Week 14

Poor Bethany has been ill again this week. We went to the doctor on Wednesday and she was diagnosed with asthmatic bronchitis, just in time for the Christmas party. She couldn't really join in as much as she would have liked, but I had great fun shopping for and running the party.

 I went food shopping with the group home manager, Key, which I really enjoyed, I love shopping with the Cambodians because they introduce you to lots of exciting new places and food. She bought me some delicious sticky sweet rice with coconut and we went home via her house to pick some mangos as it is now the season. For the children we found fizzy orange juice and a Cambodian version of pizza with no cheese but a kind of cheesy salad dressing squirted on top. We have been learning the vocab for pizza and orange juice so the children were very excited to be finally trying them. We had intended this to be their lunch, but silly me, how can that be considered a meal, we didn't eat rice! So they had a second lunch half an hour later. The children manage to eat so much yet stay so so skinny it's crazy. We think the ARV treatment is partly responsible.  In the very early morning of the party I felt very much Cambodian. The mister (father) of the group home I live in, and I, picked up 62 pizzas on a moto, more of my bum was hanging off the back of the Moto than was on and my muscles the next day were like rock. The amount of people, furniture and food the Cambodians manage to squeeze onto the moto scooters is amazing. I saw a huge wicker basket of small pigs on a moto the other day!

At the party we played team games which both the children and the Mas really enjoyed. We played relay races with; balloons between their legs, balls being passed under chins, raisins being moved from one plate to another with the winning team receiving lolly pops. We played pass the parcel, and had a visit from Santa. The children seemed very happy with their presents, although the Mas kicked up a fuss over the trouser length as it is the cold season, we found this a bit ridiculous so with the help of Key told them there was no way we're traipsing back around the market to exchange 48 presents. They also kept telling us the clothes were too small which was not the case, the children are used to over stretched hand me downs so their clothes are actually mostly too big and the new outfits fit well. So that was all a bit frustrating but the children's delight at their presents made up for the ma's reaction.

I had a really interesting though slightly sad chat with Phearun the main (soon to be the only) magna teacher. He told me about the history and politics of the country, including the problems with corruption.  The government makes it very hard for those such as teachers in the public schools to avoid corruption. The salary of a teacher is $100 dollars a month which is not enough to sustain a family therefore the teachers are forced to charge the students an extra fee, which the police (I expect with the same problem, as they frequently pull people over and demand money), turn a blind eye to. We also spoke about the children. I have been surprise by how little the children's HIV status affects them. They make frequent visits to the hospital to be monitored but it seems they are mostly very healthy. However I think the status has a big effect on them emotionally. Phearun says they are full of fear; he has had children say they are very scared as they know they are going to die young.  He wants us to try and help them tackle their fear in the PSHE sessions. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that yet.

Bethany and I had a very nice Christmas weekend, it was sad being away from home but we kept ourselves busy at a couple of parties with other expats which were very fun. I won't be doing another blog for a couple of weeks I'm afraid, as we are leaving for a 2 week holiday in Thailand on Tuesday, I'm very excited. I hope you all had a fab Christmas!

Month 3

The weather at the moment can only be described as divine.  We are in the cold season at the moment and according to the Cambodians ‘the wind is falling down’. We have lovely hot sun with a cool wind and the nights are cooler at the moment which has meant I have been sleeping really well, though the cool weather does make cod showers quite a challenge. I have worked out a method of one limb in the shower at a time.

We took the children to the dentist this week. The children were so brave, not making any fuss despite many of them having baby teeth pulled out and it seemed most of them left the chair bleeding. We were told that is clear through their visits to the dentists how well magna are looking after the children, apparently the condition of their teeth is hugely improved and whilst it previously took a week to get through all the children it now takes a morning. Whilst at the dentist we were surprised to be invited to their Christmas party, so we are looking forward to that, especially as the dentist has some expats volunteering for them.

Much to the children’s excitement the Magna Christmas party is fast approaching so this week we began the rather daunting task of buying Christmas presents for 48 children with a budget of $144. It has taken us two trips and some very sugary drinks but we now have a complete and very big selection of outfits music, pajamas, jewelry, hairclips and toys, all ready and waiting to be wrapped.  We also have a Father Christmas outfit ready for me to wear on the big day.

We had a meeting with our Boss this week and we have some new exciting and rather daunting tasks. We are going to be pretty much solely responsible for activities and education of the young children outside of school, we are going to be doing updates for the children’s sponsors every month. The Magna orphanage in Cambodia is quite new so this is the first set of children they have had, many of the children are now turning into teenagers so we are going to start holding PSHE sessions. This involves teaching topics such as politics, sex education, drug abuse, exploitation of women etc. Denisa wants us to hold these using the teacher to translate. These PSHE sessions are really important as the schools don’t really give the children any of this information. The government includes ex-khmer rouge and the political system is far from democratic therefore the teachers are scared to talk negatively about the government or the Khmer rouge regime. Magna had some problems when the eldest girl started her period and didn’t tell anyone and apparently there are problems in other orphanages with the children having sex with one another due to ignorance. I can’t believe this would ever happen here as there is such a family atmosphere but we are to help discourage them. We have been asked to encourage the children to question and discuss as this is strictly discouraged in the schools.  I’m a little scared but I’m sure it will be ok; I will have to do lots of research. Denisa has told us some slightly scary stories, for example last year they had a couple of people trying to give the orphanage free cakes after some fuss the police were called and apparently the cakes were laced with drugs. They were trying to get the children and caregivers addicted. Apparently this is common outside of the schools.

The oldest boy at Group Home two has taken on the role of Magna hairdresser and has given poor blind unprotesting Sothy a hideous haircut. He has shaved of (very badly) the bottom half of Sothy’s hair the whole way round. It’s awful!

Week 12

One, maybe two of the children are going to be leaving the home soon. Sokong is 18 and is being handed back into the care of her sister. Sokong ‘s sister will pay for her to go to a training college so that she can then get a good job.  I think Sokong will be magna’s second child to leave due to their age. Sayha is the three year old sitting on the Tuk Tuk in a previous picture, he has been taken off his ARV treatment as it is suspected that he maybe HIV negative. If so he will have to leave the home as it is an HIV orphanage. It would be very sad for him to have to leave his magna family especially as he has lived his whole life here. The magna staff was praised for the excellent care they gave him as it was suspected that he would die as a young baby malnourished with TB. His mother unlike his father is alive but addicted to solvent abuse and has no contact. Of course it would be great if he was negative though. Sayha is so cute it takes all my willpower to stop myself giving him a huge cuddle when I’m meant to be telling him off, sometimes I can’t resist.

I have a very exciting project at the moment, that will help me, if successful, to leave my stamp on the project. Magna have had a few members of staff leave recently leaving other members with a greatly increased work load.  Key, who I love, is the Group home manager, and has asked me to help make a system of collecting all the profiles of the children, working out the yearly costs for all the children and work out a rolling budget for the Group Homes. Which they don’t have already! I think that when staff left they didn’t pass on various pieces of useful information.  So, lovely Key and I are going to set up a database. Neither of us knows how to use Microsoft access so we are going to learn which should be very interesting.

We have been experiencing lots of power cuts recently, almost every night in GH1 where we live, almost  every other hour at the hospital, and at GH2 electricity is a rare luxury.  At the hospital there is the added excitement of temperamental running water. The bathrooms have huge buckets of water that are kept full ready for the common cease of running water. Last week the buckets ran out though, so I was forced use the toilet using just my baby fingers so as to avoid getting my hands too germy. Whilst I’m on the topic, the Cambodians don’t use toilet paper, all the toilets are accompanied by tiny shower hoses as a replacement. On my arrival I thought they were for washing your feet, I still use them for just that.

Beth and I went to Sihanoukvile for a long weekend as it was a national holiday yesterday. We visited two project trust volunteers who are in a teaching project. They teach 18 to 24 year olds. They have accomodation with en-suite, and a big kitted out kitchen, with a big kitchen table that doesn’t wobble! We are very jealous.  Some of their students were Apsara dancing at a Christian church service so we went to watch. It was a Christmas service in Khmer so we saw a nativity play, was the story we know but with some small Cambodian details, e.g. they wore adaptations of the traditional Khmer dress. It was very entertaining and interesting to see. We spent the rest of the weekend on the beach, seeing Sihanoukville, and eating some delicious seafood. On two of the bus journeys we have taken we have been given food by Cambodians, they are very generous with food, I have been told that this stems from the huge amount of starvation during the Khmer Rouge era.

My Khmer is getting quite confident now, I’m not really learning anything new but I am confident with the vocab I learnt on the course. I’m particularly good when I’ve been drinking. I was under the impression I would absorb vocab without really trying, it turns out that’s not the case at all.

King Herod

Week 11

I'm feeling great this week, very settled and happy.

I am also feeling better about my teaching I was beginning to worry I was falling into a teachers rut and my lessons were becoming a little repetitive so this week we played lots of new educational games including the children's particular favorite 'bang bang'. The children compete for the winners position by being the first to guess the name of the flash card. The winner 'shoots' the looser who must die dramatically. I am going to make them a worksheet this week to help them learn the order of the days of the week, they were being a bit thick about it last week.


We began advent by introducing the children to advent calendars we had made for each home, with a day for each child. They found it very exciting and had memorized their 'day' very quickly. The advent calendars consist of a sweet for each day wrapped in a square of red material tied onto a long green ribbon with thick gold thread. Each sweet is numbered. I think they look pretty good.

Aids day on the 1st went well. We did some hygiene related activities including teaching the children to wash their hands properly using glitter and matching body parts to utensils. Its particularly important that these kids take care of their hygiene as their immune systems are low due to the  HIV virus and their treatment causes side effects such as very bad teeth.We spent the second half of the session playing some fun games. The day didn't go quite as well as hoped as some activities took longer than expected and others less time than expected. I also found it hard to give instructions and explain to the teachers and children what I wanted them to do  because of the language barrier. It was quite stressful but a very good experience. I expect the next fun day will go more smoothly.

This weekend we went to the cinema and then dinner with two expats which was really nice.We also decided that we are spending 2 weeks for New Year on the Thai island, Ko chan which I am very excited about.

Also I got two hugs from my favorite ma this week.

Week 10

I went on my first home based care visits this week. I went to two homes. The first was the home of 4 children and their parents. One of the children and the two parents are HIV positive. I found the first home really sad. It was in a big block of flats that were still being built at one end. The flat consisted of one room with a tiny balcony and a small bathroom built into the room. The father is a motodop (scooter taxi) driver and the mother sells dried chilli. They are very poor and were both out at work leaving the children at home alone. The flat was a mess and very dirty and had just a double bed frame and a small TV. The Home base care worker Srey mom and I sat with the children for a bit and Srey mom spoke to the children about not being lazy about their hygiene and invited the HIV positive boy to our aids day celebrations on the 1st. The second home seemed much nicer, it was a similar size but had more furniture, (some deckchairs and cushions and matts that are used to sleep on) and was much cleaner. A family of a Tuk Tuk driver and his wife and daughter, they seemed like a really lovely family and they gave us cold water and jack fruit to eat, which I considered very generous. The mother and daughter had both been in a traffic accident but they were pretty much fully recovered.We spent more time with this family, I got a little bored as I couldn't really understand what was being said but it was really interesting to see the homes. At some point Bethany and I will start updating all the files of these Home based care children.
We have been doing some much more productive liaising with Lakina, one of the Cambodian Magna staff, about Aids day, this week. We have it all organized, Bethany and I will spend most our day doing hygiene related activities and playing games with the younger children. These children are very early on in the stages of disclosing their HIV status, so we are not doing HIV related activities.

Bethany and I have been finding living so closely together in the orphanage a bit emotionally grueling so we are looking for some outside activities. Bethany has found a christian home group which she is going to start attending and I am looking for a music group to play with as I (much to the children's and ma's amusement) brought my trumpet with me.
We made an English speaking friend this morning! She is doing an internship for the Phnom Penh post newspaper for 3 months and she is going to come to the cinema with us next week to see 'Breaking Dawn'.

Skin infection much better :)

2 Months

We split the classes this week, which worked really well. My slightly smaller class takes place in the hallway and Bethany's more advanced class use the desks to write, in the classroom. We did the first of out monthly mini tests, they generally performed very well, with a few extremes, one very clever girl amazed us with her speed and accuracy whilst Vicheka the boy who's memory was affected by meningitis remembered one flash card. He seems to absorb the vocab quite well in the class and I had hope that the meningitis hadn't effected him as much as anticipated, but it must be his long term memory that is the problem. He also seems to have problems with pronunciation in Khmer and English, which I would be interested to know the cause of.

Bethany went on the home based care visits this week, but she think we may not continue this as the families don't want their neighbors to find out that they are HIV positive, and having westerners going into their homes will make the neighbors suspicious.

We also had a meeting with the Cambodian hospital staff about International Aids day on the 1st. We found it slightly frustrating as the response to most of our ideas was telling us what they had done in previous years. It was nice however to find out that it was not our sole responsibility to organize the day.

I look a bit of a mess at the moment our swim in the reservoir in Siem reip has given me an infected leg, foot, fingers and face. Its really hard to keep wounds clean here as our feet and legs are so exposed, and due to humidity and sweat I assume, they don't scab easily. Gross I know, poor Bethany has to look at me all day. I have started taking antibiotics though so should be back to my gorgeous self soon.

Week 8

We have had two little traumers this week at work. Sayha, the little boy pointing at the camera in the picture of the tuk tuk, fell down the stairs and had to spend a couple of nights in hospital, we couldnt really find out how he was hurt because of the whole translation issue, but hopefully he will be back at home bouncing about, when we return on Monday. Thearak, a girl of, I think 9. Has a recurring scalp condition. Therefore she has had her head shaved a couple of times. She had gorgeous ringlet hair to her shoulders but it was shaved of  at the weekend. It has really knocked her confidence, in the lesson she didn't want to join in and she has been very clingy. I feel very maternal and extremely sorry for her.
Group Home 2 had a bit of a roof mallfunction this week. We had extremely heavy rain and then our lesson was interrupted by water gushing through the ceiling. We had to do some frantic 6 man mopping and pushing water on to the balcony before it went through the floor, so that was quite exciting.
We also had Sorn, our supervisors leaving party, which consisted of really yummy food. We had beef kebabs and stripped vegetables with bread and chicken curry wth rice. I enjoyed it a lot, I even ate some of the beef.
We have spent Wednesday to Sunday on holiday in Siem Reip visiting Gabby and Katie, two other project Trust volunteers which has been really nice. Siem Reip is really lovely. It is cleaner and smaller than Phnom Penh and quite quaint. The French colonial influence in the architecture is very prominent here. We decided to wait  to see Ankor wat and the temples, when our families visit. We visited Gabby and Katie's project, I think we have it a bit tougher than them, they have a lovely big ensuite room a short picturesque cycle ride from the childrens home. They provide their own breakfast, so no rice. They have alot of short term volunteers that come and go which must be really nice to add a bit of excitement and much needed effortless  conversations in English. Seim Reip seems very western compared to Pnom Penh, and they often go out and weekends to bars and restaurants where they meet other westerners.They also have internet access at their accommodation. I do prefer our project though as we seem to be involved in more aspects of the NGO, I prefer our children and I just get a better feeling from our project,  but then im probably biased.

Week 7

I've been a little bit homesick mid week this week. I think it was because I was getting a bit bored. The lessons are great but in between I have about 2 hours spread out of just playing with the children which gets a little bit tedious. However we had an educational meeting on Friday and we have built some more into our schedule.
After the water festival we are going to start doing Home based care visits on a Friday afternoon, we will visit the homes of HIV children on the Magna program but not living in the orphanage, so as to monitor their health and the taking of their treatment. This means that we have had to shuffle our schedule leaving us with less free time, which makes me much happier. We are also organizing trips swimming at a hotel with Sothy the deaf and partially blind child, and an arts and crafts club on a Thursday morning. Application for materials has to be made a month in advance though so it can be put in the monthly budget, so the arts and crafts club wont start for a little while, its very strange and a bit frustrating not being able to have materials and stationary on demand. We have  been asked to set monthly mini tests for our English students, write reports on the kids every 3 months and update the children's files and send reports to the sponsors every six months. Hopefully this will all keep me sufficiently busy.

The very young children started pre-school this week  which means that we are left with the slightly older ones for the morning lesson. I am happy about this as the children left in our class  are old enough to learn some English, and some of them are behind in their education due to time spent ill or in hospital so it is nice to give them extra attention.

This week I was taken for dinner, by a couple of the staff to a street cafe serving what they call porridge. It ][you either couldn't taste or got overwhelming amounts of in a mouthful, strips of a vegetable which tasted like ginger soaked in sugar, eggs which at first I was pleased to see but I think they were pickled and in the very early stages of growing a chick, served with stuffed intestine and stomach. I don't think i disguised my horror very well and ate very little under the excuse that I find rice incredibly filling. I went home however to find the mas had cooked my favorite of their dishes, a spinach and chicken and sauce stir fry thing. Which I ate with delight. We had our first Cambodian deep fried battered banana, it was sooooo yummy, but I think contained enough calories to last a week. I am getting used to the orphanage food now and enjoying it, though I still pick around the meat.

I received parcels this week! I had to wait 5 days before I could go to the post office and pick them up, I am pretty sure I was more excited and probably more grateful for those parcels than I have been about Christmas presents in a long time.

We only have two days of work this week and then we are going up to Siem Reip as we think there will be some celebrations for the Water Festival, and we are going to visit two of the other Project trust volunteers, I am very excited. 

Going back home now to see how well our mattress is drying out, we had a massive downpour in the past 12hours, so we came in for lunch today to find the home surrounded by water and a huge puddle in the middle of our room and our mattress was sodden.

Jum reap lear

Week 6

Bethany has Dengue fever, a bit like a bad flu that you get from mosquitoes.
So she has had the week off work leaving me to teach on my own. I was a bit scared at first but I've actually really enjoyed it and I think it has been good for me as I have been forced to make all the quick decisions and come up with ideas rather than relying on Beth. We have studied the weather this week, which has been a lot of fun as we have actions which the kids continued to demonstrate with their new vocabulary on tuk tuk journeys to and from GH2. During the week we had a huge storm which I found terribly exciting as there was so much rain that it almost came under our bedroom door, it provided a great opportunity to practice vocab. The kids struggle a lot with pronunciation, in a similar way to how I struggle with pronouncing Khmer. The Cambodians have a much softer accent than us so it is hard to pronounce hard letters like ds and ts, which makes it difficult for the kids, even if they know the word I don't always understand what they are saying due to pronunciation.

On Thursday morning three monks came to visit and bless (I think that's what Buddhists do) the new Group Home House. We all gathered in one room in front of the monks and some Buddhist ornaments, and I was promptly told off by one of the Mas and a whole bunch of the older children for showing the soles of my feet to the monks, by sitting with my legs outstretched in front of me. I was told I could either sit in the kneeling position(ow) or with my legs to one side with my feet pointing backwards. I chose this option, but I had to have my hands in the praying position so had no support. As the Buddhists chanted my feet and legs got pins and needles, then became very sore and then finally I lost all feeling. The chanting went on for ages and I was far more restless than any of the kids. Then to mine and a few others great amusement Sayha a boy of 3 years who had to his disgust been forced into a pair of trousers that morning, stood up let out a huge yawn and threw his trousers to the floor. The monks were not perturbed but just as I was beginning to think I would never feel my feet again, one of the monks' phone rang and he answered it! I was shocked that I had to suffer such pain but the monks could interrupt Buddha with a phone call,  but I decided to take the high ground and stayed on the floor. During the blessing we had to give the monks a donation of rice and stew, which I think was also blessed and we all had to touch the person in front whilst the front group handed the food over. We were also sprinkled with water, I think in a similar way to how Christians cleanse themselves of their sins. I got the impression that the water was being directed towards me the Western sinner, but I may have been mistaken.

This weekend has been really nice Bethany was diagnosed on Thursday and as it is so tricky to sleep well at the orphanage, Bernadette our country representative generously invited us to stay with her in Phnom Penh. I joined them on Friday and I have enjoyed a weekend of Western food, dvds, swimming, a sofa and air con. It has been so nice. Although I think I had a 24 hour bug yesterday and threw up so that wasn't so nice. It was the anniversary of the kings coronation, the Kings father's birthday, and a Buddhist celebration this weekend so we have enjoyed two impressive firework displays.

Our little night light broke during the week so now we have no light what so ever in our room after 5 30, and I found a bed bug in our bed. Not pleased.

Week 5

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This week has been our first week of teaching. I think my favorite week so far. At the moment Bethany and I are teaching together, we are going to gradually split the classes as we get more confident. Our first class on Monday was the older Kids, it was extremely stressful and tiring but it went ok, we didn't really know their abilities so had to think on our feet a little when they worked through out lesson plan quicker than expected. We repeat each of the older children's lessons, and the second group seemed less able than the first group, I think this was due to chance. The lessons with the older children became less and less stressful through out the week as we settled in, I enjoy them allot. There does seem to be quite a range of abilities however within the groups so Bethany and I are going to  try and split the group with in the classroom soon.

The pre-school group that we teach however are a nightmare. Our first lesson was hilariously terrible, it resembled a scene from cheaper by the dozen (a comedy film about parents that can't handle their twelve children). We had completely misjudged their abilities and concentration span. We changed tactics for the next lessons and made coloring in worksheets and slipped in English vocab whilst they were coloring in, this was much more effective. It was really nice by the end of the week watching the children so eager to get our praise.

The floods here have been so bad that the annual water festival, a bigger Cambodian version of Henley Regatta,  that happens mid November has been cancelled. The government has said that the money will go to the flood relief effort (there is an election at the end of the year), many are sceptically however of how much of the money will got to the relief effort. We will however still have a three day national holiday, during which we are planning on doing some traveling.

I'm not sure whether i am getting used to the food or it is getting more tasty, but I am enjoying meal times more and more. I feel less rude now not eating the meat as it has become clear it is not their cooking it is the meat, and they are giving us more vegetables which is very nice. Whenever we are given food such as egg or fried rice, we tell them in our best Khmer how much we enjoyed it so I think this may be helping too.

I went for a run yesterday as it was cool and a little bit rainy. I felt like Paula Radcliffe running the marathon. Everyone I passed either stared, stood up, waved or laughed, one man even ran next to me for a bit. They found it very strange seeing someone out running for the sake of getting some exercise, even the Mas (caregivers) thought it was funny. One of the amused moto drivers gave me a free lift across a flooded patch of road though which was kind. I have also been playing some volleyball with the two older boys, which I enjoy allot.

We have been given the task of organizing a fun day in celebration of International HIV/AIDS day on December the first (I think). It is going to include all the Magna children and staff, and all the children and parents on the Magna program at the Hospital. So that will be fun but take allot of thinking and ideas. If anyone has any good ideas they would be greatly appreciated, we are doing a mixture of educational (HIV, nutrition, hygiene etc) and fun activities, games and things.

Beth has been quite ill for the past few days feeling sick, headachey and had a temperature, if shes not feeling better on Monday were going to talk to a Magna doctor just so were sure its not Malaria. Better safe than sorry.


Love to all

Month 1!

Sour S'dei
I have finally felt settled in this week. Our schedule has been similar to last week with a few additions, including some administrative work at the hospital. We are transferring various test results e.g. white blood cell counts, cd4 counts, from big folders going back many years into a grid which magna is then going to be putting on a computor database. Its quite interesting work as although I dont know what many of the numbers mean I am able to see how much they change, I assume showing how much healthier the children are under Magna's care. Its also quite a nice break from the hectic orphanage, and the room we work in has air conditioning! However I did find it slightly mind boggling to start with as apparently I don't know the days of the year.

We have also gained a little furniture including two comfy chairs and two stacks of shelves so I thoroughly enjoyed turning our slightly bare classroom into a gorgeous homey flat, which I am very proud of. We could just do with some light bulbs now so that we can see our way around after 6pm in the evening.

Mid-week I decided I was brave enough to attempt to teach the kids how to play a card game called Uno, using the little Khmer I know and alot of miming. I am chuffed to say that I managed, Uno went down a storm. I think we may have beaten the world record for longest stint of play, and largest number of players, we were cramed around a table for 2hours! I was then greeted as I woke up, to little hands poking through my window demanding round two. I was very amused by their attitiude towards the game, it seems cambodians play games with alot more emotion, they slam cards and chess pieces at the table. One little boy seemed to enjoy slamming the card at the table so much that he didnt seem to mind which card he was throwing.

On Friday afternoon we took some of the older kids to a U21s football match between Cambodia and Thailand. Sadly Thailand won but it was alot of fun cheering Cambodia along and munching on snacks of fruit dipped in various sugar,salt and chilli combinations.5 people were strechered of the pitch! Seemed a bit unnecessary really.

This weekend, being our one month anniversary we stayed in a guest house on saturday night in Phnom Penh. We celebrated over an expensive ($6.50) dinner of greatly missed western food. Having settled in now at the orphanage I have been able to do some exploring of the local area and have discovered lots of tasty food. On the way to the hospital I often treat myself to something from the bakery, most reasantly a cocunut filled sweet dough which was delicious and cost just 25 cents, we have also found deep fried banana chips, rice and sesame seed sugary tablet stuff, lychees in a scary looking tentacled shell, tomato and shrimp stir fry, and iced milk coffies which are so yummy. They are made from condensed milk and coffee poured over crushed iced, and in very cambodian cafes cost just 2000 riel (40p ish).

Next week we start teaching which is exciting but a little scary, we have made some rather beautiful flash cards (well Bethany's are)this weekend in preparation.
Cambodia is suffering from the worst floods in eleven years at the moment, which is very worrying for those in the countryside as alot of people have died, have had to leave the homes and rice crops are being damaged, but Phnom Penh is high so I'm not really seeing the effects.

We have discovered that the postal service is much more effective than imagined which is good, Bethany has recieved lots of lovely parcels from her family taking under two weeks to get here. I haven't received anything from my family but I hope this will be rectified soon!

Lear hi

Week 3

This week has been diverse. The beginning of the week was extremely tiring as we were getting used to allot of new things, so both Beth and I had a bout of slightly teary culture shock. For the first 3 days we were getting to know the kids and began to adapt to their timetable.
The first screams, yells and jumping on the floor boards above, tend to be at an invigorating 5am sometimes earlier. We eat breakfast and then a section of the Kids leave for school at 7am. We spent the mornings playing with the kids at home, and watching the Magna teachers giving lessons and doing activities with the children. At eleven everyone returns to the orphanage for lunch which is greatly appreciated after a long morning. The afternoon consists of a siesta with the younger kids whilst the rest are at school and then more playing and activities followed by dinner at 5. The younger children have outside showers under a hose and any scabies wounds are painted with Iodine. Bethany and I crash into our beds at eight o'clock.
On Thursday and Friday we were relieved to be given some instructions, in English, of what we would be doing during the year and we were given a vague timetable. We will be teaching English and some computer skills, holding activities for the Kids at the orphanage and doing some administrative work in the hospital.

I am going to give the food I have been eating  section of its own; rice, rice, rice.
For breakfast we have rice with a small piece of meat and occasionally as a treat some egg. Lunch and dinner consists of , of course, rice with either a meat or fish stew. I have had some problems with the food as meat and I don't get on well, and this week our disagreements have reached a whole new level. The meat that we are given is not meat it is the bones and grizzle you would find in a butchers bin in England. So meal times have been a struggle. However there are some delicious sweet treats sold on street stalls just outside the orphanage gate. For example dumplings made from rice (though unrecognizably) sitting in coconut milk with coconut shavings.
Oh and i was persuaded to try cockroach, frog, crickets and ants! They didn't taste bad at all but it was a terrible experience psychologically.
At the weekend we stayed with Son, one of the Magna staff looking after us, and his wife, in Phnom Penh. They are both so so generous and really lovely, we stayed with them for two nights. We went to a classical concert on Friday, which was very impressive, and they took us to a gym and pool on Saturday. We were also introduced to some of their dominantly French friends. On Saturday night we ate dinner using a mixture of French, Khmer and English translations which was an entertaining challenge. We returned to the orphanage with high spirits after a very nice break.

The bed bugs are showing no signs of weakness, but I don't really mind. I have grown very fond of GH1 as the Kids are slightly older so I can talk to them a little and the Mas, though they speak no English, are really kind. I have even got used to sleeping practically on the floor, today I did sleep on the floor during my siesta.

Lots to say but the Tuk Tuk is leaving for GH2 soon.
Lots of love

Week 2

Jum reap sour,

I am like Christmas Dinner for Mosquitoes. I am constantly plagued by Itchy Scratchy, though am slowly learning to outwit them with some extremely cheap long clothes from the market.
We have made numerous trips to the central market and lucky ice cream parlor as this week has been slightly boring. We were continuing with our Khmer course but had eight hours around them to fill. My haggling has become quite impressive due to my growing list of Khmer vocab, though according to Nim, the Khmer teacher, it is not growing quick enough.
We went to a club towards the end of the week, with all six volunteers this time. We had a lot of fun dancing and learnt a few moves from the prostitutes to their amusement. The music was a Cambodian twist of western club music which sounded quite strange to us.

On the last day of our Khmer course we were taken to a traditional Cambodian restaurant by Nim. There was no menu as the Cambodians that visit seem to know what to order, this makes it completely tourist free but it is clearly extremely popular with the locals. We ate barbecued beef and prawns with various dips. Mango salad, made from grated green savory mango and dried fish, with coriander lime, and various other herbs and spices I couldn't identify. Fried rice with tiny shrimps. A sweetcorn salad that is delicious but hard to describe other than off the cob and slightly dried with lots of herbs and dressing. We drank Cambodian iced tea, and a berry jelly drink neither of which I have any way of describing.
During the week Nim also took us to one of the many salons which are frequently visited by Cambodian women, I spent just 3 dollars on a Mani Pedi, and was entertained by a football game on the television between the government Ministers of Cambodia and Thailand!
Bethany my project partner and I were surprised to find that we were not going to our project until Monday leaving us with one day without the rest of the group. Bethany is a Christian so many of you will be pleased to hear we went to church in the morning.It was a good service though I was slightly disappointed by the quality of music, no one really knew the tunes. We were made to feel very welcome and we went to lunch with a Mexican and two polish expats.We enjoyed proper Indian food , no chicken Tikka masala, it was yummy.

Yesterday we arrived at our project. The orphanage is made up of two group homes. GH1- older smaller home, where half the children live. GH2-which has just been moved into, it is much bigger with a lovely garden. This is where Beth and I will live and teach most lessons.
However, it is infested with bed bugs so we are all squeezed into GH1 at the moment whilst a company clean the house. I was slightly shocked by our accommodation for the week, as we are in a classroom on an extremely thin mattress with a cushion each., luckily I brough a sheet from home, But then i found out that 25 of the children will be sleeping simply on a tiled floor whilst the others are squeezed onto a mattress, so now i feel lucky.
We have had a look around GH2 and our accommodation for the year, it's plush, we have an en-suite wet room! When we have give it a clean I'm sure it will quickly feel like home.

I'm sorry this post is late we have no internet at the group home, so I am having to visit an internet cafe.I am also struggling to upload pictures through my iPad but I will try and find a way.
Must get back, but I will fill you in on the work I am doing next week.

Niyeay peil krowee!

Week 1

Jum reap Sour,

 

I've been here in Cambodia a little over a week now and despite the heat, the mosquitos and the bed bugs, im enjoying it alot.

I'm currently staying in a guest house in central Phnom Penh, taking a two week Khmer course along with the five other Project Trust volunteers. Despite a wobbly start  as I am no linguist, im beginning to pick it up. We have 4 hours a day of lessons from a cambodian university graduate called Nim, who seems very keen to get us all cambodian boyfriends.

We are currently on a three day break as it is the Festival of the dead; the city is very quite as everyone goes back to their hometowns to pay respect to their ancestors. It's interesting to see small offerings of food along with incense sticks all over the place and when we visited a temple, huge offerings of rice and money were being made.

 

During the week we have visited all of the main tourist attractions on offer in Phnom Penh including the markets, where the amounts of fake designer handbags, purses, sunglasses and watches is crazy. When I come back looking like I've just walked out of Harrods you will know why.

We visited the National museum which was very Cambodian and impressive architecturally, the museum housed mostly ancient artefacts which I found less interesting than some of the Khmer Rouge history.

We also visited the Royal Palace which was very grand and I was interested to find that the King is commonly suspected to be gay. Which is easily accepted. I was very sad however to find that the scene from King and I, where the king rides down the street on an elephant would not be reanacted infront of me as the white elephant has died and was replaced with mercedes benz and BMWs.

 

 

We also visited the Toul sleng genocide museum, the prison in which thousands of people were kept and tortured; and the killing fields where the prisoners where taken to be executed. Both were extremelly sad. I found the museum particularly interesting as our guide had witnessed the ruthlessness of the Khmer Rouge era. He told us that his two sisters and father had died, father having dug his own grave. He told us how he had been sent to a centre for children which he hated so he ran away home, he found his mother but she refused to talk to him and sent him back as she was scared. So this will give us something to think about when we think our homesickness is bad.  

 

A couple of nights ago we enjoyed Cambodian Night life, we visited a couple of bars and one club, one of the bars we believe to have turned out to be a brothel. I was astonished by the huge amounts of prostitutes in all the bars and clubs . They seemed very keen to talk to us and we enjoyed alot of compliments. The club was so cool even for London standards but was again filled with large amounts of prostitutes and fat pervy businessmen. So that night turned out to be the best people watching I have ever done.

 

I have another week in central Phnom Penh before I make my way to Takhmao to my Project, hopefully with enough Khmer to communicate with the kids.

 

Jum reap Lear