A thief in the night ...

During the month of March, Kevin had periodically reminded me, that it’s been unusually bitterly cold in Canada, with wind chills falling to a low of  -25°C.  Having the luxury of living somewhere warm, year round, it’s hard to believe that weather conditions back home can be so frigidly cold with snowstorms, ice,  you name it...  While here in Cambodia, it’s been a comfortable 25°C to 30°C high.  

Early March was bit of a roller coaster, a major high and a major low.  At daybreak, at the start of the month, Kevin and I took Léah, daughter number 3, to the airport to see her off.  Naturally, we were sad to see her go.

Tralore with her students

The same day, at the reading festival, at Tralore’s school, Tralore, daughter number 1, who had organized single handedly the reading festival, did a fabulous job.  All the teachers and students had a costume contest.  Tralore was disguised in her favourite character ‘A Case of the Bad Stripes’,  and was one of the winners.   That evening we went to the riverfront to celebrate her success.  Sadly, Tralore had her bag snatched while we leisurely sat at the riverbank, talked and recounted our day together.  Evidently, we were not paying attention to thieves lurking around us …

Unfortunately, bag snatching has become a growing problem in Phnom Penh and, Cambodians and Foreigners alike have become victims of this nightmare.  A Cambodian colleague told us that two professional black helmet men, on a motorbike, sped up beside him, to grab his iphone off his ear while his was talking to his friend outside a busy market.  Not only did he lose his iphone, but also, he was badly hurt in the process.   Recently, a friend riding her bicycle to work, had her bag snatched, once again, from two speeding black helmet motorbike thieves.

Gift swapping

ICT gang

On a happier note, we were invited to ‘bubbly’ Anie’s farewell party in sleepy Kratié. The party was held at one of a VSO volunteer's home.  (Unlike Phnom Penh, it's somewhat safer to sit on the riverbank in the evening with friends.  So, while we briefly chatted on the riverbank with Anie before leaving for the party,  we were in no danger for our purse to be snatched!).   It was great to see Anie, to play catch-up and to hear of her future plans, and of course, to meet up with other VSO volunteers.  A rarity in Mondolkiri that we  so miss, now that everyone has gone home.   Our ICT gang has now shrunk from 12 to a mere group of 4; two volunteers, two accompanied partners are now left to hold the fort – so to speak.  

Girls' football team

Other news.  Throughout February and March, the education complex had ongoing football matches between districts and communes in Mondolkiri.  The Kho Niek and the Kiev Sema girls’ team ended up with a tie.   The OuReang’s boy’s team won the cup.   During those two months, everyone got in the swing of cheering, betting for their favourite team … WoW, what an active two months it was!  

In general, Cambodians love to play sports. Other than soccer, volleyball is another favourite pastime for them to enjoy, and, they are really pros at it, too.

Follow-up received with enthusiasm

As for work, we had a Part 2, two-day teachers' workshop on one of the weekends, followed by more follow-ups and observations at the village schools. 

School Directors and Teacher Trainers

Throughout March, we also conducted several Teacher Trainers’ sessions, training teacher trainers to guide and work closely with new teachers.  

We also alternated training workshops, between teacher trainers and with the same group of school directors that we worked with last month.  This is to support the two linked pilot programmes and, to address both what students learn and how well they are learning

Two week sessions in school villages

Further, during the last two weeks of March, we held intensive early literacy programmes, lesson planning and portfolio sessions in the school villages, where there were no cell or Internet connections.  Hooray...!  It was a real breath of fresh air to see teachers become the focal point of the workshops, instead of letting the Internet or the cell phone rule their lives. I was further overjoyed to see that media had NO place during these crucial training sessions.  

More later ...