#scao

Italian translation for @srslysims​‘s Complete Alchemy Overhaul (1.63.133).

For this to work, you will need the full mod, available here.

Download: ☀️ (Mediafire, no AdFly)

Any issues, please send me an ask.

Full credit for the above picture, @srslysims​

All credit for the mods goes to her too, I only take credit for the translation.

T.O.U.

Don’t reupload

Don’t claim as your own

A really spectacular way to contribute locally is by acting globally. Experiencing, understanding and developing an appreciation for other cultures benefits you, your community, and the culture you’re exploring.

Let me start by saying, I know that often there are serious obstacles when it comes to traveling or studying abroad while you’re in high school or even college and this chapter, admittedly, may not be something that everyone can just go out and do. I considered this when deciding whether to include this chapter in the book, but my experiences in Thailand and Cambodia are just too important to leave out. Also, I want to encourage you to be proactive about seeking funding for a trip if it’s something important to you. Lots of travel organizations offer scholarships if you ask, and I know many people who fundraised for their travels. If it’s something you want, you can find a way to make it happen.

At my school students are required to submit a junior project. This is usually a two-week internship project and a school presentation. For my internship, I chose to volunteer in Cambodia for two weeks with an organization call Loop Abroad. Loop Abroad takes very small groups of high school students from all over the country to Thailand and Cambodia to volunteer and experience different cultures.

There were three other students in my group and, along with two teachers; we spent about a week volunteering at the new Elephant Nature Park near Siem Reap and about a week volunteering at the SCAO orphanage in Phnom Penh (shamelessly: click here to donate to SCAO). My experiences in Cambodia were incredibly eye opening and became a sort of call to action in my decision to write this book.

At the Elephant Nature Park we lived in a village among the workers, who were helping to build the park, and their families. During most days we planted Acacia seeds in the nursery. Acacia seeds grow fast, elephants eat the leaves, and they provide shade, but they are terrible for building so the loggers don’t bother to cut them down. In other words, the perfect sustainable food for elephants!

The days were long and hot and after spending the day planting trees in the nursery, we’d have dinner with the villagers. On the first night we learned that after dinner we were expected to teach English to the children in the village. I know this seems doable, but let me tell you, at this point in the trip we’d been in Cambodia for maybe a full day and we were all horribly jet-lagged and the last thing we wanted to do was spend even another minute anywhere but in bed under our mosquito nets.

There was a collective groan. No one said it, but I could tell we all felt like we had nothing left in the tank. The heat, even after sundown, was stifling and inescapable and the bugs were just relentless. I decided to leave our hut to see if there was any way to put the English lesson off, just for tonight, but on my way out I noticed that a few of the village elders had already brought lanterns and homemade bug candles to the table and that all of the children were on their way over with notebooks and pens.

I realized then that we were basically all they had, and possibly their only real connection to the Western world. And that, no matter how jet-lagged we were, we would be what they thought of when someone mentioned America. There was a lot riding on those English lessons and even more on what we did for that week in the village. I needed to make sure we were at our best.

I went back to the hut and started a water fight to try and wake everyone up. They were annoyed at first, but finally made it out of the hut to get me back. One they were up and about again, the English lesson sort of flew by. We never talked about it but I know everyone else realized the importance of showing up that first night.

This is the street where the S.C.A.O. school is located. It's in one of the rural suburbs just outside of Phnom Penh, called Boeng Chhouk. The organization's main building is also pictured below.

We get a long break in the middle of the day so often hang out at this coffee shop. It's not quite Starbucks but at least they sell refreshing cold drinks!

S.C.A.O. has their own tuk-tuk so they are able to organize transportation to and from the school for volunteers.

I just finished my first week volunteering here in Cambodia at an NGO called Save Poor Children in Asia Organization (www.savechildreninasia.org) and it’s been going pretty well. SCAO provides free English and computer classes to about 600 kids each day in 2 different locations just outside of Phnom Penh. The children who attend these classes range from 5 to 25 years old and I have been teaching 2 English classes a day to the beginners, also known as the “ABC class”. It’s been a bit of a challenge because even within the beginners there is a huge range of levels, but I have seen this before both in Nepal and Tanzania. Some kids cannot write letters and numbers while others are able to read and write simple words and sentences. So I constantly have to come up with different activities based on their varying abilities.

Government schools in Cambodia are only 4 hours a day and this is due to the fact that there are too many children and not enough teachers, so they go to school in shifts. So if a child cannot afford to attend private school they simply will not get a “good” education and they certainly won’t learn English! And if they don’t know English it’s very unlikely that they will get a good job in the future that will allow them to escape poverty.

Below is the classroom where I am teaching at the “original” SCAO school. There are several other volunteers here at the moment but funny enough, I am the only native English speaker! Some of the other countries people have come from are: Germany, Sweden, France, China, and Canada (Quebec).

We visited the “new” school one day during our lunch break and it’s much nicer than the “original” school! It’s quite a bit further outside of town though, so the volunteers have to stay there full time.