Regrouping

Meet and greet
August, like every other month, came and went in the blink of an eye … 

At Robert and Minette's for a delicious dinner

August was a month where we went to several dinner parties: at our landlords, three times, to meet and greet some of the new VSO – ICS leaders who now live below us and ,to bid farewell to the first group of ICS youth volunteers who worked in Education for 10 weeks, at Callums to celebrate the opening of his new little restaurant, and at Rob and Minette’s homes where we had yummy roast chicken with olives, roasted potatoes, several lemongrass mojitos and much more….    We also met up with the new VSO health volunteer, who has taken up the ‘Leaving Hygienically’ initiative, (in some targeted schools, and of course, will continue to collaborate with the communities, that two previous health volunteers worked at) for another year.  In terms of settling in our surroundings, I must say, that we have indeed settled in comfortably and quickly, regrouping with the Khmer, Expat communities and colleagues at work.    

Other news, on our arrival, we learned that Cambodia had won 15 medals at the Southeast Asia Games.  In 2023, Cambodia is gearing up to host the games here in their own country.  That is wonderful news!   In terms of health education in Cambodia, at the moment there is little to non in the elementary public schools, unless students are in private schools.  I remember as a child, how I dreaded the days I had to partake in phys.  Ed.   I didn’t realize then, how lucky I was, that I could take  a variety of sports at school.  What’s more, how  privilege  I was to complain about it.   However, more and more schools are seeing the value of health education and as a result, the ministry of education is  seriously thinking of doing something about it – they are thinking of  adding physical education in the extra curriculum activities that will be available every Thursday as part of the ‘teaching and learning subject’ during the next school year.   And here’s the proof – now Cambodia is taking small steps in the Cambodian sports world.

A real bargain:  On a different note, reversing the meter back to the early part of August.  Before we headed off to Mondolkiri, I took the liberty of getting my watch fixed, along with getting a new battery.  Off course, as to be expected, we were pointed to one of the many stalls outside the New Market in Phnom Penh to have it seen to.  The repairman casually took it apart, meticulously cleaned each piece, (all the while inspecting it and assessing the problem), continued to clean every bit of the watch with care, taking all the ‘red’ crud out that had accumulated over time between the rims of the watch, before assembling it - All for $2.00!  Off course, with the battery included - a real bargain indeed!  Now I have a new watch that works - at least for now :)    Also, whilst we were in Phnom Penh, we bought a cheap and cheery toaster oven for healthier delicious meals.

Savy / Sukhon:  Here on the ranch, here in MDK, the landlady / landlord were thrilled to see us - all smiles, hugs, with several pats on the back to ensure that we were ‘truly’ here.  lol Once in our apartment, before we had a chance to set our bags down, settle in, unpack … ,  the landlady, Savy and her helper, both with a mop in hand,  were soon in our apartment to open doors, windows, strip sheets off our bed, to take the mosquito net down and more.   Savy, as per usual, had orchestrated a ‘fun fair event’ and ordered her 'helper'  to do this and that - to wash our bedding for us and to basically take the household chores off our hands.   Soon, the ‘frantic’ mopping strokes began!  Savy and her helper began to mop the floors whilst we attempted to unpack.  Though we both asked to help, Savy wouldn't hear of it, she continued to madly mop the floors,  shook her head (to insinuate  a NO), waved a hand in the air, repeatedly saying  'ote panahia' - no problem.  Since Savy had persisted that  she and her helper wanted to take care of the house cleaning, that we were best to leave them to it.  However, all this proved a little bit too much for Kevin, who had temporarily left the apartment to get gas for the motor bike, and, to take it for a test ride to see if it was still in good working order.  On his return, the landlord, gave us, (Kevin and I) a tour of his little farm at the back of our apartment, to show us the little wooden frame house that was in the midst of being erected on his plot of land - the farm,  all the while snatching avocados and rambutans from his trees,  insisting that we should try them, even though, they were unripe. lol.    In the 2 years, we’ve lived here, Sukhon, the landlord, had  cleverly recycled his  wood; previously from their wooden home, (now replaced by a brick /concrete house), to a shed beside the motorbike garage and now to a small wooden building that was built in one week on the little farm.   

Elsewhere in Sen Monorom,  Callum announced that a Cambodian entrepreneur  planned to take over the new  'incomplete' Sovanikiri’s Guesthouse, because as it turned out, he and his wife didn’t have the money to cover the cost of the new building.   Instead, just down the road, a short walk from his old guest house/restaurant , they have just erected a new little restaurant together with a few modest guest rooms at the back of it, using the wood from the old Sovannikiri's guesthouse to build them – recycling wood is a common theme in Cambodia. 

August was a month that the grade 12 exams were held for the week of August 24 – 27. This time around the  students were closely monitored by high school teachers from different schools in Mondolkiri Province, instead  of being monitored by a group of teachers  who, last year, came from the capital city. 

As for work, public schools here have just closed for the summer/rainy season break and reopen in November.  On the contrary in Canada, the school term has just began ...  In terms of delivering workshops, my translator Savy - (male)  and I, are in the midst of translating the primary curriculum, (recently approved by the ministry), for during the months of September and October,  a small group of teachers and I can begin to develop and add simple resources that make sense to them, to add to the primary Khmer Language curriculum.   In terms of the reading workshop, we do indeed  have a green light, the partners have agreed to stay  in line with VSO's policy.  Therefore, we will go ahead and deliver several reading workshops for both teachers and directors during the teachers’ summer break/rainy season.  

More later … :)

Khmer 101

Did we graduate?

On our return to Cambodia we were pleasantly surprised to find - as to how much Khmer we had picked up - as to how much we had learned from the people, from the community we live in. We went from saying ‘tamada tamada’ - things are fine, to simple sentences that we can finally formulate and that make sense for the Khmer people to understand…

Initially, Kevin and I carried a dictionary with us, mispronouncing every Khmer word that you can possibly imagine …   Even more troubling, the Khmer people misunderstood us, because they thought we were speaking a foreign language - English instead of Khmer.   We even went as far as creating cue cards, which we pasted around our apartment to remember the new words that we had just learned.  In short, we realized that being both in a classroom environment with our Khmer 101 instructors, the belated Dara in Phnom Penh, and with Sophek in Mondolkiri, was in fact a disservice for us!  We were indeed overloaded with too much information all at once.   What's more, although the instructors were Khmer, did their best to deliver a good program, we were still isolated with the know how of learning the  ‘true’ Khmer language.  That is, as soon as we ‘barangs’ left the classroom environment, we naturally reverted back to our familiar milieu – to   English.

However, once in our placements, once we were forced to go out into the community, the market, the villages, to interact, share the culture, breath the same air, we gradually began, became, more accustomed to their ways – progressively assimilating ourselves into the language, the culture?

Putting a spin to our little adventure on route to Mondolkiri:  half way to MDK, we met up with another minivan, with the same company that we were travelling with, who had pulled to the side of the road and motioned our van to do likewise - and to pull up behind him.  Everyone got out of both vans, ours and the van in front of us, except for us!  I suppose we weren’t paying much attention to the change of the guards, except that we ‘mindlessly’ thought everyone was taking a quick ‘washroom’ break’ out in the field.  In fact, people were exchanging vans and were asking us to leave.  Clueless, we looked at each other, looked at the people, and didn’t move, until the new driver pointed to the other van (that had stopped in front of us), for us to switch to it, and to take with us our belongings, for Mondolkiri.  Why we had mysteriously exchanged vans, we will never know.  Did we graduate from Khmer 101 – basic Khmer language instruction? – maybe...  The culture however, will inevitably take time to understand it’s many 'onion' layers.  When we think that we have understood a situation,  another new inexplicable layer is introduced. lol

More later … :)

Living Hygienically - ម័យតាមសាលារៀន ក្នុងការរស់នៅដែលមានសុខភាពល្អ

Initially, a 3-month hygiene pilot project was introduced to reduce absenteeism because of diarrhoea caused by poor hygiene and sanitation.

The partners in Education, selected three rural village schools in Pechreda District with poor health/sanitation.   We, Socheat, a VSO health volunteer,  and I with our VA’s, visited these rural schools to meet and assess the directors and teachers for their support and ability to participate in a 3-month hygiene pilot project. 

Pou Kreng Village School in Srae Ampoum Commune, and Poutil and La Mes Village Schools in Bousra Commune were the targeted schools for the first part of this project.    Reaching these village schools on the motorbike meant driving on rutted slippery muddy roads for 10 to 20 kilometres off the paved road.  

On our arrival, we discovered that only one of the schools had a functional water supply and none had latrines.   Teachers and students talked about the lack of hygiene in their schools and the high rate of diarrhoea among the children.  Most students had experienced diarrhoea and many had stories to share about what it felt like to be sick and to miss school.   None of the students were washing their hands at any point during the day due to lack of supplies such as clean water or water supply, soap, washbasins and more.  After lengthy discussions with teachers and directors, they  appeared eager to participate in the project and already showed an understanding of the link between improved hygiene and improved health and school outcomes. 

3 months later, because we saw a great need for hygiene improvement throughout the village schools,  Socheat, my VA and I selected 3 more rural village schools:  Kumamekong, Poch’ryChang and Poch’ry Village Schools in Buchiri Commune were selected to extend the same 3-month hygiene pilot project that was previously done in Srae Ampoum and Bousra Commune.    This was as a result of the  'Holistic' Survey that directors and teachers were given earlier in the year.  They saw the needs of ''The Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory" and agreed that they wanted a Hygiene Workshop demonstration (and more) tied to the 'CFS Living Hygienically Curriculum' done in their school.

                                                           

Teachers and directors from the 6 selected village schools attended a preparatory one-day training workshop (in support of the CFS Dimension – Living hygienically) on an introductory good hygiene practices.  The purpose was to train and coach teachers to educate their students on the importance of sanitation.   

Following the training workshops, a ‘Hygiene Fun Day’ was held in the schools to provide the students with health education on basic hygiene. Local community members were also invited to take part.  Children participated in interactive activities lead by teachers and VSO volunteers including a life-size snakes and ladders hygiene game that rewarded good health behaviours and sent you down the snake if you forgot what ‘good sanitation’ looked like.  Teachers and students enjoyed the introduction to new learning games.  

After the demonstration each classroom was provided with a 3-month supply sanitation materials.   Also, students from targeted schools were invited to design ‘Living Hygienically Posters’ to assess their understanding about hygiene ‘What does Hygiene mean to you?’   

As for La Mes Village School, one of the school we visited: It is important to note that this Village School is unique in that it is situated in a settlement owned and operated by a Vietnamese company. When we arrived at La Mes  Village Village School for the ‘Hygiene Fun Day’, the school was empty except for the onsite teacher who told us that the children were at the rubber plantation helping their parents collect sap.   Following our request for possibility to conduct the ‘Hygiene Fun Day’ workshop, the onsite teacher headed to the rubber plantation to ask the Vietnamese guard permission to assemble the community to participate in the Hygiene workshop.  20 minutes later, another teacher, students, parents, and a Vietnamese official arrived at the school to join the onsite teacher.  The Vietnamese official and parents looked on with wonder whilst teachers and students had a fun time participating with the interactive activities.  Despite the delay, despite the initial onset at La Mes Village School, we were pleasantly surprised to see smiling parents who appreciated the value of the workshop.  As they left the school, everyone, every parent, every student and children shook our hands and ‘humbly’ thanked us all. 

Since, we have returned to all the village schools to monitor their progress.  From our observation, it was evident that teachers and students had taken on the ‘Living Hygienically’ challenge with enthusiasm.  Teachers and students created schedules for students to assist in cleaning washbasins,  carry water from the wells nearby  each morning and more.   Also, both teachers and students tracked progress on their fun graphs showing that they were able to demonstrate proper techniques in living hygienically .  They appeared to be well aware of how germs are spread and how diarrhoea can be prevented. They also appeared to be more responsible for their own learning of what it means to ‘Live Hygienically’ without being prompted from their teachers.  

After one of our visits at one of the schools, we were once again pleasantly surprised to find that older students reminded everyone to wash their hands before returning to their classroom.   Although these are small changes and students still lack access to water supply or clean water supply, to a latrine at school, we are confident that through time, students will demonstrate long-term behaviour changes and evidently will become leaders in hygiene education within their school.  From these several hygiene training, it is hoped that students will also be able to disseminate this valid information amongst families and within their communities.  

by Tracy / Alice - Health and Education Cuso/ VSO Volunteers

More later ... :)