Pen Pals, Orphanage and Sports Day

I am happy to report that I have had an incredible week teaching some delightful, energetic and very enthusiastic Cambodian children. Susie and I have two classes; one class are beginners and only know very basic English, the other class are more advanced and already have an excellent grasp of the language, so it's nice to teach two very different but equally lovely classes. I must admit that before arriving, I wrongly assumed that the children would be very shy and timid. How wrong I was! They are quite the opposite!

When we are not teaching, we are sleeping on the floor of a big shed and taking a shower by throwing a bucket of rain water over ourselves. The added bonus is that the water is stored in a big tank where you can indulge in a selection of bugs to include in the throwing of the bucket. The best part though is not having a guaranteed supply of electricity so we are often plunged into darkness and huddle around a candle talking until the Vietnamese decide to let Cambodia have their electricity back. When there is light, we are having to rely on a makeshift table tennis table, conversation with our fellow volunteers and walking around the village talking to the locals using our chirades skills!

Farmland

A typical village house

Collecting water

The long road into the village

So I'm going to try and condense all the highlights of the week as not to bore everyone! The first highlight of week 1 was giving the children the name of their English pen pals and explaining that my class in England have written all about themselves and that you are going to do the same for them. When the children saw that their English pen pals had given them some lovely gifts consisting of stationary, toys, books and many more wonderful things, they were so excited! It made all the strain of carrying 30 pen pal packs with some very generous but annoyingly heavy gifts all around Thailand and Cambodia for 2 weeks in the scorching heat and unforgiving humidity all worth while!!!

Next to the orphanage. In the nearest big town called Takeo about 15km away, we decided to take a trip to the orphanage. The children here were equally as delightful as the children we teach in the school. So just as we were getting to know them by me embarrassing myself playing them some tunes on the guitar, playing some Cambodian playground games and even showing off some of my football skills with some of the boys, an ice cream man turned up. This wasn't an ice cream man like in England...this was an ice cream man on a bike with a cool box on the front. As some of the children decided to get there 500 riel (8 pence) out to buy one, the volunteers decided to buy an ice cream for every child at the orphanage. This must have been about 30 children and it cost all of 2 US Dollars (£1.32) Ridiculous!!!

Giving them some gifts

The final highlight of the week was organising a sports day! I was in my element! We set up a long jump area and a shot put area and we organised a number of different races, my favourite by far being the sack race! The children looked positively perplexed when we explained that they had to step inside the sack and jump all the way to the finish line. The children also took part in a lime and spoon race (no eggs were available) and a number of relay races. To end the day, we had a tug of war! I have to say I have never seen children fall around laughing so much in my life! The sheer joy on their faces and their infectious enthusiasm once again lit up the village!

Next instalment - Week 2