The AuVert’gnats, a group from the Puy-de-Dôme area in France composed of four girls and four boys, proposed a rich and detailed candidature, which motivated our choice. Coming out of a two week experience in the Alpes where they helped a cow farmer with milking and other activities linked with alpine pasture, the team started uniting through strong values of solidarity and mutual aid; values they used during their month at Bayon School.
The August 2019 summer camp took another direction because this year, we associated the scouts and the bursary students of the association. Bayon School hopes to support some students after Grade 12 by offering them a study bursary.
To start with, the two groups met up to exchange over ideas, organize themselves and build a common calendar. One week was more reserved for Khmer games and the next to French games, the other nationality discovering the specificities of entertainment in each culture.
The scouts offered games that the Khmer children did not know. Their preferences turned towards group and sportive games such as “balle au prisonnier”, chicken-viper-fox (the vipers catch the foxes, who catch the chicken who eat the vipers!) or the planets game. They alternated between the sportive activities and the creative activities (collage, decoration, painting…) in order to make small groups. Between 50 and 80 children were present each morning and afternoon. The summer camp was open for Grade 2 and older.
The scouts really appreciated having the bursary students at their side. They considered this partnership franc-Khmer as essential as it enabled them to better understand the culture and to have access to information they wouldn’t have understood otherwise. Some of the scouts visited a family and discovered the house of our students. They will remember moments full of emotions such as the songs and the dances with the children. They loved playing outside and be surprised by the rain season and even then, continuing to play outside under the rain! Their favorite moment is a swim with some of the older students (11 to 14 years old) in one of the basins of ponds of the Angkor temples…
The August 2019 summer camp took another direction because this year, we associated the scouts and the bursary students of the association. Bayon School hopes to support some students after Grade 12 by offering them a study bursary.
To start with, the two groups met up to exchange over ideas, organize themselves and build a common calendar. One week was more reserved for Khmer games and the next to French games, the other nationality discovering the specificities of entertainment in each culture.
The scouts offered games that the Khmer children did not know. Their preferences turned towards group and sportive games such as “balle au prisonnier”, chicken-viper-fox (the vipers catch the foxes, who catch the chicken who eat the vipers!) or the planets game. They alternated between the sportive activities and the creative activities (collage, decoration, painting…) in order to make small groups. Between 50 and 80 children were present each morning and afternoon. The summer camp was open for Grade 2 and older.
The scouts really appreciated having the bursary students at their side. They considered this partnership franc-Khmer as essential as it enabled them to better understand the culture and to have access to information they wouldn’t have understood otherwise. Some of the scouts visited a family and discovered the house of our students. They will remember moments full of emotions such as the songs and the dances with the children. They loved playing outside and be surprised by the rain season and even then, continuing to play outside under the rain! Their favorite moment is a swim with some of the older students (11 to 14 years old) in one of the basins of ponds of the Angkor temples…
They sometimes found the days a bit long, because animating for such a long time can be exhausting. With time, they organized themselves better and learned to know the children, their names, their personalities and rich and sincere exchanges came from it. When we ask them what was their greatest difficulty, some answered: “hunger!”. The canteen of the school serves rice and soup of vegetables/meat every lunchtime. A bit repetitive for the French appetite.
The group of scouts was very professional and courageous (20km of biking every day to go to the school). They led their activities with enthusiasm and respect. We thank they vividly for their engagement with Bayon School!