Sun, sea and snakes

So when I left you last, we had just finished 3 weeks of teaching in a rural village in Cambodia. I left this beautiful country with some amazing memories but also with a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, I was so proud and privileged to have had the opportunity to teach and meet some inspirational children. On the other hand it was very sad to say our farewells uncertain whether we'd ever see those lovable rogues again.

Luckily for us, there was the rest of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos to explore over the course of the next 3 months. In as fewer words as possible, here is a summing up of those 3 months: fresh water dolphins in the mighty Mekong river, white sandy beaches, paradise, ridiculously cheap beer, glorious food, cycling around the cities, sand dune sledding, easy riding, elephant trekking, stunning national parks, caving, jungle trekking, boat trips, beautiful bays, sea kayaking, home-stays in rural...and I mean...rural villages, eating cobra, beautiful french colonial towns, live music by the river, partying, cooking courses, foot massages, full body massages, tubing, stunning waterfalls, jumping off big rocks, white-water rafting, sleeping in tree-houses, zip wiring through the jungle at heights amassing 150 metres from ground level.

Hopefully the last sentence caught your eye because I have to say 'The Gibbon Experience' was one of the best 2 days of my life. In the Laos jungle, there are a series of cables linking trees from distances ranging up to 600m across. With just a harness for company, you soar through the air for what seems like a lifetime and then you come to an abrupt halt on the other side. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? No it's the Fentonian warriors screaming with joy (and a little fear) as they zip wire through the jungle. We were also lucky enough to sleep in a treehouse about 100 metrres up from ground level.

Harnessed up and about to enter the jungle

The long walk into the jungle

Ready to fly

The best shower in the world. Don't worry I'm donning a big pair of swimming shorts.

The view from the treehouse

So to our current situation. There's not a more apt occasion than now to teach english for a few weeks in the hot, sunny, beach laden country of Thailand as it corresponds with children in the UK returning to school for another exciting year ahead of them. I know for a fact that teachers and pupils alike are jumping with joy and can't hide their broad smiles about the prospect of returning to school.

Background to teaching in Thailand

On Boxing Day 2004, one of the biggest natural disasters in history took place. The devastating earthquake induced tsunami destroyed many countries in Southeast Asia including Southern Thailand causing over 5000 fatalities and destroying many coastal towns, villages and communities. The basic humanitarian needs of the affected communities were addressed within days. The longer-term recovery of the affected communities and the local economy is now the focus... and that's where we come in. As part of this response, the Thai Government believe that English is an essential part of children's learning in the poor areas affected by the tsunami so they can go to university and/or get jobs in the towns and cities when they're older. Cue Mr and Mrs Fenton.

So finally we arrive at our first week of teaching. Susie and I plus another volunteer were placed in a school in the town of Khok Kloi; a small town offering local Thai restaurants, a beautiful beach, small shops and a Tesco Lotus! Bizarre! But we certainly weren't complaining. We arrived at the school slightly apprehensive, were greeted by the english teacher who knew very little english but had been teaching it for 20 years and were told that we have 16 different classes this week, all with 30 plus pupils in them. Aaaaghhhh!!!

Thankfully it turned out that the first 3 classes on our first day were delightful and our teaching of 'things in a house', 'weather in europe' and 'sports' passed without too much trouble and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The fourth class of day one however was STRESSFUL and so out of character to the rest of the classes we had taught. I thought we'd somehow crossed into another dimension. As you know by now, I like to spin a good yarn...or a bad one depending on your interpretation, so here's how it all unfolded:

The class that we were about to teach were situated on the second floor of one of the buildings so as we walked up the stairs with smiles broadening, tired but proud from our day's work so far, we walked along the corridor and were greeted with enthusiastic 'hello teacher' by the children we had already taught that day. High fives were clumsily been thrown but we made sure all the children received their quota and we felt like movie stars on the red carpet. However, this all came to an abrupt end when we walked into the 'lion's den!'

As we entered the classroom (no teacher in sight! Which was a recurring theme throughout the week) the children were behaving like they'd just taken a plethora of hyper-activity inducing drugs, gulped down numerous cans of redbull and had just been hypnotised to act in no uncertain terms like over-excited monkeys who'd just found out that if they behave like they've lost the plot, they would be given a lifelong supply of bananas.

I have to say I almost admitted defeat and sought help from a native Thai teacher because after shouting sit down! be quiet! silence! and even counting to 5 in Thai whilst clapping my hands assertively, had little to no effect. All this encouraged the children to do was repeat exactly what I just said (rather impressively) and then continue to dance, wrestle, kick, punch, pinch, hug, run around and jump on the tables as before. But somehow and it's all a bit of a blur how, we managed to actually get them all sat down. Once again I have to confess something slightly embarrassing. I resorted to shouting very loudly and scarily (in my mind) and even though they had no idea what I was saying, it sought of had the desired effect. So 10 minutes in, we started our lesson only for disaster to strike...again!

The children, although a little boisterous and naughty were playing the games we'd set up, actually learning the words we'd taught them and although there were little fires that needed to be put out every now and again, it was going ok. Then for what seemed no reason whatsoever, the children started shouting and screaming like crazy hyenas! This was different to their wild monkey behaviour at the beginning of the lesson and for a few seconds I wondered what all the commotion was. Then I saw it, the tail-end of a snake dangling through a whole in the ceiling above the whiteboard in which we'd been teaching in front off.  I swiftly stepped aside, well out of the way and all of a sudden, we had a stampede of children running out of the classroom. 

Seconds later, their class teacher came in with a big stick and poked at it prompting the snake to scurry back through the whole from whence it came. I thought then that the teacher, seeing that the children were as hysterical as some kind of Disney villain would settle them down again and explain to them that everything was ok and to sit down and behave for our English guests. Ha! I thought wrong! The teacher then left the class behaving like they did when we first entered. Let's just say a few curses were muttered under my breath! But the children, probably sensing my annoyance actually settled back down again and we continued with the lesson. They were ok for the rest of the lesson but not perfect. The boys just seemed to take great pleasure in smacking each other around the head, pushing each other off their chairs and throwing each others pencils and books across the classroom. 

I told the English teacher about their behaviour and she was genuinely shocked and signalled with her hand in a smacking motion that they may receive some kind of punishment. Now I felt really guilty. I didn't want their blood on my hands so to speak but she reassured me that it wouldn't hurt. It would only serve as a warning not to do it again. Eek! 

The rest of the week continued in the same vein with mainly lovely, respectful and delightful classes followed by the odd naughty class. It was a wonderful week though and once again we'd met some great children who were so welcoming and happy that we were there. 

Milk in the morning

This girl kept drawing us pictures and making us gifts.

The English teacher with her minions

After a day's teaching, all the volunteers including our new found friends Josh and Charlotte (from my neck of the woods up north) would head to the beautiful beach, swim in the refreshing sea and watch the sun go down. With no-one is sight apart from a view local fisherman, this beach really did feel exclusive to us.

Next week - More teaching and then English Camp to finish the week.

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.