Cambodia: Faryn Cramer (Our Global Classroom)

My global classroom in Cambodia was anything but traditional. Instead of the familiar lecture halls on the Madison campus, our classes took place from bustling cities to remote jungle.

The program began in Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is a city of around 250,000 people. More than the city itself, our classroom was the nearby ancient city – Angkor. After learning about the rise and fall of Angkor, we hopped in a shuttle and headed to the ruins. One thing that surprised me was the sheer size of the ancient city. It encompasses so much more than just Angkor Wat – the most famous temple. Our tour guide pointed out the holes drilled into the massive pieces of stone, where elephants had carried the blocks. It was amazing to see the jobs elephants performed in the past, and compare that to efforts to improve elephant welfare today. The carvings on the wall of Bayon temple tell a story of daily life in the city, from village elephants, to rice farming, to admiration of Buddha.

Our classroom went remote for our studies at an elephant sanctuary in Mondulkiri province, Cambodia. There, we learned 100% hands-on, because there wasn’t any wifi or electricity to use computers! We hiked out to visit elephants that wander the dense bamboo forest, watching them forage as our professor helped us note activity budgets. We sat on the jungle floor, watching ants crawl onto our notebooks and taking reprieve from the sun under tree canopies. After saying hello (from 20 feet away!) to the elephants, we headed back to our base camp. Our classroom became a lab – we sampled elephant boulouses (aka dung) for parasites, checking on elephant health. We went from researchers trekking through the wild to scientists in a lab in one day!

 

Faryn Cramer

Hometown: Waunakee, Wisconsin

Major: Communication Arts; Spanish

Program: SFS Environmental Justice and Mekong Ecologies

I chose this program (among many reasons!) because I want to expand my worldview while having a once-in-a-lifetime adventure where I will expand my intercultural knowledge. I want to have some sort of career in current events writing or social media, and it’s important that I bring worldly experiences to that job.

One of my goals for this program is to learn about how the environment and the cultures of Cambodia and Thailand interact. I’m excited to experience an ecosystem I’ve never been in before, see animals I’ve only seen in photos, and try new food!