Category: Exploration`

Explorations are project-based experiences during which students work together in groups to explore a relevant, often complex question, problem or challenge. This project-based learning is almost always enhanced with intensive activities that involve student immersion in real-world experiences outside of the classroom.

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White Building – Memorial Event by Cambodian students

On the 9th of November, my Exploration team hosted an event at Meta House, Phnom Penh. The aim of this event was to present our projects after the demolition of the White Building.

As I was a resident of the White Building, I had a role of inviting former residents to the event. I contacted many people through phone calls and facebook chats. I didn’t get every person I contacted to come, but I got my parents and a few other people to join.

At the event, I presented and read an excerpt of my short story, Brittle. This is a story about a girl who wasn’t confident about living in the White Building. There were many times when people insulted her about living in her own home. The problem wasn’t very serious until a gloomy moment came into her life. This story juxtaposes the bad reputation in the white building as well as the friendly and warm community aspects in the White Building.

 
This is my first time hosting an event to a group of people from Phnom Penh. This is a really great experience for me to share what I’ve learned with other people. We usually have Sharation at the end of a term, but this event is different since it reached another group of people who can relate to the topic of the event, which was the demolition of the White Building. 

A picture with one of the guests. She’s working in EYC, which had a very strong connection with the White Building.
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White Building Exploration

The White Building was inaugurated in 1963 as a municipal apartment. After the Khmer Rouge, it was a place where artists collaborated to revive the arts of Cambodia. In June 2017, it was demolished and the land was bought by a Japanese company, Arakawa.

The living of the former residents at the White Building

By being in this Exploration I realized people that have lived in the same building can have different opinions. That’s what I’ve learned from interviewing many residents in the White Building. Even though I’ve lived there since I was so little, I still find the thoughts of different people fascinating. Besides the residents’ different opinion there are also similarities to what those residents think of the White Building, as well as the compensation from the company.

I found interviewing the former village chief very helpful. She’d lived in the White Building for so long and she’d seen many lives in the White Building as a village chief. When I interviewed her about the stigmas of the White Building, she said it only refers to a very small percentage of the population, while the majority of the population collaborate so well with each other. I strongly agree with her idea. Speaking on the same topic, another resident said she was afraid to live the White Building because of those people who use drugs and thieves. That’s because she’d been robbed once and lost a lot of her properties.

The former village chief at the White Building

One of the similarities from the residents’ perspective is their satisfaction on the compensation. The money they received is enough for them to buy a house to live together with their whole family or build a new house, like my family. Those residents really appreciate the work that has been put on the negotiation. They think this development project went so much better than the past ones. I think this development project can really be a model for other investments in Cambodia; it’s a win-win for the company, government, and the residents.

 

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Interviews with Former Residents from White Building

In August, I needed to interview a lot of former residents from the White Building for our projects in Exploration. Most of the people that I interviewed are people I know, one of them is my mom, and I contacted to schedule the meeting with them. By talking to many residents, I could see the perspectives from all of them and compare their differences and similarities. I’ve been interviewing a countless number of people since coming to Liger. The more interviews I’ve conducted, the more improvement I could see. 

 

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Waste Management Exploration

Currently, many people are concern about plastic trash, but not that many people care about organic waste from each other. In this Exploration, we were focusing on raising awareness about the use of organic waste. Organic waste can be used to make compost, which farmers can use for farming. We conducted many surveys to know how much the villagers understand regarding organic waste and compost. After we gathered information on the topic, we present that information with villagers from around Liger. We explained them about the benefits and the different types of compost, which they can produce to sell. By the end of the presentation, we got a few audiences who are interested in starting a compost business. It would be amazing if those few people start doing this and they can become role models for their neighbors.  

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Geology of Cambodia Exploration

Not a lot of Cambodia people know that much about the geology of Cambodia. They don’t know the age of the land they’re living on or the creation of mountains around them. In this Exploration, our goal was to research about the geology of Cambodia and share the information with Cambodians. We traveled to six provinces and did geological analysis at many sites. We found out that the oldest rock in Cambodia existed since 540 million years ago. The rock is quartzite and it’s located in Kep Mountain. Among the outcrop we found, bauxite is the youngest one, 1 million years old. Bauxite is found in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri. 

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Game Design Exploration

Everyone in the world has a risk of being affected by climate change. It is important for young people to understand this problem and start to take action. Most of Cambodian students weren’t aware of climate change. So, to raise the awareness regarding that issue, my team created a board game. When playing the game, players need to implement solutions, which are alternative energy sources to burning fossil fuels, and some activities that offset carbon emission. When students play this game they will understand why is this a problem and what they can do to reduce the intensity of climate change. We’re planning to distribute the game to secondary schools in Cambodia, so they can have the opportunity to understand more about the world they’re living in. 

First showcase of the game to government school students
Prototype of the game
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Preventative Healthcare

Health is an issue that many Cambodian people are facing. In this Exploration, we picked two main problems, dental and diabetes, to study and raise awareness about. Currently, Cambodia imports a lot of food from other countries, meaning it’s difficult to get food that has a little amount of sugar. Consuming an immense amount of sugar causes dental problem and diabetes. To raise the awareness of those problems, my team researched ways to prevent or reduce the risk of having those issues. We finally created a play to show the drawbacks of having to much sugar in our diet and not brushing our teeth properly. My role was a doctor and I was explaining about diabetes and how we can prevent from having it. We presented the play to two group of students who lived on the Koh Rong Archipelago. 

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Khmer Rouge Exploration

Khmer Rouge Exploration is the first one that I had this year. Every student in Liger will get to be in this Exploration, but learning different topics. My team was the first who learned about Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge. Throughout our Exploration, we’ve learned a lot of things through many different sources. We went on many different trips, including a trip to The Extraordinary Chamber of the Court in Cambodia, the Beoung Choeung Ek killing field and a trip the Nation Institute of Education (NIE) to listen to a presentation from a Swedish man, Gunnar Bergstrom.

The Extraordinary Chamber of the Court in Cambodia (ECCC) is a combined a court that’s working to find justice for millions of victims during the devastating time in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge. In 1997, Cambodia’s government requested the United Nation to have this court. The process of establishing this court takes so much time that until 2007, the tribunal was fully operated.

On the 25th of August, 2016, a group of students, including me, who studied about the Khmer Rouge went to the tribunal. We supposed to be sixteen or above in order to go into the court because they don’t want us to have trauma by listening to the things discussed in there. Our teachers begged them so hard to get us in there. Eventually, five of us could go in and I was one of the students.

In the tribunal, there are four cases and in case 002 there are two parts. On that day, the court discussed case 002/02, where they talked about forced marriages. It seemed like they didn’t talk much about the topic because they had a problem of telling the name of the witness. Also, the defense lawyer didn’t answer the questions from the witness.

They summarized what they were talking about in the tribunal after it ended, so all of us got to go in and listened to the briefing.

It was a very amazing experience knowing more about Cambodia history and how they find justice for Cambodians.

  • One of the judges briefed what was happening in the hearing

The Beoung Choeung Ek killing field is one of the main killing fields during the Khmer Rouge time. There were 20,00 thousand people died in this field, including 9 foreigners (mostly journalists). There are 129 mass graves in the killing field and three are the main ones.

  • Taking a tour around the Choeung Ek Killing Field

On September 12th, all the Liger students went to the NIE to listen to a presentation from Gunnar Bergstrom, which is a Swedish communist profession that was invited to come to Cambodia on August 12th,  1978. Pol Pot gave him a tour in Cambodia, but he didn’t show the devastating situation. He didn’t know that the Pol Pot regime was killing and punish Cambodian people. He thought it was a very good way of communist. Swedish people also didn’t believe that Khmer Rouge was a mass murder. They believe that it was a dream utopia that they should follow.

Gunnar was supporting Pol Pot, but didn’t realize that he was bad until two weeks after he went back to his country. He came back to Cambodia to apologize in 2008 and again this year. He went around Cambodia to talk to people through interviews and presentations. Some people thougth he lied, a lot of people forgive and he said they were nice.

  • Gunnar was presenting about his experience in Cambodia in 1978