After playing tourist in Ratanakiri Province in northern Cambodia for a few days, seeing waterfalls and elephants and village life, we finally were able to drop in at the original branch of Krou Yeung School, for which we’d been volunteering in Phnom Penh.

Not only did we tour the campus and meet some of the teachers and staff, we also were able to sit in on one of the elementary English classes. Whenever we have a chance, we like to observe other teachers in action, learning from (and maybe stealing) some of their techniques. This time, we had an excellent teacher to assist, and there was much we could learn from her.

Back at our digs at the teachers’ apartments, we began packing our things and saying goodbye to our hosts, the family of Mr. Sopheap, the school’s founder. In addition to the kids with whom we’d taken an excursion into the country on the previous day, he had a teenage daughter who had theatrical ambitions, and a teenage son who was very bright and spoke excellent English. He was preparing to enter a university, and had considered a school in the U.S. as one of his options. But he ultimately ruled it out, in part because of all the violence in America. With such a real risk of students being shot on campus, you hardly can blame him.

Overnight Bus Ride back to Phnom Penh

That night we were dropped off at the bus terminal to begin our overnight trip back to Phnom Penh. Fortunately, we were on a sleeper bus. Unfortunately, it really wasn’t.

Unlike the actual bunks you find on trains — and many buses — these berths were reclined seats. Not reclining, but reclined — fixed in one position forever, halfway up and halfway down. Which made it impractical for us inveterate side-sleepers to sleep on our sides. In addition, they were not that roomy, particularly when we had most of our baggage chunked in there with us, and we had to share a berth that was designed for one and half people. Had we known in advance, we would have booked separate berths, so there would have been at least half a chance of being at least half comfortable.

As it was, we looked forward, for more reasons than one, to those four pit stops during the night to take a 20-minute bathroom break. Of course, each time we got out, we had to put our shoes back on, because in the Asian tradition we had to remove them each time we boarded the bus, stashing them in a little plastic bag we were issued.

So the upshot was that we were not terribly rested when we unloaded in Phnom Penh at 5:30 a.m. Nonetheless, we did go in to school for another day of volunteering.

Back to WorkAway Volunteering

Krou Yeung School, Phnom Penh

Kimberly, as is her preference, was working with younger students. And Dennis, as is his preference, was working with older students. Specifically, he worked with fifth graders, of which there were only two in the whole class at that time. (There had been a third, but he was switched to another class.)

Both of these were wonderful students who deserved to have the teacher attention provided by the small class size; but on the other hand would have benefited from the group interaction of a class at least slightly larger.

In any case, the Phnom Penh campus, with its tiny student body, was a marked contrast to the sprawling hive of the older Ratanakiri campus. Of course, the Phnom Penh campus is brand new, and eventually, if all goes well, it also will expand. (If all doesn’t go well, it may have to close its doors.) So we hope the students continue to flock in.

1/2-7/2023

Read more about Krou Yeung School’s humble beginnings and mission on their website: https://krouyeung.org/about/history