Travel to Teach: Cambodia Volunteer Story

Anina with her students at Montessori School, Phnom Penh

Anina Lindmark, from Sweden

I have been studying to become a teacher in Sweden for 3.5 years. With one year left to go on my teaching programme I felt that I needed a break and some inspiration. I wanted to travel but didn’t know how and with who. I found Travel to Teach on the internet and felt that it was just what I was looking for. I could travel and also get teaching experience.

I went for three months and came to Phnom Penh at the end of January, 2006, as the first volunteer from Travel to Teach. I was welcomed by Mouy You who runs the Montessori school in the center of Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh is a fascinating city, one minute you think it’s a modern city and then you go around the corner and see the hens walking free on the street and you change your mind.

After a week other volunteers arrived and soon we became a gang of friends, all from different countries. The children at school were very social and friendly so all of us volunteers found it easy to bound with them. They made the time in school very rewarding. I shared many happy moments with them and they are probably what I miss most about my time in Phnom Penh.

Apart form the volnuteers we also worked closely with the Khmer staff at the school. Their friendship and cultural knowledge about Cambodia made my stay there so much richer. They also taught me some cooking and to speak some Khmer which I found very useful when it came to bargaining or taking a “moto” somewhere. The most useful line was probably “ate ah koon” which means; no, thank you. You can’t walk one second on the street before someone asks if you want a ride on their “moto”!

When you’ve come all the way from Sweden to Phnom Penh you have to do something else than working, right? So I did of course! The heat in Phnom Penh was sometimes almost unbearable so a trip to the sea over the weekend was a must - no less than three times. I also camped on a big boat on the Mekong River, with all the staff at the school, had a monk tell me about my future, (apparently I will be some kind of supervisor, great!) and visited a village where I attended two Cambodian weddings. A very interesting experience, even though the traditional dances wasn’t my thing. It’s difficult, trust me!

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