DAY 3
Today was a very busy day because I got my first experience in an international school! It was like no school experience I have ever had. I went with the Gitobu girls and met many new people. The school grounds were huge! They had a main building, lake, fields, a playground, a swimming pool, and a cafeteria!
My day started off with a French class. This school teaches languages to all of its students. The teacher was not happy that my school at home didn't have different languages. I couldn't understand a word of what the teacher was saying because she was speaking in french most of the time!
Since today was Friday they had a community class. In the community class the theme was teamwork. The activity was a game called spider web. In the game there was a pretend spider web made out of ropes spun from two trees and there were only a few gaps for people to go through. The object of the game was to get from one side of the web to the other. The rule was, if you touched the web your team had to all go back to the other side. It was a challenging game! It took our group 5 times to complete it! Our next class was a computer class time period. Since I was in the class only one day I created a photoshop picture. The teacher was very nice and she happened to have an English accent.
Later we had math. It happened to be a test day so I got out some of my makeup work from school and got 20 pages complete.
For lunch the cafeteria had a salad bar that looked good. The lunch room was separate from the school and was on the grounds. It was a delicious lunch and free period. People are aloud to bring technology to the school so you would see people with computers, i-pods, i-pads, phones, etc. The school gave you a sense of freedom and you didn't feel restrained at all.
The last class was Language A. Language A is not language arts however because in Cambodia there main language isn't English so they don't need to worry about English skills that you would have in language arts. Language A covers reading genres like poetry, myths, etc. They happened to have a poetry project in the computer lab while we were there so I got to catch up on this blog.
Overall, it was an excellent day and I would give the school a 5-star rating!*****
The Killing Fields
The killing fields was the hardest part of the day. Whoever went to school didn't go to the killing fields because we have two nine-year-olds on our team. The killing fields tell a long and complicated story. It all started with Pol Pot who took over the country and forced people to the fields to work. Anyone who had gone to school was killed, any one who wore glasses was killed. The killing fields tell that story in great detail. People say that it is like walking in a burning pit and that it makes your heart ache. On the ground are bones that are scattered by the wind. But when you look closely at the mass graves you see an amazing sight.
Butterflies...everywhere...it is a sign of hope to all... The place that makes you fell angry and sad all in one, is Tol Sleng. Tol Sleng is a prison that used to be a high school. Here you see how people were tortured and killed. You see pictures of faces of the children that were killed there.
When the team came from the Killing Fields and Tol Sleng, you could see what they comprehended. They all showed major signs of anger and sadness.
When we went to dinner you could tell people were effected a lot. When we sat down everyone was silent. All you could hear was the rain tapping the roof silently. I slowly looked around at all of the faces of people and saw the sadness and shock of there experience. It was a hard sight to see. Suddenly the silence was broken by Jarred asking why it was so quiet. That simply broke the silence. Everyone started talking to each other about there experiences. I talked to Rodger and he told me everything.
No one that day would ever be the same again...
My day started off with a French class. This school teaches languages to all of its students. The teacher was not happy that my school at home didn't have different languages. I couldn't understand a word of what the teacher was saying because she was speaking in french most of the time!
Since today was Friday they had a community class. In the community class the theme was teamwork. The activity was a game called spider web. In the game there was a pretend spider web made out of ropes spun from two trees and there were only a few gaps for people to go through. The object of the game was to get from one side of the web to the other. The rule was, if you touched the web your team had to all go back to the other side. It was a challenging game! It took our group 5 times to complete it! Our next class was a computer class time period. Since I was in the class only one day I created a photoshop picture. The teacher was very nice and she happened to have an English accent.
Later we had math. It happened to be a test day so I got out some of my makeup work from school and got 20 pages complete.
For lunch the cafeteria had a salad bar that looked good. The lunch room was separate from the school and was on the grounds. It was a delicious lunch and free period. People are aloud to bring technology to the school so you would see people with computers, i-pods, i-pads, phones, etc. The school gave you a sense of freedom and you didn't feel restrained at all.
The last class was Language A. Language A is not language arts however because in Cambodia there main language isn't English so they don't need to worry about English skills that you would have in language arts. Language A covers reading genres like poetry, myths, etc. They happened to have a poetry project in the computer lab while we were there so I got to catch up on this blog.
Overall, it was an excellent day and I would give the school a 5-star rating!*****
The Killing Fields
The killing fields was the hardest part of the day. Whoever went to school didn't go to the killing fields because we have two nine-year-olds on our team. The killing fields tell a long and complicated story. It all started with Pol Pot who took over the country and forced people to the fields to work. Anyone who had gone to school was killed, any one who wore glasses was killed. The killing fields tell that story in great detail. People say that it is like walking in a burning pit and that it makes your heart ache. On the ground are bones that are scattered by the wind. But when you look closely at the mass graves you see an amazing sight.
Butterflies...everywhere...it is a sign of hope to all... The place that makes you fell angry and sad all in one, is Tol Sleng. Tol Sleng is a prison that used to be a high school. Here you see how people were tortured and killed. You see pictures of faces of the children that were killed there.
When the team came from the Killing Fields and Tol Sleng, you could see what they comprehended. They all showed major signs of anger and sadness.
When we went to dinner you could tell people were effected a lot. When we sat down everyone was silent. All you could hear was the rain tapping the roof silently. I slowly looked around at all of the faces of people and saw the sadness and shock of there experience. It was a hard sight to see. Suddenly the silence was broken by Jarred asking why it was so quiet. That simply broke the silence. Everyone started talking to each other about there experiences. I talked to Rodger and he told me everything.
No one that day would ever be the same again...