holiday in cambodia...?

when dan first suggested to me that we include cambodia as a destination for our vacation, my first thought was of the dead kennedys song. why in the world would you want to go there? i knew about angkor wat and it seemed really interesting, but didn't they still have landmines there? a few months later my uncle showed me pictures of his trip to Siem Reap and my fears subsided. now, i love cambodia and i want to come back as soon as possible.

the days of lawlessness and armed bands of citizens roaming the streets are now well behind cambodia, but this government campaign to get people to turn in thier weapons stockpiles remains. (taken from a fast-moving tuk tuk outside of town)

while ten years ago this nation was war torn and poverty stricken, today there is a relatively stable government and the economy is growing at over 5% a year. there were 2,000,000 tourists in the year 2008, but cambodia is still one of the poorest countries in the world. that's why, when planning our holiday in cambodia we tried to be responsible travelers. we wanted to see the sights but we also wanted to do what we could to leave a positive impact.

for me, this meant going beyond buying a bracelet or postcard from every child selling them outside of the temples, or staying at the most expensive hotel in town. we did some research and found a hotel that is also a school for kids from poor families who come to learn the hospitality trade. the hotel also provides opportunities to help the local communities by donating water wells, rice, school uniforms and supplies, or even a whole house! dan and i were able to visit the villages where the program is active and meet some of beneficiaries of our donations. samai and her family welcomed us into their home and though we don't speak khmer and they don't speak english it was a very enjoyable visit.

turns out cambodians smile all the time, except when having their photo taken

the highlight of the stay here for me came this morning. guests are allowed to observe classes at the on-site institute for hospitality. from 7am to 8am every morning all the students meet to take an english class. dan and i had observed the english class on tuesday morning. last night we ran into bernadette again (my friend from school) and we agreed to go to the class again this morning and take the teacher up on his offer to teach the class. so, bright and early bernadette and i met, briefly discussed a lesson plan, and went to class. the students (all age 14 and up) were very different from the first graders we'd taught all year but we had a lot of fun. we threw the lesson plan out the window in the end and put our newly acquired English Language Development skills to work. we acted out a scene for them, then they partnered up and created their own scenes. we even got a few to come up front and perform. considering the teacher-centered reserved nature of the class dan and i had observed on tuesday i consider our lesson today to at least have made an impression, if not actually effective in teaching English vocab.

tip for success on the telephone, number 4: when asking for help always speak with a smile

after class the students invited us to eat breakfast with them. we have gotten to know several of the students well, as they like to practice their English on us. i even gave out my email address to a few and expect to get fun filled emails with many grammatical errors soon.

so it turns out that a holiday in cambodia is not quite as ironic as it was when the dead kennedys wrote their song. we got a chance to see one of the major wonders of the world (see future post) and spend time with some wonderful people.