The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Service Learning students have been visiting Wat Opot for almost 10 years.  What started as a day visit has turned into 4 days of learning, cultural exchange, and FUN, not only with our kids, but at the local primary school as well.

Having this partnership with HKUST has many advantages and just one of those is the consistency of their visits and the many students and coordinators that come back year after year.  They know us and how we operate thus they are able to completely take charge of their visit with minimal support from our staff.  The number of students are also a plus so the kids can enjoy lots of hands-on encouragement during their activities.

Last year the students spearheaded a fundraiser in order to buy us educational supplies and with our guidance, purchased an unexpected amount of goodies!

Here are some highlights from their January visit to Opot, the local school, and Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center (a.k.a. zoo).

The group was the first to use our newly built recreation building donated by the Taiwanese Businessmen’s Association and it turned out to be a good space for the children to learn about fun ways to use photography.

The kids learned a frisbee game, jumped rope, and signed everyone’s shirts.

The children in the primary school looked forward to their visit (and I was told that once a bus went by the school headed for Phnom Chisor (a semi-tourist spot) and the school kids got excited because they thought it was HKUST students)!

And with the kids in charge of the camera, they came back from Phnom Tamao with more photos of humans then animals.

Finally found a couple animals hidden in the hundreds of photos!

(notice these monkeys are not actually in a cage)…

By the end of the 4 days, the kids had made new friends, connected with former ones and can put new skills to use. And once again I will hear “Mommy, when Hong Kong come back?” for the next 5 months…

Thanks for checking in,

The Watopotians

*Photographs courtesy of HKUST and the children of Wat Opot.