Sunday 18 January 2015

UniBreak update from Cambodia


COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Sarah Bensen

Our first weekend saw us explore the wonderful city of Phnom Penh. We ventured off to Oudong, the old capital of Cambodia where we climbed 500+ stairs which saw us reach a magical vantage point across the landscape. Although it was beautiful, I think we would all agree our highlight was on the drive over when our driver took us down back streets into a true Cambodian neighbourhood. We stopped at a house where the family carved beautiful ornaments and jewellery out of silver by hand with basic utensils. Definitely a highlight.

Having now reached the halfway mark of our adventure, all of us have experienced some sort of sickness; sore throats, head colds, upset stomachs. Lucky for us we have Luke who is a nurse and Paige who works at a chemist so have been able to pop down to the Western pharmacy knowing what to look for. Future travellers, as long as you're prepared there's nothing to worry about. We've all soldiered on spectacularly; it's hard not to in such a beautiful city!



Sunday was dedicated to some shopping at the Russian markets and lots of lesson planning for the week to come.

This week at school has seen so many advances. We've started to really get to know the students in our classes; their capabilities, their personalities and we've maybe even made favourites (secretly). We've been able to settle into the classroom more and our lesson planning has become more routine as we've gotten a better feel for how and what to teach. The students are a lot more settled as our presence has become a regular occurrence as opposed to a novelty. I feel like the weeks are moving way too quickly and I'm not looking forward to having to say goodbye. Nothing else to do but make the most of the time we have left!

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