Submitted by Stephen Wemple on the 2019 winter session program in Vietnam and Cambodia sponsored by the Department of Finance…
Right away when we got to Cambodia, there was a notable difference in many things. Whether looking at the language, the culture, the people, or the government, there were huge differences compared to its neighboring country Vietnam. The level of economic development was probably the most noticeable difference. Vietnam was filled with development while in Cambodia, it seemed that there was a lot more poverty and the overall socioeconomic status of the country was lower than Vietnam. Except for the cities of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, there weren’t really many urban areas. One of the last excursions we did on this program was a Khmer village homestay, where we got the opportunity to live and tour a small village for a couple of days.
During this homestay, we had the opportunity to help build a school for the community. The work we did there required a lot of manual labor in sunny 90-degree weather. Although this wasn’t the most pleasant experience, it certainly was one of the most rewarding experiences throughout the program. It felt really good to help out a community that works hard everyday to provide for themselves. This underdeveloped village didn’t have much access to electricity, clean water, and a bunch of other luxuries that I take for granted. Despite the villagers being completely different from us, it was easy to connect and interact with all of them. For what little they had, all of these people were so nice and seemed to be very happy. This experience really opened my eyes and made me appreciate even more the life I was given back in the United States.