Great Program, People and Country

My husband and I volunteered starting in Feb of 2018. The staff were wonderful and we felt completely supported from our first day to the last. We chose to live in the volunteer house and enjoyed the experience of being part of a ‘family’ of volunteers - eating together, discussing school, doing lesson plans, traveling, etc. Our cadre of volunteers included people from many different countries with varied backgrounds and ages which always made for interesting discussions, dinners out and travel. The workshops presented by the energetic, enthusiastic, knowledgeable education director gave us helpful instruction about teaching English to the Khmer people, as well as necessary cultural information. The students at the school were extremely receptive, friendly and appreciative. We enjoyed the ‘field trips’ where the school took us out to nearby rural areas so that we could see some of the projects that benefited from the CWF program. Cambodia is a fascinating country, growing out of a troubled past with gentle friendly people and much to see. The breaks from school gave us great opportunities to visit other parts of the country. Phnom Penh is a big, developing city with a bit of everything and anything, we particularly enjoyed the many local cafes, along with a good yoga studio and of course local shopping.

Be prepared to work hard - lesson planning and teaching are a full time job. Nothing too extreme but don’t expect working only a couple hours a day. My greatest challenge was the intense heat, we were there during the hot season and with no air conditioning in the volunteer house it was very hot.

Overall it was a wonderful experience!