"Welcome to Helloville," Ben said into his GoPro cam as he introduced our bike ride through the rural village of Srey Siam, located in the Mekong lowlands of Cambodia. Ben and his girlfriend, Allie, are a couple also spending a few days at our home-stay in this village. Ben is referring to the hospitality we are getting from Cambodians as we ride through. The adults greet us with gentle "hellos" and warm smiles but the children are cheerleaders singing sweet ringings of "hellos." As Jan put it, their tenth hello was just as enthusiastic as the first. Take a quick glance at Cambodians and they seem like the happiest and most welcoming people you've ever met, but hidden behind those smiles is a burning resilience from a sad history and a feeling of hopelessness about the future of these Khmer youth.
"Most of these kids will drop out by the 8th grade and most schools only go up to primary school," a retired school teacher remarked as we sat in his front yard. He's a neighbor of our Cambodian hosts. We had stopped for a short visit and he was lamenting about the terrible state of the Cambodian educational system.
Imagine trying to learn geography without looking at a map.
Imagine trying to teach 55 eight-year-olds in a classroom.
Imagine you earn only about $2 each day as a teacher for this impossible task.
"The youth today have no knowledge of our history," the retired teacher continued as he served us cooked yams. He was referencing one of the world's worst and lesser known 20th century genocides that occurred in the mid-70's when Cambodia came under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot, the leader of this brutal regime, envisioned a pure communist-style agrarian utopia and ordered the killing of three million people in just three years.
The people murdered represented more than a third of the population, most of whom were the educated and progressive members of the society at the time. Teachers, doctors, civil servants, students, nurses...basically anyone with a sign of intelligence, or the "new" people as they were called by the Khmer Rouge. One of Pol Pot's slogans read, "If you wish to get a Baccalaureate, you have to get it in dams or canals." Painfully symbolic of their anti-school stance is the fact that one of their main execution centers, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, was formerly a high school.
The downfalls of the current educational system have led to the springing up of many private supplemental schools like Smiling Hearts School in Seim Reap. The founder, Ms. Aly, told us that part of the problem is that many of their parents don't value education. This is especially true in the rural villages where they are more helpful working in the fields. Yemi pointed out that considering the people spared from these brutal murders of the Khmer Rouge were mostly uneducated village folks who somewhat bought into Pol Pot's vision, it might explain why many parents today don't value education.
We also talked to a 24-year career teacher who told us about the corrupt government and how this trickles down to the schools. Teachers are paid the same salary nationwide. In the cities where cost of living is higher, teachers make up for the low pay by collecting bribes for higher grades.
In every country we've traveled to people have complained about their government, the system and their future generation but it is different in Cambodia. These people don't sound like whiners. They don't sound angry. They simply seem helpless and hopeless.
"Has it gotten better over the years?" we asked, hoping to contextualize the issue.
"Slowly. Very slowly," the teacher replied.
"Most of these kids will drop out by the 8th grade and most schools only go up to primary school," a retired school teacher remarked as we sat in his front yard. He's a neighbor of our Cambodian hosts. We had stopped for a short visit and he was lamenting about the terrible state of the Cambodian educational system.
Imagine trying to learn geography without looking at a map.
Imagine trying to teach 55 eight-year-olds in a classroom.
Imagine you earn only about $2 each day as a teacher for this impossible task.
 |
| Volunteering at Smiling Hearts School |
"The youth today have no knowledge of our history," the retired teacher continued as he served us cooked yams. He was referencing one of the world's worst and lesser known 20th century genocides that occurred in the mid-70's when Cambodia came under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot, the leader of this brutal regime, envisioned a pure communist-style agrarian utopia and ordered the killing of three million people in just three years.
The people murdered represented more than a third of the population, most of whom were the educated and progressive members of the society at the time. Teachers, doctors, civil servants, students, nurses...basically anyone with a sign of intelligence, or the "new" people as they were called by the Khmer Rouge. One of Pol Pot's slogans read, "If you wish to get a Baccalaureate, you have to get it in dams or canals." Painfully symbolic of their anti-school stance is the fact that one of their main execution centers, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, was formerly a high school.
The downfalls of the current educational system have led to the springing up of many private supplemental schools like Smiling Hearts School in Seim Reap. The founder, Ms. Aly, told us that part of the problem is that many of their parents don't value education. This is especially true in the rural villages where they are more helpful working in the fields. Yemi pointed out that considering the people spared from these brutal murders of the Khmer Rouge were mostly uneducated village folks who somewhat bought into Pol Pot's vision, it might explain why many parents today don't value education.
 |
| Volunteering at Smiling Hearts School. Bonleap (third from the left) is incredibly smart |
We also talked to a 24-year career teacher who told us about the corrupt government and how this trickles down to the schools. Teachers are paid the same salary nationwide. In the cities where cost of living is higher, teachers make up for the low pay by collecting bribes for higher grades.
In every country we've traveled to people have complained about their government, the system and their future generation but it is different in Cambodia. These people don't sound like whiners. They don't sound angry. They simply seem helpless and hopeless.
"Has it gotten better over the years?" we asked, hoping to contextualize the issue.
"Slowly. Very slowly," the teacher replied.
 |
| This boy helps his grandmother care for his siblings while his parents are working in Thailand. His warm maternal-like affection for the little ones caught our attention. |
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