Insight in our students' lives, outside of school

What is it we want out of travel? Is it to take snapshots of ourselves in front of famous monuments, surrounded by other tourists? To eat unfamiliar food chosen from unintelligible menus? To earn frequent-flier miles? No. It's to glimpse what life is like somewhere else. -Chris Pavone

When Gordon and Claire arrived in Siem Reap, we met them a couple of times in the hotel where they stayed. First, we caught up with each other's personal lives. We talked about how everyone was doing, how life was in Cambodia, why we left our original plan to work in Vietnam, and how we ended up back in Cambodia. After a fair bit of chitchatting, Gordon asked us about the boarding school, how everything was going there, the relations between the employees, etc. He explained the next steps that the board envisioned to us and asked if we - Kiki and I wanted to step in and manage the school as school directors. Of course, we said yes. I had other responsibilities for my online students and asked for one week to talk to them.

From that moment on, we were torpedoed in the transition of Kulen Outreach. We told Gordon and Claire that we planned to go to the mountain and visit one of the villages the students come from. They were thrilled by the idea of us going up the mountain and gave us a side quest, next to exploring and enjoying our time with Ro and her family, they wanted us to make connections with the families, introduce ourselves to the teachers, and have a look at Popel School.

Popel Primary School

We (Summer, Ro, Kiki, and myself) planned to make a trip to Kulen Mountain and Popel (one of the primary schools where Kulen Outreach is active). Summer wanted to see the mountain school and meet Ro's family, so she took the reins and set everything up. When we were volunteering we asked the previous school director multiple times to go up the mountain and see where the students come from. Unfortunately, there was always some excuse for why he couldn't set it up, and he discouraged us from going by ourselves. So this was our first time at Popel village as well, we had been on Kulen Mountain before, but not at the village of the beaten track. We were all very excited, even Ro, she wanted to see her family again and let us meet them.

On Friday morning we woke up early to go to the mountain by car. Ro and Summer picked us up with the taxi driver at our place. We've bought different kinds of fruits to give to Ro's family. The taxi took us to the furthest point that he could bring us: PreangThom. This is the same village we walked through when we went up on the tourist tour. Of course, to get there, we had an hour and a half drive. At the foot of the mountain, we had to show our tickets, and once again right before the top of the mountain.

When we stepped out of the car, people started to try to sell the goods from their stores to us. We all bought a bottle of water and sat down near the village, waiting for Ro's brother and his friends to come and pick us up on motorbikes. That's the only way to go through the jungle to Popel village and the primary school there. When they showed up, we jumped on the bikes ready to leave. Our taxi driver waited for us until we came back out of the woods.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at Popel school, the school was already empty. The classes started at 7 am until 11 am. We arrived just when the school finished, the students had gone home already. The school closed early that day.

We got a tour of the school and took some pictures. The school is made out of two buildings; one stone building with 3 classrooms and a wooden classroom next to it. All the classrooms have a blackboard and tons of wooden desks for all the students to sit in.

A bit further, we saw the Learning Center for the first time. It's a circular building with 4 rooms and a little garden in the midden. They also have a flight of stairs (4 steps tall), for the students to sit on or gather. On the other side, they have a place to wash their hands and walk around.

In between the Learning Center and Popel Primary School, there is a playground for the kids. They have a couple of trees providing shade and under the trees are two seesaws. Next to it is a volleyball field. There even is a school pig walking around on the premises.

Ro was so proud to show us where she had studied, where she met the founders of Kulen Outreach for the first time. How she was afraid of the 'tall, white man' entering the school at first, and how she quickly overcame her initial fright. She was eating curry with noodles for dinner with them a couple of days later.

After having a private tour through the school, we decided to move on. Next stop, Ro's family.