Nikki Yeager

Today I went out to see our teacher training at Khnar Primary School. Unlike other teacher training programs, we hired facilitators from the Provincial Teacher Training College which is a government -and Khmer run- training college. On the drive out to the schools with a backpack, fruit and fried potatoes in hand I couldn't help but feel overwhelming love for Cambodia.

It was all so beautiful: the seemingly endless roads with randomly placed wooden homes scattered along them, the sun beating down on dirt that's been burnt red,  the same color as clay but no where near the same consistency and the cows roaming along empty fields. I love the way couples stand in front yards smiling at eachother and the way 2 year olds hold on to their mother's hips, squatting on the back of bicycles. I almost couldn't contain the emotion I felt for the lifestyle and culture around me. It's absolutely beautiful. Yet people say it's not enough.

After I got to the school I watched one of the most entertaining training sessions I've ever witnessed, and I don't even speak the language! This is coming from a girl who is insanely critical of trainings (so many are such a waste of time and resources) but this one was truly amazing. The faciliator had her game face on, motioning wildly in front of the class, joking with participants and using some of the most creative teaching methods I've ever seen employed.

However, when I got back home I popped into a western-run coffee shop to use the internet and was stuck listening to a group of do-gooders blabbing on and on about the new school they wanted to create. A school that is run by westerners because Khmer people are so "uneducated" to the point they are "incapable of teaching classes like that" and degrees that high are "unattainable".

I officially want to punch each one of them in the face. I want to start screaming at their lack of value in the local culture and their disgusting obsession with a Christian based education. An education that strips away the culture of students, that perpetuates the notion only light skinned, light haired teachers are willing and able. The kind of education that discrimates internally against the very people it claims to "help".

And it makes me sad because Khmer people are more resourceful and more intelligent than any missionary here seems to understand. Tuk-tuk drivers speak perfect, grammatically correct English simply from hanging out near foreigners. Students can read in Khmer and usually know the English alphabet as well. How many of us volunteers know the Khmer alphabet? Maybe one out of a hundred?

And these schools pop up outside of government regulations, outside of Khmer culture. They pop up, bring in foreign staff and then pull out, leaving everyone with maybe a few words of English but no sustainable skills or infrastructure. So the schools crumble, the students are back at square one and the westerners all pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

A job that was misled in it's concept of "done".

I have this urge to learn Khmer and leave stupid (yet educated) foreigners behind and befriend only Khmers. I wish I could spend time away from the hell that is a missionary based internet cafe.

God said "love thy neighbor" but he seemed to have missed the clause, "love includes respect and "neighbor" includes the dark-skinned nationality next door. So go forth and love."