Commune Schools …

During the past two months I’ve visited a number of Commune schools (Bousra, Srae Ompoom, Buchi Ri Communes); observed classes in action; met, listened, discussed, exchanged ideas (and more) with partners in Penchr Chenda, Ou Reang and Sen Monorom Districts.

Giving a lesson

It is evident that some schools are better equipped than others.  Schools that were better equipped and had latrines, rain-water harvest, proper sanitation, breakfast and dental programs, appeared to care more about their school.   Even the school grounds were clean and were free of garbage.   School walls inside and out had painted pictures of 'One day in the life of a Cambodian …' There seemed to be a sense of pride! 

Children at play

Gymnastics anyone?

Other Commune Schools … where roads are treacherous and hard to reach … were not as well provided for and infrastructure poorly maintained.   The Ministry of Education regulated by the CPP government (Cambodia People’s Party) allocates the Communes just enough money to build a school.  Basically the ‘shell’ of a school is built on a Commune lot.   It is not the Ministry’s responsibility to provide the school with the ‘extras’ (which we would consider to be the 'basics' in the West).   The school is built on a plot of land and there are no considerations as to whether a well or a bore hole can be built in close vicinity to the school in order to relatively have ‘easy’ access to water.

Children's Art 

My Khmer colleague and I are in the process of building capacity -working closely with Bunong / Cham partners who know the system well here in Mondul Kiri Province to assess and identify their needs Also, to provide and assist Commune Schools with a 'healthy living' and a 'breakfast' programme.  

Children at work

However, before we go ahead with the work and get approval from the Commune Chief and the Community, our strategy is to continue to focus on capacity building.   Our best approach is to continue to observe and to listen to the people’s concern; listen to what they have to say, listen to what the people want us to do.  In the end, is to take action when the time is right to provide meaningful services that make sense to the village people.  Undoubtedly, this may be a long process.  My Volunteer Assistant (VA) told me when I hired him as my translator that ‘It’s very important to eat, drink and socialize with the community before anyone begins to work with them’.   Understandably so.     

Commune School

Added to this; when  we first arrived in Cambodia, a VSO volunteer  and her accompanied partner who had been living in Cambodia for 3 years, remarked ‘It takes a full year to immerse yourself in the culture, language and the local community.   It takes another year –a second year to be productive and work with the people'.

More later ...

In all the schools I had visited -children were well behaved, humble and happy. 

Greetings at the beginning of the day  "S'sweday"

Oh yes, A Merry Christmas and a Happy and a Prosperous New Year to all you!  Alice/Kevin

More later …

Water Festival – Reversal of the River …

It’s a perfect morning – there’s a gentle breeze coming my way. The sky is crystal clear.  The moon is slowly fading behind the bright blue sky.   There is a little community down below our house.  By dawn everyone has woken up.  The ‘bread’ lady has just arrived on her motorbike up the alleyway to sell fresh crispy baguette.  The landlady is gardening at the front of the house whilst the landlord boils hot water for breakfast. The landlord’ brother is cutting a branch. The vendor who lives down below with his wife has begun to deliver his goods on his motorbike whilst his wife is hanging laundry.  Kevin has just left for work – it’s now 6: 00 in the morning and the dogs are now sleeping from ‘yelping’ throughout the night.  This is what a typical morning look like for us each day. 

On the weekend ‘twas The 'Water Festival' or 'Bon Om Tuk'.  Bon Om Tuk is a national holiday here in Cambodia.  It’s a celebration of the changing of the season, the harvest and the return of the Tonle Sap River  -it's a celebration of the reversing flow between the Tonle Sap River and the Mekong River.  The Tonle Sap a.k.a. Great Lake begins just at the mouth of Phnom Penh and joins up river at Bat Dambang and Siem Raeb Provinces that sit on opposite sides of the lake.   The locals claim that 'the reversal of the river is probably the only waterway in the world, that the Tonle Sap and Mekong flows in opposite directions at different times of the year'.    Usually this time of the year there’s a large boat race in Phnom Pehn.  However, the boat race has been cancelled for the last couple of years due to political instability.

The Water Festival is also a time to celebrate the harvest.  Each year the reversal of the Tonle Sap River has proved to be beneficial to the locals.  The river is rich in fish stocks and the silt deposits left by the floods fertilize the fields.  It's a source of livelihood for fishermen and farmers. It’s a way to giveback to the river  -it's a way for the people to give thanks to the moon.    

During the Water Festival we stayed home and enjoyed beautiful Mondulkiri.

More later …

Time …

I have just returned from Phnom Penh – from a BELL conference that is to be launched and implemented to Cambodian teachers in the 4 North Eastern Provinces.    Here in Sen Monorom, a small group of Cambodian teachers have already been exposed to parts of Level 1English –a review will need to be done to assess how much the teachers already know before introducing the next level.

Whilst in Phnom Penh I have also had the opportunity to visit my daughter Tralore at her school   - ‘Zaman International Elementary school’.   Zaman simply means ‘Time’ –As a family, teachers, students, parents –collaboratively spend meaningful ‘time’ together on various activities/curriculum to support and help their students develop their talents, necessary skills and more ….

Tralore teaches 4 grade 2 English classes.  She arrived in Cambodia at the same time as we did.  A week later she found a teaching job.  She is beginning to settle in her new surroundings and unlike her parents; she enjoys the hot humid weather in PP.

More later …

Phnom Penh - Tralore at 'Zaman' School

PP - 4 on a motobike 

PP - holding on ...

PP - Streetscape 

PP - Streetscape

PP - Russian Market

PP - Russian Market 

Welcome to Sen Monorom ...

Sen Monorom is a sleepy little town in the beautiful hill country of Mondolkiri; surrounded by mangos, banana trees, coconuts and other lush vegetation that we haven’t seen before.  (So No -pine trees are not indigenous to this part of the country after all  -it was a Chinese Company who planted them in Mondulkiri).

Our house

We have rented the top floor of a 2-story house with a large veranda.  Everything is wood and very open to the elements.  ‘Tis truly an experience living here; it's like camping, which is great when the weather is nice and not so much when it rains.   

Our giant friendly gecko

There are numerous creaks with many visitors (bugs) who claim their spot in the house when it gets dark.  As part of the nightlife, our friendly giant gecko pokes his head out through the hole in the wall in the spare bedroom to check things out, and when he thinks it's safe, our gecko quietly runs around the walls throughout the house to search for bugs. 

Local market

As for the rainy season, fortunately we have arrived at the end of the rainy season.  The weather here is pleasant; it's cool in the mornings and quickly warms up during the day.  It’s a relief to be here after the hot, noisy traffic of Phnom Penh. Life is certainly at a slower pace and we love it here :)

Kevin now works with 3 NGO’s teaching English to the local staff.  He also does most of the shopping at the local market while I’m at work.

We are happy to be here and so far have stayed healthy.

More later ... :)

Mondulkiri Province ...

The beautiful hills of Mondolkiri

 We’ve just arrived in Mondulkiri.  MDK is a large and sparsely populated rural Province that borders Vietnam and Ratanakiri/Kratie Provinces.   Because the weather is unusually colder than other provinces,  Mondulkiri is the only province in all of Cambodia that has coniferous trees. Can you believe it?  -and we thought that we had escaped the cold from Canada.

Still, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Saen Monorom (capital city of Mondulkiri) is quite developed and picturesque.  There are a number of guesthouses, hotels, restaurants and market with plenty of vegetables, fish and other yummy food.   

My colleague came to meet us at the bus station and took us to a guesthouse that over look lush vegetation and rolling hills.  This coming weekend we plan to go house hunting and hopefully we’ll quickly find somewhere to call home during our stay in Saen Monorom.   After living out of suitcases  and backpacks for nearly 6 weeks, it’ll be a luxury to finally unpack and air out our ‘moldy’ clothes –let alone to finally have the pleasure to cook our own ‘healthy’ food.

Today we’ve had heavy rains with thunderstorms -and yes we bought a couple of heavy-duty ponchos to get through the 'remains' of the rainy season.   

At the market, the locals told us that we are indeed nearing the end of the monsoon season -that heavy rains with thunderstorms and mist means that frogs and fish that were born in small rivers (due to heavy rains) instinctively know that it’s that time of the year for them to move to a bigger river  (Preaek Chhbaar/Preake Te Rivers that crosses Mondulkiri), before the small rivers begin to dry up.   The locals believe that this a common trend that happens every year. 

More later ... :)

Greetings

from Phnom Penh ...

Pedalling in the heart of Phnom Penh

There are 10 of us volunteers taking part in the In-county Training about 'Life in Cambodia'' here at the VSO office in Phnom Penh (PP).  This includes basic Khmer language, taking a cyclo orientation tour around PP, history, culture, the people and more.

Typically at noon we often have lunch at the local restaurant where Khmer food is tasty and cheap - it's a $1.50 for a plate of vegetables with either meat/egg/fish, a side plate of rice and a large glass of ice tea.  The food market is just up the road and we often venture there after lunch to buy fruit.  Oh yes, there's a bakery just across from the VSO office that sell fresh crispy bread.  What a treat!

PP city bustles with tuk tuks, cyclos, bicycles, motorbikes that hold between 3 to 5 passengers - children are either at the front and/or sandwiched between two adults behind the driver.  Everyone drives insanely in different directions making it tricky to cross the road.  Sidewalks are just as eventful.  Food vendors and vehicles block sidewalks  for parking, leaving little room for Barangs 'that's us' to maneuver around the pavement.   You'll find that it's the expats who prefer to walk and the locals who prefer to drive.

Sometimes we take refuge at the Noodle Café which is just behind the Burley guesthouse.   (the guesthouse has been our home since early September).  This place is peaceful with comfortable cushioned seats.

The people are friendly and helpful -we often come across smiling faces and a chorus of hellos 'Swysadae' in Khmer.   Since we've been here in PP, we found that we're able to easily get by because most Cambodians speak English especially the younger generation.

Though it's almost the end of the monsoon season, it's still hot and muggy.  Usually there's a down pour in the evening that will last for about an hour and cool things down for a little while.

Next week is Phchum Ben' a national holiday where Cambodians pay respect to deceased relatives of up to 7 generations.  This is a bonus for us -we have a week off and heading south.

More later ...

A whirlwind ...

Update
On our return from the UK we went through a whirlwind  -two weeks to prepare to leave for Cambodia and a million things to do!   From more doctors’ appointments, renting the house, to arranging for our car to be taken away by the wreckers, and more…   

The most difficult part of the two weeks was to bid Adieu to Jade our cat 

whom we just learned is now very happy with her new adopted family.  

Thank you to everyone –family, friends, neighbours and colleagues for your warm wishes.  We will keep you posted during our time in Cambodia. 

Motorbike helmet in hand with backpacks -we're now in transit via Hong Kong to Cambodia.

More later ...