Love is…
when your students take you to a nearby rice field and say, ‘this is the place where I come whenever I feel sad.’
when your students start to share with you their problems, not necessarily in details.
when your students trust you and rely on you.
when your students cut a piece of fresh aloe vera for you and promise to teach you how to make aloe vera juice from fresh aloe vera.
when your student gives you sticky rice dumpling early in the morning before you depart for another place even if you tell them not to buy such thing for you, she still insists and says, ‘my grandmother made it.’
when your students laugh at your jokes.
when your students patiently teach you their mother tongue (and laugh at your mistakes).
when your students work hard to find the solutions to your problems.
when your students help you when you need it.
when your students make sure the classroom is clean before you enter into it.
when your students pay attention in the class and work really hard to improve their English.
when your students learn how to learn from you.
when your students, despite of the heavy rain, ride a bicycle or a motorbike in the rain just to attend your one-hour optional class.
when your students say, ‘I missed you’ when they see you again after the long weekend and hug you tightly.
when someone sends you a very encouraging message (and when you read it, you keep scratching yourself because of the mosquito bites all over your body).
when you read an inspiring book knowing that the author whom you know personally really meant to inspire the readers.
when the teacher tells the students that she has been saving up USD100 as a scholarship for her students.
What goes around comes around. May we all spread love so that it will go around in this world.
Thank you my students and all my angels along the way.
P.S. Yes. As mentioned, a Learn x Travel scholarship will be available for students in the village I serve in Cambodia. For this year, USD100 will be the amount for this scholarship. Here are some statistics: the annual tuition fee for a university degree in Phnom Penh for local students is USD300. According to Trading Economics (https://tradingeconomics.com/cambodia/gdp-per-capita), the GDP per capita in Cambodia was USD1,205.3 in 2018. The amount for this scholarship was decided after considering the local tuition fee, the GDP per capita, the first presentation that the students made in my class (https://learnxtravel.com/2019/07/06/rich-dad-poor-dad/) and discussing with people working here in NGOs and churches.
Details about this scholarship will be announced later in this website so stay tuned. 🙂
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