Interview with Tre Lin

“I came to live in the BIPA Dorm in Phnom Penh and studied English literature, because I like this language. I studied 4 years at the International foreign languages University. It was very difficult and I did not pass so that I have had to repeat one year. But at the same time, I passed to study pedagogic to become a secondary school teacher for the English language from the government program to teach in Mondulkiri. So, I decided not to repeat the year and just switched to the pedagogic school for one year.
During these 5 years I stayed together with other Bunong in the student Dorm of BIPA. I liked the environment in the dorm a lot and I also got new friends from other Bunong villages. I have been elected to be a student dorm leader twice because my friends in the Dorm trusted me. And from the volunteer work I learnt a lot about leading. I like to be a leader, and this was a good practice for me. The Catholic church from Mondulkiri paid for me the school fee.
After the pedagogic year I returned to Mondulkiri and started immediately my job as teacher in the secondary school in Pouchrey Commune, Pechreada district, Mondulkiri. I teach the English language to the children fulltime. Friday evening, I use to go back to my family in Busra. The children at school are ethnic mixed in Bunong, Khmer and Cham. But the Bunong are the majority. I like a lot to work with this 12 – 14 years old children. First when I started, I thought it could be difficult to work with this mix of ethnic groups, with all the different languages and different religions and culture but slowly and also through my experience at the dorm where also people were from different places with different religion practice and knowing that we lived good together I could use this experience and adapt to my work with the children. After that I found my way how to cope with this situation and now, I feel happy and enjoy my work. I like to play football and volleyball and I also use the sport to get involve the children to play all together peacefully.”