Expect the unexpected

There is no such thing as a typical day…

We’ve now been in Cambodia exactly one year today and an incredible year it’s been!

I remember our almost 2 hour Skype interview with a VSO staff in Cambodia and chatted mainly about travels, education, general life experience to the life in Cambodia that was soon to begin.   Our interviewer had also referred us to a ‘well-seasoned’ VSO couple who forewarned us that ‘there is no such thing as a typical day and instead -  to expect the unexpected…  ‘  

Once in Cambodia we spent 4 weeks in Phnom Penh for In-country Training with a fun group of people.   We quickly got used to the insane traffic, horn blowing, noise for the sake of noise, rules that no one cared to follow and  that no one gets upset at each other when a motor gets in the way of another.

Before we knew it we were heading to our placement destination.  The beautiful hills of Mondolkiri!  A colleague, Karen compared the hills of Mondolkiri with Wales – green and lush at least during the wet season.  During the dry season the landscape transforms itself to a red plume of dust with a multitude of bush fires spread out on side roads and in villages where I work.

Kevin and I arrived in Mondolkiri at the tail end of the avocado season – the tail end of the monsoon season, in early October 2013, (though it felt at the time that the rainy season was never going to end).  By November the rain stopped and the wet saffron red clay was replaced by a powdery dust.  On the way to the villages by motor bike, a combination of high winds with heavy trucks created clouds of dust that blew on our face, mouth and nose and crept into every part of our body, permanently staining our skin and clothes.  Back on the ranch  the red fine dust took on a life of its own finding its way to anything to the touch: furniture,  the crevices of our laptop keys to  wooden floors (our landlady soon came to the rescue with a mop in hand to give us a ‘floor washing’ demonstration). 

I was welcomed with a Khmer/English dictionary

On our arrival to our placement we were very excited and my adrenaline ran high for quite some months.   During the transitional stages of getting settled, we found a house within a week of being here. Kevin quickly found work with 3 different NGO’s to teach English to the staff.  As for me, I hired a VA a week after we arrived, met some very important people in the education sector such as my Khmer colleagues who welcomed me with open arms – they were more than helpful.  Each day, either my Khmer partner or one of our Khmer colleagues took me on many expeditions to meet teachers in the village schools to observe classes in action, exchange ideas, listen to what the teachers have to say and to be able to assist and support them in any way we can.   My Khmer colleagues work hard each day to make things happen to help improve the quality of teaching, to reach every student and more …  

Throughout the course of the year there have been successes and milestones.   More money is spent on education and an end to corruption is finally coming to light.  For the first time, earlier this year, teachers opened their own personal bank accounts.  They now receive direct payment from the government as a result from a two year research, campaigning and lobbying (credited to a group of NGO’s, VSO/Cuso and the government);  potential Bunong in-service teachers graduated from Teachers’ College in Stung Treng and returned to their home villages in Mondolkiri to teach; more girls are staying in school; some schools have become a model school for others; corruption-free grade 12 exams are now strictly regulated by the government. As a result only 25% of grade 12 students passed compared to the 86 % that passed last year (you can read more about it in the ‘Cambodia Daily’).   As for the challenges, teachers continue to be absent from school.  In the villages, teachers work on the farm, have family commitment and spend time working at other jobs to make ends meet due to low teaching wages.  As a result, teachers spend limited time preparing and delivering a child-centered curriculum; Schedules, meetings, sudden change of plans are given without notice – sometimes when I arrive at the village school teachers tell me that they’ve been called to yet another ‘unannounced’ meeting; Children have language barriers; some bilingual/trilingual schools speak Bunong, Cham and Khmer.  Teachers do not speak either Bunong or Cham.  Classrooms are poorly maintained.  Lack of good teaching practice, limited professional development support, limited teaching resources is apparent.

My VSO colleague was right   ‘there is no such thing as a typical day…’ every day is a different day.  It is how we face those challenges that count. 

Here on the home front, I think that we are slowly adapting to their Cambodian ways.  We are often invited by our landlord/lady to join them and their friends for a meal and a beer.  We are always happy to accept!  When locals (from other places in Cambodia) ask us where we come from, Kevin has a set answer and proudly tells them ‘We’re from Canada, but we live in Cambodia’.  

Fresh cassava left in the sun to dry

Furthermore, we’ve now become more familiar with the tropical fruits, vegetables and lush vegetation that appear at different times of the year.  Some of the fruit trees even grow in our own backyard:  papaya, passion fruit, guava, rambutan, mangosteen, jackfruit and the ‘smelly’ durian that’s delicious to eat!   It is soon the cassava harvest and the side roads to the villages will once again be lined with white vegetables drying in the sun.  The indigenous people – the Bunong people bring their crop from the fields to the side of the road where they and their little apprentices (their children) peel, dry and prepare the vegetables for shipment.

Awesome teddy bear street pajamas

Added to our Cambodian lifestyle, we now ride our motorbikes with flip-flops (I now wear my sandals ‘that soon fell apart from the rain and were re-sewn twice’ in Phnom Penh), as a result our feet are permanently stained in red.  Recently a colleague and I bought a colourful bright pair of these awesome ‘street’ pajamas that the women wear to the market and even to work.  We wore them to work the day we bought them except that they were no one to show them off too …  In terms of speaking Khmer – well that’s another story.  

Over this past ‘incredible’ year we’ve had an opportunity to meet and talk to people that we wouldn’t otherwise had the chance to encounter –  to hear their stories - their dreams and their hopes.  Such as the late Dara, our VSO Khmer teacher who was sm art, witty and fun.  He had a way of making us laugh when he knew we had had enough with our Khmer lesson.  Dara sadly passed away a month today.

And yes, we are still going strong despite the drastic change of the two seasons and even to think that we’ve experienced two winters.  The first winter came in December and the second in July when it turned cold because of the endless rain and dark clouds that keep temperatures low.   What counts are the people that continue to teach us and direct us with the countless things that we are yet to discover...

More later …