The L-CDI Post!

So, it’s about time for some long awaited news about L-CDI, and I’m pleased to say there there’s a fair bit of news to share.
As most of you may know L-CDI stands for Leadership Character Development Institute. The aim of the school is to teach English to Students as well as develop practical life skills that are useful in getting work and maintaining a positive life. I can certainly tell you after staying with the students for four days teaching and working, it’s hard to avoid a bit of the ol’ character development rubbing off on you!
Last week Dan and myself had the opportunity to visit and stay at the new L-CDI site in Kandal. It is slightly less than an hour tuk tuk trip from Phnom Penh, and it sits about a minute walk from some markets, a few shops and a thumping big bank that is getting built a little further on. When we first saw the site a few weeks ago it was covered in banana palms, ants, mango and Jackfruit trees, and the only sign of civilization was the main house, the kitchen and the foundations of the boys and girls dorms. So it immediately was nicknamed ‘the jungle’. Last week when we arrived to work it looked completely different, and we were both amazed at how much the property has been transformed in only a few days. A lot of the area had been cleared for the volleyball and soccer field, and the boys’ dorm was halfway completed.

If you were to name the highlight of any trip to L-CDI it would be the students. Without the students it wouldn’t be a school, and if it wasn’t for the frogs, lizards, sour mangoes and ants, there wouldn’t be any reason to visit. Currently there is a handful of about twenty or so guys that are living and working on the building of the school. They are some of the hardest working, fun-loving and dedicated volunteers that I have ever met, and while they are not working they are studying English on their beds or taking after-hours classes. On a typical day the students are awake at five-thirty, and on Thursday we held a bible lesson that finished just before breakfast at Seven O’clock. Immediately after, the students were building the dorms while Dan and I helped clear the soccer field and dig up some stumps. Aaah there’s nothing like getting stuck into some chopping and burning! The students finish work at about four-thirty and after tea end the day with some more English lessons after dinner.

The thunderstorm on Thursday night was most rain and the loudests thunder I’ve ever experienced, and if it wasn’t for the khmer people sleeping blissfully through it, I may have been a bit more panicky. In the morning the rain had brought all the dragonflies out and we had a stack of fun running around in the mango forest catching buckets full of frogs for dinner that were out for eating all the fresh bugs.

The work at L-CDI is being completed at a rate of knots. With fresh water being dug this weekend and the construction of the boys dorm almost begun, it will only be a matter of weeks before the all the students are relocated to the new site. The plans for the teaching hut are not only exciting for us, but also for the students. The opportunity to have western teachers staying at the school teaching bible lessons will give them more regular access to learning, rather than being restricted by the distance to Phnom Penh.

The outlook and spirit surrounding the construction is enthusiastic and looking to create a great teaching facility for students to affordably learn English.

I pray God will continue to bless all the work here at L-CDI.
Shane