The Elma School

Yesterday, after we donated water filters and visited a Cambodian village in the morning, we then visited the Elma School in Cambodia. We went to the Elma school to give a donation of school supplies to all the kids so they would have new materials. We also went so Brooke and I could teach the Cambodian children some English and so Mom and Dad could give a financial donation.

When we got there, we were greeted by hundreds of happy smiling faces. Before we taught some of the kids English, we met the director of the school and we talked to him for a little bit. We learned that there were 400 kids that attended Elma School. We also learned that they learned English at Elma School. We walked inside the classroom and saw all the kids packed inside the room. Brooke and I stepped onto the little stage, where the teacher would normally stand when teaching the kids about something. We started off by telling them our names, and our ages and where we were from. Next, we showed them some sports, because we had drawn little notecards with a sport on them the previous day. When we told them the name of each sport, they all repeated what we said. After that, Brooke and I showed them the number 1-10, and each number we did, we would write down on the whiteboard. Example 1   ONE     2   TWO     3  THREE… After we wrote a number down, they would all repeat really loud. It was a really cool and good feeling, because I knew that those few things I had taught them would maybe be really helpful someday. Before we left the building, we opened our huge box full of pencils and paper that we brought to donate for the kids, and handed them out. When we passed them to each kid, their face lit up like a boy who just got a puppy. They all had huge smiles, and were all so happy that we had given them some new school supplies. I always feel really good when I give something to someone with less fortune than me because I know I am making them feel really good. I do enjoy receiving things, but I enjoy much more giving people items rather that getting.

Mom and dad also let me give their director a donation to the school. It made me feel really good.

When we left the classroom, we walked outside and headed towards their library and saw the Kindergartners all sitting in the library while their teacher talked to them. We gave a small wave and continued on our tour of the school. We got to see one of the rooms that was brand new. The room would be used as a multi use room, for dancing or music. After that, we got to walk into the other classrooms. Inside one of the classrooms, there was a poster that was for thanking a school in New York that donated money to the school for a playground.

On our way back to the car, the kids lined up and each handed us tons of these little paper origami flowers and gifts. It was awesome.

I really enjoyed being at the Elma school, giving them and teaching them some English.

Here is a video of the day (Brooke put it on her blog today too, but part of it is the Elma School):