The Field Trip!

Thanks to all the donors to "The Every Child is an Artist" fundraiser for helping sponsor this field trip to Angkor and Siem Reap for twenty 5th graders at Knar School. This is definitely a story to be proud of! You definitely brought a lot of smiles to every child's face and more importantly, a memory for a lifetime! I definitely enjoyed myself and I know the kids did ten times more. Since there was no school today (rest day), six of the other volunteers joined us as well, so it was perfect!

Every year they have a list of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who want to go on the field trip; however, not everyone can go as it's only 20 at a time. There was one other trip back in May that took care of most of the 6th graders so for our trip, we had the 5th graders, which varied in age. The youngest being 11 and the oldest 15. None of them had ever been to Angkor but they studied a little bit about it in school. We had a Khmer speaking tour guide for them who was awesome! Others that came on the trip were the teacher, Ponheary, and the assistant. Of course, my mom, and my aunt. The trip started off with breakfast at school, which consisted of French bread with condensed milk, yum. My my mom use to make this for us when we were little.

After that we hopped on the a/c bus and headed to Angkor Thom, in which we will visit The Bayon and Ta Phrom. Talk about fascinating! The Bayon is known for the egnimatic stone faces. Ta Phrom is where Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed. From there, we headed to the largest temple of all, Angkor Wat and concluded our history lesson for the day. At each of the temples, the tour guide talked (in Khmer) about the various carvings, structure, and history. Ponheary gave the volunteers a little English guide of our own. Lucky I was able to understand both:) more English than Khmer of course.

I had a hard time keeping up with them because they walked so fast! Plus,it was hot! The kids didn't speak to us much so I was trying to engage them in conversation and getting them to speak some English to me. When you ask them if they are having fun, they just stare at you. But when you say are you happy, they answer yes, very happy. Which is how "fun" is translated from Khmer to English...hehe. A few did speak a lot when I asked them in Khmer. They love listening though.

After the temples, we had lunch at Khmer Kitchen and then headed off to Lucky Mall for some modern day fun! Lucky mall is a fairly new American style shopping mall with escalators. Most had never been on one before so each volunteer took a few up at a time. I wish you could have seen the excitement and nervousness on their faces. We went to an indoor play area for a good 15 minutes and then had a browse at the book shop, where PLF, bought each of them a book. They started reading right away:) The day ended with a quick glance at the super market and some ice cream. This may all seem a bit strange for a field trip, but you have to understand most have never seen anything like this before. The endless smiles on their faces could never be forgotten.

From here we took them back to school to say our farewells and I had to hold back my tears. Some of the girls made us some gifts and wrote us thank you letters:

"I will remember this forever and I hope you come see us again. I love you."

What a wonderful way to spend a day. I can't wait to share all the pictures with y'all. For now, I'll leave you with this little collage.

"I wish you good luck," as they say here, instead of goodbye:)

Thanks again for being a part of this!