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. 

Teacher training

My first week of teaching in Cambodia is complete! I won't lie, it was a long week. I was nervous to begin with but really started gaining confidence after 2/3 days. I'm not a natural teacher, it's challenging working with children. It's not easy and it's definitely not any easier when the children are from a different cultural background. However, it's so amazingly satisfying to hear a preschool child frantically call me 'teacher' if they see me in the village or hear a student use a new word you know they just learned that week. To be completely selfish, it feels great and it's more than enough to see me through this challenge. 

The school is located in Samrong, 18km outside of Phnom Penh. I've no idea how many people live here, I thought I heard someone say 500 families but I could also be making it up. There are 5 other volunteers along with myself and a few local Cambodian (Khmer) teachers. The Khmer teachers are there to explain in the local language. The students attend English lessons for all levels, computer classes, PE class, football coaching once a week and there's also a hair and beauty course which is quite unique. The aim is to teach local children skills to keep them away from hard labour. Like I mentioned in my last post, a locals wages in a clothing factory here amounts to little more than 75 US dollars a month. Every skill they can acquire in their youth, particularly English, will stand to them getting a better job in the future and keep them out of the sweat shops or worse again, the rampant sex industry here. 

I won't go into too much detail on the classes themselves but below is a quick round-up of my highlights and struggles in my few days so far. 

Highlights:

- preschoolers recognizing me and calling me 'teeeecha' in the village,

- 6 year old girl helping me teach her classmates the 'teddy bear' song (I didn't know the words OR the obligatory dance moves) I thought it was so sweet and brave of her. 

- evening conversation class with some teenage Buddhist monks who are obsessed with the champions league,

- helping 8 year olds read their first English book,

- giving a PowerPoint class to teenagers. PowerPoint has never been so exciting. 

Struggles:

- I've actually no idea of grammar. You may have noticed from my writing. Present perfect, past continuous, conditional 1 and 2..... These sound like names of 80s girl bands to me. Nevermind making lesson plans, I need to study.

- Being tough. Contrary to what my brothers might say, I'm finding it hard to dish out the discipline. 

I'm living in the school itself on the top floor. I've a comfy bed, mosquito net and my own toilet. There's only cold water in the shower but believe it or not, it isn't a big deal. More importantly, you cannot understand the joy I feel at having a room in one place for the first time in over two months. I've basically sprinkled my stuff in all 4 corners of the room which I realize now was a mistake since I'll be sharing with a new volunteer Monday onwards. Ah well. Although, I did get a bit of a rude awakening about my new home. One of the German volunteers across the hall from me said he had an infestation of cockroaches from leaving his window open. Sure enough, that night I woke up to a baby cockroach crawling on the top of my mosquito net. I now feel I have the potential to be a sadistic serial killer. I sprayed that baby cockroach with my most pungent insect repellent and I swear I could hear him choke. I watched him struggle for a long time with a pang of guilt in my chest, his legs stuck to the mosquito net with the repellent. Half of me wanted to free his sticky little legs from the net but the other half won and I beat his lights out with the end of the repellent can. I don't like elephants being ill treated but I swear I will beat that baby cockroaches brothers and sisters should they ever dare into my room. 

And that rounds off my first week in the school. I was wrecked come Friday evening but somehow found the energy this weekend to visit numerous markets, cycle around the city (scary), visit the Olympic park, try find a non-existent silk factory and assist a German colleague in purchasing copious amounts of Xmas gifts. I'm also eating lots of tasty, tasty food, albeit western. The food in the school is great but let's face it, there's only so much rice and fish sauce a solid Irish girl like myself can consume in a week. 

P.S. A baby snake was caught outside the school in the dark this week. No one would/could confirm for me if it was poisonous.