First days in Phnom Penh

For it being the rainy season, the sky was surprisingly clear as we began our descent into Phnom Penh. I had expected to be greeted by a torrential downpour. But instead the sun shone down fiercely on rectangular patches of green and brown, and on the wide, milky brown river slowly winding its way past tiny houses with roofs of orange and bright blue. Occasionally, I caught sight of a tall, ornately adorned building which I took to be a temple of some kind. After roughly 3 months of planning and preparing, and nearly a day’s worth of travel, we had finally arrived in Cambodia. 

Kim, a recent Princeton grad, and I will be spending the next two weeks at the Liger Leadership Academy (LLA) teaching in the school’s first-ever SAT boot camp. LLA is quite a young school (it opened in 2012) and will be graduating its first class in 2020. To ensure that as many of them as possible are well prepared for admission to an American university, the administration thought it prudent to devote a couple weeks specifically to SAT prep.

After taking time to review LLA’s mission statement and goals, I knew that this was an organization that I wanted to be involved with. The school’s mission statement reads as follows: “Liger Leadership Academy educates promising youth of today to develop socially conscious, entrepreneurial leaders of tomorrow. We provide a residential scholarship program for economically disadvantaged students that combines a comprehensive, internationally competitive education with an innovative STEM and entrepreneurship curriculum. Liger believes a meaningful investment in the right few will change the lives of many.” LLA believes in empowering their students so that they are able to go out and have a profound impact on the future of their country, instead of leaving it in the hands of others. Needless to say, I am thrilled at the opportunity to work with such an organization.

We made our way through Customs & Immigration easily and were pleased to see that both of our bags had arrived without incident. Outside we were met by Jeff and Caroline, both veterans of LLA, who had also just landed in Phnom Penh after spending the summer at home in the states. The heat and humidity was palpable as we introduced ourselves and waited for Sotia, our driver, to come collect us.

With great skill and some squishing, we managed to cram all five of us and our suitcases into Sotia’s crossover and began our trek through downtown Phnom Penh to LLA. We got our first glimpses of Cambodia as we inched our way through the downtown traffic. Having spent time in various developing countries, I began to note the commonalities between Cambodia and other places I had visited and lived. Here was the frantic, jumbled mix of cars, mopeds, and motorcycles vying for road space. Here was the precarious, yet impressive, balance acting that consisted of multiple humans (and multiple packages) situated on one motorbike. Here were the dusty roadside stands selling street food and knock-off brand backpacks. Here were the equally dusty storefronts where shirtless toddlers scrambled about and elderly women sat stoically by their bottles of shampoo and racks of polyester clothing carefully covered in plastic. In some ways, I could easily have been back in Ecuador or Honduras or Thailand.

After thirty minutes or so, we bumped our way through a small gateway and found ourselves on the grounds of LLA. The school’s campus is situated just outside of Phnom Penh on a beautifully lush and secluded plot of land. All of the clamor of downtown had faded away and was now replaced by the screeches and caws of the birds and lizards nestled in the foliage. Branches with large pink and red flowers arced over our heads as Caroline led us down the walkway to the two-bedroom apartment where Kim and I would be staying. We were impressed to hear that the apartment had actually been designed by the students. LLA values project and experiential based learning and the students are continuously creating, designing and building.

Once we had dropped off our bags, Caroline gave us a quick tour of the campus. It was only Saturday and the camp didn’t begin until Monday, so the school was more or less empty. We were shown the main building (which houses all of the classrooms and offices), the swimming pool, the sports court, the soccer field, and the large colorful buildings that housed the Junior and Senior students. The Senior apartments were of particular interest to me because the students are completely self-sufficient. They are allowed to eat lunch in the dining hall, but they are responsible for cooking all of their other meals. They are also expected to maintain their own living spaces and do their own laundry.

By this point, my initial “arrival high” was quickly being replaced by overwhelming jet lag. The rest of the day passed in a blur of exhaustion and feeble attempts to stay awake until the clock read an acceptable bedtime. (Needless to say, both Kim and I failed to meet said acceptable bedtime.)

And now, two days later, here we are on our first day of camp. We had an assembly this morning to greet all 51 (of our very enthusiastic) students and immediately kicked things off with a practice SAT (which was met with far less enthusiasm). This afternoon, Kim and I will have an hour of icebreakers and introductions with the students, and I look forward to learning more about each of them. I can tell that the students here are well-loved and love their school in return. As a teacher, one of the greatest gifts is students who come into your classroom eager and excited to learn. I have a feeling I’m going to be quite spoiled by the end of this experience.