Following the first few days of orientation, the students participating in EWH’s SI Cambodia had a busy first weekend in Phnom Penh. The 17 University of New South Wales students attended a bokator (Cambodian martial arts) class and a traditional Khmer dance class held by the University of Puthisastra extracurricular clubs. Students also visited the former S-21 prison used during the Khmer Rouge and the Choeung Ek killing fields, which taught the group about the difficult past that Cambodia is recovering from. At the National Museum, several students met a monk who taught them about Buddhist customs and how to pay proper respect. 

During the second week, the class focused on technical training, especially building variable power supplies and taking a look at the medical equipment that the BMET department has on hand for training. As part of this training, the UNSW students spent several afternoons with the EWH BMET students during their first month. Together, they took apart some small machines and practiced saying different components and technical terms in both English and Khmer. The BMET students have studied some English, and the UNSW students are still learning Khmer, so this was a very useful exchange for both groups! Both the SI and BMET students of course enjoyed getting some hands-on time with the equipment. 

The SI group also continued their Khmer lessons. Our SI Coordinator, Inka, writes, “Many of them are quite good! One of the homestay families told me they were surprised by how much the students had learned already.”

Over the second weekend, the whole group traveled to Siem Reap to visit the iconic Angkor Wat and surrounding temples. 

Now, the SI Cambodia students have switched from group language & technical lessons to small teams assigned to local hospitals. There, they will work alongside Cambodian BMET students to repair medical equipment and improve hospital infrastructure for four more weeks.