Work has settled down and we do have some sense of achievement. In December we at last held the workshop on Effective Teaching and Learning (ETL) which had been cancelled on three previous occasions due to factors ranging from; "Thailand might invade" to "the teachers are all harvesting corn".
We also applied for and got a small grant from VSO which allowed us to put bars on the windows of three schools in the district. This is important because without bars the schools are not secure and teachers are reluctant to decorate their classrooms with examples of kids' work and educational posters because they are often vandalized by the local youth. (Sound familiar? but we use CCTV and electronic alarms in the UK) Can you imagine a primary school classroom with no pictures on the wall, not even the alphabet? The three headmasters were so thrilled when we told them we had got the grant, one actually clapped his hands with glee.
There are several EU sponsored building projects going on in the district at the moment. A new school is being built to accommodate the children of families who have just moved into a new village that has grown up on the site of a cleared, mine field. This not before time as the lady teacher, who only qualified this year, currently has to teach a class of over 60 kids in the local café, yet is doing so with the enthusiasm and humour which would put many established teachers in the UK to shame.
Opposite our office the new "Women's Affairs" building is under construction. This is a source of great interest to Jon who is continually amazed by the building techniques being used. eg. No real foundations to the walls and everything built out of very stiff concrete. Note: ground flattening using a tree stump on a pole.
The monks continue building the Wat extension and greet as she cycles past every morning with a cheery “Hello, how are you” from their perches on the scaffolding (lashed together bamboo poles).
The dust is actually dangerous as the clouds on the roads created by the huge Thai trucks, which carry produce across the border, mean that car and moto drivers are often driving blind. There have been several fatalities as drivers, overtaking a truck at speed, run head on into a taxi coming the other way.
November brings the Water Festival which marks the end of the wet season. In Phnom Penh this is celebrated by the Dragon Boat Races. Boat teams from all over the country come to compete and for the last three years VSO have entered the only Barrang team. In a series of heats two boats race each other over a 1000m down the Tonle Sap River past the king. The hardest part is paddling upstream to the start point. The VSO boat did well coming 5th in a two boat race (ie they were passed by two other races). It was, however, a spectacular event to have taken part in – even though the Tee shirts were a bit pink.
Taking advantage of the National holiday we went back to Koh Chang for a few days R&R. The Thais have a similar festival and celebrate by making little boats of banana tree bark decorated with flowers and candles and launched into the sea sailing away the worries of the previous year.
Consequently we really went over the top decorating the house with Christmas trees, fancy lights, tinsel, paper chains and Origami stars. To the amusement of our neighbours we dragged in boughs of greenery to deck the halls (banana leaf rather than holly and ivy). It was wonderful to have them with us as we opened our presents on Christmas morning while drinking Bucks Fizz accompanied by Carols from King’s.
We had invited Onno and Corine (Dutch VSO), Renny (American Peace Corps) and Anna (Wandsworth) for a traditional English Christmas dinner and this took some planning, mainly due to the absence of a cooker. After much thought, inspiration and experimentation Jon constructed a very effective two tier oven out of an inverted stew pot and some wire. With the help of the very generous seasonal Red Cross parcels sent by Frances and Olivia and Alice and Will’s culinary expertise we were able to produce a meal of truly festive fayre. This included roast chicken, cranberry and chestnut stuffing, Christmas pud and brandy, cream, Christmas cake (baked in new oven), dates stuffed with Stilton and crackers (a complete novelty for non-Brits). We ate and drank for almost 9 hours interrupted only by some gentle games. The only thing that was missing was Wallace and Gromitt on the telly.
[Since the advent of the oven we have become even more adventurous in our cooking with the aid of the BBC Good Food website. Not only are we baking our own bread but yesterday Jon cooked Banana and Pecan cakes and tomorrow is attempting a Sunday Lunch of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. ]
The family reunions continued after Christmas with the arrival of Chris’ mum, sister, brother-in-law and niece. It was so good to meet up with them at Siem Reap. We had rather a bizarre New Year’s eve when at 11.15 the staff of the bar at their hotel said they were off to a party. Not being able to face the prospect of being totally dry at midnight we jumped on a tuk tuk and shot back into town just in time to see in the New Year with 1000’s of others at a very jolly street party in Pub Street. The following day we joined the family tour and went on a boat to visit the Vietnamese floating villages on the Tonle Sap. We had been five years before when we were the only tourists there and we had been greeted with welcoming smiles and waves from the villagers. Now this is a much more organised operation with more than 20 tour boats within sight on the lake and a visitors centre complete with crocs and python. The villagers, however, studiously ignored all of us aware that their hard lives have become a tourist attraction.
Being over 80 Chris’ mum was the source of great inspiration; skipping over Ankorian ruins, leaping on and off bobbing boats and hauling herself on to rickety tuk tuks far more effectively than her less sprightly daughter – see you’re never too old.
We returned once more to visit the Sunrise Village Orphanage where once again we were impressed with how it is continuing to develop with new facilities such as a theatre and dance studio.
Happy New Year to all our readers.
1 comment:
Hi Chris and Jon
I work at VSO UK and came across your blog and found it really interesting.
I thought you might be interested to know that VSO has just launched it’s own online community where you can chat to other VSO volunteers and supporters. If you haven’t already you can register at:
http://community.vsointernational.org
I thought other volunteers would be interested in reading your blog and finding out more about Cambodia and that you might like to post a link to it in the blogs discussion area of the VSO online community:
http://community.vsointernational.org/discussions/blogs
Cheers
Sara
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