Hair-cuts and House Building

Friday evening. Such a nice part of the week. I love it here in the school but there is a certain feeling of achievement when it gets to Friday evening and the teaching is done till Monday. This week was a good one. We started it off by saying goodbye to two volunteers and then welcoming two new ones into the family. I have to admire the set-up of the school in this regard, the turnaround of teachers is so high it's an amazing thing to be able to foster learning and progress regardless. One consequence of the new volunteers was that I had to give away one class to the new volunteers. I gave up the preschool class even though I love their little souls and all the crazy noise they make. Without really thinking about it I found myself this morning in the middle of the class singing along to 'Bingo' and doing all the exaggerated gestures. Cecile, the head teacher of the pre-school class, was laughing and asked if I missed the little faces. I really miss them. 

I had a hair cut this week. I've went the last three months without so much as blow drying my hair so when a student of the upstairs hair and beauty class asked if I wanted my hair done I thought 'why not?' I had to laugh at myself. I've refused point blank in the past to get my hair cut at hairdressing academies back in Ireland and Holland but here I was in rural Cambodia, where I don't speak the local language, getting my gruaig cut by students. I needn't have worried though, the cut turned out fine and my hair is much happier and healthier. It was the crimping that didn't suit me. Actually, the cut turned out so good in fact that Cecile, who I mentioned above, had her hair cut today as well. I think I'll stop by more often.

Fridays at the school are not ordinary Fridays. Here they are Creative Fridays where we try to think outside the box for our lessons. This can either lift a volunteers heart or strike fear into the body of those who relaxed a little too much on a Thursday evening. This week I had it sorted. After a tough week of introducing the family members to ABC beginners by use of 'The Monkey Family' my creative Friday task was building a house for them. It's possible that I was a teeny bit more excited than the class was, having spent a good four hours preparing for a one hour class. I pre-prepared a lot of the materials, the vine floor, the banana wallpaper, the bamboo walls and the 'timber' roof. Let's be honest here, all the students had to do was color all the bits and pieces and glue a few things together. In the end I was happy and they were happy, so a big win-win all round.

So now it's Friday evening and I'm relaxing with two other volunteers watching a movie. I said in my last post that we were challenged with the all night blaring of music from a local funeral. Well, this week we had the 7 day memorial from last weeks funeral and also two more funerals starting today. Not to make fun of another cultures customs but it's quite interesting trying to steer classes with three different loudspeakers blaring music and speeches all day. Not to mention trying to sleep at night. Why all the funerals? The temperature dropped quite suddenly the last week. I know it's quite common at home in Europe for elderly and infirm people to pass away with extremes of weather but here the temperature 'dropped' to about 20 degrees. It's almost unthinkable for me to hear people died because of the 'cold' at 20 degrees. It's really strange. This means that music blares all night when the person dies for three days, then again after 7 days, 30 days, 100 days and 300 days and then every year after that. Basically music just blares all the time, day and night, in Cambodia. A nice idea. In theory. 

Life in Som Roung

Where to start on the last ten days, I just don't know. I've had great, satisfying classes where I felt the students gained a lot. Then I've had one or two tough classes. It's getting easier. I'm gaining a technique or probably just getting better at robbing the other volunteers techniques. One or the other. 

Generally life in the village is good. It's so much more preferable than being in Phnom Penh. We had a day off there last Tuesday and myself and my new roommate, Sophie, stayed in the village. We took the schools bikes and cycled round the village and out into the rice fields. We did freak ourselves out thinking about snakes emerging from the flooded fields, a totally valid fear since a cobra was found outside the school during the week. When we got back to the village we were met by a few children playing outside. One enterprising boy made a drum out of scrap and was belting out the beats. A few of the others had old Buddha masks and we all had a little dance. One of the best days I've had in Asia so far I think. 

And then I was introduced to Cambodian culture last Friday night with a rude awakening. Literally. I stayed behind in the village Friday night to catch up on some sleep but at about one in the morning the whole house was shaken awake with a loudspeaker blaring out local music and such. So strange. I didn't know what was happening. After a while it faded out but not for long til it started up again at around 4. I went down for breakfast at 8 and was laughing about the music. Well, I was laughing until I was told it was a funeral and playing music all night is a way to honour the dead. Awkward. 

Last week we also had our first tablet lesson! So the school has wifi (I've been online more than off the whole time I've been in Asia) but a couple weeks back 14 tablets were donated to the school. The intention is that we lead the students in self learning. We hand picked 14 students across all age groups to attend the first few weeks of classes to see how we structure this. The first classes were great but unfortunately we had to cancel towards the end of the week because we couldn't get all tablets to connect successfully to the wifi. It's a pity but we should sort it out this week and then on we go again. 

And then the last word on the last couple of days is this, the inevitable has happened. I had to visit the doctor. Before I came to Asia I never ever felt the need to talk about any toilet habits. However, here in Cambodia, it's the main topic of the day. All day. Everyday. The doctor told me plainly I'd eaten something dirty and have a lovely intestinal bacterial infection. And that's not all folks, I've probably got a nice little tropical parasite to boot! Not to worry, it happens to everyone and easily fixed. I just hope I never have another day in my life where I have 26 'successful' visits to the bathroom. One for every year I've been on this earth. Below is a pic of all the medicine myself and another volunteer were given to fix ourselves. It was either that or go on a drip for 3 hours. 

That's about it for the moment, just a short and sweet round up. This weekend I'm planning on staying in the village, avoiding Phnom Penh and getting ready for Christmas here in Cambodia.