I just came back from my WoW trip at Cambodia two days ago. WoW stands for Window on the World and not World of Warcraft. Basically its purpose is to allow students to grow in many ways for example character values such as perseverance and commitment through undertaking new challenges etc. It simply follows the CAS objectives (something like community involvement programme CIP etc) and wants student to learn and build themselves up. The trip was fun and definitely worthwhile, bringing back some unforgettable memories.
WoW for my class was much more relaxed than many others. For the other classes going to Cambodia as well, their lives there were much tougher than ours in the sense that they had to stay at the village/orphanage for the first few days and somewhat “suffer†I guess. But think about it now the experience from that might actually be fun and educative. We stayed at a hotel for the whole trip and I must say that the hotel was actually way too good to be believable. I mean it is kind of ironical in the sense that we are supposed to help the orphans and the poor and here we are staying in a luxurious hotel eating extravagant food. At the same time I didn’t want to suffer much so the trip was kind of filled with irony and contradictions. Whatever it is I’m glad that the class and I did something for the orphans at Bakong Orphanage.
At Bakong Orphanage, we did many activities together with the orphans. Some helped to teach the kids languages such as English and Chinese and others help with the assembling of the desks. Everyone did their part in trying to make an impact on their lives and I really hope there is some significant positive influence and impact when we left. The time spent at the orphanage really made me think a lot about my life and how fortunate I am. The kids there were really pitiful. Many were very poor and a lot are parentless or single-parent. With no roof above their heads, the orphanage accepts kids and provides basic necessities for them.
We had fun there playing with the kids. Playing simple games such as ice and freeze and soccer at an uneven field brought much joy and smiles among the orphans and us as well. Many of us bonded with the orphans and some were really reluctant to leave. Oh well all good things come to an end sooner or later.
Meals there were fantastic. I realized that many of their dishes, whether is it their salad or their desert, consists of one important ingredient, lemon grass. I don’t particularly like the taste of lemon grass and on the first day of the trip lunch was almost a lemon grass meal. Every single thing had the smell and taste of it. Eeew, a bit is fine but for everything? Seriously?
Other than that I’m glad that the trip bonded many people within the class together. It sure was fun and my class is filled with entertaining people. Now that school starts again and with many deadlines approaching, life kind of sucks yet again. Can’t they give us a day or two off at least?
P.S Chelsea the Champions of England! Eat that.
We’re riasing money to build an orphanage over there at the moment – by Janaury we intend to have enough together to make a start but its really hard going: http://www.tinyurl.com/orphanage-appeal