West Baray

This is the life....

I spent my saturday in West Baray, a huge lake just outside of Siem Reap. I hopped on the back on Terje's moto and off we went on the 30min journey through the countryside in the sun. We arrived and a lady walked us down to a set of hammocks set up next to the lake and gave us some tubes for floating in. So I spent the day chilling in a hammock next to a beautiful lake, eating fresh pineapple (with chilli and salt that you dip it in). Ding Ding (Nina's chinese friend) went to get some water and came back with a whole chicken so we had a little lunch, Nina had the bum, I opted out of the neck. I had a little float out on the lake in the tube fully clothed as you can't wear bikini's here. We were the only 'barangs' (tourists) and it was just a perfect day.

I like fridays...

On fridays we sing songs and play games

A hectic days teaching...

My days now start at 8am and finish at 6pm with a lot of cycling inbetween! I have taken on two more lessons. A teachers class and a class of blind children.

I am loving teaching in the house so much and am loving and getting to know the children more and more everyday. I feel like I know a lot of them really well now and yesterday I was thinking how hard it is going to be saying goodbye to them in December...

The teachers class is in the middle of my days, it consists of 3 middle aged men, two of which are the 'dads' in the house and the other teaches the deaf children for the same organisation. I asked them what they wanted me to teach and they asked for grammar and the construction of sentences......great. I love teaching the children but this is going to be hard! Luckily he gave me a fat grammar book so before each lesson, I teach myself and then plan to teach them! I am accctuaallllyyyy finding it quite interesting....(mum I know you will love to hear this!). I looked to teach myself about the construction of sentences to teach them one day and had NO idea where to start so grabbed a book I was about to read - Dan Brown's 'Deception Point' and took it along to the lesson. The prologue has taken the teachers 2 lessons to translate and understand but they really seem to be enjoying it! It had mountains, guns, helicopters, radio frequencies etc etc in so I gathered it would be suitable for middle aged men...???!

The blind class is such an experience. In the first lesson Sanna and I (the German volunteer) had around 20 children from the age of 5 to 20. Most of them are completely blind and a few partially sighted. Some of the children are adorable, there is an 8 year old called Tye, he looks about 4/5, absolutely tiny and I just want to take him home, give him a bath, buy him some clean clothes that fit him, give him some food and a cosy bed and just play games with him all day. During the lesson we sang lots of songs and played games together. They loved 'if your happy and you know it' and Sanna and I made up a couple of...interesting...songs!! They were all just so enthusiastic and seem to get along with each other so well it really was a lovely lesson. The lesson finished and one of the little children, Garn, walked to me and hugged my legs, she is a little sweetie. The rest of the children came to me and shook/felt my hands. When the last child left the room I looked over at Sanna who was feeling exactly how I was, speechless and very emotional...

The photos are of some of my children from the house...

Life living in Cambodia...

Getting in a tuk tuk
Riding on the back of a moto, sideways some days...
Crossing the road inbetween traffic
Bartering
The language
Being stared at
The smells
The dust
The heat
The colours
Beautiful countryside
Being surrounded by rice fields
Naked children everywhere
Men wearing only a kharma
Wooden houses on stilts
People sleeping outside on hammocks
Kareoke on the bus
Skinny cows with camel humps
Water buffalo led by children
Petrol in coke bottles
Mozzie spray instead of perfume
Riding a bike everywhere
Seeing a family of 5 on one moto
8 Hour bus journeys
Geckos and frogs
Small children riding huge bikes
People standing in the river/ponds fishing
Green coconuts
50 cent beer (more than a coke, same as a water)
Dodging potholes in the roads
Dragon fruit, rambatans
Children begging
Mine victims
Buddas
Monks in orange
Torrential rain
Carrying suncream and rain coat
Wearing suncream and sunglasses
Old school TVs
Eating rice and noodles
My old school mobile phone
Cold showers
Muddy roads
Bananna leaf houses
Flies and ants in your dinner
Doorless houses and shops
Smiling at everyone
Having 'hello' shouted at you over 10 times a bike journey
Markets
Pagodas
Food stalls
Women sweeping the roads to collect dust
Little boys collecting plastic bottles for money
Chickens and pigs on motos
Cockerals in the morning
BBQ banannas for breakfast

Kampot

So, eventually we arrive in Kampot, to a guesthouse with what looks like one huge bed that us girls decide we can share and Sandeep claims the floor. We book a trek to Bokor Hill Station for the morning and grab something to eat before heading to bed to sleep for the big day ahead...

Breakfast in a plastic take away box as we get in the car, pro walking boots on ready for the trek up Bokor hill...i like to call it Bokor mountain actually. The trek was really hard work, climbing up rocks and wondering through the jungle. We stop half way and our guide offers us sticky rice that has been wrapped in a bamboo leaf to give us a little energy for the next 2 hours. After 4 hours we reach a car to take us the rest of the journey. Knackered we fall asleep in the car, Sandeep is sharing the front seat with our guide.

Bokor hill is an amazing place. The mist creates such an eeiry atmosphere. It was once a popular holiday destination for Cambodians with a lovely hotel overlooking the sea and the lake however the Khmer rouge took it all over and now it is just like a ghost town. The mist moves so fast that you look and are able to see the hotel, you look away, and back again and all you can see is thick white mist. I sat up at the top on a huge rock and ate my rice, veg + ants (no that is not a cambodian delicacy) looking out into the mist moving around us. We then went into the derelict church which has writing on the walls from the Khmer rouge and bullet holes in the walls, next we were taken to walk around the lake to the 'haunted hotel', as soon as the word haunted was mentioned I obviously grew slightlyyyy scared. We walked into this huge, derelict hotel, past the NO ENTRY, DANGER sign and wandered around, the mist blows in through the windowless windows and the doorless doors so the inside and outside has this white mist blowing through.....it's so hard to explain the atmosphere...! Sandeep and I decided to go down into the basement which had no windows and was dark, he wound up his torch and we went down....it was so scary I had to come running up! Sanna was taking photo's of the walls and exclaiming that she could se women in her photos... We were the only people there and the atmosphere really was eeiry but exciting.

The trek down was a little cooler, eventually made it home knackered and went in a pickup truck to a lovely restaurant for something to eat. We were supposed to watch the sunset on a boat when we got back from the trek but we were back too late so I suggested (I think to the others annoyance) that we should go for the sunrise instead...at 5.30am.

We woke early, knackered from the trek and went out on a little wooden boat to watch the sunrise, at that time all the fishing boats were coming back and selling their catches on the river bank. It was beautiful, I sat on the front of the boat and loved every minute. We were back in Kapmpot to have a fantastic breakfast (bagels with bananna chutney) at 'Epic Arts Cafe' which employs blind and deaf people. Our waitress was such a sweetie, so smiley and friendly.

After breakie Nina and I went into the market in search of the famous Kampot black pepper, eventually we found it and stocked up... the market in Kampot was the best I've ever been to, it had such a relaxed atmposphere compaired to those in Siem Reap and Phnom Pehn and noone shouted 'hello lady, buy something lady'. I just had such a fantastic morning. All of this before 9am when we were picked up to get our shared taxi back to Phnom Pehn. We were picked up in a little car....drove round, picked up another lady, Sanna, Sandeep, Nina and I were now squished in the back. Sandeep and I thought of saftey first and wrapped the seatbelt around both of us giving him a neck brace and me a corset, it was hard to breath! Then we picked up another man who got in the front with the lady.....and then another....who sat in the drivers seat with the driver, so it was 4 in the front, 4 in the back. The driver was basically sitting on the gear stick, leaning over to hold onto the steering wheel....ridiculous!!! A little frightening ride so Sandeep and I got stuck into watching The Inbetweeners on his ipod instead of looking at cars coming towards us and motos that were dodging us!

Great weekend away and the nice thing was that coming back to Siem Reap felt like coming 'home' and it was very exciting to be back!

The journey to Kampot...

My weekend started early this week as I took the friday off school to go to Kampot, in the south of Cambodia. So thursday evening I thought why not go and have my hair cut in one of the open fronted hairdressers scattered around Siem Reap. I asked for quite a lot off and off it came, I was worried as my hair was blowing about in the fan and she just seemed to keep cutting... I was a little excited to see hair straightners so asked if she would wash it and straighten it for me. It was washed on a make shift chair/sink combo that was interesting and then I sat down to 2 khmer ladies with 3 pairs of straightners....it was attacked. But anyhoo, it actually looked quite nice when it was all finished. Still ginger though....hmmm The water and orange dust here to blame.

So seeing as I had had my hair done, the volunteers and I just had to go out for a few drinkies...the usual start to a weekend. We sat in Bananna Leaf (bar) and watched and sung along to 'Cambojam', a brilliant band that had everyone up dancing down the street. It really was amazing, loved it. They are going to play every friday so we will def be attending again with a few more 50cent beers! So we went to our usual fave bars around the town and ended up cycling home at about 4am... I had a little fally off my bikey on the way home and was rescued by the tuk tuk driver that Sanna had become friends with the week before....

Next thing I know, its 6.25 in the morning, we are supposed to be picked up at the end of our road at 6.30 to be taken to the bus station to start our journey to Kampot. Sanna is having a leisurly breakfast as she managaed to set an alarm, I jump out of bed, run in the shower shouting at Nina to 'wakkkeeee upp' every second and shout for Sanna to go and 'HOLD THE TUK TUKKK!!'. Nina stays fast asleep while Sanna goes on her mission down the road to hold the tuk tuk. I have to shake Nina awake before I run downstairs and ask Bin for our breakfasts...I help her and Mr Gy wrap our fried eggs baguettes in paper from Bins school book and rush off down the road to see if Sanna was successful. In the meantime, Nina has walked down the road too and phoned Sanna asking 'where the helll are you, you guys all left without me....where are you?!!! I CAN'T SEEEEE'. Sanna turns around and sees Nina 5 metres behind her, Nina has forgotten her glasses. Luckily when I arrive with the breakkie (obviously very important when in a rush and having a major panic...) the others have got a tuk tuk and we are on the way to the bus station. Sandeep falls asleep with his head next to the driver, Nina complains angrily about being blind and being left and I phone the bus company to 'STOP THE BUSSSS!!!!' I then think it is a good idea to phone back 3 minutes later and tell them again.

We made it...what a morning, I slept for hoursss and wake up hungover to another 8 hours of travel. Sandeep spends the whole 6 hour journey to Phnom Penh with a towel over his head. Nina spends it lying down as when she sat down in her seat and leant back, it collapsed backwards so she had to lie for the whole journey! (She wasn't complaining). When we have been going for 10 hours on the bus Sanna became our tour guide which was interesting as she had no idea where we were.... We also planned a party and guestlist that we hope to hold on our roof terrace in a few weeks. Any ideas for fancy dress theme? I want to be a monk....

A rainy day...

This morning I woke up at 6.30am to scarily loud thunder, lots of lightening and torrential rain...I popped on my pro raincoat and cycled to school where I was welcomed by the children in the dark as they couldn't put on the lights because of the lightening. As I arrived drowned rat styley the children were telling me we HAD to play games as we were all drenched and there were no lights. I had an amazing lesson planned with directions, lefts and rights including the hokie kokie which I was veryyyy excited about!! But...games seemed like a good idea today, I'll have to save the hokie kokie for monday....they are going to love it!!! We played a game where I said an object and the children had to 'create' it with their bodies...it was hilerious asking them to be alligators, stairs, spoons, plates... They loved it...see the pictures. During the 'lesson' one of my youngest and quietest children decided to breakdance...I have been trying to upload the video on here for you to see.

TIGERRRR BITE

This has NOTHING to do with teaching or cambodia, as this happened in Thailand but I wanted to post this photo of my leg on here of when I was bitten by a tiger!

teaching teaching teaching....

Teaching is going really well...the children think I'm 'funny' and enjoy a good old sing song. 'I like the flowers' is their personal fave! Not mine, it gets a little high and is embarrasing when I have to sing it on my own to them! The other day a chicken ran through my classroom and then the dog ran in the other door, caught it and started eating it. The children expected me to do something about it....I think I shrieked!! The next day a chicken wandered into the class with all its chicks following it which caused havok when all the children get up and chase them all around the classroom!!

Where I am teaching is basically a house, there are two houses in the orphanage organisation and so the children come from one to have their lessons in the other. Each house has a 'mum and dad' who basically act as parents to the children.

Yesterday my youngest student who has just come to live in the house was waiting at the gate of the house to welcome me, waving and helped me cycle in by pushing my bike from behind (like Dad used to when I was learning to ride a bike) I felt a little ridiculous but it was sweet. Today he packed my bag for me at the end of the lesson and went to bring me my bike! He is called Piup and is a sweetie, he is in the photo of the little boy holding a plastic bottle full of little fish, they fish outside the house in the pond.

One of the photos shows my student, Chan Rotha, with his workbook.....filled with ants. Nice.

Another photo shows the children outside the class with a crab that one of them had caught earlier in the pond, I thought it had been left outside but later in the lesson Vichaka took it out of his satchel and had it hanging off his hand by its pincers, he then pulled off a leg. I was an unimpressed charrrrr. I felt a little sick...

The other day when I went to teach the 'dad' of the house came and put a whole green coconut on the table infront of me with a straw coming out of the top. So I taught the class while sipping fresh coconut juice out of a coconut. I felt like I should be on a beach in Barbados. I can just hear Dad and Lyds saying now 'princess'...

Yesterday the 'mum' went out and bought me some form of crunchy shrimp thing. I have no idea what it is called or how to explain it so see the picture above!! I was worried I would have to eat all 5 of them infront of the class, luckily I took them home and tried to offer them to the other volunteers...!!

Evacuee

Do not panic people! I have now been evacuated to a non flooded area of Siem Reap...

Today a truck came down the road to save us!! We packed up all our belongings, and off we went down into the water to climb onto the back of the truck which had 6 bikes, half a kitchen, 6 backpacks, lots of noodles, a water filter, moto helmets, mango squash/juice (long story), boots, flip flops, kettles, a fluffy toy sheep, two cambodians, a dutch lady, two norweigans, one german, a scot, me.....oh and another cambodian man who gatecrashed half of the journey holding onto a hugeee butchers knife. It was an interesting ride, with people waving and shouting hello. It really did feel like we were being saved.

The biggest low of my day today was when I rushed back into my old flooded bedroom to grab the last item in there and found a floating poo....
High of the day - Being on dry land.

I am now staying on the 4th floor of a nice apartment block. I'm sharing the rooftop room with Nina, we have a huge rooftop terrace where we can see Ankor Wat and the rooftops of Siem Reap which is pretty cool.

The school doesn't want me to teach till thursday because the house is still flooded, I might go along and see for myself if there is anything I can do.

It has been a bit of an experience but I'm just lucky that we can move easily to somewhere else and even then, this is not my home. It is so sad though to see some of the cambodian houses that are made from dried palm leaves as they are just ruined... One family actually lives at the end of my road and all they have is a wooden bed just on the side of the road, they put up wooden kind of fences at night to section them off from the road. I hadn't seen them for a few days during the floods but today when we were leaving today they were back, sitting on the wooden bed with water just underneath. It's really hard to see these things and thats why we are trying to keep our spirits high and joke about our experiences...but all in all and jokes aside, what has happened here really is terrible. I was told today that someone drowned in the river yesterday. The children just jump in off the bridges as they have so much freedom to do what they like here but it is so so dangerous for them...

Will keep you all updated.