A New School - 'Lakeside School'

Last March was my 2 year anniversary of working in Cambodia, and it was at about the same time that the staff started asking to start another school. For me, it was something I had wanted to do, but finding the time was tough. I had gone to visit other communities in hopes of starting work there in the future, but hadn’t found the right place, which I was finding hard to do.

For our staff, Sokchea, Sokim and Sreang, they saw working in a new community as a new challenge, an opportunity to get more responsibility, paid hours, and job security in the event that Aziza faces problems. They also share the joy of watching children blossom, and we all want to feel the high we have become addicted to, which we get every day from seeing the difference we can make with our students. I initially told them we were too busy, but they persisted, so I asked them to go and find a community, and gave them some criteria for what to look for. I wanted consistent poverty, since much of what I had been finding were slums that have a mix of household incomes. After one long day of the 3 of them searching, dreaming and networking, they returned excited to tell me that they had found the perfect community. I couldn’t believe it myself when I visited, but they had found a community overflowing with dirty, neglected, disrespectful children, gangsters, prostitutes, poor sanitation… An aid workers utopia, and just a short drive from my house!

They also found a small house we could rent for cheap, but I asked them to try to find a larger place. Miraculously, the landlord of the only big house in the area, which is laid out perfectly for a school, was about to evict the current tenants. They pleaded with the landlord to give us discount rent, which she agreed to do ($50 per month), since she is a school teacher and wanted to help the community.

The new community, called Boeung Kok Lake, has more activity than most places on earth. From a side street, you turn down a narrow alley, too tight to get a car into, so only motorbikes or walking will get you there. At the end of the seedy alley there is a steep hill up to some rail road tracks. I’ve only seen the train go by once, and it was loaded with small children playing and catching a short ride as it slowly cranked past. Once over the tracks, it is a steep downhill to the lake, and our school sits right on the edge of the swampy, garbage filled water. I hope that the lake won’t flood again this year and cause us to close the school temporarily. Following the path past the school, the cement turns to wood as the sidewalk and all the houses are on stilts over the water. These are the houses of most of our students. The community is fascinating and beautiful. People fish and grow vegetables in the water, as well as harvest the snails. Life in the water thrives on the sewage that flows directly from people’s houses into the lake. Some of the people have fish farms, while others fish using electric current. The lake is home to some large (2 foot long) eels, which bring a high price.

Now that we had the right house, we sought approval from the authorities. I thought this would be easy enough. The village chief passed us on to the commune leader, and I expected he would be happy to help us, but in fact he didn’t want us there, because another foreigner in a nearby village had been trying to organize the people in the community to fight for their rights and land titles. Luckily Sokchea is a master at listening to people, and after letting him vent his frustrations and making some promises to not be political, we were given approval.

From here, I stepped back and let the staff organize all the logistics. Along with a little help from a beautiful person named Cindy, they interviewed students and families, had desks built, electricity installed, hired teachers, had a blessing ceremony, a party, and started a school. Sounds easy, but it was a lot of work, and they did it like professionals. The greatest achievement will always be their ability to negotiate with the players found in a slum community and the challenges that brings. We were welcomed, and given help from many. The local gangsters are causing us some trouble with noise and disrupting class, and the village chief comes by sometimes when he is drunk, but he is fine so far. The nuances, I believe, are what make work in a developing country effective.

Now the school is in full swing, and we have some students who, if you met them, you may very likely decide to commit yourself to helping them to fulfill their potential. We teach English, Khmer, and will have a leadership training next month. They’ve all been to the dentist, some multiple times (those with a lot of problems), given medical check-ups, and even a few field trips.

Our best resource is our new center manager, Seng, who is a university student studying to be an English teacher, and he lives with his grandfather just a few hundred yards from the school. He is very eager, and values the opportunity to be a leader. He also has worked as an electrician, which is invaluable since we run into a lot of issues with keeping the fans and lights working, as well as power for the computer lab at Aziza School.

What has kept me motivated with my work in Cambodia has been my relationships with the students and their families. Now that we have 2 schools, it is too many kids to keep track of, which has pushed me to use my skills to think about the organization and our infrastructure. I still spend a lot of time in the communities, but my role has slowly evolved, and more of my hands-on work is meeting with the staff and empowering them.

Our little school has a rich history in just a short time, and I feel we are honored to have such great partners in every direction.

It’s a different community, but some of the things are the same. The kids are gorgeous. The problems are everywhere. Our possibilities to help are endless. I look forward to the journey.