The views from the plane from Singapore to Siem Reap were spectacular! From the plane it was hard to distinguish road from river, due to the murky brown colour of the water here, which seems to cover the majority of the land. When we arrived, the Antipodeans group (Beckett, Mitch, Alex, Tristan, Sally, Morgan, Christie, Jenny, Alana and I - Hannah and Olivia came on a different flight) were met by Jo and her partner Tom (our 'in-country agents') who are both really nice, and are helping us to learn khmer. I can have a very basic conversation in khmer now! I know, not very impressive but I'm trying.
Jasmin Lodge is on Road number 6, which is one of the main roads in Cambodia. If you go far enough in one direction you'll end up in Thailand, and far enough in the other direction you'll end up in Phnom Penh. So it's pretty busy, and I wake up every morning to the sound of tuk-tuk drivers and motorcyclists racing and swerving dangerously across the road. The food here is fantastic though! Disincluding any food item sold at the markets, which whenever I pass (the food section, i mean) I get an extremely strong desire to throw up. But there's so much fruit! Yesterday I bought a kilo of lycees, a pinapple, a watermelon and some dragonfruit. I have no idea how I'm going to eat the watermelon and pinapple but that is not the point. The point is that I have it and it makes me extremely happy. True happiness is a suitcase full of fruit. Also finding a place that sells vegemite in a country which I didn't think sold it was pretty great too. Oh, and the markets are brilliant!
Everything is so cheap and so pretty. It's a stinges heaven! Meaning me. It is my heaven. I got a recorder on one of the first days I was here so I can crank out my hot cross buns tune (it's all I remember from recorder lessons as a kid). I'm so musically talented, it's insane. Beckett got one too, but he's a lot better at it than me.
The other day we had a scavenger's hunt of sorts where the group was split into three separate groups and given a list of tasks to complete and questions to answer. At the end of it, Jo and Tom gave a scarf-like item (which can be used to climb coconut trees!), a Khmer phrase book and a book on how to write Khmer to the winning team, the scarf and a Khmer phrase book to the team that cam second and the scarf to the group which came third. These were all awarded after we had dinner at a fancy all-you-can-eat restaurant, which had a traditional Khmer dance show going on on the stage behind the tables.
Cambodia countryside is beyond beautiful. The grass is a brighter, fresher green, the water covers the majority of the land - reflecting the surrounding splendours as it does so, the livestock cool down next to the tracks and the trees grow proudly in their tropical paradise. The rain pelting down on us as we rode to the Self Help Community Centre (SHCC), as opposed to deterring us from our expedition, succeeded in releasing the excitement at the idea of being in a foreign country and doing such an amazing thing. I can honestly say that I didnt stop grinning the entire way, even though we had to ride about 30kms all up on Monday (and from here on in, I will be riding 10kms to and from the SHCC every day. I'm going to be so fit when I get back). And everyone is so friendly and nice! As we passed the local houses on the way, all the children and even some of the older residents would call out "hello" to us. The kids are so cute! I hardly stopped waving and saying hello the entire ride.
The SHCC (Self Help Community Centre) is a pretty amazing place. It was started by this guy who grew up in the community where the school is situated as a gangster. In his early twenties, he realised he was heading for an early death if he kept up living the way he did and decided to help the children in his community and give them the opportunities he never had. As a result, they wouldn't have to live their lives the way he had to his. So a few years ago (keep in mind he was only 23 at this time), with the $700 he had saved up working for five or so years at a hotel, he started building his school. When asking each of his friends if they would like to help him, only one was prepared to do so. It now has around 1400 students, and is still growing. This is where I have been placed to work for the next 3 months and I think everyone who has been placed there (Morgan, Mitch, Tristan, Alex, Christie and I) can really help out a lot over the next few months.
The Sangkheum Centre, which I thought was the one which would be quite low grade, was really fancy and really well structured! It was set up by an Italian lady around 10 years ago, and is also free of charge. Just over 50 of the students who attend are orphans, or have been taken away from their parents due to their parents suffering from severe illnesses/etc (like HIV) or very bad living environments. There was even a kid there who was only three years old! Imagine being so young and already not having parents - it's horrible.
There are also around 150 students attending who are not orphans, but live in extreme poverty and cannot afford to go to a different school. Jenny, Olivia, Sally and Hannah have been placed there, so they also have a 10km bike ride every morning and night. Jay's school was the final placement we went to, and needs a lot of help in fixing it up. It was set up by a guy named Jay (go figure) who became orphaned and, as a result, had to start providing for his family at a very young age. He set up the school for the same reason as the owner of the SHCC (Sambath), and it is also free to attend. Beckett and Alana are working there for the next 3 months.
On Wednesday I was supposed to be going to 'My Grandfather's House', which is a new school set up by one of the people who works at Jasmin Lodge, but I got sick and couldn't go. But anyway, it's run by this guy whose parents and grandparents family was badly affected by the Khmer rouge (like everyone's family living at that time, I suppose) and he decided to set up his grandfathers house as a school for the underprivileged.
On Thursday, the group teaching at the SHCC all rode there to see how the school worked and organise our timetables for the next 11 weeks. Subsequent to deciding all our timetables, we were each given a teacher to ghost to observe how they conducted their lessons and controlled their students. However, I don't think the teacher I was put with understood what we were supposed to be doing because before I knew it I was teaching the class without a lesson plan and the teacher was in and out of the classroom! After quickly composing myself from the shock of having to teach an entire class by myself first time around, I eventually started getting ideas as to what I should be saying and how I should be acting. Overall, I don't think I did too terrible - but this evaluation may just be because the students didn't hate me at the end of the lesson.
Starting off my day on Friday with a 5am wake up call, I was (surprisingly) wide awake by the time Morgan, Alex, Mitch (Christie and Tristan have been sick... not a great start to the trip) and I assembled around our bikes for our one hour ride to the SHCC. When we arrived we speedily consumed our breakfast, Morgan being the most organised one with her stanley knife, and were sent off in different directions for teaching. I was teaching young students at the 'Chicken Farm' from 7:30 till 11:30am, which was brilliant. They are all very bright, and extremely attentative for students of such a young age. During our half hour break between the first and second lesson, the teahcers and I sat in a little hut near the class. It was overlooking two fish ponds and surrounded by rice fields, so the whole thing was very picturesque and serene. As music played softly in the background (from one of the teachers phones), one of the teachers explained his aspirations and interests to me. He was 15 (!) and had only been learning English for a year, but he was very good at it.
Also Mitch, Morgan and Alex ate the pork from the markets in their stirfry - I was impressed and slightly disgusted by this. I was not nearly so keen, or adventurous, to try any such thing.
But this place is seriously amazing, it's so unbelievably beautiful. the whole place is so rich in natural beauty and every aspect of it screams vibrancy - i'm in love.
Oh, and there are crabs in the guesthouse where I'm staying. I have no idea where they come from but I'm going to catch one, a gecko too. I really can't believe it's been a week already - at times it feels as if I've hardly been here any time, but then it also feels like I've been here ages! It's absolutely brilliant.
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