Cambodia Maps

This CD was compiled with specific reasons in mind.

To raise awareness about rural education in Cambodia, and to elicit the help of readers in supporting educational initiatives, especially in the Kep and Kampot areas.

In September 2006, I moved to Kep to live and to help my wife with her work in the area. During the first week of our stay we were invited by a motodop driver and his family to visit Wat Kampong Tralach to see a local festival.

Whilst there I noticed a small schoolroom in the corner of the pagoda grounds and enquired as to what the school taught. I was told that English language classes were held there in the evenings from 5 to 7pm. As I had been teaching English in Phnom Penh and had no work in the evenings I volunteered to teach at the school. The head monk and his assistant were the teachers, and they were using a 1958 Longman grammar guide affectionately known as "Book One" and a single, battered copy of New Headway Pre-intermediate, these books were the only teaching resources that they had.

My first class consisted of 21 students, all with varying abilities, all exceptionally keen to learn and all attending the school 6 nights a week. Within a couple of weeks the number of students in the class had grown to 72 and the classes were spilling out of the schoolroom and into the yard, with people watching over the waist-high classroom wall. Although most of the students helped each other, the differing levels of ability were beginning to become a problem and frustrations were beginning to arise with both the lower and higher level students in the class. My solution was to offer the students an entrance exam based on New Headway Elementary that would split the class into 2 classes; one for Elementary level students Mon, Wed, Frid; and one for Pre-intermediate Tues, Thurs, Sat. After the exam I went to Phnom Penh and bought around 40 copies each of both books, a very large English-Khmer dictionary, and 150 pens and pencils and returned to the school. My entire expenditure was less than $80. Classes settled into a steady routine, the head monks assistant and myself jointly teaching each class. My intentions were to remain teaching in the school at nights and to continue helping my wife with her work during the days as this had been working out very well. I informed the monks and the students that I would be teaching there for 2 to 3 years, and would see most of them through the New Headway series.

Unfortunately, this didn't work out as planned. At midday on November 21st 2006, while driving our moto through Phum Phnom Leav along the road to Angkaol, my wife and I were hit by a drunken driver. In the collision, my right collarbone was broken in 2 places and I broke a rib, luckily both my wife and the drunk were unhurt. We returned to Phnom Penh for medical attention. Although we were helped enormously by the local police and local community, the accident left my wife with an understandable fear of traveling in the area, and she has since requested a transfer back to Phnom Penh. The lack of structured field support from my wife's employers means we will be staying in Phnom Penh.

This has left the Wat Kampong Tralach school with no native English-speaking teacher and lesser access to materials and advice.

If you feel that you could help the school in any way, either through donating a book or two, or some pens and notebooks, by donating a small amount of money to help towards the costs of running the school generator (2 small strip-lights in the classroom), or best of all by visiting and helping the monks in the school, then please contact me at chuangt2u@yahoo.co.uk

If you would like to deliver your donation yourself, make your way to the Kep area, then follow the guide below.

First, follow this map. Section 18 map page or section 18-1 in the atlas.

The correct forms of address when speaking to monks are:

Tday tcha khun - a very polite address for a monk either older or younger than yourself.

Lohk Bohng - a polite informal address for a monk older than yourself

Lohk Pa-ohng - a polite informal address for a monk younger than yourself

Whatever your donation, be it materials or time, you will definitely be making a positive impact on the learning experiences of the students at Wat Kampong Tralach.