Hello from Cambodia 12
on Chris and Jon in Cambodia (Cambodia), 05/Apr/2008 08:50, 34 days ago
At last we have started to do some proper work. We ran a workshop for 30 people on Effective Teaching and Learning and it went off without a hitch, well almost. The 2 trainers who came out from Battambang were very inspiring and could have taught some of the nerds we’ve seen doing INSET in English schools a thing or two about presentation techniques.Every so often they would break into group singing, which everyone had to take part in, including us. We were amazed when they started to sing,“ My Grandfather has a farm, ei ei o “ to the tune of “Old MacDonald”.Of course we had to sing our English version, which caused some consternation because Cambodian ducks do not go Quack Quack, they speak Khmer. The photo shows a participant over come by the brilliance of the workshop. No actually, one of the teachers had to bring his daughter along and, love her, she slept all the way through it on a table.Yesterday we drove to a school about an hour away, which is set against the spectacular backdrop of a mountain, to observe the teachers who had attended our workshop cascading the ideas on to their colleagues, who seemed equally enthusiastic.It was quite heartening, Of course we have been to enough INSET ourselves to know that the initial inspiration soon wears off when faced with the actual chalk face and you slip back into the easy old bad habits. It must be even harder to initiate new teaching methods when faced with 50 kids with ages ranging from 6 to 14 and you have been up since 5am tending your fields, but it’s a start.On the way Jon had to fill up his moto at the local equivalent of BP. The price of petrol has gone up from 3800 Riels (just under $1) a litre to 4600 Riels since we got here, now that is inflation!Part of our lack of progress so far is due to the fact that we are supposed to be working in partnership with the local District Education Office. Unfortunately this has not really taken off mainly because they are rarely in the office and when they are they claim to be too busy to work with us. This is probably not because we have pissed them off; we get on quite well with them when we see them, but more due to their lack of confidence in their own ability and a fear of showing themselves up. The picture shows us in our office showing the Director of the DOE some pictures we had taken of schools we had visited.His mode of attire is not unusual for him and the gold you can see is but a small example of that which he has, including in his mouth. The head of Education from the VSO HQ in Phnom Pehn came for a visit earlier in the week and has done a bit of bridge building so hopefully we will get more cooperation from now on. Overall he seemed quite pleased with what we have achieved so far though we got the feeling that he had not realised the full extent of the problems we have to face out here physically, culturally and socially. He has promised us more support, which is encouraging, but we’ll believe it when we see it.We are still on good terms with the monks who are in the process of building themselves an extension to their pagoda. As we drive past them on our way to work everyday we get muffled shouts of“hello, how are you” from holes in the ground.The pictures are of Onno, one of the Dutch volunteers, at the top of the hill which our Wat is on, the Wat in Kampong Cham and some of our monks, yes some of them are that young! Monks are not always our favourite people though. Last weekend we were staying at Jean’s house in Battambang, which backs onto the main Wat and was consecrating a new temple. This kicks off at 4am with worthy words interspersed with gamalan music broadcast at full volume from the loud speaker situated on the Pagoda roof. As the morning progresses this evolves into chanting and drumming with, what sounds like, a bad stand up comedian thrown in for good measure. In the afternoon the fun fair starts up with dodgems and roundabouts accompanied by the usual Khmer karaoke tunes, although we swear at one point we heard the Carpenter’s “its yesterday once more “. Believe us there is nothing mystical about these monks. After 16 hours of this bloody awful row we all had splitting headaches and were screaming blasphemies, which I’m sure, even the Buddha would have countenanced. To top it all at 8pm the local night club joined in with its “duf, duf, duf”, and we had toresort to Gin and Tonics to deaden the pain. If that’s living in the big city give me the peace quiet and boredom of Phnom Preuk any time.And now the weather report. HOT HOT HOT. At times the thermometer on our balcony was reading 100 degrees, and it’s in the shade. It is almost impossible to go outside during the main part of the day and we have to keep the fans going all night. To put it politely, we are continually damp and have taken to wearing Khmer dress about the house. For Jon this is a kroma, a short cotton wrap around skirt, and Chris has made 2 loose kaftan style frocks out of kampots. Very fetching but cool in every sense of the word. In the last week there have been thunderstorms rolling around in the mountains that bring the occasional showers of rain, which are cooling but nothing like the deluge we can expect when the rainy season hits with full force next month.The highlight of the last few weeks is Sophen building his own house. We have been visiting it regularly to inspect the work in progress. He had to get the wood from an old barn that was being pulled down, take out all the nails, plane it and then re use it. It has been quite a saga, and he was really worried that his money would run out.Over all it has cost him about 700 dollars, but he is so proud. Now he and his wife Sophala can start a family. Note that the shed in the background is where he and Sophala are living now, with several other teachers, and he is a deputy head of a high school!Cambodia is now gearing itself up for the New Year, which in theory lasts 3 days but in practice goes on till May. The schools have already closed and everyone is going back to their home villages for family gatherings. Consequently the Education office is even more empty than usual (ie just us) and as the market will also be shut next week there will be bugger all for us to do out here. We considered taking a city break to Kula Lumpur but guessed it will be even more humid and horrible than here so we are probably going back to Thailand for a couple of days where we can lie in the sea and cool down. Another reason for evacuating Cambodia is that along with the tinsel and shiny decorations that have started appearing in the market stalls, think Woolworth’s before Christmas, there are also a huge number of water pistols going on sale. Apparently it is a New Years tradition to squirt water and throw flour at unsuspecting passers by, so in order to avoid resembling doughboys we think discretion is the better part of valour, and are going to run away.Its time for the wild life section; Birds. There are surprisingly few wild birds around here but considering that they have cut down most of the trees it’s understandable. There are a few sparrows and swallows about and some blackbirdy type things but nothing exotic. What there are however is chickens, everywhere. The splendid cockerels strut about majestically and are treated as family pets. They are trained for fighting, by showing them their reflection in a mirror, although we have been told they do not fight to the death here.They do not crow“Cock a doodle doo”, but an abbreviated “Cock a doodle d…” which is deeply irritating at 4am. Some of the females have very beautiful plumage and would win a prize in an English country show, but the majority of the poultry are scraggy, featherless little bags of bones. They scurry about pecking and scratching, usually accompanied by a clutch of chicks that are no more than balls of fluff. We have long passed the “oh how sweet stage “ as when you are on the moto you have to continually swerve to miss the little buggers. They also go in for caged birds. One neighbour has a myna bird that follows him around, trotting along beside him chatting away like an irritating child. Next door they had a beautiful collared dove in a tiny cage that didn’t have room for it to spread its wings. Recently the cage has been empty, we are not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.A little R&R at a swimming pool in a hotel in Battambang. It's regularly topping 100F here and the water was a god send even if a little expensive at $5 for the day.Finally, bicycles. Although Chris is stupidly pleased with the way she is mastering off-roading on her moto, she has decided to ride her bike more. The main reason for this is exercise.Due to the state of the roads, the heat and the minefields, no one walks any where in this country and, as we have a lovely lady to do our cleaning and washing, the only exercise we get is climbing the stairs. So a short bike ride to work or to the market means that we don’t loose total use of our legs. The photo shows Chris in the traditional sampot, which she had to wear to the training workshop and the obligatory hat to stop your brain being fried. It’s the best one she could find - honest.