Although the wet season in Cambodia is supposedly drawing to a close, you wouldn’t be able to guess that while here. Every few days it begins to pour rain without much notice, and sometimes doesn’t stop for hours. However, this heavy rainfall has it’s upsides along with its downsides. On the upside, riding through the country was absolutely breathtaking for about a week after a particularly heavy downpour of rain. As I rode home I felt as if I was riding through fields of sky – the water covering the ground reflected the bright blue of the sky perfectly and this scene surrounded the tracks on which we ride to school. On the downside, the puddles of water were not only limited to the sides of the road and although exhilarating at first, the idea of waking up at 5 30am to go riding through increasingly dangerous and deep puddles discouraged everyone’s dedication to attending school. Riding through the pond which casually set itself up in the middle of the road (I use the term “middle of the road” lightly though, as really it just took up the whole of the road) directly before SHCC, though fun at first, became progressively more difficult as the days went by. However, as soon as we reached the school it was all worth it – sitting in the library while reading Dr Suess books to eagerly listening children while having my hair braided by two gorgeous young girls reinforced this fact.
Jay’s back at Jay’s school now, along with his wife and new baby (!) and Beckett and Alana have been kept busy with teaching and bonding with their students. Both of them are getting so into their teaching – Beckett’s been rounding up more and more students at gradually more unusual places (the other day at a bar he started talking to some of the bartenders in order to practice his Khmer and ending up gaining a few more students by doing so!) and Alana is having a dinner-date with one of her students as I’m writing this. At Sangkheum centre all the students got new haircuts by some Japanese hairdressers who volunteered their time and expertise to the school – I thought this was a great idea! The idea of the children needing haircuts had never crossed my mind – what a brilliant thing for those hairdressers to do! Supposedly the children were all extremely excited, and even some of the teachers got to have their hair cut as well.
Olivia and Jenny just got back from the Full Moon Party in Thailand (according to them it’s every bit as good as it’s said to be) and as an alternative to doing this (owing to everyone’s depleted bank accounts) the majority of the group returned to Phnom Penh to have a better look around.
Alex, Mitch, Tristan, Christie, Morgan and I have been cleaning up the classrooms at SHCC (the white boards are so much easier to write on now they’re not stained with blue marker ink!) and are preparing to paint a few of the walls. Also with the organic farmers of the group being busy building fish ponds and bridges and tending the gardens, I’ve got to say the school is looking better every day.
I’m finding it really difficult to believe this program is going to be finished in a month as of today – how am I going to be able to leave all this behind? Although it’s a slightly biased opinion – afterall, I have been living here for over 7 weeks now – I honestly believe that these children have got to be some of the most beautiful in the world, they’re all so lovely despite their poor circumstances and all have beautiful personalities to go with their gorgeous appearances.
P.S. I’ve found the most amazing flowers! They’re called “10 hour flowers” (from what I could gather) and they bloom at 10am every morning! At nighttime they retract to their bud form, ready to bloom again in the morning. They probably don’t sound all too remarkable to anyone else, but I was thoroughly impressed with them.
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