Kay in Cambodia

Enjoying the festive season



Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Cambodia.
It certainly has been a very different Christmas for me this year. Firstly, I celebrated a Norwegian Christmas on their traditional Christmas Eve with Jo, Thomas and many fair haired friends. The food was excellent, we played "pass the parcel",were entertained by the orphans singing Christmas carols and I tried their traditional "fire water". (I think I'll stick to red wine) I was also given a gift of a wine glass which is probably more suitable than the beer stein I have currently been drinking out of at the guest house.
Christmas day I headed off to the orphanage with Tim (American) and the bag of rice. We then wandered around town and had coffees and lunch. A BBQ Cambodian style was put on for guests,staff and friends. That rounded off a very relaxing day. It was good to Sype some of the family. Please let me know if you are on Skype. It's a much better option than mobiles.
Last week I visited the Cambodian Cultural Village. It was a very entertaining programme with about 7 live shows, each one going for half an hour with a troupe of about a dozen dancers/actors performing different traditional stories. There was audience involvement as well. The last hour was a massive production. It finished at 8pm and my tuk tuk driver failed to collect me. I was relieved to get home safely.
I have changed my teaching to the afternoon which is working out much better. I have also decided to share a tuk tuk ride with the Dutch volunteers for the rest of the time. Hopefully, there will be no repeats of the drunk/sleeping driver we had on Friday. The school should benefit from the extra resources which are being provided. The English programme was not complete so hopefully the standard will improve when the full programme is implemented. Educating the educators is still a big priority.
Today I went to Tonle Sap Lake and visited a floating village (a little bit dry at the moment as it is the dry season) and the floating forest. I realised how much I had missed the water. I had a great time kayaking Cambodian style. It was so peaceful gliding through the forest. I've now taken over 400 photos.
This time next week I will be heading home. I think I will have culture shock going back.