A Day in The Life of a Law Student in Cambodia

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: Faculty Placement
PROJECT: Law
WRITTEN BY: Lauren Cutuli

A typical working day starts around 7am with breakfast at your hotel, followed by the bus, which takes students to their designated legal NGO for the day. We would usually spend the morning in court, either the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the Trial Court or the Appeals Court. At the ECCC the court provides headphones that translate Khmer to English, however in the Trials, Supreme and Appeals Court you will need a translator who is usually the staff member with the best English. 

Lunch breaks are quite long in Cambodia, around 2-3 hours! During this time some staff members will have a siesta in the office, but we would use this time to have a walk around the streets and explore. We are provided with a packed lunch but can opt to eat out which we did do several days. 

After lunch we would either have a briefing about the court and justice system in Cambodia or attend a meeting with a prosecutor, NGO or community group that provides support to clients. We were very lucky that these meetings were arranged for us to be able to ask questions and we were surprised with the honesty of their answers. Many lawyers and professionals are interested in the Australian legal system so we would also share the differences between our systems and even voice our concerns for the Cambodian legal industry.

A days work will finish somewhere between 4pm and 5:30pm, at which time our driver returns us to our hotel where we would meet with the other students on our trip to discuss our days and our plans for the evening. Depending on how early we have to be awake the next day we will all have a drink at the rooftop bar at our hotel and head out to dinner. Dinner is usually a traditional rice, noodle, soup or curry dish and, if we can fit it in, deep-fried ice cream or Nutella crepes! 

Weekends are ours to plan as we please, but we will usually always fit in a trip to one of the local markets, a tourist attraction and a big night out!

What you should know before your Antips trip!

Expect to be challenged 
For many who have never been to Southeast Asia, this trip was an eye-opener. So expect a bustling, busy city with many things to do and see, but also poverty. This may be confronting for some, but use it as a reflection to realise how lucky we are in Australia. Despite the conditions here, the locals are very friendly and happy and if you wave and smile, they will return the gesture with the biggest smile you have ever seen- especially the children.

Expect to get sick 
I am not saying it is inevitable, but expect to. That way there is no disappointment when you are and you have come prepared. Pack paracetamol, stomach flu medications, any vitamins to keep you going (I brought zinc!) and if you need to, any antihistamines or cold and flu medication you usually reach for. Within the first 4 days here in Phnom Penh, 9 out of 11 of us fell ill with stomach bugs. For those affected it was not ideal so definitely be aware of this when eating out and drinking. In saying that, the food is amazing and there are plenty of restaurants to eat at so don’t hold back. Just be careful to only drink bottled water and plenty of it!

Expect to make friends 
I was so preoccupied with the trip and working abroad that I forgot I was going to be experiencing this with a group of likeminded students. The friends I have made have definitely been one of my favourite parts of this experience so far. Remember, you are not alone and if you are feeling homesick, uneasy, or anxious it is likely that so are some of your fellow travellers so support each other. If you don’t know anyone going on your trip, don’t worry. I only knew of one other person before going and by the second day I had private jokes with everyone! You are in a group of likeminded, adventurous people so making friends is easy and will make your experience even better.

Top tips: 

• The environment here is very different to Australia so make sure you pack accordingly. Dress conservatively but also bring some casual clothes to wear on weekends away or out to dinner with the group. One of the things I regret most was packing too conservatively and being very hot. While it is recommended to respect the culture and wear clothes that sit below the knee and cover the shoulders, it is fine to wear shorts or skirts that are at the knee or just above.
• Bring USD. There is no need to bring Cambodia Riel as Cambodians prefer USD. I would recommend bringing several hundred USD and then taking more out at an ATM if needed. You will most likely have a safe box in your hotel room to store your cash but check beforehand.
   
• Bring a small bag that is secure. Be aware that pickpocketing is rife here in Cambodia so keep your belongings secure when walking the streets and do not bring your passport or large amounts of cash with you unless it is required.

The Best Places To Hang Out in Siem Reap

PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Tianna Killoran

After spending a few weeks here and being faced with a crazy amount of choices for places to eat, we’ve finally settled on a few of our favourites.

Sister Srey Café 
200 Pokambor Street, Riverside, near the Old Market 

A beautiful café run by two Australian sisters that makes the best coffee around! Their food is brilliant, all of the staff are very friendly, and there's always some chilled out music. If that weren’t enough, we've all found that Sister Srey has a mind for supporting sustainability in the local community. They hire local Khmer staff and then train them in English and Hospitality, whilst also maintaining support for other local projects and donating a percentage of their funds. We’ve been back now a few times. You'll usually find us there on weekends or for a sneaky breakfast some days before school!

Temple Bar 
Pub Street 
This place is basically the best on Pub Street! They have three floors, with a restaurant, a balcony restaurant and a sky lounge with beanbags and a big water feature. Either way, they're the best to either chill out or party on a Saturday night. Tonnes of cheap cocktails and really good food! There's another Temple Bar on the other side of the river too, which is much quieter if you're not up for the bustle of Pub Street.

Soria Moria 
Wat Bo Road, Siem Reap 
$1 tapas and cocktails on Wednesday nights: that's really all there is to say! They serve Western and Khmer food and it's all good! Soria Moria also supports responsible tourism and employs local individuals with the aim of equipping them with work skills.

Charlies
98 Hospital Street 
We have all dropped into Charlies a few times now, but it's our plan to spend the day there on Australia Day! They'll be playing triple j’s Hottest 100. They're always playing really great music and lots of sports, plus they serve Khmer food and some other favourites like potato skins, nachos, and chicken wings! 

For Life
The Lane close to Ms. Wong 
Thank you Antipodeans! This place is where our lunches during the week are organised and it is honestly the best food. We are always given an array of different dishes (a good way to try all the different Khmer food) and it's always delicious. The people there are so friendly and we look forward to lunch there each day. It's a bit of a hidden gem, but definitely worth it.

JCU teachers making a difference

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: James Cook University

Since arriving in Siem Reap on Thursday 8 Jan, after 3 flights and 12 hours in the air, so much has happened already. We have completed our first week of teaching, gotten to know our students and enjoyed many bumpy tuk tuk rides. We have sampled various delicious local dishes and tested almost every coffee shop in town (‘Sister Srey’ cafe is becoming a favourite amongst many of us). But, most importantly, we have all been very busy developing relationships with our Khmer teachers and with each other. So, where do I begin…

Upon our arrival in Siem Reap, we were greeted by the very friendly Davy and our very patient bus driver who loaded our very heavy luggage into the van and we were off to Jasmin Guest House. We arrived at our guest house, dropped our luggage off, connected to the Wifi (very important) and were taken to what has now become our regular lunch hang out, Neary Khmer. The food here is amazing and we have all been shocked at the service and quality of many of the restaurants and cafes around Siem Reap.

In general we have so far avoided eating the coveted tarantula, snake and scorpion. Maybe next week! :) Lime sodas, mixed fruit shakes and fresh coconuts are regular sights at our lunch table each day. The program has been organised so that we get to meet up each day for lunch. This is a good opportunity to share our experiences with each other. Our group has been divided up between three schools. One is in the Siem Reap township and the other two are a little further out.

The girls at the school in the city are treated to a tuk tuk ride from our very comfy guesthouse to the placement. We expected each school to run their day-to-day activities, lessons and timetable differently, but it has been quite a surprise at just how much each program and the students differ.

The girls who have been placed at the further away schools are driven by minivan at 6:30am for a slightly earlier 7:00am start. Despite these two schools being just 10 minutes apart, they are worlds apart in terms of development. The vast differences will ensure, however, that each of us will take away unique memories from our time here.

The days are long here. We are up at around 5:30am and do not return to the guest house until 5:30pm most days and then there is planning to do and resources to be made. We eat out at restaurants and cafes for dinner most nights; the local food is so varied and delicious! Sometimes if we're feeling super tired we'll just order in pizza and occasionally wash it down with the local Angkor beer.

We have our weekends to sightsee, shop and be pampered. Our group has a keen interest in responsible tourism and has been actively seeking out organisations and products that help the local people lift themselves out of poverty. From fishy foot spas and facials to trips to Phnom Pen and elephant rides- the Australian teachers know how to have a good time :) We can’t believe how quickly this 11 days have flown by. We miss you all!

#JCUteachersmakingadiffernce

Home visits warm hearts in Cambodia

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: Sophie Turner

As the saying goes 'Time flies when your enjoying yourself' so it's no surprise we are already in week 2 and half way through our volunteer teaching placement. The past week has brought us a mixture of both delights and challenges, as we continue to work hard as a team on our collaborative photo-book project, and teach English despite several bouts of sickness in the group. Lisa our Volunteer Coordinator at the school, has taken to doing a daily head count as invariably each day we have been down at least one member. On Tuesday poor Lauren had to spend a night at the International Hospital due to an acute case of gastro, but was looked after superbly their staff and the lovely Davy.
On a more cheerful note, we have all been so fortunate as to a have a host of unique experiences this week including visiting some of the children's homes in the village. It was positively heart-warming hearing them translate personally their reasons for choosing to photograph a member of their family, their home or theirs friends and what this meant to them.

Other highlights included elephant rides through Bayon temple, visiting the Tomb Raider temple Ta Prohm, a fantastic local Khmer cooking class and attending one of the school teachers' sister's traditional Cambodian Wedding at At Tra Peang Village.

Cambodia Education begins with tasting spiders, ants, and frogs

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: Sophie Turner

After an exhausting day of flying we were all grateful to finally touch down in Siem Riep and to be greeted at the airport by the smiling faces of our in-country partners. Our eyes lit up as the driver took us through the brightly lit streets, each building and street corner an inviting shock to the senses. Mesmerised, we reached our luxurious accommodation in heart of Siep Riep, Davy's home but luckily now also our guest house for the month.

Several days after some amazing sight-seeing, shopping and extremely beneficial Child Protection Training we are all feeling settled, now literally owning the barter system (apart from Kristie who is simply too kind-hearted, but is learning under Tara's close supervision) and have had the delight of trying much of the local cuisines including chicken with red ants, frogs and even spiders!

After a brief orientation into the political history of Cambodia, we met Jim and Lisa at The Spitler School, to map out our schedule for the month and how we can use our time to create a sustainable project that will benefit the students now and well into the future. We discussed plans for a photo-book project, and decided some of the funds raised could be used to purchase digital cameras, memory cards and printing.

We all look forward to our first taste of planning and teaching in this amazing setting, and can't wait to see what other new experiences this incredible trip will bring!

Final blog from James Cook University in Cambodia

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: James Cook University

The end of our trip is now a reality! We had a busy week finishing our painting and construction projects out at MHDC. We managed to get the painting finished just in time, and the construction had been completed. The last week of teaching was just as rewarding and exciting as the first. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to work with these students, they bring so much enthusiasm to school every day and it's
beautiful to see so much excitement to learn new things. You can see the importance and value of education in Cambodia through the childrens attitudes. Our week concluded with a farewell ceremony at MHDC including all the students, teachers and some military officials.

This was our chance to give our deepest thanks for the experience of mutual learning, and for the hospitality and warm welcome we recieved. The ceremony concluded with the official first use of a water tank we had installed. The people who lived in the house were very moved by the work we had done and offered their deepest thanks. Seeing them getting so emotional over something that seems so simplistic to us really emphasized that every little thing can make such a significant difference in somebody elses life. The team was lucky to be able to experience this alongside the people of MHDC, it is something we won't forget.

The team farewell dinner was held last night at Asian Square restaurant for the JCU students, our translators, bus drivers and, of course, Dayvy. This gave us a good chance to reflect and think about the moments that really stood out to us. Turning points, memorable moments, moving moments - we all had so many in such a short time. Some were very significant things such as seeing the killing fields and walking through S21 museum where everything remained in such an organic state, the land mine museum - all things which put our presence into perspective and context. Other
memories are ones which may seem small until you experience them - seeing the faces on the students when we arrive every morning, the successes and breakthroughs while teaching, the challenges of construction and even seeing the innovation of living without all the material things we take for granted in Australia.

Back home, we have this concept that people living in our perception of poverty must be so depressed and so sick, with living conditions unbearable and inhumane. When you are living amongst the people in this country and working with students you discover the opposite. While they are poverty stricken and have so many unmet needs, they are so happy and so appreciative of everything they have. Working with one of the adult students we were told time and time again that the most important thing in life is freedom and to be with the ones you love. As Matt said at our dinner last night, it has been such a humbling experience for all of us.

I'd like to say, once more, the biggest and deepest thanks to all those who helped us through this month. You have all been outstanding people to work with and we have learnt so much from you about so many different things. We wish you all the best in the future and hope that MHDC continues to receive it's much needed support, because it is more than deserved.

Thank you!!!!

With 3 hours till departure we are all packing up our things and getting our last minute shopping done! We look forward to returning to Australia and sharing what we have learnt.

Pchum Ben Festival in Cambodia

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: James Cook University

Last weekend was a very significant weekend both for us as volunteers and for all the people of Cambodia. We arrived in cambodia during the pchum Ben festival, which is a 15 day religious festival that occurs every year in Cambodian culture, concluding on the 15th of October.

On the 15th, everybody goes to the Pagoda (temple) to give offerings of food and other
gifts such as medical supplies. These offerings are used to feed the Monks and the poor people within the communities, and all families bring something with them to the Pagoda on the final day of the festival.

Preparation starts days before as we found out by making cakes with Dayvy and her family. The cakes were very unlike cakes in Australia - they were made by wrapping rice, yellow split pea and either pork or banana in a banana leaf. The parcel is then bound with twine, which is a much more difficult task than Dayvy's mother in law made it look!

On the 15th, we awoke to find out that Cambodia's former king had passed away.

King Norodom Sihanouk is a very significant figure in Cambodian history, most celebrated for helping to free the people from the Khmer Rouge Regime and condemning the actions of those involved in implementing the regime.

Despite the hardships encountered through the kings time in power, Cambodian people feel a great sadness for the loss of their king. On Tuesday the 16th, a period of mourning began, during which time Cambodians are to wear black or white as a sign of respect and things such as music in pubs and clubs is forbidden. This lasts for one week, after which time the kings body remains on display at PHnom penh for three months.

Despite the sad news, we were still able to go to the Pagoda on the 15th - we took our cakes and offerings and were lead through the ritual by Dayvy. We offered our food tothe monks when we arrived - Bota and Dayvy then took us to another area where they lit us all a stick of incense which we used to pray for all we are blessed with, or pray for help and guidance. This was a beautiful experience that allowed us to immerse
ourselves fully in Cambodian culture. Thank you very much to Dayvy and her wonderful family for welcoming our team with open arms during such a significant time for you.

After the festival, many of us headed out to the Temples to explore. The structures are a phenomenal sight, especially when you consider how long they have been there and the limited tool that would have been accessible when they are made. The temples are surrounded by forestry and due to our timing there were families lined along the park that looks onto Angkor Wat to celebrate the festival. The temples are an exceptional sight to
see!!!

After such a big weekend we headed back to school on Tuesday. The teams put their heads down and got a big portion of the construction done! We were able to explore and gain a better understanding of the community and the conditions in which they live. The conditions are highly simplistic and missing the creature comforts that we have in Australia. Although the area is quite basic and each house is designed and built in the same way, the variety of innovative ideas for extensions on the houses is so vast.
It is so interesting to see how different skills and materials can be applied for so many different purposes.

The teaching teams had some trouble for the week as their student numbers were running quite low! Student numbers is so different each day it is impossible to remember names and who is in what class. Some days we do not even know if we have a class! When the teachers find themselves without students we have been merging with construction to complete the painting of desks in the classrooms. It has proven to be quite a
difficult task to keep paint brushes and rollers clean without any running water!

While there are many highs and lows to traveling and volunteering with such a big group, our ability to take on big jobs and adapt to different needs and situations is a definite pro!! Our trip is wrapping up pretty quickly before our eyes! With plenty to finish we are having a very busy week this week - I look forward to giving our final update of what we have achieved in our time over here :)

Cyclone warnings don't deter a successful teaching week for JCU

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: James Cook University

Our first full week at the MHDC has come to an end – and what a full week it was. The week started with concern as we were told on Sunday night that there was a cyclone headed our way due to hit Monday morning – Lisa still hasn’t lived down her famous cyclone warning; “Guys, there’s a typhoid coming!”.

Lucky for her we’ve started a book full of quotes that members of the team have regretted saying as soon as it leaves their lips, so she isn’t alone! We woke up Monday morning to clear skies and nothing else, which was very lucky.

Our group split into two groups – eight people went to construction, and six people were teaching. The construction groups job was to go out to all the houses within the community and install gutters and down pipes to catch rain water in the clay pots. The construction team loads up the van in the morning with all the equipment for the day and head off to the first houses. Even though the same thing is being installed on every house, each house is very different. The houses at the centre are quite small and typically have one small versatile living space and an external bathroom, so many people use natural materials to build extensions to their roofs to make a bigger outside living space. It’s amazing to see how natural resources can be used in so many different ways, for so many different purposes.

Our team is very lucky to have the skills and expertise of our resident tradie – Paul. Even though Paul hasn’t worked in a classroom over here yet, we think he’s getting very good teacher training working with the construction team as he’s a soon-to-be secondary Manual arts teacher! The construction team runs most things by him to make sure we don’t make to many mistakes – so far we’ve done a pretty good job getting the gutters up. It’s very satisfying to see the final result of all our fundraising, time and effort, and to see the people who live at the centre so appreciative of our work.

Working in the classroom is a whole different world to classroom – in construction you can see real results very quickly, whereas in the classroom progress is incremental and at a vast array of different levels.

Some students struggle with basic greetings and words in English, whereas others have quite strong English. There are different challenges everyday in both jobs, one of the biggest in teaching is not knowing your students knowledge and skill levels, and not knowing how many students you will have! Each day is so different and gives us great opportunities to develop skills in working with English as a Second Language students in a very dynamic environment.

Alongside professional skills, we have develop skills in dealing with animals in the classroom! It’s very different to Australia – many students have pet Elephant beetles that they key under their shirts or in their pockets all day. The Elephant beetles cope pretty well with being a pet, some students even attach string to them to walk them. There’s also a lot of dogs around the streets of Cambodia so classrooms often have four legged visitors that walk in and out all day, but the children don’t take much notice of them! Our teams have rotated so there are new teachers and new construction workers, which keeps things pretty interesting.

Sadly our lecturer Kelsey left us yesterday to head home to Australia, we were pretty sad to see her go but so glad she could come! She gave us a lot of guidance in our work in MHDC and made an awesome team leader when it came to navigating ourselves through the sights of Cambodia. We hope you enjoyed your trip Kelsey and look forward to giving you the full rundown of the remainder of our time in Cambodia when we return to Australia!

We all had a pretty exhausting, fun filled weekend – but there’s only so much excitement I can write in one blog before it turns into a novel! The next will have to wait until I can do the weekend some justice in my writing.

Much love to all of our family and friends in Cambodia – we miss you all!

Taming Phnom Penh and progress at the MHCD

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: James Cook University

What a weekend! After a busy week of meet and greets, orientating ourselves to Siem Reap and the MHDC, we decided to top it off with a trip to Phnom Penh! Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia, only 312km away from Siem Reap, but a very long 6 hour bus trip away due to the rough roads we travel on. We left Jasmine Lodge at 6:30am on Friday and commenced our long journey to the capital, arriving at 2pm that afternoon. It’s funny how quickly you realize the value of your in-country guides when they aren’t around, Dayvy would have been very helpful to have in Phnom Penh – thankfully we did manage though! She had already booked us a hotel so we made our way straight there to quickly drop our bags (and rejoice about having air conditioner – what a luxury!) so that we would have some time to see the city before sunset.

The team started trekking and we soon found ourselves at the palace of Cambodia’s royal family. Sadly we were too late to see the inside, however the view from outside was still quite spectacular – the architecture is very grand and intricate, nothing like you would see back home! Our group then split in two – one group went on a tuk tuk tour of Phnom Penh’s sites, while the other went to a small boutique called ‘Daughters of Cambodia’, which is an organization set up to raise funds and awareness about sex trafficking of Cambodian women.

Daughters of Cambodia features a small retail shop with items handmade by women who had escaped a grim future in sex trafficking, as well as a coffee shop and massage parlour behind the retail store. While one group was being pampered, the other group was braving some very rough weather in a tuk tuk to see sights such as the palace, the Australian Embassy, the Prime Ministers house – basically all the landmarks that Phnom Penh has to offer! Finally we all met up at the markets to do some shopping and have a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel for bed.



On Saturday we all woke up early to prepare for a big day of Cambodian historical sightseeing. We left the hotel and headed straight for The Killing Fields, which was about twenty minutes away from our accommodation. After taking control of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge implemented their scheme of abolishing the educated class and eradicating people from their cities and villages into the countryside to work.

During this process, Cambodian people who did not fit within Pol Pots scheme were taken to places such as the killing fields to be executed and buried in mass graves. Their terrible fate now plays an important role in educating people about Cambodian history, and preventing such severe devastation from re-occuring in the future. Conflict in the country was visibly very recent – artefacts were presented in a very raw and authentic manner, and evidence of the horrific events that occurred at the Killing Fields surrounded us.

We were able to navigate around with individual audio tours that provided information about previous structures and methods that existed there, as well as stories from people involved. Victims unearthed clothing and bones were concealed behind two large glass cases as there was just too much to display individually. While walking around, we encountered an unearthed adult jaw lodged in the dirt of the walkway, which really emphasized the fact that this terror was so recent and the genocide was so severe that caretakers simply cannot keep up with the amount of new artefacts that unearth.

It is a very surreal feeling to be walking around a place that seems so peaceful and well maintained while hearing about the unending terror that occurred there for so many years, and for so many people. The last area of the tour was a large tribute to the lives lost during the rule of the Khmer Rouge which held 17 levels of skulls found within the Killing Fields. Visitors were able to enter the building to lay flowers, light incense and pay their respects to the thousands of lives lost not only at the Killing Fields, but all across Cambodia.

The team then visited the S21 Museum, which was once a high school in Phnom Penh that was converted to a detention facility during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. There were four large concrete buildings that served a variety of purposes during this period, all of which are still very evident when walking through the Museum today. Building A was used for large holding rooms to accommodate the ex-government personnel for interrogation – the rooms had one small bed in the centre of the room and nothing else other that torture tools.

All of which remained in their original state in the holding rooms, now accompanied by images of Cambodian people being held or tortured. As gruesome as this may sound, it was unfortunately far from the worst we saw. Moving on to the next building, we entered the first room and were confronted by walls and walls of the faces of Cambodian men and women – all of whom had been killed or captured by the Khmer Rouge. Sadly this was not the end, an additional 6 rooms followed, filled with the exact same thing – an endless array of innocent faces that were uprooted from their lives and thrown into chaos in one way of another.

Building C was one which we all agreed had made us feel physically sick – externally the front of the building was covered by thick, rusted barbed wire to prevent any detainees from escaping. The first floor was made up of brick cells, no bigger that 1m x 1m, hardly room to lie down. The next floor was the exact same, however the cells were made of timber instead of brick. We were able to walk in and out of the very same cells where the faces we had just seen had been held. The final building at the Museum was filled with torture artefacts, victim stories and horrific images, as well as a small area to light some incense and pay respect to the victims of this time.

In such a short amount of time we learnt so much about the history of the people we are currently living amongst, which was made even more real to us as we are working with Military Personnel who worked hard to fight against terrible future Cambodia was headed for. Although visiting these places was quite confronting, especially as they are in such a raw state which we are not accustomed to, it was an invaluable experience. We have a much better concept of how the country came to be what it is today.

After a big day we had some lunch, got in some last minute shopping and headed off to catch our bus home back to Siem Reap, arriving at 1:30am Sunday morning. Most of us were lucky enough to sleep the whole way home! We had to make sure we were back by Sunday morning as we had the privilege of meeting a four star general of the Cambodian Military who was referred to as ‘His Excellency’.

He visited the MHDC for a ceremony to announce the new stage of development at the centre where service personnel attended and were able to select a scroll at random which contained the number of their new house. It was a beautiful experience to see the people so overwhelmed yet so humbled at the prospect of a new home and a new community – I thought it was worthy of shedding a tear over, but I was the only one who actually did! His Excellency showed us a great amount of gratitude for the work we and previous teams are doing at the centre, which really reiterated that the work we are doing is for a wonderful cause. We then took some photos with the Military hierarchy that attended before heading off to see some of the new development areas. It was such a huge privilege for a group of university students to meet such influential people within Cambodian society.

The weekend was winding down and we all decided that an afternoon of relaxing seemed like a great way to finish off such an eventful week.

A very big thank you to Dayvy for making everything possible for us!! We are amidst a very busy week of teaching and construction, and are making some fantastic progress. Expect a progress report by the end of the week!

James Cook University land in Cambodia

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: James Cook University

After 4 very busy days, we have finally had some time to discuss our thoughts and experiences of the trip so far. Our team of 15 from JCU Townsville & Cairns departed Brisbane on Saturday for a very long trip to Bangkok where we stayed overnight. Many of us found Bangkok to be a very industrious and polluted city, which lead us to think that Cambodia might be similar – none of our team have ever visited Cambodia before!

Flying into Siem Reap we soon found out that it was the exact opposite – the countryside is green and healthy, covered still by some flood waters. Driving into Siem Reap was very exciting, and not quite what we expected – first of all you couldn’t count how many cows and water buffalo were grazing by the side of the road! We arrived at Jasmine Lodge to find that the street that takes us to the accommodation had been upturned – the wet season has left the street full of potholes so there were many Cambodian people moving pieces of the road out to the main street. Fifteen people
piled out of the mini vans and struggled with our luggage down the street, but we eventually made it with the help of some very hospitable hosts!

Jasmine Lodge is a residential lodge that has taken our group on for the next month, which is a pretty big task. The hosts are lovely people and have been more than willing to help us out with learning some language(Khmer) and aren’t shy to laugh at us when our pronunciation is far from what it should be. We spent our first day getting settled in and went for a walk around Siem Reap. The city streets are lined with restaurants and market stalls which we explored for the afternoon, although there was an underlying motive – to find somewhere that was broadcasting the NRL grand
final!

The market stall owners are eager to sell and very persistent, so much so that we made it our priority to learn how to say ‘No thank you’ in Khmer very quickly. It’s one phrase that most have us have actually got right thankfully. On Sunday night we had a welcome dinner at a local buffet restaurant, where we saw a cultural show featuring traditional dance, music and costumes. Dayvy accompanied us to this and gave us
plenty of info about the show and what the meaning of it was.

Dayvy is our in country guide and I can safely say that we would be lost without
her! She has taken us to many great places around Siem Reap, and seems to know all the ins and outs of this city. It is such a great help having somebody to help us out when we’re out of our depths in an unfamiliar country.

On Monday we completed an orientation into Cambodian culture and child safety in the country at a local organization called conCERT, which works to ensure that volunteers time and energy are put to work in the best possible way. We visited the Military Handicap Development Centre later in the week, which is where we will be based for the remainder of our trip.

The MHDC is a small community that provides support for the service personnel that have been injured throughout their military service for
the Cambodian National Army. Many of these personnel have been injured as a result of landmines from serving their country throughout the time of the Khmer Rouge, up until very recently. During our time at the centre, we will be teaching English and health, as well as utilizing our fundraising to install a rain water tank and guttering to each house. We conducted our first English lessons on Thursday, which proved to be more
of a challenge than expected for some of us, however it is so rewarding to see the students improve and learn more. Construction was unfortunately delayed due to problems with the equipment however by the start of the new week, all equipment should be ready so that we can start our project.

Our trip so far has been an exciting, new experience. We have been absolutely immersed in Cambodian culture and can’t wait to spend more time at the centre.

Stay tuned for more updates!

James Cook University land in Cambodia

We are fine here and our In-Country-Agents are fantastic. We have been finding the teaching challenging but are settling into it as we establish a routine in the classroom and as the children get used to us. The library is coming along well. We are painting a mural on the wall and have selected and painted some furniture for the children to have a place to read and enjoy their new space.

The playground hasn’t begun yet, there have been some communication issues in the planning stages but the library is certainly keeping us busy. On the weekend we went and saw the temples and went to the museum in Siem Reap. This weekend I think we’re doing the floating village and then next weekend we will venture to Phnom Penh! We have also been invited us to learn to cook local dishes next week which will be fantastic. Until next time! Ericka Croker