Third and Final Week

On the weekend prior to the last week of teaching, we travelled north to Phnom Penh; a busy and bustling capital city that offers an array of restaurants, bars and cafes; vibrant night markets and much much more! The main reason for visiting Phnom Penh was to meet up with a good friend who is also travelling around Southeast Asia...but not in the most conventional way. James is currently travelling around Asia on his bike; not a motorbike  - a pedal bike! He has cycled his way through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Averaging between 150 - 200km a day in seriously hot conditions, on dusty roads and just his bike for company, it's safe to say he's crazy!!! It was great to see him though and we decided to hire out bikes to cycle around the city with him for the day. Although the traffic here is crazy, it was a really good way to see the sights.  He also managed to convince a cyclo driver to swap bikes for a few minutes.

James also told us many fascinating stories about his adventure, my favourite being how he'd been cycling for 11 hours and he fell asleep on his bike. Luckily he crashed to the side of the road and scraped all one side of his body rather than crashing the other way which could have resulted in a bus or lorry mopping him up!

So back to Hope school we travelled for our last week of teaching. Just to prove I wasn't lying about the conditions, here are some photos of the shower and the facilities at the school.

Our luxury bathroom

Complete with water tank containing rainwater and bugs

The kitchen

The staff room

The shower

Sleeping quarters

The rainy season has just begun here as well which usually consists of a really powerful downpour for an hour or two, then it stops and the sun comes out as if nothing ever happened. If your unfortunate enough to be teaching when the rain comes then you can say bye bye to lessons as it is so loud! You have to shout at the top of your voice to be heard and it's actually too tempting to play outside anyway!

The volunteers and pupils can only wait for it to stop

Stuck in the classroom

So to week 3 of teaching. This week our advanced class learnt about introductions, such as what you might say when you meet up with friends, what you would say in a cafe and what you would say to a doctor etc. Their English was really advancing at this point and they grasped this concept incredibly well! On the last day of teaching, the children made friendship bracelets to send to their pen pals in England and we put some music on my iPod. By the fifth time of listening to Gangnam Style, it was safe to say I was bored to death of this song and every time I tried to play another song, they demanded that I play Gangnam style again! This is something I definitely won't miss!

Susie showing them how to make friendship bracelets

Gangnam Style!

We also gave them pencil cases on the last day

On the final day, we were also presented with a number of letters and drawings from the children to say thank you for teaching us. Obviously Susie was popular among some of the girls but the longer letter written by the youngest girl in the class called Chipu was very nice indeed. She said she wants to be an English teacher like me one day and wished me happiness in my family. You shouldn't have favourites but she definitely became mine.

In the beginner class we worked on their phonics, particularly short vowel sounds and by the end of the week they were able to sound out and read some words like cat and dog. I know this sounds easy but for a class who have had no prior english and read and write in a completely different language, (Khmer) this was a huge achievement! This class were also given their English pen pals and as with the other class, they were overjoyed when they found gifts waiting in their packs. So they wrote thank you letters and drew a picture of themselves or their family for us to send back to England. We were very proud of them so on the last day we had some fun which included a huge water fight!

Susie also had a very busy week. First, her and another volunteer went for a walk around the village with the school coordinator and recruited children for the nursery. When they had to collect some information such as date of birth, the parents had no idea what it was for their children and proceeded to scurry into their houses and find the document with the information on. Crazy! Next day, the nursery began. Susie (nursery manager) organised all the activities for the mornings, such as colouring in, games, songs, musical bumps and even a sports day, which I had to join in with! Yet again, we did long jump, with a little help from myself, shot put and attempted skipping races but this didn't go down too well as I don't think they'd ever seen a skipping rope before.

It's safe to say that these children were very cute and Susie asked many times if we could smuggle some of them back to England with us! I explained to Susie that I don't think their parents would be particularly happy with this arrangement! I had to watch that she wasn't squeezing any of them into our back packs though!

I didn't mention this in Week 2 because I'm fully aware that I can ramble a little bit but once or twice a week we have been visiting the orphanage. As it was our last week and I was split between leaving my guitar as a donation to the school or giving it to a particularly talented guitar player at the orphanage, I went with the second option. So after showing her a few new chords and trying to teach her about 'The Beatles', I said, 'you need to practice everyday and one day you'll be a rockstar!' Although her reply was...'like Justin Bieber?' I let that slip and then she explained that she didn't have a guitar to practice with. My reply was something along the lines of 'yes you do, you're holding it'... It's fair to say this was a really nice moment.

Once again, the ice cream man arrived and once again we bought the children ice creams!

So the week finished and we said our goodbyes. This was not an easy thing to do as we had grown very fond of all the children, the village and the orphanage. We also made some great friends at the school and is was sad to say bye to them as well.

All in all, it has been an amazing experience and I'd like to think we've had a positive influence on the children's lives and the children's education. The children of Hope School have certainly had a positive influence on our lives and education.

Nature Attacks!

Well what another action-packed week! It all started so serenely, however, it certainly didn’t end that way. But we’ll get to that in due course.

The great thing about where we’re teaching is that on the weekends, we’re able to catch a mini-bus with our fellow volunteers and explore other parts of Cambodia. So after an amazing first week, we made our way down to the coast to a town called Kep. Then we caught a boat over to Rabbit Island the next day. Why it’s called Rabbit Island is still a mystery to me but apparently it’s because when you’re travelling across on the boat, you can see two big hills that look like pointy rabbit ears.

This Island was a mini paradise! With hammocks slung all across the beach, guaranteed sunshine and a chance to swim in the ridiculously warm sea, there was no other option but to dose, catch up on some reading and enjoy a few cold ones. Until…a dead jellyfish decided to float by my foot when I was paddling in the sea and somehow I got stung! Believe it or not, it wasn’t that painful and when the locals started squeezing lime on it, I had to laugh! 

It's a hard life!

All the volunteers

So anyway, week 2 of teaching began and the topic for our beginner class was animals. We taught them the English words for common Cambodian animals such as dog, cat, cow, chicken, elephant, gecko, ant and snake. By the end of the week, we (well Susie) showed them how to make their own animal masks.

Arts and Crafts Susie

Interesting cat

With our more advanced class, we continued the Pen Pals work! Children wrote about their hobbies, their families and their daily routines. My favourite part of the school day though is after lessons, not because I’m happy the lessons have finished but because then you proceed to spend the next half an hour playing with all the children. These children do not hold back! They jump on your back and demand piggyback rides; try and wrestle you to the ground and pinch, squeeze and tickle you until you decide to chase them! They are so fast and nifty though that it’s an achievement when you catch them!  They also happily run in bare feet over sharp stones and twigs and don’t bat an eyelid, whereas I would cry out in pain!

So to the dramatic ending to the week. I’m going to present this with 2 alternative realities of what actually happened and I’ll let you, the reader, decide which one to believe. I would only recommend that you use your imagination.

Version 1: It was a dark, dank and misty evening. The rain was falling sharply like teeth gnawing away at your sanity. With no electricity and only the faint burning of candles for light, the volunteers reluctantly gathered around to feast on their evening meal. We weren’t the only ones who wanted to feast that night! In the corner of my eye, I saw shadows move. What were they? I thought to myself. My heart rate quickened and my breathing slowed as I tried to listen out for what the slow, terrifyingly assured movements were. Then, without warning, a huge beast crashed onto the table and cried out to his pack.

“Run, save yourselves” I shouted to all the volunteers. “I’ll keep them occupied! Run!”

The next thing I knew a pack of wild dogs, baring their long, sharp teeth and frothing at the mouth started circling. Suddenly the leader jumped from the table towards me. Without thinking, I grabbed the nearest thing to me, which happened to be the chair, took an almighty swing and knocked the beast flying! Dazed and stunned, the dog gingerly rose and growled an evil growl! This must have been some kind of order because then the rest of the pack started creeping closer and closer towards me.  With the ninja training I had extensively received prior to the trip, it was time to dance! I dispatched one with my fist, kicked another into next week, wrestled one with my bare hands until it was unconscious and to my surprise the rest of the pack scarpered, tails between their legs…all apart from one…the leader! Adopting the warrior pose, I beckoned the leader to come and fight with a simple come here motion with my fingers. The beast followed this command and jumped at me. As I kicked, punched and wrestled the creature to the ground, I left the dog panting for breath!

“Go and never come back!” I bellowed.

The dog understood and began limping away but he wasn’t finished yet. Summoning all the energy he could muster, he jumped at me one more time and caught me completely unawares, took a chunk out of my foot and left me bleeding in agony. Before I could react, the evil beast ran as quick as the wind, out of sight, into the darkness.

Version 2: I accidentally stepped on a dog and it took a little nip at me. Although it’s absolutely guaranteed that the dogs don’t have rabies, I still have to have a course of 5 rabies injections. Ouch! I’m absolutely fine and dandy though, don’t worry.

Next installment - The third and final week.