Tet New Year and Koh Khel Visit
Chuc Mung Nam Moi and greetings from the Phnom Penh Airport! !
On February 8th, the Lunar New Year began to be celebrated across the world and Scott and I were lucky enough to spend it in Khe, Sanh, Vietnam with our students and their families, our host family, and friends. In Vietnam, the Lunar New Year is called Tet and it is celebrated with special memorials to ancestors, food, prayers, and many visits to the homes of loved ones. The official holiday lasts for four days, but celebrations begin in the weeks leading up and following Tet. Since in Khe Sanh we had a ten day break from school, I decided to use the time to visit Global Playground's school site in Koh Khel, Cambodia.
I spent six beautiful, informative days in Koh Khel, Cambodia that allowed me to meet Ty, the representative of our local partner I've been speaking to for months, and Koh Khel Middle School, the middle school we've talked about all along.
Koh Khel Middle School is doing extremely well and I’m so grateful to be a part of the organization that helped to build it. The school has a graduation rate of 98%, the highest in the province, and the students, teachers, and families are extremely supportive of one another's education. In a country where the academics were targeted and killed in the same lifetime of the parents and teachers, education has become a priority in each household. I asked a classroom of 30 students what they dreamed of being when they grew up and 18 of them said they wanted to become teachers. Although teachers do no make much money in relation to the cost of living in Cambodia, the admiration of and appreciation for education is high. Knowing the history of this country, this tugs at a special place in my heart.
Students from 5 to 19 years old take extra classes at the 'private school' run by the community's teachers. The director, Mr. Loch, allows students who dream of teaching to assist in younger classrooms so they get training and teachers recieve additional support.
The students, teachers, and I had a productive time together. The 9th grade students (between ages 13 and 18) were learning about introductions, so to help give them a 'real-world' application, during break I helped teach the students how to write a letter. Ultimately 24 of the students wrote letters to a pen pal. I'm currently setting up buddies for the students across the world, so if any of you are interested please get in touch! We also discussed sports around the world for Global Playgrounds #MySuperbowl campaign, which asks students to share the most important sporting events in their lives. My favorite moments in the classroom came from the Art Exchange. I brought art from students in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the United States that reflected on community and culture. We created our own working definition, and a few students created projects. I loved hearing the students reflect on the art of students around the world and hear their thoughts on what the art suggested about Mae La Noi, Thailand, Khe Sanh, Vietnam, Paw Myar, Myanmar, and Cherry Hill Elementary in Virginia.
Sok Muoy, 14, shows off her letter to her pen pal.
Students look at Wittarawit's, 18 (Mae La Noi Daroonsik School) reflection on his community. Look at those grand smiles!
Students at Koh Khel Middle School look at the art of sisters Mi (14) and Quian (12) from Khe Sanh, Vietnam. Quian did an additional piece on culture that highlighted Tet Holiday in Vietnam; an excellent segway for class discussion!
For my six day visit I had the fortune of staying in the home I will be occupying in two months. I will live at the house of Mr. Loch and Ms. Socheat, two English teachers at Koh Khel Middle School. They have two sons, Viwata (4) and Bota (3) who Mr. Loch and Ms. Socheat co-parent. There is no childcare in Koh Khel, so parents are encouraged to bring their children to work every day. Mr. Loch brings Bota to school with him every day and Bota spends his mornings running between the school’s two buildings. The kids are crazy in the best way. I am really looking forward to spending three months with them.
Here's our house! In Cambodia, everyone stays close to home (like in Vietnam) and many of our neighbors are the relatives of our host family.
Viwata and Bota are pretty intimidating.
The primary industry in Koh Khel is farming, but the town seems to be developing rapidly. Three years ago, the town got electricity and the government just paved a road through the middle of the town that goes straight to Phnom Penh. I only got a taste of Koh Khel, but I'm looking forward to knowing it more starting in April.
Sidenote: If any of you have water bottles or water purification systems you are willing to part with or NGOs you know that do work related to water safety, my host family and several students have identified water safety as a great concern of Koh Khel. I plan on writing another blog post about this as I learn more, but in the mean time if any of you have any resources, please feel free to shoot me an email! kendall.lorenzen@globalplayground.org