I taped it to the board and had the kids line up one by one. I then asked them in Khmer and in English “What color do you want?” They usually just pointed to the color on the rainbow, so I would ask them to say the color in English, if they said it in English correctly then I painted their hand that color and they stuck it on that color in the rainbow! The children loved being able to pick a color, have their hand painted and create art with their handprint! I lost track of who had already gone and they were already trampling one another to try to get to the front of the classroom, so I had to be firm with the sneaky ones and tell them to sit because they have already had a turn. The art project was a little messy, but that’s part of what made it so fun! I struggled a little bit because I didn't have a translator, but when I felt overwhelmed I would just teach them a song. They LOVE the Itsy Bitsy Spider and I’m a Little Teapot. Overall my first teaching experience went pretty well, I have major respect for teachers, it truly is a gift to be able to teach and especially teach to kindergarteners. I barely got by and I doubt the kids learned much that they can remember. I thought it would be a breeze because I am goofy and silly and at the very least I knew I could make them laugh, but it takes a lot of work, patience, and in my case a pretty strong gag reflex to teach children!!  

Reality

My internet has not been working so I am just now posting this...

These last two days, Monday and Tuesday, have been the best so far! This has been my favorite day because we FINALLY got to do and see the reason I came to Cambodia in the first place, to teach/hang out with vulnerable and underprivileged children. Seeing the schools has further inspired me to do a fantastic job and has also provided me a peace within about being here. Its about 6pm on Tuesday and we just got back to the Villa from touring the 3 schools where we will be teaching with the RUPP students. I should not have been so nervous about meeting them on Monday, they were just as enthusiastic if not more about meeting us. There are 17 of them and 6 of us, so I have many new Khmer friends. They are so nice and have VERY good English. Its cool to be with my peers who are from another country. We have so much in common, yet we are also so very different. Monday we went to the Royal University of Phnom Penh, it was an expansive campus with students all over the place. The class we are working with at PIO are all 2nd year psychology students. Dr. Lewis and their teacher (Neakkroo Hema) have been working together on research projects and such for the past couple of years so that’s how this is all working out. We basically had a meet and greet with them; found out about their families, their studies, their favorite hobbies, favorite foods, dreams, aspirations etc.

After the meet and greet with the RUPP students, which was so fun, we went back to the villa for lunch then we ventured off into our neighborhood and shopped around in a cute part of Phnom Penh, there were so many cute cafes that catered to foreigners. A coffee shop or cafe, Cambodian style, on every corner filled with ex-pats on their computers or enjoying a meal. I felt completely safe in that area. There were also several NGO shops that sold cute arts and craftsy type items. After exploring that part of town we took about a 3 mile walk to and from the river front. I was so excited to do this because I have felt like a caged bird in the villa lately; we did not leave the villa at all on Sunday and I was just rearing to go and get out and see the city via foot. I think walking around in a new place is the best way to get to know it. You can see the sights, hear the sounds and smell the air and scents of daily life. It was a beautiful day and started getting cooler, so the walk to the Mekong River was nice. We snapped lots of pictures and enjoyed the scenery. Cambodians, especially children, love having their photo taken, which is great for me because I love taking pictures. This is a video of some precious children who LOVED the camera, I gave them a quick English lesson.

Tuesday morning (this morning) came early, we woke up at 5:45 am, ate breakfast and were off to pick up the RUPP students to tour the schools. It was so wonderful getting to know them a little more. I talked to three of them for most of the time on the bus their names are Keam, Malen, and Rattanak Ly. They are helping me with my Khmer, I’m trying to get to the point where Khmer people don't laugh their ass off after every time I attempt to say something in Khmer...that's a good goal right? It was almost all of the RUPP students’ first time to visit these parts of Phnom Penh as well. This took me by surprise. I just assumed that the educated and/or wealthy knew about the poverty and underprivileged in their own country, but I have found out that it is not the case. Phymean Noun, the founder of PIO, is actually a revolutionary. Most organizations in Cambodia that serve the poor are Western NGOs, which is not a bad thing, but it contributes to the problem of this ignorance or turn a blind eye approach by other Khmers. Since Phymean Noun is a Khmer woman who started an organization helping other underprivileged and poor Khmer people, I am hoping and praying that her work will inspire other Khmer people, like RUPP students, to get involved with PIO or even have a dream to start their own organization similar to PIO.

The first school we visited was Borei Santhipheap II, it was about a 30 minute drive. It is located in the outskirts of Phnom Penh. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL drive, the Cambodian countryside is breathtaking. It is so lush with beautiful flowers of fushia and lavender blooming from Lilly pads, houses on stilts and cream-colored cows grazing the pastures. Borei Santhipheap is a small, extremely poor agricultural community. It is filled with simple homes storing just the items a family needs to get by , yet the village is still very colorful and alive. The drive to the school was an experience in and of itself. We got to the school and the children greeted us with THE most adorable song, it went something like "Gooooood Mooorniiiing Teeeacherrrrr, How are yooou today?" (teacher would answer) "I am fine, Thank you, teacher" But its much cuter when you hear it! The children are so full of life and so eager to learn! They showed off their English to us. Almost every conversation I had with a child went like this, I would ask. "What is your name?" They would answer, "My name is..." then they would ask, "What is your name?" then I would answer. Then they would ask "How old are you?" followed by "Where do you come from?" It was so fun hanging out with the kids, I was so in my element, teaching them songs, and laughing with them. I must say, I am so so so so so happy that the RUPP students are teaching with us because they are phenomenal translators, we can make MUCH more progress working side by side than alone. I have so many cute pictures; my finger just could not stop pressing the button. At the end of our tour it was lunchtime for them, so we took a big group picture. If you can't tell I have made 2 new friends, they just jumped into my arms. The little boy is holding up his money hahaha

Sorry this is getting lengthy so I will end it quick. Every school had its own personality. The second school we went to is called Borey Keliah, it is the school that is in the middle of the slums. A family's only possession might be a hammock, which doubles as their living room. It is quite a sight to see, there is one room, split up by tin into 3 different classrooms... There are SO MANY students packed into 1 room, Mary and I got up in the front of the Kindergarten classroom and sang the itsy bitsy spider, they LOVED it, we had to do it like 5 times hahaha. We finally made it to Stung Mean Chey, the school that is in the dump. This is the place that affected me the most. As we drove into the village, or community you could begin to detect the stench of garbage. There were heaps and heaps of garbage that went on and on and on. We kept driving down the street which was lined with homes and a few vendors, women covered from head to toe scavenging through the trash. There were children running next to the bus and when we got out and walked into the school, amidst all of the trash, we were greeted with the biggest brightest smiles. We met a few of the classes and then they performed traditional Khmer dancing for us, its was ADORABLE! I made friends with two little girls and taught them the hand/clapping game Mrs. Mary Mack. We became great friends. After the show, Pryth, one of the boys who performed the dance wanted to show us where he lived. We walked about 40 steps down the “road” to a freshly painted building. We walked into a big room that had nothing in it except for a few murals on the wall and a poster with about 40 pictures of individual children on it. Pryth had just taken us to PIOs orphanage. He gave us a tour of the orphanage, the first room we saw was the boys’ room, I’ve posted a picture of it below. Pryth was SO proud and boasting at the fact that everyone had THEIR OWN toothbrush and toothpaste. The platform is their bed and the shelf against the wall holds each boy’s belongings, ALL of his belongings. Lisa, one of the girls also in the program, said is perfectly, the room where the children slept and kept all of their things was a perfect visual to the excess that we have. This is so true! I mean you should have seen the suitcases I packed to come over here. Upstairs was the girls’ room, same thing but no platform for a bed. Stung Men Chey was my favorite of all the schools because the children were extremely lively since they’re so used to interacting with foreigners and also because the dump, filthy as it was, made for a great sight to see. Unfortunately that was my first and most likely my last visit to Stung Men Chey while I am here. It is for an extremely great reason though. Since Phymean Noun won the CNN award, the Stung Men Chey school has gotten a great deal of publicity and is already full with volunteer teachers. Dr. Lewis told us that we are desperately needed at the other 2 schools because no foreigners have ever volunteered there.

So much for that short ending… I guess I just had a lot I wanted to talk about.

Aah I am tired of typing! I didn't read it over, so sorry in advance for all of the errors..haha

Much love!
Rosie

I've had my first experience of getting sick

It was bound to happen, getting sick just comes with the territory here in Cambodia. Saturday afternoon we went to the modern market, called Psar Sovonar, it was more like a mall than a market. It was several stories (I would say 5 or 6). We weren't there but 45 minutes when I started to feel sick!! I almost fainted on the escalator, Lisa, one of the girls also in the program walked me to a corner and I sat down, then I started sweating profusely, my stomach was in sooo much pain; the worst pain ever!! I don't remember much, but I do remeber thinking that I wanted people to stop asking me questions because I couldn't answer them I also remembered this sweet Cambodian man bringing me a portable fan. My face was so pale, I was literally pouring out sweat. I finally was able to stand up and get to the bathroom, there was no toilet paper or soap, luckily I packed some toilet paper and had hand sanitizer in my bag! We left immediately after my episode and when we got home I got sick again, we realized that it was something I ate, but we do not know what yet. It came on so suddenly. I took some medicine and a long nap and I was better in 4 hours.

That night we went to a puppet show, it was a silk screen with leather puppets, so it was like a shadow puppet show. It was really neat. There were lots of little kids running around, and the theater was really cool! It was very small, when you walked through the gates there was a shop full of leather puppets in front of you, to left was the stage, which was risen, there was a place for the band and then a curtain with a silk screen in the middle. The best way I can describe the audience seating is as Khmer style stadium seating. There were about 6 rows of benches. The first row of benches had very small legs and were fairly close to the ground, the second row of benches' legs were taller than the first rows' legs but shorter than the third rows' legs etc, etc. There were quite a few westerners attending the puppet show, some of them had adopted Khmer children and others had a Cambodian mother and an American father. They were so cute, one of them was dancing to the music before the show started and I started talking to her and asked her where she learned to dance like that and she said, in a British accent, "I learned at my school, I know, don't I just have the most beautiful dancing?" haha it was so funny! The puppet show was really cool. It was all in Khmer so I didn't really follow it, but I could look at those puppets all day because they are so beautifully intricate! The picture above is from after the show, the puppeteers invited the audience back stage to play with the puppets behind the screen! The loved doing it!!

Sunday was a chill day, we didn't leave the villa at all. We had breakfast and then went straight to work on the lesson plans! We are teaching at 3 different schools, one is in the slums called Borey Keila School, the second one is outside the dump called Stung Mean Chey and the third one is about 45 minutes outside of the city and its called Borei Santhipheap. All of these schools are opperated by People Improvement Organization (PIO). Here is their Website if you are interested in taking a look. So the purpose of my time here in Cambodia is to teach art lessons and English to these children, we also train the teachers of the PIO schools to have better strategies with classroom management, and better understand child development. We also have workshops for teachers on issues such as childhood nutrition, health and hygiene and positive discipline strategies. In addition to teaching the children and training the teachers, we have been partnered up with local Univeristy students from Royal University, Phnom Penh (RUPP)! They are middle class Cambodians who will be in the classrooms with us and will carry on our volunteer work after we leave.

Much to my surprise, the upper and middle class Cambodians do not have much contact with or even knowledge about the poorest of the poor in this country; they have never been inside the slums or even to the dump to see what it is like. I think partnering with these RUPP students is going to be wonderful! We will learn so much from them as they will learn so much from us, we are also introducing social responsibility into these students way of life, which I could not be more happy about! I think everyone should give back in whatever little way they can, it does not have to be a huge gesture, just a small one done with great love. Anywhoo, those are the new developments for this trip! We are meeting the RUPP students in about an hour! I can't wait to see what they will be like, I hope I don't scare them off with my over enthusiasm...

Im off, lots of love and prayers,
Rosie

Getting to know Cambodia

Hello everybody!!

So its Sunday, May 17 and lots has happened since my last post. On Friday we were supposed to start teaching, but it was a national holiday in Cambodia so the schools were not in session.
Instead we went to "Psar Toul Tom Poung" (also called the Russian Market) in the morning and the Royal Palace in the afternoon. The Russian Market was amazing! There is so much stuff to look at, talk about sensory overload; everything there is beautiful, handmade, and dirt cheap. I've realized that I am not the best bargainer of the bunch. When I try to bargain they'd shoot back a sad face, saying "no too little," and then Id feel bad and give them the full price, this is something I am working on. But on the bright side, I did get 3 super comfortable t-shirts for 5 dollars. I'm not sure if yall know this, but elephants are my favorite animal. Elephants are very reverred in this culture so they are on everything. At the market there is gorgeous art, beautiful wood carvings and pottery, amazing silk scarfs and so much more! In Cambodia there are a lot of disabled people because there are so many land mines left over from the war that have blown off a limb or burned a face. These disabled people were walking around selling postcards, and small artwork at the market so I bought them out of postcards, needless to say, expect a few postcards from me! I also took some great pictures at the market. It was so colorful and made for a great backdrop. The people are beautiful, their eyes light up when they smile even if they have no material possessions, a burned face or a blown off leg, they always greet you with a smile.

Food here has been absolutely fabulous! Breakfast is an American breakfast, we have a choice of an omelet, fried egg, or scrambled eggs and our choice of juice, a choice of coffee or tea, always toast and jam and fresh fruit!!! Saturday morning we had the freshest, tastiest mango and papaya...YUM!! For lunch and dinner we always have a soup, a traditional Khmer dish (of course always with rice) and a desert with every lunch and dinner! My favorite dessert so far has been these bananas cooked with very finely shredded coconut, sugar and some sort of molasses! It was soooo delicious! The staff here at the Frangipani Villa, where I am staying, are SO sweet, I was joking with them a while ago, they were practicing their English with me, asking me how old I was, what I was studying. They are all between 20 and 23 years old. One of the guys, his name is Seanon, hes my fav so far, when he works at the villa he stays here because he has nowhere else to live. When he is not working here he works at the frangipani villa 90s (there are 2 Frangipani Villas, we are staying in the frangipani 60s) and when he is working at neither he said his friend, who is also a staff member takes him in. But the thing is, I feel like he is happier than I am! Always smiling and always so kind and generous. I haven't been here for long, but the spirit of these people is unbelievable, almost indescribable.

After lunch we toured the Royal Palace, since it was a national holiday, there were lots of festivities going on . The Royal Palace was absolutely majestic, as my roommate Priya so poignantly put it! It was an absolutely beautiful day to take pictures, with the bluest sky and brightest sun! Visiting the Royal Palace is the same concept as going on a tour of the White House, but at the Royal Palace everything is so open, accessible and much more beautiful. The king actually lives there and people were free to romp around the estate, there were beautiful jewels and treasures and no security guards. I think that says something about the Khmer culture. In the states, you have to wait forever to try to get into the whitehouse and there are security gaurds everywhere. It was interesting to compare the two. In the Royal Palace, there are Buddhas and temples and courtyards sprinkled throughout the estate. Children, monks and every other type of person was visiting the Palace. There was this big family who was touring the palace at about the same pace we were and all of the children would pose for pictures holding up peace signs and boast huge smiles! We watched a woman make silk and men play instruments. After the Royal Palace we took a drive down the river front; this was truly something to see. It was definately the nicer part of the city, there were two large grassy areas, boardered by streets, where all sorts of fun activites were going on. Teens kicking the soccer ball around, older men playing bad mitten, young girls chasing balloons, a couple having a picnic, etc. I wanted to jump out and chill in the grassy knoll with the Cambodians!


Here is a picture of two children who were at the Royal Palace following us around. They don't look too happy in the picture, but they were adorable! The child wearing a flower behind his ear is a boy after my own heart, he can really rock that flower! This afternoon we are going to the modern market and then to a traditional Khmer puppet show. The theatre is a silk screen and the pupeteers hold up leather puppets and the audience sees the shadow of the puppets. Can't wait to tell yall about it!

Until next time with lots of Love,
Rosie

Jet lag is no fun

So I cannot sleep, it is 4:30 am here and I keep waking up hoping its time to be up! The good thing about jet lag is that hopefully I will get to see the sunrise this morning! Since I can't sleep I decided to put up a few pictures for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!


We ventured out into the city today. It looks much different in the daylight. Mo-peds packed with 3 or 4 people, lots of tuk tuks and crowded streets with street vendors, begars and performers. I took this picture today when we walked to the Lucky's, the local western market. This boy was sitting on the median of one of the busiest streets in Phnom Penh.
I took this picture on the street outside of our hotel. Its a Buddhist monk running a few errands I presume!

Travel Day...CHECK

So after the 22 hours of traveling we have finally made it to Phnom Penh in the Kingdom of Cambodia! Mom stayed with me in the Atlanta airport until I boarded and then she went on to board her plane to fly back to Dallas! She is the best in the whole world, I don't know what I would do without her. Right now we are in our accomodations for our time in Phnom Penh. I am greasy, not tired and SOOOO excited to be here. My roommate's name is Priya and our room is adorable. We are staying at the Frangipani Villa. The flight over here was really fun for the first 11 hours, the 3 after that went by very slowly! I watched several movies and read to keep myself occupied. I have to tell you that Korean Air was a pleasure to fly. The flight attendants were so sweet and nice to talk to, even though there was a bit of a language barrier. I sat next to Mary, another girl going on the trip, and we were lucky to sit next to SJ, a Korean man who was flying home after studying at NC State for 2 years. He helped us translate with the flight attendants, gave us advice about traveling in Cambodia and Thailand and also told us all about the meals we were supposed to pick on the airplane, one of which has left an impression on me; it is called bibimpap, a traditional Korean dish with vegetables, rice, chili paste and other deliciousness. It was soo yummy!!! I could go on about it for another few paragraphs but I don't want to bore yall.

I was excited to land and see what the Korean airport was like. I was floored by its cleanliness and how easy it was to get around. I wish we had a little more time there to explore, but shortly after we landed in Seoul, Korea we boarded our airplane for the 6 hour flight to Phnom Penh, which Spencer, our Cambodian dad, called a "toy airplane" in comparison to the monstrosity we flew over on from Atlanta. I slept for most of the trip from Seoul, Korea to Phnom Penh, but during the times I was awake and looked out the window I saw the most beautiful sunset and another time a star filled sky, which I can say was one of the most extraordinary skies I have ever seen, the big dipper was brightly staring back at me, I felt so close to it. When we landed in Phnom Penh a wave a humidity hit me like a tidal wave. Dr. Lewis wasn't kidding when she said that it was humid here. It is midnight here right now so we couldn't see much of the city on our way to the hotel, but from what I could see, the city was still very much alive at this late hour in the night. I saw everything from people pulling carts filled with trash to a mo-ped accident and from street children scavengering through trash to teens huddled under a tarp playing cards. I cannot wait to get a fresh look of the city during the day tomorrow! I think we are going to market! Hopefully jet lag won't get the best of me!

Lots of Love
Rosie

Cambodia Bound

Hello Friends and Family!!

This is officially my first blog entry for my time in Cambodia and Southeast Asia! It is 2:30 am on the day I am leaving for Cambodia. I am both excited and nervous. Excited because I will be in another country in the next 48 hours and nervous because my bags just might be overweight and I have a 20 hour flight ahead of me...yikes! Mom is here with me! She has helped me pack up my room and try to pack efficiently for this trip! I do not know what I would have done if she wasn't here to help me especially since all of my roommates have already left town! I leave Atlanta today, Tuesday, May 12 at 1:00 pm and will arrive in Phnom Penh at 10:00 PM on May 13, it is a 12 hour time difference to Dallas! I can't believe I have moved out of my house and am on my way to Cambodia all in the same week! It's kept me occupied that's for sure! I don't know what to expect when I arrive in Cambodia, but I will find out soon enough and keep you posted. I do know that I have only heard the most amazing things about Cambodia and its people. Cambodians have been described as kind, generous and magical by a number of people who have visited the underdeveloped country. I am traveling to Cambodia with one of my professors, Dr. Lewis, and 6 other students. All I know is that we are teaching English and art lessons to street children of Cambodia, who earn a living my collecting trash from the dump. The organization we are working with is a local non-profit organization called People Improvement Organization (PIO) and the executive director Phymean Noun, was awarded as being one of CNN's heroes for the meaningful work she does in Cambodia.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2008/12/02/heroes.noun.speech.cnn

Above is a link to a video that was shown at the CNN awards ceremony. It describes the place in which I will be working! To view this video, click on Phymean Noun's speech. It is very inspiring and impressive to watch. Phymean Noun really made a differnce with this organization and I can't wait to meet the children! I am in anticipation of their huge smiles and eagerness to learn! Next time you hear from me it will be from the Kingdom of Cambodia!

Until next time!!!!

Lots of Love,
Rosie