September zipped by … where? I’m not sure.
Avocado season is now over and has been replaced by cassava, passion fruit ‘how di how’ clams.
September was an unusual month with comfortable warm weather. Though, it’s officially the rainy season, rain and humidity sporadically crept in. Thon, a local Bunong, one of Kevin’s English student, told us that the 'lack of rainfall was attributed to climate change caused by local deforestation,’ one of the culprit for illegal logging.
In early September, the grade 12 exams took place throughout Cambodia. 56% passed! In Mondolkiri province, 80% passed, the highest province to pass the exams in Cambodia. A remarkable turn around from last year’s results! Savy, my translator mentioned that with this high number of students who passed nation wide, that there was indeed some cheating done. In spite of this, as a teacher himself, Savy felt that it wasn’t the responsibility of the government to do /pay for a retest, but it was the teachers’ responsibility to do a better job with their teaching. He added, that the ministry is now stepping up to the plate to ensure that teachers are being properly trained to deliver a better teaching curriculum.
It's been a month with numerous training workshops that took place both at the education complex, the villages and out of town: inclusion, multilingual education, library management, love of reading, what does it mean to be a teacher? and more. We plan to do follow-ups from November on, after the school enrollment campaign in October, and, when school opens again.
Elsewhere in Sen Monorom, we’ve noticed that a number of street signs are cropping up throughout town, yet, there are still no streetlights in site. Consequently, motorbike drivers continue to insanely ride in different directions, ride in close proximity, nearly colliding with each other. No one blows their horn at each other and everyone seems to be cool about it. Ironically, however, on the air strip, on the way to the villages, a new no horn sign was recently put up for the purpose of the heavy truck drivers who have a tendency to blow their horns at anyone their pass, (motor bikers, pedestrians,) no matter what the circumstance. In the town itself, a Honda dealership was just newly erected and is now fully in operation, sadly spoiling the authenticity of the market scene line on the main street of town. With modernism, unfortunately, there will always be consequences.
Other news, recently, there’s been a revolving door of high turnover of VSO volunteers and VSO staff. One of the full time VSO staff member, unbeknown to the rest of us, also had a full time job with the government. Finally, he was given an ultimatum: VSO or the government. He chose the latter. As for us, since the mass wave of VSO volunteer’s departure, we’ve been rather fortunate to hook up with other NGO volunteers here in MDK.
A happening place as always on the ranch :) Nana, the guard dog, in her excitement went completely berserk, when the landlady/ landlord returned from their trip away in Phnom Penh to get their car fixed. Savy in her wisdom had accidentally smashed the family car on the corner of their newly built house. In the meantime, (whilst the landlord, Sukhon waited for his 'pride and joy’s ’ car to be fixed), Sukhon somewhat resembling ‘Inspector Cluso’, rode around town with his old beaten motor bike lol.
Last but not least, September was an exciting month because it was our 36th anniversary and we got to celebrate it in Phnom Penh, at the end of the month, when I attended an in-service with the educator sector and met the new education manager, our 4 in two years.
More later … :)
Avocado season is now over and has been replaced by cassava, passion fruit ‘how di how’ clams.
September was an unusual month with comfortable warm weather. Though, it’s officially the rainy season, rain and humidity sporadically crept in. Thon, a local Bunong, one of Kevin’s English student, told us that the 'lack of rainfall was attributed to climate change caused by local deforestation,’ one of the culprit for illegal logging.
In early September, the grade 12 exams took place throughout Cambodia. 56% passed! In Mondolkiri province, 80% passed, the highest province to pass the exams in Cambodia. A remarkable turn around from last year’s results! Savy, my translator mentioned that with this high number of students who passed nation wide, that there was indeed some cheating done. In spite of this, as a teacher himself, Savy felt that it wasn’t the responsibility of the government to do /pay for a retest, but it was the teachers’ responsibility to do a better job with their teaching. He added, that the ministry is now stepping up to the plate to ensure that teachers are being properly trained to deliver a better teaching curriculum.
It's been a month with numerous training workshops that took place both at the education complex, the villages and out of town: inclusion, multilingual education, library management, love of reading, what does it mean to be a teacher? and more. We plan to do follow-ups from November on, after the school enrollment campaign in October, and, when school opens again.
Elsewhere in Sen Monorom, we’ve noticed that a number of street signs are cropping up throughout town, yet, there are still no streetlights in site. Consequently, motorbike drivers continue to insanely ride in different directions, ride in close proximity, nearly colliding with each other. No one blows their horn at each other and everyone seems to be cool about it. Ironically, however, on the air strip, on the way to the villages, a new no horn sign was recently put up for the purpose of the heavy truck drivers who have a tendency to blow their horns at anyone their pass, (motor bikers, pedestrians,) no matter what the circumstance. In the town itself, a Honda dealership was just newly erected and is now fully in operation, sadly spoiling the authenticity of the market scene line on the main street of town. With modernism, unfortunately, there will always be consequences.
Other news, recently, there’s been a revolving door of high turnover of VSO volunteers and VSO staff. One of the full time VSO staff member, unbeknown to the rest of us, also had a full time job with the government. Finally, he was given an ultimatum: VSO or the government. He chose the latter. As for us, since the mass wave of VSO volunteer’s departure, we’ve been rather fortunate to hook up with other NGO volunteers here in MDK.
A happening place as always on the ranch :) Nana, the guard dog, in her excitement went completely berserk, when the landlady/ landlord returned from their trip away in Phnom Penh to get their car fixed. Savy in her wisdom had accidentally smashed the family car on the corner of their newly built house. In the meantime, (whilst the landlord, Sukhon waited for his 'pride and joy’s ’ car to be fixed), Sukhon somewhat resembling ‘Inspector Cluso’, rode around town with his old beaten motor bike lol.
Last but not least, September was an exciting month because it was our 36th anniversary and we got to celebrate it in Phnom Penh, at the end of the month, when I attended an in-service with the educator sector and met the new education manager, our 4 in two years.
More later … :)
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