A once-in-a-lifetime experience

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Exercise Physiology
WRITTEN BY: Brent Luckman, Notre Dame University

Our final week in Cambodia began with two village outreach clinics on Monday and Tuesday. Dinner for the next few nights saw us become regulars at a newly discovered Italian restaurant named Little Italy (or Sicily for short), where we got stuck in to some delicious lasagna and steak. One more school visit on Wednesday afternoon and our final shifts at our placements on Wednesday and Thursday meant we had completed our month of work in Cambodia.

Having finished our practicum for the month, we started to look back and reflect on the once-in-a-lifetime experience we had just been a part of. We have helped stroke patients, people with diabetes, polio sufferers, amputee victims- the majority of which were from landmines- and cerebral palsy sufferers. We helped run outreach clinics in villages often 1-2 hours out of Siem Reap (where some people have never seen Westerners before) and provided exercise and fun activities to hundreds of over-energized primary school children. We have seen the result of a truly horrible government regime that still affects the country nearly 40 years on, and we've visited killing fields and prisons where Cambodians tortured and killed their fellow countrymen and women. But most of all, we have realised and seen first hand the difference that we’ve made to the lives of people less fortunate that us, whether it be as little as showing someone how to stretch muscles that are stiff and tight, or teaching people with new prosthetic limbs how to walk properly.

We have also made so many new friends on this journey. Over the course of our time here we became close with our translators, the employees of the various clinics and organisations we worked at, the teachers that supervised our trip, the many patients we worked with, and our amazing in-country organisers Billy and Vichay. As a student group we are closer than ever before. We have even witnessed the emergence of a new celebrity couple in the group that now rivals Kimye and Brangelina, known only as Jafiq…

We have enjoyed a month with some of the best- and cheapest- food and drinks in the world (massive call, but I dare you to prove me wrong), and experienced parts of a country completely different to our own that no common tourist would ever see. Joel managed to go through over 100 water bottles on the trip, Jarvey polished off 3L of hand sanitzer (and still managed to get sick), Matt made an Aussie hiphop video, Chris has a table tennis record of 1 win and 47 losses, and everyone danced on a table at some point at Angkor What bar. Unfortunately, it had to come to an end at some point, so with no American dollars left we departed Siem Reap to return to the cold and wet conditions in Perth (yay…)

Before I sign off I need to say a massive thank you on behalf of the group to Tanya, Fiona and the Antipodeans team for making this trip truly unforgettable. I also need to thank Chris and the translators for all the help they gave us. Finally, I urge anyone who has the opportunity to travel/volunteer abroad; I promise you won't regret it and you certainly won't forget it.

Johm riab li and saamnang la-aw (thank you and good luck)