I heard something similar from Susan. I follow up and get an example. Amy recounts a time when she asked a child if they would hear from their parents that they loved them. The child could only have smiled in embarrassment. Others became clearer: they openly admit to the teacher that family care and love does not exist.

Shocking. But just to be clear, neither Amy or Susan blame the parents. They simply describe the reality of their everyday lives.

I am grateful for these insights. Because anyone who, like me, only sees the children frolicking across the schoolyard from a distance when visiting the Smiling Gecko Campus will definitely not get the right picture. Speaking of campus: I ask Amy for her opinion on how far the campus with its various training centers will help the children to choose their own career one day. It helps a lot, Amy thinks. She says children who are new to us all want to work in the factory – just like members of their families do. They may consider to be farmers and maybe even hairdressers. Because these are the jobs they know from their incredibly restricted environment. Amy sees it as her job to broaden the children’s horizons. Opening up a world for them, inspiring them. And that seems to work! Suddenly the same children want to be nurses or police officers, for example. And why aren’t children in Cambodia allowed to dream of becoming a singer or a professional soccer player? The dreams are there. I heard it myself when I was talking to some 6th grade boys and girls. Which, by the way, is easy to do in English. I also spoke to Amy about this and at the same time confronted her with the accusation that there were repeated comments from Europe that our school was too expensive.

Her opinion on this: «The challenge is that we don’t invest in a business where you can see the result quickly, but in our children. This will need time. But we are already in the 6th grade and in a few years we will know: our school is not too expensive. Because we’ve invested in an education that turns totally underprivileged children into great adults with the best career prospects.” For Amy, this also includes the bilingual approach of Khmer and English, without which our children would not have the same good chance of a successful future. She is convinced that globalization does not stop at Cambodia. English is the prerequisite for equal opportunities. And for her, the lesson is not about memorizing any vocabulary or just learning the grammar, but about using the language. The children should understand the language, not just speak it.

A strong statement from a really impressive personality. But let’s move on to the next teacher. So to Eric, our librarian from the USA. I experience him as a calm fellow who walks across the campus with alert eyes and has an impressive relationship with the children. Unlike most other teachers, Eric only sees each class once a week. When they come to his library for their lessons. Like almost all international teachers, Eric has worked in other schools and in developing countries. He was already a teacher in Phnom Penh and on the Marshall Islands, a small state in the South Pacific that is only a few places ahead of Cambodia in the HDI (Human Development Index).

When I asked why he accepted the job with us, he reports that he had the opportunity to set up a small library as a librarian. He speaks of the fascination of being able to bring our children closer to the English language and literature in general. At the same time, his eyes light up. I ask Eric what challenges he sees in dealing with our children. To which he replies: