Everybody went to work on Monday

Indeed it was an unusual day …

Monday, October 26, 2015 was an unusual day.  Everybody went to work!  Savy, my translator went to work, to his 'real' job as a teacher, to meet with his boss and colleagues  to review and pick-up his (two day week) work schedule.  The girl who lives below us, had her police uniform on, and went to work with her two (female) colleagues, at the new police station, that's beside the produce stand just down the road from us.   Both high school and elementary students went to school in their ‘spick and spam’ school uniforms to clean the grounds, to prepare for the School Opening Day on November 1^st, 2015.

Added to this unusual day, we noticed that our little grey bat had returned to our house, unusually early at that, to hang on the living room wire, all the while happily chomping on his fruit berries leaving the remains of his little treasures, strewn on the floor  for us to discover the next morning.  Last year our little bat hung around our house during the months of November, December and January  - during the cold months.  It appears that our little bat knows something that we don’t know.  Could it be that he’s come to warn us, that  this sudden change of the season,  has abruptly sublimated from hot to cold, from lush green to saffron dusty, windy weather?  November is known to be the best, most comfortable time of the year in Mondolkiri.  

October was a month packed with a number of exciting activities.  In early October, new teachers at the education complex were deployed and placed in a number of village schools throughout the 5 districts in MDK.  We also conducted several workshops with teachers and, follow up trainings with school directors .  During the last two weeks of October, we (Kevin, educational NGO’s, POE, VSO –ICS youths) joined us to organize the School Enrollment Campaign in the villages, which was successful in many ways, in that we were pleasantly surprised how well it was attended by the community and more ... 

It’s been a month when we were further invited for dinner with the VSO – ICS youth group to meet and share initiatives that we're presently working on in the various districts. Throughout October, we also collaborated and worked on several activities together: writing a play and making masks for the school enrollment campaign ‘Why go to school?'    Prior to the  school enrollment campaign,  ICC – NGO lent us a cameraman, and a  truck for the day to interview a group of locals from different professional background, with different levels of education describing how their education has been of value to them in their jobs  and in their personal lives. Their personal stories were aired on the Mondolkiri radio for the month.   This was to reach everyone and beyond, especially those in the villages (whom we’ve been told) owned a radio.  

Oh yes, on Hallowe’en morning we awoke to a nervous little red fellow, to a shy little tree frog who was sitting on the kitchen counter's tray, exposed to unfamiliar surroundings. Was he by chance getting ready for  his first ‘Trick or Treat?”

More later :)