A day of teaching at CCH orphanage

On Tuesday I taught 2 classes. The very young children in the morning and the middle kids (who I had been teaching before) in the afternoon.

The young children had shapes and colours as their focus and after learning the shapes and a game to assist they had to make monsters in teams...

The more advanced students, I taught in the afternoon, learnt objects for eating... bowl... cup, fork, knife...chopsticks etc

After the first lesson I had 2 hours to kill before the next class so a few children played with the ABC blocks I made and I supervised. Their focus was making trains which they bashed into each other.... One of the children who joined in was Goiey (sp?) - the child who joined the orphanage at new year and who has mental health problems. Hardly surprising given that a) she worked on a rubbish dump all her life til now and b)I think her parents beat her and I think tried to sell her. She is very unsettled but enjoyed taking photographs of everything with my camera (I mean everything) in the afternoon after the second lesson for an hour or so.

Again, in my lessons I had plenty of observers, I think 2 australians, a french guy, my teacher, 2 brits and in the second lesson Ann a photographer from Belguim who took photos formed the audience at one point. This meant I am also potentially a calender girl(!) as she is taking pictures for a CCH calander to sell. I think the focus will be the children! She is also taking pictures at the dump where the children are rescued from and on Thursday I may go with her which will be interesting if not a bit smelly and scary.

Me in teaching action....

Winning is great but by the expression on her face... I guess sometimes its hard when you lose!

Goiey causing havoc no doubt in one of the sleeping rooms

Lots of things but .....SHOES!

This week has not resulted in many events to write about. It began with a visit on Monday to the SOS clinic. Sounds serious but it was just cough I could not shift. Reassuringly expensive and falling inside my insurance excess so hitting my bank balance I was wanting a miracle... sadly no miracle the diagnosis was that the Dr was unsure, gave me 2 types of medicine and I was told to come back if they didn’t work. Well they worked a bit but it’s hard to say 7 days later if that is the medicine or the fact that I had not been out in the pollution for nearly 5 days out of 7.... the cough remains and I now have an attractive face mask to wear on the motorbike taxis –doctor’s orders. (I am yet to go back as he requested – I fear the nest stage is blood tests, needles and many more dollars).

(nice look - when I wear my crash helmet it looks even better)

So, the week involved nothing but endless episodes of Sex and the City back to back (...I am now at the end of series 2 – Carrie and Big have just split for the second time...). I also tried to complete my coursework for my TEFL course – it remains only half done.

On Friday I went to a second orphanage – the Lighthouse orphanage. These children have been rescued from the streets or have been sent to the orphanage because their grandparents (after their parents have died) cannot look after them anymore. It is odd that the Lighthouse and the CHH (where I have been working so far) are completely different in atmosphere... clearly not all orphanages are like Annie but still odd to feel the difference. The man in charge there wants me to teach English to the children like “at the language institute”. The children must go to lessons – at CCH the children like games and learn English for fun to supplement the lessons at school. The children at the Lighthouse also will follow a set curriculum (which I prefer) and I have been instructed to start again from the beginning. I will probably start there the week after next if things work out.... Here is a picture of one of the children with one of the 20 or so paper planes I made.

At the weekend, the fountains are ON in Phnom Penh and are lit! I laughed before at the Khmer people who would watch the fountains for a long time but this weekend I became one of them. Sadly they were not playing music as previously – still with the lack of usual cultural pursuits fountain watching is amusing enough after a few beers.

Also took a trip again to the Royal Palace which is the most expensive attraction in the whole of Cambodia (I guess) being a whole £3.50 ($7) to get in. The backpackers in front in the queue actually turned away in disgust at the price. However, this did not surprise me given the conversation they had had for the last 20 minutes (the queue was long) revolved around the price of receiving and making international calls. – Given that you can get 7 pints of beer for $7 here I guess it would be like paying something silly like a whole £25 to go into a palace in the UK... oh wait.....you do – Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle (the comparison can instead be made with Alton Towers for the less cultural amongst you) Anyway, the palace is OK and probably worth the $7 given that most people would have spent a fair bit more on getting to Cambodia in the first place!

Oudong is the former Cambodian capital and was the destination for a half day excursion on Sunday. Travelling north of Phnom Penh out to the countryside in a tuk tuk experiencing the noise and the dust and the fear of passing (and on coming) traffic for 37km. Through villages many mosques lined the road for the Cham- Muslim minority who are present in the area. On the right-hand side of the road the Tonle Sap River ran alongside the road. Many Wats also lined the way but being “all watted out” I didn’t request a stop.

Upon arrival in Oudong (or Udong) the tuk tuk was stopped at a road block and I expected to have to part with some cash – surprisingly not! Onward to the picnic spot area and the tourist junk. About 3 small boys decided to tag along up the 516 steps (or so they told me) pointing out the obvious like “pond” and “temple”. I was nice for a while but then irritation and the heat got to me. When one explained it cost $10 per day to go to school my suspicions they were out for cash not practice English was confirmed and I tried to subtly say nicely “No money for you. Go - Good bye - Good bye, GOOD BYE. Chum reup lear (that’s good bye in Khmer)” but still they followed until 10 minutes later I did a lot of finger pointing and looking/sounding cross. I modelled myself at this point on a peed off American not reserved a British woman - This worked. I am ashamed to say I have pretty much no idea what I saw at Oudong a temple and a few Chedi (Buddhist graves containing ashes) of important royalty etc etc. If only the children had been more informative! It was boiling hot I know that much
Anyway here are a few pictures of it................. very pretty and good views...!

No class to teach on Monday and so I spent the morning doing nothing (well prepared a few future lessons) and then decided to go out to places previously undiscovered. First Monivong Boulevard. I had seen what may be classed as a shopping centre when whizzing past so went to investigate that. On my way, what a delight to find a massive stationery shop! How nice. The Khmer people must think that I am truly a crazy Barang (foreigner) given the amount of time I spent looking at pens. Anyway, a made some essential stationery purchases and then moved on to find the shopping centre. I was crossing the road to get from stationery heaven and had to rub my eyes in joy – Burger KING!!! The moment was done in an instant. With all the colours, fonts and signage of Burger King ... but no - this is Cambodia, Kingdom of no intellectual property rights, and in fact the burger place was called Great Burger. I did not sample the cuisine but went straight to the shopping centre. Again sadly, it was just another not so great supermarket. Imagine only being able to shop at Lidl or Kwiksave for the rest of your life and you can imagine supermarkets here. I was disappointed - only some fly/ant killer appealed to me.

Next, I was on a mission. There was a shoe shop in the vicinity and I was determined to locate it. Sadly, I had no hope from the start. I had my starting point on the map wrong from the outset and was very disappointed when I realised how far away from the shoe shop I was. However, I located myself on the map and commanded a moto to take me to street 143 (moi roy si sup bye – In Khmer in case you were wondering). I was exceptionally proud of myself to not only communicate this in Khmer to the driver but also to navigate my way across town in previously unknown waters to locate this shop. Yes, I had read great things about this place and I required retail therapy beyond that which pens and Raid are able to cure. My source said the shop was at no.148 (moi roy si sup bram bye (and try saying that after a few drinks)). Khmer streets are not logical. 523 will be next door to number 4 so I paid the driver the huge sum of 25p and began to look for “beautiful shoes” on foot. I saw numbers 140, 142, 144 ... I was getting close.... but then the numbers changed to 252.... and all of a sudden I was at the end of the street. Seeing a large toy shop which was very modern I developed a passing interest in toys. I needed air conditioning it was boiling.

After a refreshing break back down the street I went... There were many shoe makers on the street and I say people being fitted for shoes including monks. It was really nice to be the only western person about. I gave up looking for the specific shop and went to look at some shoes in another shoe maker. Then all of a sudden – there it was! I walked past it at the very beginning – it was number 138 not 148. How very Cambodian. Anyway, I purchased red leather shoes for $17 and have ordered a pair to be made to fit me in my design for another $17. I fear there may be trouble now I have found I can get shoes made to my order at this price. I think boots will be next....

So typically of Cambodia at the moment it is now 5.20 and we are having a large thunder storm and torrential rain. Its quite dramatic.

And finally, for amusement ....

errr ...the bin is to the left

...and "picking flower is sinful". Thanks for the reminder.

Shihanoukville at the weekend

This weekend involved a trip to Cambodia's "beach resort" Shihanoukville - Don't think of the Spanish Costas - think more Dawlish Warren on a massive scale... The trip was with Fred's work mates - all Khmer. The plan originally was that we would go in the car belonging to one of the lawyers - that would have been 9 of us in the car - by Cambodian standards that is luxury. By my standards it is utter hell for 4 hours so we opted to hire a taxi and one of the Cambodians came with us to enjoy the luxury of a car with breathing space.


I have discovered that in Cambodia there is a fondness for stopping - not just for a quick loo stop and a bag of Opal fruits but a proper stop. We got .... ummmm not quite out of Phnom Penh and the Cambodian travelling with us announced we would meet the others for breakfast - just on the outskirts of PP - and sure enough we stopped and ate rice and noodles with chicken (the chickens here are very thin and chopped in a way unknown in the west). Finally we managed to get out of the city and along the road towards our destination. Our next stop was at half way at a place by the roadside crowded with temples (large and small) to pray to budda for a safe journey. Given that we had been hurtling along the road with massive container lorries headed for the port in Shihanoukville and overtaking at the speed of a snail with all sorts of vehicles coming in the other direction I would have thought that praying would have been more prudent up at the breakfast cafe but we had made it to the half way point in one piece so I guess making an offering was sensible for the onward bit!







Either our drivers experience or budda meant we arrived in one piece. My comment above that is place is like Devon mainly comes from the fact that there are shops here that you would see in a UK seaside place - inflatables hanging up etc, the fact that it was very quiet, the shops slightly shabby and the fact that it was RAINING!!!!!!! Rain!!! ahhhhhhhh!! - sadly not cold.


Anyway, after checking out a few hotel options we stayed at the Golden Sand Hotel - it had a pool and was spotlessly clean. The only thing it did not have was atmosphere - well you can't have it all. So after checking in we headed down to one of the better beaches in town. Bearing in mind the hosts were Cambodian this meant no sun (the rain also stopped the sun but only for about an hour) we were to sit in the open sided shacks by the beach and eat. And eat and eat and eat. The Khmers got about 40 crabs and 100 prawns from the market as well as lobster and fruit. The challenge was to finish it. I was introduced to a bizarre fruit which is round and looks like a grapefruit but when it is opened it has the texture of mango but tastes.... vile. A sour taste. The Cambodians dip it in a salt/sugar mix to make it taste nice but the whole combination just made your mouth want to shrivel up and die. Ugh!

(Pictures: the beach, beach hawkers, kid doing the washing up in the sea(!)... monk off duty(?!))

Time to hit the water. I decided I could be rather daring and change out of my trousers for the swimming. However, a swimming costume and a sarong together meant I could hit the water semi Khmer style. Some of the other women did not change - just up and in. Others changed - but into a full set of other clothes! I made "friends" with some Khmer beach kids who were so exceptionally dark skinned from clearly playing on the beach (or rather working and having a few hours off a day playing) - they enjoyed being picked up and flung into the sea. Also they enjoyed putting their feet in my cupped hands and being flung backwards into the sea (or another swimmer!). They also enjoyed clinging on to the sides of the banana boat which we all went on - Some of the Cambodian women were exceptionally scared (of the boat not the kids!).


(Picture: practically naked by Cambodian standards)

After the beach - dinner. More sea food. Shark soup. This was made on the table yourself and the contents of the soup include herbs, noodles, egg and shark. Boiled until all the nutrients are removed. Then back to the beach - well we had some crab/prawn to finish off. There was a spectacular storm brewing so there was amazing lightening over the sea in the dark. At the beach we drank beer - or more accurately the men and me (as the western woman) drank beer. The Cambodian women did not - its not the done thing. The beer was with ice. This is Cambodian style drinking .... more water than beer.


The Karaoke "bar" (I am not sure if anything other than beer on ice was available)

Still utterly sober Karaoke was next. 9 of us piled onto a tuk tuk and headed off down the road - The karaoke place we almost certainly also a brothel - Combining 2 favourite Khmer hobbies. However, as in many places in SE Asia the two do not have to be combined (indeed that may be a challenge) and just karaoke is acceptable. So, the karaoke took place in our own room - green carpeted with long plastic covered sofa/benches with our own TV/karaoke machine. Completely sober I still managed karaoke. English songs were exceptionally limited - However I know that the Cambodians do like the Carpenters (that and Celine Dion... so to say they have no taste in music would be unfair!!!!!!!) and so it was only right to indulge them with a little of "On Top of the World". The translation into English was very funny as was the sweeping view over the Alps in the video!

Enough! I needed a potato based meal!! - thank god there were hash browns at breakfast before the return trip.

A very enjoyable Khmer experience...The lawyers were all lovely despite their fondness for seafood and bad music!

More orphanage...

Here are some pictures from today at the orpahange....
Back flips off the concrete steps - very H&S aware!

(please note I did not teach the one in the middle how to turn his eyelids out in this way! It was very funny though for me and the others).... very fond of making funny faces....

Me and one of my budding young photographers - I let the children take some pictures with my SLR camera - well its insured.... they took some good pictures but most prefered making the faces and seeing them on the screen...

I think her name is lily and the boy is Penha.

Hieng, Panha, Srom Mey, Lily.....

This game involved a shuttlecock that was thrown caught by the other kids who then ran - tried to play but did not really get the rules.....






This is Dy (the boy) one of my more studious beginner students - He borrowed my dictionary for the day yesterday and wrote out about 50 words in English and Khmer and had them learnt by today.... I'm not sure of the girls name yet

This is one of Dy's photos - I set it up he took the picture so I guess it is his really! - Excellent technical ability! - The girls here are playing the game we play in England where you put elastic round your ankles/waist and jump in and out... well I played it at primary school anyway.

Today - I read a story with the help of a Khmer teacher and then played a game using the story and various flashcards - I had at various times beween 4 and 6 adults observing me - my teacher, the director of education, my teacher's friend (also a TEFL teacher) and 3 other volunteers here on other projects..... A bit unnerving given I did not use any of my lesson plan as it was too advanced for the smallest children. Oh well... it was a fun lesson and the adults were well behaved.

After the lesson I played with the children and also taught them some camera skills - I am thinking about a project on this but need cameras that people no longer need....Would anyone like to donate a camera for the children to use (I am probably trying to get about 10) - nothing flash just a basic one you no longer want???!!!

I have had a wander around the Russian market after school..... lunch and now wondering whether I am brave enough to face the heat to go to the post office on the otherside of town.... If I leave it an hour I can combine it with a happy hour drink so I think I'll do that.

This weekend - off to Shihanoukville - This is the more western beach - As close as Cambodia gets to a resort... (but even that description is pushing it I think).

Wedesday's class

My class on Wednesday was a lot smaller and all the boys were at about the same level... we had a great lesson on foods I like and don't like - you can see Hieng (in the yellow) is holding up his flashcards of a pizza and a chicken!

Class today was cancelled the Japanese were at the Centre giving the weekly Japanese lesson!

More work at the orphanage

Today more lessons at CCH - I thought it was going to be the middle kids again - but what a surprise it was beginners... Luckily the lesson I had planned had levels of complexity and basicially involved a story around an elephant and a feely bag with lots of random stuff (pupkin, soap, string, ball, pencil, shell, cotton wool, apple...) Anyway the kids liked the bag but they were less keen on the English side of things. The sweets I bought were a hit (surprisingly!!) and some of them even wanted to eat the apple from the feely bag so we cut that up in the kitchen after the lesson. Tomorrow the same group again but that said, given the usual level of organisation in Cambodia, it is probably just as likely to be a class of 100 adults wanting to learn medical terms..... Here is a picture of my class room and one of the new arrivals carrying my handbag - Naturally, I have introduced style and glamour to this place already.

Teaching

Today was my first day of teaching. I was expecting to teach the beginner class (Red, Blue, ABC, 123 etc) followed by a fairly advanced class but in the end I got a mixed bunch of children - all of them loved Harry Potter (!)... I started with my own personal peice of art work showing drawings me and the things I liked (suitable for children rather than accurate! - think I like tea and ice cream rather than I like a nice cold glass of white wine)... and then the children did the same, made posters and introduced themselves to the class. We then played a game which involved running and hitting the board - I was concerned when one of the older children got a bit competitive and the smacked his head on the wall but he survived and I was less concerned when later in the day another child produced his dart ( a real dart) and starting throwing it ramdomly at walls and dangling it over a balcony pointing at the heads of other kids - a bang on the heag suddenly did not seem so concerning... anyway... so after the game I pulled out the play dough I had made at 7.30am this morning in yellow, red and green - I had no idea what game we were going to play ... but then by the time it was all handed out class was over (luckily) - some other children had also come into the class by this stage to join the fun and so there were probably about 30 kids all with hands covered in a sticky salt/flour/water/food colour mixture. They enjoyed it though. Some took the gloopy mess away in dubious forms - some just all over their hands others had tried to make something. .. Luckily it shuld have all dried out by now!

Tomorrow's class will have less art and no play dough! - I have scrapped the idea of introducing painting with feet and by hands!!!!