Daily Report for Sunday, April 8th (Group B)

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. Today, we split up, with groups heading in 2 directions: to an Adventist academy (similar to TAPA and TAAS) called Cambodia Adventist School (CAS), and a Vietnamese Illegal Aliens school. One of my students, Curtis, decided to focus his article on his experience at the Vietnamese School.

The first day we arrived Siem Reap, Mrs. Webb told us this trip will change our lives. Honestly, I didn't believe her, because I've heard the same thing when I was in the China Mission Trip and I didn't think our lives can be changed more than once. She tells us that God has a purpose for each and every one of us here in Cambodia. I didn't believe God had any purpose for me.

There is one thing you can always depend on finding in the two Vietnamese schools, and that is smile on everyone of their faces. It's hard to imagine how poor their families are when they are laughing and cheering with the brightest smile a person can ever have. It was fun to talk to them and play with them.

I have a new Vietnamese friend today and he tried to communicate with me using hand motions, but then I asked a translator to tell me what he was trying to say, she told me the kid wants to drink water!!!, and then another time he was trying to ask me to count numbers in Chinese and so I count the numbers using his fingers and then his friend sitting next to him at that time counted numbers in English. For some reasons, he pulled each one of my fingers and I did the same to him and when his friend next to him was trying to touch my hand, he shouted something in Vietnamese and then his friend backed off, that was a funny incident.

Even though sometimes they can have no idea what we are speaking in English and we need a Vietnamese translator to communicate with them, we still had fun singing, playing games(like telephone sherades) with them and finished the program successfully.

In Taiwan, I was depress for my broken relationship with my friends and some other important people who were once meaningful to me in my life and also my failing grades for my depress feelings. I thought my life was worthless and that no one loved and cared about me. I didn't look around me and appreciate the things I have,not the things I lost and I didn't notice those people in my life who actually cared about me. These couple of days when I see those kids having poor living conditions, poor health care, poor education system, their smiles tell me that even when my life is in the worst place, there are always things in my life, like the friendships I have left, the joy of living in a country with good health care and a house with everything I ever needed, that can make me smile and praise God for everything I have.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 8th (Group A)

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. Today, we split up, with groups heading in 2 directions: to an Adventist academy (similar to TAPA and TAAS) called Cambodia Adventist School (CAS), and a Vietnamese Illegal Aliens school. One of my students, Kotomi, decided to focus her article on her experience at CAS.

We went to CAS which is Adventist School like TAPA today. Comparing with other schools and orphanage we went in this trip, they know a lot of songs and activities and can speak English well. However, there is a similarity which is that they are always into one thing. They work really hard and have fun with their whole bodies and true hearts even if they know the games and songs. I think it is amazing because I cannot have fun and work on one stuff so hard what I know for so long. I feel bored soon and sleep or do other stuffs I need in school days. Therefore, I was amazed at their altitude and pure hearts. I think God wants me to learn to work hard and have fun more because it is my responsibility for people who prepared the activities for me

I learned that they like songs so much, especially, I'll do my best and Superhero. They all sang out loud and did motion with us. Also they sang the songs after chapel by their own!! When I heard they are singing, I felt really happy. I also knew they can memorize things really fast because they work hard on them. I think they are so much better than me in many ways so I learned from them, not teaching them. I'm a little bit worried if I could teach, not only learning.

I really appreciate this trip. Every single work/program tells me important thing for my life. Therefore, thank you, teachers and Cambodian students/kids for teaching me a lot of things and giving chance and time to think about God.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 7th

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. Today, we split up, with groups heading in 3 directions: to an Adventist academy (similar to TAPA and TAAS) called Cambodia Adventist School (CAS), a Vietnamese Illegal Aliens school, and a Feed & Read* school. One of my students, Angel, decided to focus her article on her experience at the Vietnamese school.


Today is our eighth day in Cambodia. After helping in the orphanage for two days in Siem Reap, we went to visit the Vietnamese schools in Phnom Penh today. The Vietnamese school we went in the morning gave me a big impression because of its locationand its mini size. The school is in downtown city but located on the side of a street with an unobvious appearance. At first, I thought its was an normal Cambodia apartment. It wasn't untill the van stopped that I realized we had arrived the school.

The children in the Vietnamese school have a big difference from those in the orphange we went the other day. They came to school with their own bag packs and were all well dressed. Under the teachers direction, the student behaved really well. They sang song and pray together. They lined up in lines by themselves when they were having assembly. Also, the teachers at the Vietnamese school speak better English than those in the oprphanage even though they were all really young.

At the Vietnamese school, we separeted ourselvese in to two to each class to teach the students. The thing that created us a great difficuties is that the students here usually speak in Vietnamese and only know a little English. They way that we got them interact with us is through out songs. These kids love to sing. They not only like to sing their own vietnam song but also love to learn new song from us.

At noon, we had our lunch at the school with the students. The food provided by the school was very nice. They children here also eat much more than the children in the orphanage. In the afternoon, we went to another Vietnamese school which had only started for three years. The school is located at the edge of the downtown city. As the sponsor of the school said, the the neighborhood of this school is the crimional area, and the students here are mostly come from a family with difficulties, such a single parent. The sponsor hope, through the school's system, these children can be raised up in the right way and be trained into great people who can contribute to the society.

It is really nice to visit these two Vietnamese school and see the culture difference in Cambodia. I appreciate the chance to perform skits in front of the children and teach them songs. Although it takes one a lot of effort to entertain these young kids especially only knowing them for the first time, I felt the efforts we paid is really worthy since the goal of this Cambodia mission trip is to learn to give rather than take. To give the love and joy to those students is the best gift and memories we can even give them. After today's great visiting, I really look foward to the visit to CAS tomorrow.

*From what I've determined, the Feed and Read school is a place that homeless (but not necessarily orphaned) children can come to get a free meal and a little education every day.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 6th

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. Today, we mostly spent the day on a 6-hour drive from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, so the action that we experienced was relatively uneventful. However, my student Sky decided to focus her article on her various adventures, feelings, and experiences on this trip.

This trip had been half way through, and all the things had been passing so fast that I have not recognized the time. We had spent five days in Siem Reap and spent lots of time with kids. I really love those kids. Even through their life is hard and simple but what on their faces is always happiness. When I was with them, I feel love and joy all the time, it is more than anything I had experience now! They don’t like us have phone, computer, video game, even eclectics are a hard thing for them; however, they get much better life than us. The simple life gave them opportunity to feel the love from God, and know the joy of life.

Because of them, I had the chance to learn work for people is a happy thing in life. I used to complain when I help people, about how hot the weather is, how tired the work is, but I never think about how happy they will be after they saw the work I did. In the time in the orphanage, others used to say how tried and sick they are, and how is they know the trip is going to be, they won’t come. However, when I was doing my work, all I thinks is,” When the kids came home and see all the new house they have, they will be so joyful and running away! ” When I think all of these, I really want to work hard and try to finish all the work! I hardly feel tried or sick, even my hand get really dirty and sticky. And those kids had always be the best things that make me feel energetic!

When is the time for us to leave, I got really upset. I want to be with them, and having them every day. They still get smile on their face; they didn’t know that we won’t go back. Their smile made me feel sadder, how they will feel when they find out we won’t be there the next day, the sad face they will have on their face. It just makes me feel more upset. I wish I will be able to be back there one day, and they will recognize me again.

The other more memorize view is the sun rise in Angkor Wat temple. The temple there were make up by stone and it is mostly gray color. When the sun rise and the sunshine shine on the temple, it feels like a new life began, and became very brighter and brighter. They had drawing on the stone, it show the story of the ancient time. They didn’t have colorful temple like Chinese, not huge White Church like West or Europe; but theirs are solemn and holy.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 5th (Group B)

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. We actually will present two reports of today, being that the group that visited Wat Preah Yesu split into two groups: one that primarily focused on teaching and entertaining kids in classes, and another that focused on painting a few houses on the campus. This report, from Kotomi, is about the painters.

Today we separated into two groups to paint the second and third house. These rooms were really dirty. Several parts of the wall came off. We spent long time to paint whole walls of the houses. Some girls screamed at bugs and spiders which stuck on the wall. Everyone had fun to clean a lot although paint smelled horribly bad and had chemical and made us dizzy.

In the school we worked on we did a lot of activities with kids. They are really pure and can feel happy from small things. Every kid ran to us to play or asked for candy. I think kids who I saw in Taiwan and Japan used to get candy when they want and know a lot of activities because of high education. Staffs in Mission Trip are funny, friendly, and energetic. They gave us and the kids in the school new games. For example, today Mr.Webb suggested one game for getting closer with kids. First Mr. Webb says the number and we need to make groups which have same numbers of people he said. However, we cannot make groups including only guys, girls, or TAPA & TAAS students. All groups should have least one from these three groups.

I learned a lot of things from kids and our staffs. They gave me chances to have conversation and help kids every time when I got there. Also I appreciated teachers and kids giving chance to worship. From this trip I learned help and love kids, teachers, and God.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 5th (Group A)

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. We actually will present two reports of today, being that the group that visited Wat Preah Yesu split into two groups: one that primarily focused on teaching and entertaining kids in classes, and another that focused on painting a few houses on the campus. This report, from Jane, is about the teachers.

I started today with the sixth grade, it was our first class to teach. They were smart but clever. We first sang songs to them, they were go with motions. We had trouble with the games at first, but later on we found that we just need to make it fun and easy to understand.

Next, was the fifth grade, This is one of my favorite age of this trip. They were interacting with us, and we had fun playing the games. Their math teacher taught us a new game which is called two plus one. It's so fun and tired but I am so going share this with my friends back. They sometimes cheated on the game but most of them were very fair with the games. I love them so much.

We even went to library to stayed with the kids, they don't have that many of books but they love it. I was reading to a boy at first, but then I realized that he could read on his own. He doesn't understand the meaning of the word but he could pronounces the words. Very hard working of them. Now I feel like I should study more; I have all the resources and the educations that are given.

Last, I just want to say something for this one day of teaching. They don't have much of games or things like computer or Ipod, but they are much happier than we are. For their face when they are playing the games, the face of enjoying and and thankful. Now I wonder do we need that much for our life? This fits in our topic for the worship today: "Remember... early things will fail/disappoint, but God is forever." For them families, friends, school, and God are they have. However, they are thankful and faithful to these.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 4th (Group B)

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. We actually will present two reports of today, being that the group that visited Wat Preah Yesu split into two groups: one that primarily focused on teaching and entertaining kids in classes, and another that focused on painting a few houses on the campus. This report, from Linda, is about the teachers.

Today is the first day to serve the kids. We split into two big groups, painting group and teaching group. Our group is the teaching group and we split into to small groups in order to teach different classes. Our first class is the 5th grade kids. Because they loved singing, we basically sang half of the class and used rest of the class to teach. We played simple games using easy words to teach them such as Pictionary, Hang man or spelling games.

At first, they did not seem very interesting in the game, but as we took out candies as gift, they became so excited. We taught three classes in the morning and during the break, we gave the kids some candies. However, as we took out the candy bags, all the kids ran to us and grabbed our hands. Although we told that they could only get one at one time, they just hid their hands with candies behind their back and asked more. I felt they were really cute, but at the same time I also felt so sad for them as we can eat candies everyday.

In the afternoon, Kotomi, Enoch and I chose to teach math together. At first we felt so excited; however, all the students are so shy that they did not even say anything in the whole class. The only sounds they made was laughing. We really felt strange standing there and speaking by ourselves. Later on, we taught the little kids in a bigger room. They are really cute and sweet. Although today is a hard day for everyone, we still enjoy our trips.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 4th (Group A)

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. We actually will present two reports of today, being that the group that visited Wat Preah Yesu split into two groups: one that primarily focused on teaching and entertaining kids in classes, and another that focused on painting a few houses on the campus. This report, from Gabriel, is about the painters.

Today we had an earlier morning call of 6:15. By 7:00, we were on the way to the school/orphanage. Once we got there, we found out that we would be leading the school morning program. The teachers quickly threw their heads together and came up with a plan of songs and skits for the children done by the children. My team, which included me, Vivian, Sky, Alix, and James, ended up with 28 kids from grades 1 to 3 and had to teach them to act out the story of David and Goliath.

45 minutes later, the team for painting was getting ready to give a house a new coat. The whole house needed 5 rooms to be painted; the kitchen, main room, parents room, boys room, and girls room. We taped masking tape along the edge to keep paint from accidentally getting on to certain parts. Once everyone on the paint team started to paint, we soon had 3 three more volunteers. Each of the drivers decided that they wanted to help out and started to pick up paint brushes. We finished most of one house and had started to tape the second house by the time lunch came around. We moved to the cafeteria and were greeted by large platters of rice, curry, and fruits.

Our afternoon lasted only a few hours but we still painted what we could. By the end of the day, one house was officially finished and the other house two-thirds of the way finished. We used water pumped from a well and powdered soap to remove the paint from our bodies. The kids who had finished their school for the day, came around and watched us as we finished. We left the place around 4:00 and went back to our hotel for showers and rest. At 6:00, we went into town and got to spend $8.00 on food. The area we eat at is filled with an overflowing amount of shops, food, and souvenirs.

From 6:30 to 8:30 we got to eat and shop. We came back to the hotel and gathered for songs and worship. We finished that just 15 minutes ago and then I started to write this journal. By 10:30 I should be in my bed asleep, and blissfully unaware of the fact that I need to wake up at 6:00 tomorrow.

Daily Report for Sunday, April 3rd

Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. Today's article was written by Enoch. He's talking about the two main activities we did today: visiting a Landmine museum and a Cultural Center.

It takes 5 kg to press down the trigger, push away the metal block, release the a little bar with a spring, and trigger the explosion. Land mines are build to create severe damage.

We walked through concrete floors to see the next sign and land mine. On the sign was the story of the founder of this museum: He was a Khmer Rouge when he was ten, and had to handle an AK-47 that was as big as him. One day, he was in a jungle, the two armies were firing at each other. He sees his uncle, but didn't had the courage to shoot his uncle. His uncle didn't recognize him and started to fire at him. He fired around his uncles head to scare him away. "Why did you miss?", his friends asked him. "I had a headache and couldn't aim.", he replied. Many years later he met his uncle and tell him the story, They laughed about it. The next sign was about the structure of land mines. I started to feel my leg tinkle, I started to watch my steps, nothing exploded.

The cultural village was a big area, with many sections for different peoples in Cambodia.

There was even cages and local animals. I continued to think about the founder of the landline museum. He use to set land mines because he was taught that way, his life had always being full with war. Now he works with organizations to save people from injury. The monkey in the cage is climbing on the fence, it had a funny face. The park in the "village" is full with weird statue of faces. They were bold and their face squished by their expressions. I got tired of the swings and went in to a ghost house. It was stupid.

In the hotel room, I watched TV and waited for the sun to set. The air out side was too hot for dinner. When we are on the bus, heading toward to the restaurant, the air had become tolerable. The food street was filled with people, as usual. I had soup and pizza, it's very nice to chat with my fellow classmate and have fun like that.

Tomorrow we are going to teach kids. I think I'll go to sleep, 8 hours and 37 minutes until 6: 45.