During our final few days in Phnom Sampov and Cambodia, we did our best to snap as many photos as possible.

Saluting the Sun

Kimberly continued getting up at dawn to photograph the bats coming home to roost in their cave on the mountain beside the carving of the Buddha. We also continued catching them leave the cave at sunset whenever we could.

Volunteering at the Language School

We continued volunteering at the school, and got the younger kids interested in Dr. Seuss, which is always a win. Some of the students would spend their free time between classes reading with us. The books had been there for a while, but were being neglected, left out exposed to the elements, and we rescued them and put them to use. Books are too hard to come by in Cambodia to let them go to waste. In all of our experience as volunteers around the world to date, we found good reading books to be a rare commodity at schools. If they were at all present, they were often black and white copies.

A Photographic Journey Through Phnom Sampov’s Serene Landscapes

We continued taking detours to and from school, and going off the beaten path as much as possible, delighting in snatching candid glimpses of the provincial Cambodian lifestyle.

The Market that was Hiding from Us

We’d finally found the marketplace where the locals obtained their produce and other goods. It was very well hidden off of the main highway and in the opposite direction from which we walked to school twice a day. Had we known three weeks ago when we first arrived we could have spared ourselves a couple of trips to Battambang.

At school, we were happy to see that in at least one class, the teacher really lightened up and played a game with the students in which they were able to draw on each other’s faces with whiteboard markers. Dennis also managed to get in on the fun and ended up with two blue dots on his cheeks.

We were asked to record videos interviewing the students at the school. They all followed a canned script which was really not very well written; and the recording did not sound like a real conversation at all. But it was, alas, what the school wanted, so we bit the bullet. When we suggested edits and refinements to the script, the administration was not receptive.

Watching Deigo’s Drone take flight

It was not one of our favorite volunteering stints. But we were determined to make the best of it and enjoy the atmosphere of the surroundings in the few days we had remaining there. If it weren’t for the kids and the charming village we probably would have packed it in and taken off a week or two early.

See how we ranked all of our volunteer gigs from 2021-2023

Meanwhile, our fellow volunteers Diego and Aurelia decided they’d had enough, and departed. We suspected that they might be a good fit for the volunteering opportunity we’d just vacated at Krou Yeung School in Phnom Penh — particularly, they should enjoy going to the northern branch in Rattanakiri Province, with its elephants and waterfalls. So we put them in touch. With any luck, we’ll cross paths with them again.

2/6-10/2023