My Cambodia Experience. My Memories.

Time files. The four days at Cambodia was as though only one day. Compared to other school trips I went, during primary and secondary, this trip was one of the best and the most meaningful. From this trip, I learnt many things related to daily life. 

It was my first time visiting Cambodia and staying in a village. Cambodia was much better then I thought. I always have negative thoughts about Cambodia, that it is a country which is extremely dirty, messy and poor. However, after going to Cambodia, I realized that they are not as dirty, as messy, and as poor then I thought. Also, I did think that people over there are very unfriendly. It turned out to be the opposite. They are more friendly then I thought. It changed the whole idea of everything.

While traveling, the tour guide told many stories and the history of Cambodia. Without the tour guide, I guess there will be a lot of problems such as communication and the understanding of the country.

Upon stepping into the home stay, I was shocked. The room was really very clean and there are mattresses, pillows and blankets, which I did not expect. It was quite warm at night until dawn, when it is a little cooling.

During the building of the well, everyone formed into a human chain to pass the sand and bricks to the other side. From there, I learnt that a good teamwork is important as things will be done efficiently without any difficulties. Without teamwork, the well will not be finished that fast.

Also I learnt that water is very precious to them. It can be seen from the kids as they went to the rubbish bin to search for water bottles with water in it. Not only the water bottle is half filled, they even took bottles that are left with a droplet or two. I felt sad and realized that we should not waste anything especially water. We may think that whenever we need water, there will be water, so some of us may even just throw a half filled water bottle away. However, they don’t. They treasured water very much.  

Looking at their way of life, they lead a much simpler life than us. Yet, they are satisfied with it. Some kids over there have to work after they finish school. Some will be playing in the fields. Just running around and chatting.  They seemed to be leading a peaceful life and enjoy it very much. Whereas, kids like us, are not satisfied even though there is technology like computer games so on and so forth. I think we should appreciate life and be happy with everything we have.

~Teo Yi Min Jasmine, 2E5