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on Mary In Cambodia (Cambodia), 19/Nov/2009 10:10, 34 days ago
Monday Nov. 9th.Today is Independence day.I travelled by taxi with 3 other volunteers who will be working in my area to Sisophon. We were met by Jan and Jen. Jen has kindly offered me accommodation for this week. She will also introduce me and help me find a place to live.Tuesday 10th.Today is the day. Sokpa, my volunteer assistant arrived at 7 30 this morning to take me to visit one of the 3 District Offices of Education that I’ll be working with. Attired in biker’s jacket and snazzy helmet I hopped on the back of the moto and we were off. Jen and her V.A, set out with us. Sokpa and I arrived safely but Jen wasn’t behind, they got a puncture. I felt a bit of panic as the Director came running out to greet us. Alone,there was so much to try to remember-How do you do( in Khymer), bow, don’t look him in the eye,And try to explain what happened to Jen. About 40 people were waiting to meet us, all bowing and needing to be greeted politely. I got through ok,only forgot to take off my shoes. The first question they asked—How old am I?Now we would think that very rude, but here it’s expected because the older one is the more respect they show you. They were very courteous and said they thought I was 20 years younger, that made my day. Jen and Vomit( smirk if you must, but that’s his name) finally arrived and the meeting began.The Director insisted on sending the assistant Director with us to visit two model child-friendly schools in his area. He seemed very proud of the standard reached in these schools.We asked if we could see one model and one that needed help from us, but he mis-understood us.We were made very welcome in both schools. One was easy to get to. To reach the second one we drove along a bumpy country lane for ages. When we got there the Village Elder was waiting to greet us. He was eager to show us the work he had done with the children developing the grounds around the school. I was impressed, a man after my own heart.He had set several different trees so that the children would know about the forest. Forests are out of bounds because they haven’t been cleared of mines since the war.All this done and it isn’t even 11 o’clock.