In the last week of September, I (Greg) took a trip to Cambodia with Jim (the dean of ABTS) to scout out the possibility of opening classes there. ABTS has had a handful of graduates from Cambodia, but until now has never held classes there. Up to this point our Cambodian students have had to travel to another of our sites (such as Bangkok or Singapore) to attend classes. Over the past 3 or so years, there has been discussion about opening a new site in Cambodia but it was uncertain whether or not there are enough students to begin classes there.
Key People
As I mentioned above, we had A LOT of meetings in the few days we had in Cambodia. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the people we interacted with there.
Somnang
Ranier
Rogil and Janice
Dr. Hai Joon Kim
Bora (pictured on the right)
Reflections
From the ABTS side of the trip, things look great! We’re working on some legal registration issues and making sure that we have enough qualified students to open a site here. If everything works out, we can start ABTS classes in Cambodia next year!
Some general thoughts on Cambodia: I was in Cambodia for just a few days 11 years ago. It was my first year teaching in China, and me and a few others traveled through Southeast Asia during the Chinese New Year break. At the time, Cambodia was a mess. Phnom Penh had frequent power outages and there really weren’t what most would think of as roads in a lot of the country. I can’t even begin to explain how much things have changed in the past decade! Now the roads are great, the power stays on, and there is a crazy amount of development going on. All in all, very encouraging to see! There are still come issues, however. It’s rainy season, and old Phnom Penh definitely still has some drainage issues!