August 24, 2016
Six Kingaroy State High students have become trailblazers for a new type of excursion opportunity at the school … and along the way they changed their lives, and the lives of a poor Cambodian family.
The students travelled with Health and PE teacher Megan Binnie to Cambodia during the June-July school holidays.
It was a “technology detox” … no mobile phones allowed.
They experienced the shock of a new country where everything is different … the smells, beggars in the street, garbage …
They survived a challenging three-day trek, slipping and sliding along rainforest tracks and up and down a steep mountainside.
And they visited some of Cambodia’s archaeological treasures, such as Angkor Wat.
But the highlight was the stay at Sambor Prei Kuk village in Kampong Thom province.
This is where the students demonstrated it wasn’t a holiday … they went to work building a toilet block, a vegetable garden and buying a month’s supplies for a local family.
“It was for one of the poorest families in the community, an ex-soldier,” Ms Binnie said.
The elders in the village had decided which family needed the most help from the expedition.
While staying there, the Kingaroy students also visited the local village school.
And their reactions to experiencing another culture in-depth?
Tiarni Hill: “I went just for the adventure part of it … going to another country, seeing how other people live but it made me feel grateful that I live in a country where I can get an education.”
Grace Bredhauer: “The teachers don’t get paid there. People here take an education for granted.”
Natalie Labuschewski: “They really appreciate the small things. You never hear them complaining. The little they have they are grateful for.”
The six students were not really close friends at the start of the expedition but, after three weeks living together in close quarters, they created a “family vibe”.
“We came together during the trek,” Tiarni said.
Lucy Montgomery agreed: “We had to stay positive.”
Natalie was also impressed by the English language skills of the Cambodian children in the village.
“Their English was surprisingly well-spoken,” she said. “The children were fluent and they were just eight years old!”
Ms Binnie said the expedition was the culmination of 12 months fundraising by the students.
“The girls learned a lot out of it. I think they appreciate their families a lot more, and what they have here,” she said.
She said it was the first student-led expedition from Kingaroy State High School, but she hoped it wouldn’t be the last … with planning already under way by a second group.
“We have another team that is going on an expedition to India in December,” she said.
“I have done student-led expeditions at other schools, and I have found the experience the students get from it is life-changing. It is a big passion of mine.”
Natalie: “I feel like a whole new person.”
Ms Binnie: “That’s exactly the reason I want to do it.”
[Photos: Megan Binnie]
