Day 4 - Second day at Watrotka Primary School

Day 4 of our Cambodia service learning trip and day 2 of our teaching at Watrotka Primary. Our first day was rocky due to our unfamiliarity with the school and our students. However, having spent some time last night rethinking our lessons, we were ready to teach our eager students.

We were better prepared and learnt to work together to conduct effective lessons.

We had a better time teaching due to the additional preparations we made. We also started to bond with our students through games and our lessons.

Language was still an obstacle for us. Luckily we had the help of the Watrotka Teachers as well as our local guides and bus drivers.

We also continued our work on building a new kitchen for the school. Today promised to be an even more tiring day as we had to lay a stromg foundation for our building structure.

We started by laying stones for the flooring in preparation for creating a cement flooring.

Another new experience was mixing cement. For many of us, this was the first time we have come in contact with cement let alone be tasked to mix it. We learnt that a good mixture would be 6 parts of sand to 1 part of cement powder with just the right amount of water added in.

The pictures above does little to show how difficult it was to mix the cement but we succeeded in mixing up a good batch.

Under the tutelage of the professional builders, we were also taught of how to lay bricks to form a wall for our flooring.

We also strengthened the building frame with wood. Nailing thick pieces of wood together is so much easier said than done. Today was indeed a tiring day but we felt proud of ourselves for pushing beyond our comfort zones

Reflections from Day 4:

"I found that students at Watrotka Primary were more enjoyable to teach today. We taught them nursery rhymes and they were dancing and had so much fun! I learnt that working together as a team is important as it will make things go smoother and faster. I also tried pumping water from water tanks using a portable pump. The hose dislodged itself many times as we did not secure it properly but in the end, we managed to do it. Today went better than expected as my students were more participative." -  Joey (3B)

"Today was a day where the students were more well behaved which meant the lessons went well. The  building of the kitchen was much more tiring as we had to carry sand and make cement for the first time" - Rajkannan (3B)