Extension

Trees in bloom

It's officially spring!  Trees, bushes, flowers are in full bloom permeating a beautiful aroma in the air.  ‘Tis also the beginning of the rainy season and, with the occasional downpour, the rain has washed away the red dust from surrounding forest.  It even feels fresher and cleaner, at least for now. 

April whizzed by... where? I'm not sure.  In early April,  we witnessed the lunar eclipse.  For the Khmer New
Year, we took a short trip to Sihanoukville to enjoy the sea air and other delights.  Because the heavy downpour destroyed the ‘diamond in the rough's roof, because the family is expecting a baby, we decided to support the family and their salon.  

It's been a month when we were invited to 4 weddings but could only go to 2.  We also saw SovannKiri's restaurant (Callum's place) being demolished to replace a new one in a year's time from now. Kevin is currently
tutoring some ‘leftover’ NGO staff – the NGO recently closed down and moved to Battambang. We noticed that the landlord is doing more chores around the house and, even prepares part of a  lunch while Savy's away at work.  Could it be, that unintentionally, Kevin's been a 'minor' player, a minor influence on him since we've been here?  Our little community down below is still well and alive.  We've often wondered, if those voices travelling through the cracks, talk about the government or the prices of Mangoes?

April was a month with some milestones and some setbacks ...

Home to Read in Phnom Penh

After our three glorious days in Sihanoukville,  we connected with the Home to Read Khmer coordinator in Phnom Penh to salvage the rest of the toolkits that got lost in the shuffle, either in the village schools or in other parts of Mondolkiri.    With some perseverance,  we were also able to locate the Belgium NGO, founder of the ‘BETT’ Early Literacy Programme, and, who too, was able to provide us with further resources in a form of a CD (to print), for both teachers and librarians to replenish their libraries. 

Though the Khmer New Year was only a three-day celebration, it appeared that people were away for much longer than anticipated.  Some teachers and school directors had gone to their hometown for extended festivities …  And, planned to return to work either the last week of April or the second week of May?

Students burning rubish

Consequently, in terms of work,  April was a bit of a let down.  In early April, though we had planned  to do some follow-ups to support the teachers, after they had received several weeks of practical training,  after they had a chance to apply these activities with their students in class , both teachers and school directors announced that they were unavailable for that period of time for follow-up visits, due to the Khmer New Year, that was just around the corner, and, most importantly, their students were to spend the first week of  the month cleaning the school.  School closed for two weeks, and officially resumed the third week.  Therefore, we ended up rescheduling our visits to the villages the last week of April. 

Two students

On our arrival, at one of the village schools, the teacher, embarrassed,  showed us ‘two fingers’, meaning that the school had only two students since school reopened.  Rational: The cluster chief explained that students were away from school,  either, because they were in the midst of ‘ploughing’ the fields, to plant cassava with their families-taking full advantage of the afternoon downpours, while others, stayed home to help with their siblings,  house chores, cooking and more ...

As for other schools, In one of the schools, 7 students came to school without the presence of teachers.  Others were closed for the month of April.  Closer to town, schools were opened, well attended and in full swing.  As a result, we were able to give the necessary support and, organize some follow-ups with some good results at that.      What’s more, some of the roads to the villages have improved where it's increasingly becoming easier to ride on muddy roads.

Recess

With any luck, we hope that the month of May will resume to ‘normalcy’ in terms of school attendance for both teachers and students.  May has 8 national holidays; one of them is Royal Ploughing Ceremony ...  And, just in case you didn't know, we have a total of 27 national holidays in the school year. Unbelievable ...

As for starting an Early literacy training for librarians, which was confirmed  a month ago, it was sadly put on hold the last minute, due to low funding?     The partners have now requested a much higher per deem for  the participants , which is not consistent with the principles of VSO – that is to compensate out of pocket expenses.  So … which is it?   Building the capacity of teachers to strengthen education, or paying teachers to attend workshops?    Therefore, we've tentatively rescheduled the training in early August, on our return from a short break, in hopes that they will be a change of heart from the partners, with VSO 'per deem' policy ...

Despite some setbacks with visits to the schools, we were still able to follow-up and work with some teachers.  Despite the inevitable obstacles that we face on a daily basis, I guess I must be doing something right, because both VSO and the Ministry of Education have asked me to extend my contract, which we've accepted! 

What to look forward to at home?  More daylight hours.  A proper roast.  Playing catch-up with family and friends  :) 

More later …