From Kirkwood to Cambodia: Chub Primary School

June 23-July 3

Shahi gets a ride in the school courtyard from one of our favorite new friends, Terri. (Photo by Tanya Stevens)

Every morning, we load into a tour bus and travel for an hour over bumpy dirt roads to the remote village of Chub, where we are building a new classroom for the primary school. Our Global Education Network crew consists of twenty college students and faculty members from schools in four different countries--USA, Australia, Canada, and Singapore.

The 2019 GEN crew.

About three hundred children attend the school where we are working. The primitive cement classrooms surround a dirt courtyard where the children play at recess. Half the students attend in the morning and half in the afternoon, six days a week.

A wheel rim serves as the "bell" to signal the start of classes.

Our first task was to tear down the old classroom--a flimsy structure with dirt floors and a roof made of banana leaves.

The old classroom.

Over the next two weeks we constructed the new classroom, built of short brick walls covered in plaster and topped with wooden lattice. The sun was often brutal, and we had only the simplest tools to aid our labor. However, with many sets of willing hands, the classroom slowly became a reality.

Photo by Sokphea Te

Kayla laying bricks.

There was no stopping our little helpers.
(Photo by Tanya Stevens)

Madi with an audience.

During the lunch break, or when not everyone was needed for the construction, we had the chance to get to know the students and teachers. Although we spoke only a few words of Khmer and they spoke only a few words of English, we both spoke the language of smiles and playground games.