We’ve been doing ministry for a week now here in
Cambodia. Teaching English has been our
main activity so far this month. I have
never taught English before, so it has been challenging. The different students we are teaching are at
many different levels in their English education, and we have also been given
absolutely no instruction so we’re making things up as we go. We are teaching classes at 3 different
English schools. Every school is private
and 2 of them are run by YWAM and many of the students are believers. Speaking English is an important skill to
have in Cambodia so hopefully we can increase the kids’ knowledge a little bit
during the short time we are here.
Here
is an example of what our typical day has been in Cambodia.
5:00
AM:
We get woken up by the blaring
music from our neighbors. Cambodians
wake up at 4:30 AM for some unknown reason.
7:30
AM I finally roll out of bed after dozing
in and out of sleep to eat some off-brand Frosted Flakes, definitely one of the
best moments of the day.
8:00
AM We get picked up by a van that drives
us to our house to our school. We still
have not said a word to our driver due to the language barrier and his
attention being devoted to honking at every car or person we pass.
8:15-10
AM I teach my morning class which consists of
mostly 10-12 year olds. We’ve been
learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and verb tenses.
10-11
AM Our whole team is brought in to talk with
the older students during their class time.
Our talks have been put on hold to teach the students and teachers how
to pronounce certain words/letters. “th”
and “v” give them very tough times.
11-noon I teach my second class which
consists of 13-15 year olds (I’m guessing).
They are around the same level as my first class so the classes run
fairly parallel
Noon-2 We head back to the house, eat lunch
and I pass out for my daily nap. Of
course due to the 90 degree heat I sweat throughout the nap but still wake up
refreshed.
2-4
PM I teach the students here at our
house “House of Love.” The age range and
knowledge range is very widespread during this class so I am improving every
day.
4-6
PM I try and play with the kids for a
couple of hours. Our game of choice is
volleyball. The teenage boys are
incredible at volleyball so we get into some pretty competitive games.
7
PM We eat dinner, Kirsten and Lili
don’t get back until after 7 from their night class. We sometimes hang out as a team at night or
do our own things.
9
PM It’s time for bed, the village
pretty much shuts down as the sun sets around 6 so the bugs cause us to head to
our tents and shortly after were asleep just counting down the hours until the
neighbors will wake us up again with their music.
This
past week had good times and bad. We’re
going through some struggles as a new team as were trying to figure out what
community looks like. The bugs are bad,
the heat is tough, teaching English can be frustrating. But there are many redeeming qualities about
our time here. The people are great, the
food is good, playing with the kids is a lot fun. Hopefully this week will be better. Little note, I am going to get to watch the
National Championship game in town. That
could have a significant impact on the mood in my next blog. War Eagle.
