Beginning another year in Cambodia.
on Mary In Cambodia (Cambodia), 15/Sep/2010 12:58, 34 days ago
Mary in Cambodia. (Year 2). September 2010.My long awaited trip home has come and gone. I’m back in Cambodia and busily preparing for the opening of the new school year. It was great to spend time with my family and friends. Thank you all for the wonderful welcome and for all you did to make my visit memorable. Back here I feel like a millionaire, my cupboard and fridge full of western goodies, tea bags to last at least 6 months, cheese, chutney, chocolate, sauce and gravy mix and new underwear that hasn’t yet gone grey!! Who could ask for anything more?I received a great welcome on my return, Cambodian culture set aside, there were hugs all round. Sadly my colleague and young friend Gen has finished her placement and gone home. I miss the morning coffee where we set our world to right. The office is a lonelier place without her too. In case you read this Gen, Wim, Joe, Vomit, Samuth and I are missing you. Do keep in touch and let us know what new adventures you’re having. Gen’s replacement Hannah will join us in December.Apart from the weather, nothing much has changed here in Sisophon. The road outside our office has gone from a pot-holed mud track to a tarred‘highway’ and as it’s the rainy season dust is not such a problem. The country-side is green and the first of the rice is being harvested. As the rice is saved, many of the paddies are being prepared for a second crop. On our way back from visiting a school this week we stopped to watch a threshing in progress. It was just like going back to Kilmacow (the home of my youth),There was an old threshing machine and 3 teams of workers, all busy, feeding in the sheaves, bagging the grain and pitching the straw as it was blown out the chimney of the old machine. Joe assured me that this is progress, many places in Cambodia still flail by hand. I wondered if they celebrate the day’s work with a threshing dance as we did! The second crop is planted differently to the earlier one, where the seed was scattered on the freshly ploughed and raked soil, and it germinated and began to grow like wheat does in the west. The ground was damp but not flooded. This time the fields are under water. Well established rice plants are set by hand. I’ve watched what looks like back breaking work, Men and women, ankle deep in water, bent from the waist, walking backwards, planting as they go. The growing season is shorter this time, only about 1or2 more months of rain, so the plants need a head start. This I believe is the old way of growing rice and though the yield will not be as high, the resulting grain tastes better.The dikes by roadsides are full and local people are making the most of this precious water. In the morning they’re waist deep fishing with their nets. In the evening after the day’s work they gather to swim and splash about, or just chat and look on.Schools haven’t reopened yet, but this week starts the campaign to encourage children to enroll. In the villages, loudspeakers are attached to trees around the school and the invitation to come is loud and ceaseless. Children usually start school at the age of six, but sometimes much later. School hours are 7am to 11am or 1pm to 5 pm. (not both). The average class size is 50/60 students. The average teacher is paid $30 per month for 4 hours work 6 days a week. Life is not easy!