Availability:
Now Accepting Applications for Summer '10!

Known throughout the world for the incomparable ruins of Angkor Wat, Cambodia is a country that evokes images of overgrown jungle temples, elaborate stone carvings, robed monks, and complete religious splendor.  Today, the country is a hotspot on the Southeast Asia backpacker circuit, welcoming countless visitors who pour into popular sites in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.  However, there is far more to Cambodia than the average tourist sees, a more profound depth hidden below the surface.  Our course takes students to that deeper level—peeling back the layers of an underexposed country to explore topics related to religious and political persecution, the pressures of modernization and the impacts of development.  The intensity of our studies in Cambodia requires students to explore the unknown with tolerance, openness, curiosity, and compassion.  As we learn, the influences that shape culture and belief in contemporary Khmer society are far more complex than first meets the eye.

Beginning our adventure in the capital city of Phnom Penh, we settle into a local guesthouse and immediately receive a traditional blessing for safe travel from monks at a local temple.  With a remarkable, sobering visit to the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum, we set a serious tone for a learning adventure that promises to be deep and challenging.  Meeting with local development organizations and politicians, we begin to consider our options for independent study and learn about inspiring and promising projects.  We study Khmer language, indulge in delicious local cuisine, and notice the juxtapositions of luxurious ex-pat life with the hard realities of Cambodian poverty.

Via some of the least developed roads in the world, we travel deep into the majestic forests of far eastern Cambodia, along the Vietnamese border.  Here, in the remote province of Mondulkiri, we spend our days trekking through the jungle, interacting with elephants and enjoying quiet nights sleeping under thatch-roofed village homes.  With its predominantly ethnic minority population, Mondulkiri allows us a platform to engage in cultural and environmental studies, with a focus on rapacious deforestation and the impact it is having on local communities.

We then travel north to Siem Reap to visit the ancient temples of Angkor Wat.  Bicycling on flat, tree-lined roads through this ancient wonderland, we explore the fascinating history of Khmer society and engage in critical discussions about the various impacts of tourism in Cambodia. Continuing around the Tonle Sap lake, we pass through provincial cities like Battambang and Pursat.  In Pursat, we meet with representatives from organizations such as Sustainable Cambodia while planting rice alongside villagers at the foot of the Cardamom mountains. 

For many students, the highlight of  the program is the chance to experience village life first-hand in home-stays with rural Khmer families.  In an idyllic village not far from Phnom Penh—along a meandering tributary of the Mekong River—we wander between our peers' home-stay houses via pony-cart or by foot over a red dirt road.  We live in simple homes, cook over wood fires, and experience daily chores such as harvesting sugarcane and washing cows in the Mekong.  We gather daily for continued language instruction, and actively give back to the community by teaching English and engaging in service projects.

During the last week of our journey, we travel to remote areas of Cambodia's coast, including the undeveloped islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanleum.  Here, we explore fishing towns, play on deserted beaches and critique the benefits and drawbacks of projects that promise to covert these wilderness coastal regions into centers of luxury development.  From the islands, it's back to Phnom Penh where we report on our independent studies and prepare for our flight home—emboldened by our Cambodian experience and the resilience of the Khmer people who we befriended along the way.