On behalf of the CS Team, we would love to update you all about school Wall Painting Day.
Brief Information:
Activity: Painting School
Date : 27th November 2022
Time : 6:00AM-5:00PM
School’s name : Popel Primary School
Location : Popel Village, Balang Commune, Bakong District, Siem Reap Province
Preparation
It is such a new process of CS work in this month for school wall painting activity, we had various tasks to hold on. On the 26th in the evening, the CS team members including Tey, Samnang, and Houn went to that school and purchased paint colors from the local market. They provided us the free delivery for paint colors to the primary school after having agreed on the cost and receipts for paint colors.
At the same time, other team members with volunteers were buying and preparing breakfast at the campus. For instance, we needed to clean all cooking materials and prepare indispensable materials for the activity on Sunday. We were working happily with music at the campus and it looked enjoyable for the students as it was their first time to join the school wall painting activity beside building houses. We seemed to have a crucial issue at the first sight because we needed approval from Aviv again on this activity. However, after receiving the approval, the volunteers were assigned to go to the market to buy vegetables, meat, and other ingredients for cooking. It took approximately a half hour to go to the market and once they came back, we quickly helped each other to clean all those vegetables, meat and so on. This was completely done in that evening and prepared for the next early morning.
The next morning, our team got up a bit earlier than usual in order to go to campus and prepare breakfast. We had planned to cook Khmer food as the breakfast for all participants and we sincerely appreciate everyone’s help who got up early to cook this delicious breakfast and it was successfully done at 5:40 am. This was so wonderful to our students and our team to learn from this experience and get to know how to cook for many people and be well prepared as well as it is a bit hard to get up and to cook. Finally, we were just waiting for the Tuk Tuk and our students to come and leave for the school.
During the activity
We arrived at our destination at 8 am safely. Soon, we took all the materials from the Tuk Tuk and started to prepare the place for the breakfast. At the least, we spent 15 minutes having breakfast and everyone needed to be responsible for cleaning their plates by themselves. Interestingly, that school has clean water too, so it was convenient for us to cook and drink. After having breakfast, we informed our students to stand in front of the school to listen to our team’s speech and introduction from the school director. We briefly talked about school background and it was also my primary school as well once I was studying in primary school. It was inspiring to everyone and the students there who could see how we make an impact on society. Next, we called for all leaders and re-informed the process of working with their team members. We provided each leader with paint rollers to work. We also showed them to the classroom that were going to paint.
During the painting, our students were so happy and enjoyed it. We had external and internal team members paint the school wall. Moreover, the students there and the teachers also helped us to prepare the things we needed such as water, bamboo, etc. The students there were so active and outstandingly helped us. They were not lazy and listened to our advice.
At lunch time, we had a break for an hour and a half to have lunch together in the classroom. For course, all kinds of food were amazing and our students also gave them compliments during the reflection meeting as well. Thanks to all the cook team for their hard work and they did a very good job.
After having lunch, it was raining and muddy as well, but we were lucky that we painted all the outside parts of the school wall. Our Tuk Tuk drivers also helped us in painting school and also advised some that they used to do before and know how to do great things and things like that. Our students worked actively, productively, and efficiently for this critical activity even though it was the first experience for them and our team. Some students painted names on their T-shirts to remind them of this activity. And also some students, painted you all names look wow and pretty.
Reflections
After doing all of the painting school, we all were so surprised that we could do it with incredible work. It was my first experience and everyone else. As part of the CS team, we prepared all the assets of the CS to keep it well and close the meeting by doing some speeches from me, the school director, Houn, Vanna, and Sreynuth who spoke about their feelings. The school director's speech was so wonderful and meaningful as he showed his representative of the school, “Thanks to you and your students, who did an amazing job”. One more thing, he also taught me that I could do this work with adorable things from my own school in the past that I used to study. Finally, we just had a big group photo and prepared to leave for our CRST campus and arrive safely at 6 pm.
