My day: 17/11/2017

Woke up late - 6.05am - very surprising really as I was so tired I went to bed at 7.30pm and must have been asleep by 8.00. Woke up late and decided that when in Kep, in a guest house with a pool it would be rude not to use it at every opportunity- so went for an early morning swim.

About 6.50 I wandered along to the crab market looking for breakfast. Beside the market there are several restaurants but they cater for lunch and dinner so I ended up in the market itself. Breakfast for 5000 riel - 1.25$. I had my usual buy saj jork - very good with a really tasty soup. Also had a coffee from the stall up the road.

8.00am - Sitha picked me up and off we went to visit 4 schools as a follow up to the training the school directors had yesterday.

School One - Neat and tidy, children were obviously happy and there was a teacher in front of every class. School director had been there for 14 years and was happy to talk about planning sadly he seemed less sure about how he could monitor the activities in the plan. He was even less sure about the standards his school is expected to achieve (yesterday's training). Wanted us to provide materials in the way of support.

School Two - Neat and tidy, children were obviously happy and there was a teacher in front of every class. School director had been in the role a few days. He had been deputy and was happy to talk about the plan but again unsure about how he would monitor it - as he was so new I thought I would try and point him in the right direction!! So we went through the plan - not in detail but to where he had written improve teaching and learning, so I just asked how he meant to check up on teaching and learning. He went over to the wall, took a piece of paper out of a plastic envelope and showed it to Sitha. Across the top it said - monitoring plan, who was doing it and which teacher/class would be seen. Sitha was confused but we decided it was the fact we had asked how he would monitor the activities in the plan not how did he plan to monitor T&L. He openly admitted to not understanding the standards - I will go back and work with him because he wants and asked for support.

Sitha asked how to get to the third school - the school director pointed down a mud track about 3 foot wide and said follow that until you reach the sea and then turn left. So off we went and went and went until we reached the sea - wow. It was gorgeous, the sea as blue as blue with a host of local fishing boats and a few islands in the distance. We turned left and about 1km along the road (unmade but obviously newly made) we found a little school.

School three - Very similar to the other two, also would like support because as he said he had been the job for 21 years and didn't know what he was doing!!

We came back along the coast road, past mangroves and salt fields in the distance. It was just perfect, through a fishing village and then suddenly on to the main road just outside Kep town. I will go exploring along that road over the weekend.

Lunch was noodles and vegetables- 1.50$ very good.

School four - in the grounds of a Pagoda with another very new school director who was very unsure of himself. The new EMA will have to be very careful how s/he works with him. He just had no idea - yet - of the job but unlike the other new SD he would not admit it.

Back to the guest house for a swim - well it would be rude!

Wander down to the crab market for a foot massage, sunset and dinner. Now dinner was in one of those restaurants so I was expecting to pay a bit more. When my ginger and fish dish arrived I thought damn I forgot to say small portion - it was absolutely delicious and I actually managed to eat almost all of it. I had said small - heaven only knows how large the large is. With drink 5.75$ Oh yes the sunset was really rather good as well.

It is now 7.30pm and I am enjoying a quiet time watching the magic green lights that only appear at night - they are either sea fairies or the lights to say where the crab pots are!! I will just have a late or not so late night swim and then my long difficult day will be finished.

As I have said several times - it is a hard life but someone has to do it!!