Day One
To ease you
into the local culture, your week will begin with an orientation of the town’s
local facilities. This will be guided by our carefully selected
English-speaking local co-ordinator who will provide 24-hour support throughout
your stay. You will be shown where to find ATM’s, shops and anything else you
might need during your stay.
Your local
guide will then give you a presentation of the full history of the town,
followed by an explanation of the current environmental. You will then be taken
directly to a mangrove plantation site to observe first-hand how mangroves are
grown and what is required for this.
The day
will end with a walk around the local village, where you will also meet
students whom you will be responsible for teaching throughout the week.
Day Two
Today you
will begin to play your part in the plantation of the mangroves. You will go on
a river cruise together with the local coordinator and other volunteers. The
destination is a fully operational mangrove nursery, where you will be fixing
and repairing young mangroves.
This will
be a rather tiring and exhausting day so you will be taken home for an hour rest in the afternoon. Then, when your energy levels are fully restored, you
will go to the local village to teach English for one hour.
Day
Three
Today you
will go to a new piece of land, where you will be able to plant mangrove
seedlings and create your own piece of history! The day will begin with
learning the process of planting, which is much more than just placing a seed
into the ground.
After this
you will meet local fisherman, who will teach you old-fashioned,
environmentally conscious fishing methods.
In the
afternoon you will again work at the school, however today you are encouraged
to play sports or do another activity with the children. We do stress that this
is voluntary and teaching English is still an option if you so wish.
Day Four
Today is
when you’ll discover the full scope of the town’s natural resources, as you and
your fellow participants will be taken on a full countryside tour. The
highlight of this is undeniably the pepper plantations, which is one of
Cambodia’s finest and noblest resources that can be found in many Cambodian
dishes.
In the
evening you will be taken back to the mangrove site. However, this time you
will not be working, but enjoying the fruits of your labour with a BBQ where you
can relax and enjoy the local landscape and absorb the beautiful scenery from
our specially designed riverside huts.
Day Five
Today will
perhaps have a different flavour and emphasis in comparison to the others. In
the morning you will go to see the village’s organic farm where you will be
encouraged to take part in the work and learn their unique techniques.
This will
be followed by an afternoon spent with some of the poorest families in the town.
It is quite a challenging experience, but by this time you should be immersed
enough in the local culture to handle this. It will not just be communication
with the families, you will also be asked to help out with their building
projects, namely helping to build wooden homes.
Days Six
And Seven
We know
that as a volunteer, you often have limited time away, and often like to use
weekend as a time to explore on your own. Whilst we fully embrace this, in our
experience participants are often so captivated by their experiences that we
offer an optional itinerary for the weekend (at no extra cost).
On weekends
we mainly focus on the poor and underdeveloped members of the Kampot community.
We offer distribution of second-hand clothes to the local community and
encourage you to participate in this. We provide these clothes, though this
does not mean you cannot bring your own clothes from home if you’d like to
contribute. The saying “one person’s rubbish is another’s treasure” will be
fully comprehended with the smile you will be greeted with for doing this.
If you
still have sufficient energy we also run our teaching programme on Saturdays,
but it will not be frowned upon if you choose this day to rest.
***This schedule can be changed and/or amended depending on weather conditions, local conditions and unforeseen circumstances.***