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!
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