“There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast…”
Charles Dickens
Today’s student reflection is from Alecia. Each day, we will feature a different student’s words.
Today is our very first day in Cambodia. The weather is so perfect, the sun is comforting and warm…
The streets are noisy and hectic, and there are motorcycles and tuk-tuks travelling to and fro at hyper speed! Despite the hectic-ness, I can say on behalf of every girl here, that it is a peaceful and extremely positive environment. We have eaten beautiful, yet terrifying Cambodian delicacies…..frogs, insects and duck embryos…..delicious! We even bought souvenirs and clothing at the markets, where we were able to practice our bargaining skills! Overall, it was a thrilling and enjoyable day!
Furthermore, we met our Green Gecko friends for the very first time! It is amazing how positive, friendly and radiant they are. And so inspiring to hear their stories of how far they came from being poor beggar children on streets, to the intelligent and radiant children that they are now.
Alecia’s words very accurately capture the enthusiasm with which the students have embraced their environment.
We were all up bright and early today, in spite of our long day of travel yesterday, we still felt like we were on Melbourne time. After breakfast in the hotel restaurant we set off for Green Gecko, spying many points of interest from the bus windows on the way there: morning light slanting across the nearby Buddhist temple, emaciated stray animals, a mother, child and 10L water bottle precariously perched on a passing motorcycle, and security cameras mounted on the gates of fancy expat residences. The streets between our hotel and Green Gecko gave us some of our first daytime opportunities to observe the life and culture of this city of contrasts.
At Green Gecko, we had a tour and overview of the project from its inception through to the current day, before meeting some of the Geckos who had come to Gecko Central for the morning. Although we took some of them away from their important study, the students had a lot of fun meeting each other for the first time and bonding through conversation, games and music.
An important part of the tour is that we ask the students to participate in debrief sessions and to write in their journals to process all that they see and do while participating. This morning we had quite a confronting experience as we arrived at Green Gecko, with a little boy about 8 or 9 years of age (not part of GG), was sitting on the road nearby Green Gecko, with a dog in his arms. At first we thought the boy was helping the dog, perhaps tending to a sore paw as the dog yelped. It became apparent that he was actually hurting the dog, and this was a very difficult thing for us to see, as we come from a country where we care for our animals and count them as family members.
When we told Liz from Green Gecko about this, she swiftly intervened and put a stop to it, but it was nonetheless a difficult thing to see. The reason I mention it here is your daughters may discuss it with you when you speak, and we did discuss how we rationalise this event, when today we also heard the inspiring story of the founding of Green Gecko Project and the significant difference it has made in the lives of the young people and families who are part of it. No doubt contrasts like this will continue to be a feature of our experience here and we will be mindful of how we support the students as they integrate these new encounters and ideas.
Today we also had a workshop with Michael Horton, founder of local NGO ConCERT, which focuses on community engagement relating to responsible tourism and volunteering, allowing us to bring together many of our thoughts from the day.
Your daughters are engaging in this experience in such a wholehearted and authentic way, it really is such a privilege to be here to support them as they make sense of the whole experience.
Nirvana and Asia
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