For Jennifer Hicks ‘09, the idea, approvals, and preparations for a gap year in Cambodia and Nairobi fell into place almost as if it were a movie script. Jen had always wanted to learn more about Buddhism and work in a Buddhist country, so after being accepted to several colleges, she asked her parents if, she could exchange attending a state school for a gap year right after high school. They agreed, as did the University of Georgia. 
The next step was the application process. “I just looked up Volunteer in Buddhist Countries on Google,” said Jen. “A website came up, I applied, we paid, and I was preparing to go!” On September 5, Augusta Prep’s Head of the Upper School (aka Jen’s mom) Mrs. Jan Hicks took her daughter to Atlanta for the 15-hour plane ride to Seoul, South Korea. “I boarded my plane from Seoul to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I was not only the only white person on that flight, but I was the only native English speaker too. The plane was small and all of the announcements were in Korean and Khmer (Cambodian). No English! That’s when it hit me that I was literally on the other side of the world.”
Immediately, Jen began trying to learn as much Khmer as she could so that she could communicate with the locals. “For the first month and a half, I was by myself totally – at movies, at dinner, and walking around,” she said. She immersed herself in local culture, visiting Buddhist temples, bicycling everywhere, and sampling some of the local cuisine. “I ate some weird stuff,” attested Jen. “I tried crickets, crawfish pancakes with eyes and antennae, heart valves in curry. I didn’t get sick, but I felt weird sometimes.”
Jen was responsible for teaching English and music, and did both every day. “I learned more from them than they did from me,” laughed Jen. “I was teaching a class of 70 students. They were great! I promised them I would be back in 2015! I still email 20 of my students, and miss them very much.” Every Sunday, Jen and her co-workers would go to the orphanage to visit and work with the children there. This was the high point of Jen’s week. They even taught the children to play baseball. The orphanage was well-run, and the directors seemed to care about their charges, but it was also tiny and not very clean. “It just makes me feel incredibly lucky to have been born in the U.S.,” she said.
A huge difference for Jen was to see the way the general populace lived. Most people live either in apartments in the city or in shacks in the jungle. However, the apartments did not resemble those Jen was used to seeing in Augusta. “They were one large room with a garage door. People had various items they made in their apartments. In the morning, they would roll these items out in front of the apartment and try to sell them. Then, at night, they would take everything back in and eat and sleep in the one room.”
Jen learned quickly that Cambodian transportation is quite different from American transportation. In Augusta, most people drive everywhere. In Cambodia, Jen either bicycled or took a Tuk Tuk (type of cab) to move from one part of the city to another. Jen emphasized that she never felt unsafe. “I bicycled everywhere – through an alley, near a nightclub – and NEVER EVER felt that I was in jeopardy. People stared at me because I was interesting to them, not because they thought I had money or wished me any harm.”
In her spare time, which was minimal, Jen visited the “eerie” Khmer Rouge Museum and the Land Mine Museum. She learned that there are still between three and six million land mines hidden throughout Cambodia. Children and teens injured by land mines live in a dorm at the back of the nearby school. “I’d never stopped to appreciate that I have hands before,” she said.
Jen had numerous wonderful days teaching and traveling, most of which can be read in her blog. “Of course,” said Jen, “I don’t blog about days that I was miserable.” Fortunately, those days were few and far between. Jen took the time to visit Laos, where she rode on elephants, kayaked, and spent time in “the most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen.” She also took a week to visit Thailand where she hiked from village to village without the benefit of toilets or showers!
The second half of her Gap Year will find Jen in Nairobi, where she will again work with children and absorb as much of the local culture as she can. “Prep’s community inspired me to see a lot more of the world,” said Jen. “Prep is small, yet I was exposed to a lot through my courses there. I have received emails from Prep parents that I did not even know to tell me they were glad that I was able to experience such different cultures!”
What does the future hold for Prep’s world traveler? Jen hopes to participate in many study-abroad programs during her years as a student at the University of Georgia. She believes that these trips are changing her in profound ways, and she would not trade her experience for anything. In Jen’s words, “This has been the most life-changing thing I’ve ever done.”
Read about Jen's adventure in Africa.
