Dear Ms. Julius, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Wright, and the Class of 1972,

Upon arrival to Cambodia, we were (or at least I was) a little rattled when we found out that the responsibility we had been given was far out of our comfort zones and we had zero experience.  I found out that the education director, Mr. Jeff Holte, and a teacher at Liger Learning Center, Chanda Cheng (aka Da), would mainly be assisting us with logistical details such as arranging transportation for field trips.  Carlota, Jared, and I were tasked with developing the entire curriculum and schedule for the three different camps: the Junior camp (to be repeated three times and modified as needed), Senior camp #1 (focused on solar suitcase), and Senior camp #2.  We were told we had one week to prepare for the camps.  We honestly spent the first day or two spinning our wheels, but following that we began to start productively planning.  I was sick during this first week and had to do a lot of my work from my apartment because the nurse quarantined me to my apartment.  However, I was allowed to leave campus when we went on several “field trips” with Da to get supplies for the camp and visit the places that we would be going with the kids during the camps.  By the end of the week, we had a plan for the camp, though it was more of a rough draft of a plan than we would have liked.

The first Junior STEM camp was June 4, and then June 6-9 (We started the camp on Sunday, June 4 so that we could take care of the kids while the Khmer staff went out and voted in the local elections).  The camp went very well overall, but there were definitely some times when we struggled and the schedule did not go smoothly.  It was hard to know exactly what materials we would need and how much of them because we had not done the camp before.  Mid-week we met with Mr. Jeff after a morning where we had to act on the fly to find a replacement activity for something that did not work as planned.  I actually ended up leading coding during this time (which I really enjoyed), but it was very stressful to be acting without planning.  To my surprise, the junior kids liked the coding so much that they begged us the rest of the week to do coding!!  I was so pleased that the activity (that I enjoy) turned out so well!!  Though it wasn’t really possible to be totally planned out for this week we determined that it was important to be extremely over-prepared for the future camps so that the weeks would go more smoothly.  The kids told us at the end of the week that they absolutely loved the camp.  We worked basically the whole day every day (including long after “work hours”) to prepare for the camp so it was nice to be able to take a moment and breathe and be proud of our hard work when the week was over!!

The next week we did not have a camp.  We spent the week modifying the Junior camp and planning out the second senior camp.  This was a lot of work and long days, but at the end of it I felt much, much better about the remaining camps.  We made explicit documents (which I have attached to the bottom of this email in PDF form) on Google Docs that outlined the entire schedule of the camps and had other documents with lists of materials we needed help with obtaining from Mr. Jeff or Da.  Once we were fully prepared, we were allowed to take a few days to explore historical sites in Cambodia (while we didn’t have campers).  Mr. Jeff gave us Thursday and Friday off so that we could go to the Killing Fields and S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh and then to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and other temples.  We had a wonderful time on this trip (as I am sure you could tell from all the pictures on Flickr).  The day with the Killing Fields and S-21 was very emotional and helped us learn and understand a lot more about Khmer culture and the current state of Cambodia.  We learned a lot of history during this weekend thanks to Carlota’s interest in reading the guide book and relaying the information!

June 19-23 was the first senior camp.  This camp was focused mainly on building and preparing the solar suitcase (as you can see from the attached schedule).  We spent Monday on introductions and the solar suitcase, Tuesday consisted of the Kid City Science Museum and solar suitcase, Wednesday was arsenic study (led by Da) and solar suitcase, Thursday was the Trybe field trip followed by more solar suitcase, and Friday was the solar suitcase installation.  The solar suitcase was an awesome project to work on with the seniors.  They really took charge and responsibility for the work of both putting together the solar suitcase and installing it.  I was really impressed by the maturity of the Liger senior students.  Carlota and I were there to help with troubleshooting on the suitcase (though Carlota was better at this than me), double-checking the solar suitcase, double-checking the materials for the installation were compiled, and helping to organize the whole thing.  On solar suitcase installation day we took a bus to Kampong Speu and installed one of the suitcases at a school called Cam Kids. 

One of the founders of Cam Kids is actually the country director of Liger and we know the suitcase will go to good use.  Before, when it was raining or dark, classes could not be held.  The storing of the sun’s energy will revolutionize learning at Cam Kids.  Now, they can add more classes before dawn and after dark as well as refrain from cancelling classes during daily rain.

The weekend after this camp Jared and I stayed in Phnom Penh.  Saturday night we went to dinner and a play with our boss, Mr. Jeff Holte.  Then, I was able to hang out with some of the guys from Princeton In Asia and learn about their year-long program here.  They highly recommended participating in the program after graduation!

June 26-30 was the second of the junior camps.  Though no week of camp will ever run perfectly, this camp ran much more smoothly than the first and was much less stressful.  It was much more satisfying to know that we had every activity (and back-up activities) planned exactly, instead of acting in the spur of the moment (which we basically had to do that first week).  I think the kids learned a lot.  They did everything from chromatography to bamboo tripod building to heart dissections to coding, so it was hard for anyone to get bored!!  I was surprised when some from this group had already done a little bit of coding and I was able to help them with more complicated concepts such as functions and methods!  At the end of the week one of the kids told Carlota that this was her favorite week ever at Liger and she hopes STEM camp happens again.  It’s always nice to know that our hard work is appreciated!

After this week we immediately took a car to the beach, Otres 2, just outside of Sihanoukville.  Unfortunately, because of traffic the car ride took 6 hours instead of the usual 3.5.  The beach was quite a nice oasis and a good, relaxing weekend break.  We took a boat ride to several islands on Saturday.  I was not super smart when I forgot sunscreen and got extremely burned and also scraped up my knee when I jumped off one of the cliffs onto rocks.  I guess I’m learning lessons from my vacations as well as my teaching!  Overall it was a wonderful weekend and the beach was honestly breathtaking.  I hope you all look at some of the photos on Flickr!

The last week of STEM camp (for me) was the third junior stem camp from July 3-7.  By this week, we had worked out a lot of the details and knew almost exactly how each day should run without even having to look at our schedule.  It’s amazing to see just how interested and engaged the Liger kids are.  The juniors are 10-12 and they remain attentive for hours on end.  I think that I start loosing focus before they do!  This week was a lot of fun because we could really focus on the teaching and being with the kids and not have to worry about logistics quite as much.  Also, each week I was personally responsible for putting together both a movie night and a dance night for the kids.  I really enjoyed getting to see the kids in a more relaxed setting and letting them have some fun.  After all it is supposed to be a summer camp!!   This last week was very fulfilling and was a good way to end my time at Liger!