As fast as they can.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the PEPY Ride School again—what a treat! While our beloved English teacher Tolors was busy helping PEPY Ride country director Aline with a participatory rural analysis in Chanleas Dai commune, I was lucky enough to fill in and teach his English classes for several days.

I have never met a group of students so eager to learn as the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at PRS. The 4th and 5th graders have had English for less than 6 months and yet already know more than many of my 2nd and 3rd year students knew while I was teaching in Japan. The 6th graders are simply amazing, absorbing the material faster than I could teach. They are so quick to understand instructions and to respond to questions, it truly makes teaching easy.

For those uninitiated with the Cambodian school system, school days are divided in two sessions, with half the students attending in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon. PEPY offers optional English and computer classes to students who wish augment their education. While teaching, there always seem to be several students lingering in the doorway of the English classroom or peering in through the windows. These students I assume are either enrolled in the other session, or as often is the case, have come to school to find their teacher absent (Cambodian teachers are paid abysmally, and sometimes simply just don’t come to school). Such was the case for three 6th grade girls, and yet instead of returning home or running off to play with their friends, they attended all 6 of my lessons one day. Incredible.

While I quite enjoy working in the PEPY office, it was refreshing to return to the countryside and the classroom and to remember again one of my reasons for coming Cambodia—improving education. Certainly I got as much out of the lessons as the kids—its impossible not to feel inspired after spending several days with such keen and delightful students.