A Day in the Life of A Volunteer Teacher in Cambodia

PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Tianna Killoran

This week we have all started to settle into our place here in Siem Reap! The streets are starting to become familiar and we can actually get around! Pub Street and the markets all around town are fast becoming our favourite places to hang out. We have gotten into a routine with our classrooms and we love it!

6:30am: Wake up bright and early, ready for the day. We enjoy breakfast together in the hotel, which often includes an array of traditional Western and Khmer foods. I love having the fried noodles for breakfast! Our in-country coordinator always checks up on us in the morning to make sure everything is going smoothly.

8:00am: We ride off in our tuk tuks to get to school! Sometimes it's a bit of a bumpy ride, but mostly it's fine. We love really getting to see the villages around Siem Reap on our way there, which really gives us a view of how our students live, many of whom come from very poor families.

9:00-11:00am: In each session, we have an English language lesson and then a topic lesson. I mostly help my teacher with speaking and pronunciation in the English lesson, while I get to take the class for the topic lesson. The students usually have lots of energy and are always smiling and laughing. They'll also jump at any opportunity to do some skipping! We also get to teach maths and art in our lessons, with games on Fridays.

11:00am-1pm: We usually go out to lunch with the other teachers. The place next to our school makes the most amazing iced tea and iced coffees. They’re only 50c, so now we get why all the teachers go nuts for them!

1:00-4:00pm: English language and topic again. This time we can repeat the lesson and everyone can correct the mistakes made in the day’s first lesson.

4:00pm: After getting home, a lot of us make sure our plans for the next day are all in order. We can pick up plenty of supplies around town if we need them.

6:00pm Most of our nights are spent exploring the streets and walking around the markets. We always find somewhere new and interesting to eat.

Other tidbits: We spent our last weekend getting up at the crack of dawn to see the Angkor Wat temples and then also went around to Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm with our tour guide. He filled us in on so much of the history of these places. Angkor Wat was just breathtaking and so magnificent. The intricate carvings and statues situated within the vast history of the Angkor Empire were amazing sights. Some of us even went back to Angkor Wat at sunset the next day, and it was just as good the second time around.