2.05.14
Everyday we ride a tuk tuk from our accommodation along the road then we walk across two fields that run alongside of a house which seems to have a lot of children residents, these children always run out and say hi to us! Today I took B class at the main school from 8-10. This was my second time taking this class and I have decided that I will carry on taking this class now for the two weeks that I have left here. Today only 3 students turned up as the private schools have a bank holiday so I guess some of my students presumed that we have the same. I had 2 boys and 1 girl in my class. The one girl is beautiful and is the most intelligent of the class, one boy finds things hard but is willing to try whereas my other boy Jonny is naughty! He came in and complained from word go (incredibly he knows how to say stomach ache and headache, however I did not believe that he actually had either of these) but we did manage to get him to do some work. Today we worked on phonics which they find quite hard, we also wrote out some sentences which they had to fill in the gaps. They were good at this but one boy said the word drink and then spelt the word water so phonics and spelling still needs a lot of work! My 2-4 class was good, we only had two boys turn up today so we worked on love, like, favourite, dislike and hate and then for the second half of the class we joined up with another class and played word games!
Saturday 3rd may. Today we travelled to a city called Battambang. We had ordered a taxi at 6 but he didn't arrive untill 6.30,it turned out that his mini bus could hold 5 passengers but as we were a group of 9 and he wanted the money he piled us all in! Mad ay! Our series of unfortunate events continued from here, our driver drove down the bumpiest road which caused people to be catapulted out of their seats! We then turned up at the bat cave which we wanted to visit at 6 so back we went! We eventually got to Battambang city about 11 and went and had a western breakfast which was fab! I had Muesli and yoghurt and fruit and a real coffee!! Lovely! We then headed to the killing fields monument which was moving, they had created a story on the outside of the building informing people what happened. It was horrific. Cambodians from rural villages attacked and killed 3 million Cambodians who lived in the cities. That's 3 million out of the 8 million people who lived in Cambodia! They were killed using sticks and blunt farming equipment and then were thrown into caves. So upsetting. Following this we went to look at a bamboo train which was not impressive! I found the two Cambodians playing chess with varying equipment more impressive! From here we went to a temple on the top of a mountain called 'phnom sampeau ' we had to climb up 800 steps to get to the top! It was impressive once we reached the top, there was a really hippy guy with dreadlocks and a stick that he used to beat away monkeys! 3 of us went for a little explore and found a cave with a huge staircase that looked similar to a dragon! In the cave there was a smaller cave which we heard someone praying in. This was the highlight of my day because there was no one else around when we found this cave. We visited another cave which had been used to throw bodies in after they had been killed, there was one for the old people and one for the young. This really moved me.
At the end of the day we went to view the bat cave where at 6pm everyday about 3 million bats fly out of. We waited around for a while with a bunch of other people and finally saw the bats fly. This was a pretty cool experience!
We had dinner in Battambang and then headed home. I was soon to learn that the journey home was going to be an experience. As soon as I got in the van I felt unwell so when we had a short break I asked to sit in the front, thankfully I did because about 20 minutes later I had to use the window hole to chunder out of as the driver didn't pull over in time. I then proceeded to chunder on the side of the road. Nice ay! So the rest of the way home consisted of deep breathing and fighting the urge to vom again! During this time I had a lot of time to think about Cambodian life. It is so far from the life we lead at home. It is very relaxed, a big portion of the day is spent relaxing as it is too hot in the sun, personally I couldn't live like this forever, I need more stimulation and a career with prospects. Rubbish in this country is a big problem, people just throw their rubbish on the ground when they are finished with it which I find very upsetting. I feel as westerners we have brought items such as plastic into this country yet we haven't taught them how to dispose of it. I teach my students in class not to litter and they so work hard at sweeping the classrooms but as much as I teach them to put rubbish in the bin when these bins are taken away they are just tipped into a large whole in the ground. So where do we begin tackling this issue?! The government maybe? but unfortunately by the look of this country I think they are very corrupt. Although before I left England I saw a lady throw her coffee cup out of her car window, even after I had let her know that I had seen this act she still did not pick up the litter. So if we cannot teach our own citizens about littering, teaching Cambodians whom do not have the same sense of cleanliness as us will be a challenge!
Another thing that I find odd is technology. Some places/people don't have much but they do have tv's and mobile phones, again as westerners I almost feel like we have shown them this technology but have not taught them the importance of it. Surely a stable house, clean water, sewage systems is much more important than having a mobile phone!
5.05.14 Today has been great, I taught the B class this morning with a new volunteer from the Wirral in england! We reviewed body parts, the spelling of body parts and phonics. We covered a topic and then created a game which reiterated what they had just learnt. The whole lesson seemed like a great success, those who are usually naughty and uninterested were engaged and interacting! I ran the same lesson with my second class and the same thing happened, the naughty boy was so engaged so at the end of the lesson I awarded him with a special pen. When this boy left the class I told him that I was very proud of him and he walked away with a beaming smile on his face!
My final lesson of the day was a bit of a flop as the lesson I has planned out of a textbook was not the same as the textbook the Students had! Disaster! But I handled it and improvised! We have had 5 new volunteers arrive in the last two days, 4 from the uk (one from broadstairs!!) and one from Spain. I am feeling very settled here now and I feel like I am part of a community. However sharing my room with bats and rats and my shower/toilet with toads, and bugs is still not too much fun! It certainly makes me appreciate western luxuries!