Volunteering at JPA school

To fill my time during the month of July, I signed up to be a volunteer teacher at the Jay Pritzker Academy here in Siem Reap Province. The school is about 4-5k away from Puok and I heard about the opportunity through a few K1 volunteers who’ve taken full time jobs there. It’s really quite the place, and I can confidently say it’s the nicest elementary and secondary school in Cambodia. It was funded by Jay Pritzker and basically it’s for bright students from poor families to attend. It has state of the art facilities, its own cafeteria, and no more than 30 kids in each classroom. The idea is that as long as the students do well and continue to progress…they will finish elementary, middle and high-school there and hopefully go on to university, possibly in the US and be able to get good jobs, and hopefully return to Cambodia and become new leaders, doctors, engineers etc. in their own country.

Today was my 4th day on the job, and I can assure you it’s quite a bit different from what I’ve been doing the past few months here. I have my own desk, with a computer that’s hooked up to a large-screen TV on the wall, where I can show videos that are related to the lessons in the textbooks. The students that are chosen to go there get full uniforms, back packs, shoes and three square meals a day. There are actual full color text-books for the students to read from … AND I have free access to a copy machine to give worksheets to the students. Not to mention, it has bathrooms with toilets that flush. (Did I mention Puok High School has 2 bathrooms (that don't flush) for 5000 students?????) Again…a complete world away from what we have access to in our government schools….just 4-5k nearby.

I admit there are a few things that catch me throughout some of the lessons. We are teaching from American textbooks and well the other day one of the vocab words was “vacuum cleaner” and well….that was a bit hard to explain to some of these 2nd graders whom I’m sure have never seen carpet in their lives, or “drain” (from a tub) and well… these children don’t take baths in bathtubs, they dump buckets of water over their bodies from the well…and “quarter” for money; and there hasn’t been coin money in this country for years. BUT if you can get over that (which we do) they seem to be coming along quite well. I was impressed with these 2nd graders ability to read. The comprehension maybe isn’t all the way there BUT they have been learning phonics and can read and write and pronounce things correctly which has been a Nice breath of fresh air. I’m able to speak at a rather quick speed and they are able to understand me, which too is some fresh air.

Anyway, we’ll see what the next 2 weeks bring. But it’s nice to be doing something for a bit…and the 2nd graders are pretty adorable. They’ve got it pretty darn good at this school, but I also know they’ve got it pretty darn hard life at home. Let’s hope this school can make a positive difference in their lives. I’m pretty sure it already has.