The itchy and scratchy show.

I am wrecked after another week as a teacher. It's a good feeling. After my crazy week of sightseeing up north, I got back into the swing of things easily and geared up for some intense lesson planning and execution. We actually had another day off on Tuesday, Victory Day here in Cambodia, which slowed the momentum up a bit. I think Cambodia must have the most public holiday days in the world. The other volunteers said that a few months back there was hardly a week where they didn't have a day off. They should give some free days to Holland...

 

Life in the village this week was interesting. I said in my last post that I caught bed bugs while in Siem Reap. I've never been so itchy. Ok, I have a feint recollection of wanting to scratch my skin off at 6 years old with chicken pocks but the bed bugs thing was this week. The worst thing was that I didn't even realize I had them till I got back to the school with a bag full of freshly washed clothes (freshly washed by a launderette) and infected both the bag and my bed with them. So, not only did I have to hand-wash copious amounts of clean clothes, I had to wash my sheets, leave my mattress in the sun for a day and spray the bed frame with some toxic chemical I found in the back of the medical cupboard down in the kitchen. I even cut off my hippie bracelets just in case. I think it did the trick but I've felt paranoid all week. I went for a walk with Cecile the other evening and I had an absolute panic attack when an ant bit my foot. I was also terrified that they had crawled into my hair and were having the time of their lives in there so I bought some head lice shampoo. I was all geared up to wash the (probably non existent) feckers away when we were told there was no water left in the storage tank. No water = no shower = bed bugs building small bed bug towns in my hair. After a couple of hours I couldn't take it anymore and like the arrogant westerner I am I went and bought 12 bottles of drinking water and took a bath in the biggest laundry bowl I could find. The other volunteers called me wasteful and it is but I HAD to do it. I HAD TO. But tomorrow I take a shower with old rain water at a neighbors house so it works out.

My hand washing skills displayed in below pic. 

The below pictures are of my 2-3 ABC class. We've been learning about the body this week, employing the services of Brother Monkey, best known for appearing in 'The Monkey Family'  back in December. My favorite class this week was our creative Friday task where the class could only draw what I told them....e.g. draw two heads, one tummy,  ten legs. We ended up creating a monster and it was the most fun all week getting them to present their creations to the class at the end. 

Between my classes on Thursday I went for a walk around the village. Within 10 seconds of leaving I had a hand in each of my own and was given a walking tour of the village by two of my 8 year old students. I was introduced to every aunt, uncle, cousin and grandparent they could think of and I was made to hold at least three babies. It was amazing and something I'll never forget. 

And an update on the protests I mentioned the last time; 6 people now dead and many more were seriously injured. Factory workers all returned to work with a $5 dollar increase on their existing $60 a month. However, they won't be paid for the next two weeks for the 'damage' they have caused to the garment industry here in Cambodia. The labour unions have been identified as inciting public disorder and will not be taken seriously in worker negotiations again. I also read an article online from a teacher with 21 years experience being paid a paltry $75 dollars a month. And six workers were grabbed off the street in Phnom Penh while trying to deliver a petition, they were detained for 18 hours without charge. My heart bleeds for these people. I can't imagine the hopelessness they feel for their children's future. 

Then, as foreigners, we also have to deal with a certain backlash. My roommate Sophie was in Phnom Penh for a couple days volunteering as a surgical nurse on pro bono operations. She bargained with a moto driver to drive her back to her hostel. For the whole ten minutes of the journey he aggressively told her how selfish she is for bargaining, she is white with a lot of money and Cambodian people have nothing, good Cambodian people are dying for a better life, doesn't she know? She didn't feel it was a dangerous situation but knew the driver had no intention of hearing her story or the fact she assisted in free reconstructive surgery for Cambodians that day, such was his grief. It will be interesting to see how the next couple of weeks and months will pan out. 

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. 

Week No. 2

My second week at the school has flown by. The days are action packed with something happening all the time but being a teacher is not easy. I only have a few classes a day and between planning ahead, preparing myself, doing the class, evaluating, evening activities, meetings, etc, l am exhausted. 

I'm starting to settle into a routine now. My teaching day begins at 11am when we take in about 25 local children for preschool hour. This is a new thing in the school but I can already see how successful it is. For example, one little boy called Visa, aged three, was afraid to come into the school on his first day and didn't want to talk to the other children. Now he struts around the school yard like he owns the place, has a best friend he can't live without and has acquired a few necessary English words. Young children are amazing. They just soak up information without realizing it. I don't think they understand just yet that the words we teach them aren't what their parents use and yet they repeat everything you throw at them. The best part of my week was making hats with them. We got some scraps of paper, got the kids to color them, folded the papers into little sailor hats and popped them on their heads. I didn't think the hats would last long but they loved them! It would melt any cold heart to see the smiles on their faces. Well, maybe until it's playtime and you see they've all built guns from the Lego blocks and are taking immense pleasure at the thought of killing 'teeeecha'. We also showed them the intro to the Lion King to have a look at all the animals. They went bananas.

From 12-1 I assist a beginners class with another volunteer. This is the toughest class of the day. It's tough mostly because the children are loud, a bit unruly and there's a bit of an age gap between younger and older. And then of course there's the customary group of pre-teen 'lads' down the back that are just too cool. It's funny, you can go all around the world and no matter what, teenagers will always be teenagers. Anyway, this class is hard to manage but they are impressive in their learning capacity. Despite the howling laughter, students trying to crawl on the floor, minor arguments and constant chatter they all seem to know the answer to the question even before you've asked it yourself. I admire every single student in this class but combined they are a nightmare. 

I hate to say it but the class at 2-3 is the stuff of a teachers dream. They are quiet(ish), fun, eager, full of personality and not afraid of doing new things. Last week I got to see them read their first English book. It's a huge deal for a 7 year old to learn a whole new alphabet and remember a complex system of new sounds, not only to memorize but to be able to take meaning from the words too. I wasn't able to do it when I was 7 with Irish so I have huge admiration for them. I'm looking forward to seeing their progress over the next two months.

My typical day here then ends with a grammar class with high school students. On my first day one of these students asked me how old I was. I said I was 26 of course. He asked why I wasn't married yet and what was wrong with me? He actually sounded a bit like my gran here. Anyway, I think I have to work to win these students over, I don't think they trust me. One student, a monk actually, asked me after class why we didn't do number 1, number 2 and number 3 on a particular page, in that particular order. I don't think they trust me going 'off the beaten track' so to speak. In that case I'm going to work extra hard to get them out of their comfort zone. I set some listening exercises for them at the end of the week, you know listen to this and answer specific questions afterwards, blah blah blah. I thought it was too easy for their level of conversational English but none of them got even one answer right. So Mr. Know It All Monk, we aren't going to do question 1,2,3 in that order, you are going to have to think I'm afraid.

That rounds off week number 2 as a teacher in Cambodia. I am in love with the village. It feels homely somehow and familiar. Right now I'm back in Phnom Penh but I'm not sure why. I really don't like the city. I think it's filthy and seedy. You can't turn your head but there's some creepy white guy with a Cambodian girl much too young for him hanging off his arm. Or for example, last night I was in a bar that would have been too posh for Amsterdam and yet across the road I saw a mother trying to get her infant children to sleep under nothing more than two plastic bags tied together for a roof. Also, I'm sitting in a restaurant here as I type and I can see from my chair a poster warning against the consequences of getting caught sexually abusing a child here. I knew it was going to be like this but the reality of it is something else. I think I'm going to spend a lot of my weekends at the village from now on.