Friday, December 5, 2008Morning Sun
By GREG NELSON
Sun Staff Writer
Jennifer Ruble has traveled to South Africa and Colombia, but she’s never experienced anything like she did on a recent trip to Cambodia.
The 31-year-old St. Louis Nikkari Elementary School teacher returned last week from a 12-day stay in the Southeast Asian nation where she taught English and helped evaluate teaching methods.
Ruble was part of a mission trip sponsored by Resurrection Life Church in St. Louis. More than a dozen members made the journey to offer assistance and advice on such topics as agriculture and building trades.
She spent most of her time at the New Life School in Phnom Penh, the nation’s largest city and capital.
“Public education in Cambodia costs a lot of money,” Ruble said. “Only about 9 percent of the people actually graduate or make it to the ninth grade. They have to pay bribes to go to school because of the government is so corrupt.
“But the Cambodian Outreach started the New Life School with sponsorships from the United States and Australia. It’s free. They provide children with an education, food, clothing and in some cases housing.”
In addition to teaching, Ruble also helped train Cambodian teachers and offer advice in areas such as student discipline, art education, physical education, computers, and health and hygiene.
“I also held an assembly, which was the first one the students ever had,” she said. “It had a water theme and I taught them the wave.”
The teachers were also eager to learn new things, Ruble added.
“They never had any training or college education,” she explained.
“The majority never even graduated from high school so they were thankful for any help.
“But the thing I loved was they had such a passion for the kids. They wanted to learn whatever they could to help them more. It was so refreshing.”
The New Life School, however, wasn’t really an accurate reflection of the Cambodian culture.“It’s a very, very poor country,” Ruble said.
“Just unimaginable. There was trash all over, the smell was awful and there were homeless children running around all over.
“The country has been ravaged by the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. Most people had a hard time trusting (foreigners). Almost everyone was younger than me because so many had been killed in the fightilg.”
She spent one day with the “Joy Club,” another outreach organization that assists the homeless children.
“They are in such a desperate situation,” Ruble said. “We had 200 or 300 kids that they bathed, fed and played games with. The children had no social skills. They had open sores, lice and they were starving.
“It was so much different at the school where the kids had some hope, and they were clean, well fed and smart.”
Her fellow teachers at Nikkari sent nearly 150 pounds of classroom supplies to Cambodia with Ruble. Ithaca dentist Martha Bamfield also donated toothbrushes, floss and toothpaste, and other community members and organizations also helped out.
“The school didn’t even have any crayons,” Ruble said.
“The donations were really awesome.”Nikkari students also sent letters and photos to their counterparts in Cambodia.
“The kids were so excited to get things from Americans,” Ruble said.
“They all sent letters of thanks and pictures of themselves back to our students so they could learn about each other.”
Ruble intends to continue assisting the school and its teachers any way she can.
“We’re going to keep in touch by email,” she said.
“I felt like I really made a difference. There is hope. I would like to go back some day because I feel there is so much more I can do.”
Resurrection Life Church, 714 S. Main St. in St. Louis, is hosting a program at 6 p.m. Sunday that will include videos and testimonials from those who made the trip. The public is invited to attend.
For more information on the mission program go online to www.cambodiaoutreach.org.
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