Right now I am experiencing anxiety for really the first time on this trip. So instead of dwelling on the anxiety I am deciding to write and do an exercise to keep me in the present and to lower my anxiety. Five things I can see: 1. The medium sized......Read More
The beginning of our homestay on the island of Koh K’sach Tonlea, nestled between two strands of the Bassac River in Southern Cambodia, marked the mid-course point of our month together. Each student has grown to learn the daily rhythms of......Read More
A few days ago, we visited the Genocide Museum in the heart of Phnom Penh. The museum is housed within a former Khmer Rouge “Security Center,” S-21. As we entered into the museum, shaded by large trees that did nothing to betray the horrors that......Read More
Last Thursday, while in Phnom Penh, we met with the employee of an NGO that works on the prevention and cure of HIV AIDS in Cambodia. I’ve learned a little bit about the AIDs epidemic in the USA but I assumed that it was no longer an issue......Read More
These last few weeks in Cambodia have posed the question of what home is to me. There have been moments where I missed my home in the US as well as times where I truly felt at home in Cambodia. A few days ago, our group was sitting on a rooftop......Read More
How does one define family? To be honest, I am not even sure how I define family. For me, my family is a decent size. I have many families – not just one. I have my biological family who has been there since the beginning, the ones who held my......Read More
Surrounded by the buzzing motorcycles of night-time Battambang, we stood before a small, but appealing selection of ice cream. Although the land we stood on profoundly lacked familiarity, the flavors reminded us of our lives thousands of miles away.......Read More
The past few days in the vibrant city of Battambang, Cambodia’s second largest city, have been filled with conversations on peace and reconciliation with local monks, Khmer language lessons and practice, exploring local communities and learning......Read More
“History is written by the winners”. This phrase has been taught to us in every history class, but what does it truly mean? When you think about recent Cambodian history, there are things that universally come to mind. The Khmer Rouge, the......Read More
Today we visited Apopo, an NGO that uses a certain breed of rats to detect and eventually clear land mines throughout Cambodia. Following the conflicts of the country’s past (bombings and wars), there are still an immense amount of land mines that......Read More
Yesterday, we spent the morning with PEPY Empowering Youth, a local Cambodian NGO working to promote the education, personal and professional development, and empowerment of Cambodian Youth – and also an organization that Dragons has a strong......Read More
This Cambodia Course was the best program ever because… We GREW as individuals We CONNECTED with others We RESPECTED ourselves and our surroundings We showed GRATITUDE We acted RESPONSIBLY...Read More
On our day exploring the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, our freshly-forming group biked through forest trails, learned about the largest pre-industrial city in history that once was here, and witnessed firsthand the impacts of tourism on the heavily......Read More