Teamwork

This week was the first time, that every full time staff member of every Learning Center in Cambodia came together. In Cambodia we have all in all only four LCs. In Mongolia are already many more established, but of course we hope to expand in the future. The LC in Siem Reap consists of a library and does not offer courses. Takeo, Angtasom (my LC) and Tonloab have both a library and courses and are all located in the same province. The workshop itself was taking place in Tonloab and as it is the newest LC (it opened up in April) it was nice to see the progress that has already been made. Of course every LC has a manager, the so called Head of Learning Center, teachers and librarians that are all Khmer. I am the only volunteer that works for Bookbridge in Cambodia, though I was not the only western person at the workshop. There is of course Stacy that works for Peace Corps, an American organization for long-term volunteerism. She is normally teaching at the local high school. She joined the workshop and invited two other Peace Corps volunteers what was in my opinion quite beneficial for the cause, as they have experience in the educational sector. All in all we were 15 people.

On arrival we got our name tags and new Bookbridge shirts, what made me really happy as my blue shirt that I got in spring this year was clearly not enough. Now I can combine my clothes with two new shirts in white and pink. Sreydieb had the funny idea to change our name tags, so everyone who didn’t know me was addressing me with the wrong name. I felt more Khmer than ever. The room Sreydieb and me shared had three giant windows that gave away the view on a mountain. On top of it I could guess that there was a temple, what I couldn’t guess was, that we would hike up there two days later. Just to say the most important thing: nobody brought hiking shoes with them and I wore Sreydiebs sandals. It’s not hard to imagine that they were completely ruined afterwards.

The main goal of our workshop was to find goals and objectives to continue the success of our LCs in the future. We also emphasized what the philosophy of Bookbridge is, to keep our values in focus: building bridges for global education equality, no matter what gender, religion, nationality, family background etc. a child has. Our two overall goals are:

#1: To create sustainable learning centers through high-quality course offerings
#2: To empower each LC to provide high quality courses, learning materials, and information to those who come

We determined 6 objectives during the workshop:

1. To develop course programs to be more competitive and higher quality                                                                                                                                                                                                             2. To train teachers of the learning center more teaching techniques to make their teaching more effective                                                                                                                                                  3. To create a schedule with clear responsibilities for learning center staff and get it implemented effectively                                                                                                                                           4. To increase books in Khmer (Novel, roman, folktales…) to be half of the total number of books in the library                                                                                                                                         5. To organize meetings of students from outside and inside the learning center so they become aware of the usefulness of learning English and It
6. To cooperate with parents of students on a regular basis to follow up student’s learning performance

In the following week every group was given a sort of homework: to find individual strategies to match the objectives that they see for themselves as being valuable for the long-term success of their LC. It was shown how to create strategies to ensure that they lead to the settled objective and later goal and how to determine a timeline that is reasonable. In the working groups everyone could gain profit from talking with other staff members, discussing problems and sharing ideas. Besides the working, several creative games and activities were included in the workshop schedule what brought some change to the course. To end this report-like and maybe not at all interesting talk about the workshop: I think it were some days spent for a good cause that helped all of us to decide how we want to keep on working in the next months.

On the second evening, we visited Sokeuns family. He is the HoLC in Takeo, but he was born in Tonloab. He told me so much about his little son that I was eager to meet him. The whole family lives in a simple but nice house. Like most Cambodian houses it’s made of wood and colored in blue. As always we were heartily welcomed. Sokeuns son looks just like himself and his English is already pretty good for his young age. Their house is surrounded by a sort of palm tree jungle and we all sat together on a low table under the roof and talked for about an hour. I am over and over again amazed by the hospitality of the people here.

We obviously worked in different groups, but no matter who is in my team, I always tend to enjoy working with Rathana, Kadet and Sreydieb most. They are the best colleagues I could ever ask for, always friendly and in a good mood. I can’t imagine that there is anyone who would not get along well with them.

At the workshop I also discovered the joy of peanut butter in the morning to mention this to keep track on everything important. I never ate peanut butter when I was in Germany and all the Peace Corps volunteers, as they come from the U.S., couldn’t quite believe that it’s not popular in Germany. The best thing about it is the fact, that it is some kind of healthy Nutella without side effects like pimples.

Our hiking trip was quite an adventure, as I mentioned our shoes weren’t really fitting for the occasion. The way was partly so steep I had to grab some branch nearby to not slip and often I had to more crawl up than walk as the canopy over me was so dense. I made Sreydieb a turban to protect her from the sun and she said she liked it so much, she would just continue wearing it when we were back in town. On top of the mountain lived monks that were dressed in white and wore jewellery made of things that can be found in the nature. They talk and move with such dignity and when you look into their eyes, you just now that they have seen so much in their long life and are incredibly wise. The view from both sides of the mountain was quite spectacular, my well known ricefields on one and the deep green mountains with their fading silhouettes on the other side.

Meanrith (HoLC in Siemreap and as big a Harry Potter fan as I am), Sredieb and me. We reached the top of the mountain nearly half and hour before the others. 🙂

When we were eating lunch, this centipede was just about an inch distance from my foot. Apparently it’s the most poisonous being that can cross your way in that area…

Sokhan our country manager, Sreydieb, Sopheak and me when we were making a break under a giant ancient tree that had his countless roots everywhere.

It’s amazing to see the variety of nature wherever you go. These flowers grow in front of the temple.

This temple tells a history about a beautiful princess with hair that smelled like flowers who made everyone fall in love with her.

The view on Cambodias endless ricefields.

It’s so close to the Vietnamese border, for 65 Dollar Europeans can get a visa.

Sreydiebs beautiful new turban.

In the end I was also glad to be back home, mostly because of the amazing cooking skills of my host mom that are extraordinarily magnificent. Looking back I can say that the whole workshop was definitely a wonderful experience of teamwork through the nations.