Volunteering in Village Orphanage

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164_6445-4.JPGWhen asked how and where we would like to help out, we said we could do whatever wherever- we just want to help. We were told that the rural orphanages had the greatest needs, particularly the one in Kompong Chnang. Located in a village with no guesthouses or hotels, few volunteers ever elect to help there. When New Hope’s administrator, Boeurn, asked us if we’d mind helping in a village, we said sure. “Are you sure?” he asked a couple more times. We assured him we’d be okay- we’d stayed in villages throughout Asia. He said he’d arrange for us to stay there for two nights and we could decide later if we wanted to stay another night.

            Pulling into the orphanage, about a dozen of the kids gathered around the car and just stared at us as we got out. I took the initiative to say hello and they all reciprocated. We put our bags down and stood around a pair of tables, the children scattered around us. “So what now?” I asked Sokham, our driver and New Hope staff member. He told us it was up to us; we could teach, we could play, whatever. I now understood why the orphanage needed help; there was barely anyone here. There were a few men who worked at the church and helped out at the orphanage (building a wall, helping with maintenance, etc), but the only person around all the time was a lady who cooked and cleaned. With 15 kids staring at us and no idea what to do, I asked Sokham to ask the kids what they wanted to do. Their response was, “learn English.” Thus began three days of hastily prepared English lessons. They played a good amount, but whenever we asked they always wanted to study. So we spent the mornings and early afternoons teaching. Then in the evenings, all the village kids would come to the orphanage for a lesson. With the exception of a couple kids that knew a fair amount of vocabulary, the kids could not put sentences together and could barely read. This made it easy in a sense, because teaching vocabulary was easy. We taught them colors, but their limited English was frustrating too. We taught them the colors and how to spell each one. If we said the word they could remember how to spell it, but if they saw the word they could not read it. They could memorize how to spell anything and sentences too, but reading was nearly impossible with most. They did like repeat things though and my annoyance with that helped me to cut down on my filler words: um, ah, okay.

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Joylani the teacher

I did not enjoy the teaching too much, but playing with the kids was fun. Sometimes I got them too riled up, so I learned to show them games they could play with each other. They were tough kids, so I showed them how to sit on each others shoulders and chicken fight. I tied their legs together and showed them how to three-legged race. The boys continually wrestled, climbed trees, and ran around. The girls did not have it so good. Although the boys wheelbarrowed water to the latrines in the morning, the girls worked all day. Helping prepare food, washing dishes, cleaning, and so on. Plus only one of the girls went to school, while all the boys who were old enough did. Regardless of gender, all the kids stopped studying or playing whenever Joylani got out the craft stuff. Joylani thinks they liked drawing and coloring so much, because they don’t usually do it. Whatever the reason, those kids loved her art projects and they’d always show her when they finished. They’d walk right by (which was fine with me) and line up to get her praise.

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kids lined up in front of orphanage for a game

It wasn’t all fun and games though. This week has taught me kids are a handful. We awoke every morning at 5:30, when all the kids woke up and would be singing. I’d try to sleep in as long as possible, but I was usually up by 6:30. Then it was non-stop playing and teaching until we went to sleep around 9pm. The kids never napped and they had unquenched energy, continually playing on the jungle gym, running around, and wrestling. Every night, we were exhausted. Our “bed” was a bamboo mat (think beach mat) on a tile floor in a spare room. I learned there’s three positions you can sleep in on the floor: on your back, on your side, or on your stomach. On my back was most comfortable. I laid on my side a few times, but it felt like I was bruising my hips and ankles. I also slept on my stomach a couple times, but that was hard my neck. None of the positions relieved the heat. The orphanage staff did graciously turn on the generator for us in the evenings, so we could see. But they shut it off when we went to sleep, so we had no fan to relieve us from the stifling heat. It was hard, but it was the same conditions that the kids and staff lived in. The kids had the same thin mats over their wooden bunks. And the food wasn’t great, but it was much more than the kids got (which might explain why they were the smallest kids I’ve ever seen).

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if nothing else, at least we were entertained :)

Overall, we enjoyed our time at the orphanage. The kids were dirty, but they were fun. The living was difficult, but we felt like we were filling a need. We stayed that extra night and were sad to go. The kids were sad to see us leave, but they told Sokham they’d had a good time with us. Hearing some of the things they said really made me feel like our time was worthwhile. I mean, it was relatively short and anyone could have played and taught the kids. But the kids enjoyed the few days and few people ever volunteer to help these kids. Boeurn told us lots of people like to volunteer, but they just stay in Phnom Penh or do a quick day trip to a rural orphanage for a few hours. Many people want to volunteer, but we filled a need that others weren’t willing to. I’m not trying to toot our own horn, but I am saying that the past few days gave a purpose to all the difficult situations we put ourselves in throughout this trip (ie, bad accommodation, bad food, etc). 

2 thoughts on “Volunteering in Village Orphanage

  1. Hi Matt and Joylani.

    Joyce and I check this site from time to time and enjoy reading about your adventures. You have had some tremendous experiences — even better than those you can have working in middle management for a large bank in California! These memories will last a lifetime. Thanks for sharing them with us.

    Best,

    Jay

  2. yay to helping out wherever you are in the world! I hope that whatever you guys did with the kids would not only stay with them but with you guys too. :)

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