Hey guys, it’s been two months now since we arrived in Phnom Penh and I’m ashamed to say that this is my first blog entry! I guess I’m just having too much fun! The experience so far has been like no other, in terms of both the teaching and the way of life; being independent of my parents for the first time, living with 5 other teenagers, and having to cook and clean (though we boys don’t do this enough in Tarita’s opinion) for myself!
Rudi Boa
The first month of teaching at Rudi Boa with Dorine was an enormous success as we saw vast improvements in the quality of our students English and became increasingly attached to them. However, the state schools opened on October 1st and since then the number of students attending class has dropped dramatically. The Cambodian state school system works so that one month the students will attend class in the morning, the next they attend in the afternoon. Hopefully the number of kids will increase again soon (though this may leave Tarita and Gayatri’s class empty). Having said this, a trip to Rudi Boa is never a waste of time due to the beautiful scenery and the opportunity to catch up on reading for two hours.
AZIZA
Teaching at AZIZA in the afternoon and two evenings a week has continued to be a great experience and tremendous amounts of fun. Our afternoon classes are with kids aged between about 7 and 15 and I have never met a group of children so filled with joy or enthusiasm, an attitude which seems to completely contrast the bleak slum in which they live. After starting the day at 6:30, by the time the afternoon class swings round at 2 o’clock we are usually quite exhausted, but on arriving at AZIZA and immediately having kids hanging from every limb, our energy seems to appear from nowhere. Dorine and I would both agree that they are an amazing influence on us.
The evening classes at AZIZA are very different but just as fun. Twice a week we teach students between the ages of 13 and 24 and thankfully this class don’t view Dorine and I as two walking talking jungle gyms. However, their standard of English is considerably higher than that of the afternoon class so it’s possible to hold a proper conversation with them. They are as equally keen to learn as our afternoon class and listen attentively as Dorine and I try to teach them the pronunciation of words such as ‘rec-re-at-ion-al’, a real mouthful for Khmer speakers.
Singapore vs Cambodia
Three weeks ago I went home to Singapore for my brother Peter’s, my Mum’s and my girlfriend Nat’s birthday which all occur over a period of a week. It was lovely to see everybody and be back home for a short while but I also found myself missing greatly the excitement and chaos of a city I’ve come to love as well as the five other volunteers who have become such good friends.
Kep
Last weekend the volunteers (minus Dorine, who unfortunately had to travel back to Singapore for a while) ventured to a nearby province to visit three friends and fellow volunteers who are working in Kep for the same amount of time that we are in Phnom Penh. We found that the rural lifestyle differed greatly to what we are used to in Phnom Penh. For example they have no running water (we bathed in the nearby pond), electricity for just three hours each day and -God forbid- no wireless internet connection! However, I think we all agree that this was actually a very nice respite and an interesting change in our way of living. I have a huge amount of respect for the three volunteers living in the ‘Red house’ who are living as locals for four months as opposed to the four days that we were there. Having said this, we all left Kep extremely jealous of Ifan, Jordan and Aubrey, who have three absolutely delicious meals a day cooked for them by Pha, whose culinary skills rival even my mums!
On our first afternoon in Kep we decided to take a bike ride in search of the reservoir that has a pier that you can jump off. However, thanks to some dodgy directions from Aubrey we took a wrong turn into the deepest darkest areas of Kep on a very bumpy, soggy dirt track. This adventure was made all the more difficult by Gayatri’s inability to turn her bike. As I passed our first corner I looked back only to see her ride directly into a bush, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as I did at that moment. The reservoir was in sight for nearly the entire ride but as the sun began to set we decided to call it a day and try again the next day. When we did try again, we found that at one point the day before we were actually just 100m from our destination. The reservoir was so gorgeous and we had one refreshing swim after another over the course of the weekend. Other than that, it was a very relaxed weekend with a lot of lazing about in hammocks reading our books. Our moto ride from the Red house to the bus stop was pretty eventful as halfway the heavens seemed to open. Following this, climbing soaking wet into a freezing cold bus resulted in most of us falling ill for the rest of the week, but all in all it was a very successful, very different and very fun weekend!
I love Phnom Penh! -Billy
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