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Apologies for it taking so long for an update! You know how it is.
It's now been a month and a day since I said goodbye to everyone and left England. I'm not sure whether the time has gone very quickly or very slowly - it all seems a bit of a mush, but had an incredible time so far and still have plenty more to come. I wanted to do an entry about the rough daily routine here. This is mine during the week - everyone differs slightly, but mine is pretty standard:
7.58: Wake up
7.59: Breakfast
8.00: Leave for School
8ish-11.00: After a 10 minute ramble on Shaniqua the bike, I arrive at the Happy School. Typically there's 3 lessons in the morning with short breaks in the middle. I've now moved on to teaching the older 'Life Skills' group pretty much full time, which suits me really well. We start with a role play, typically hotel based, I then spend 20-30 minutes explaining words like 'Lasagna', 'Mostly' and 'Appropriate'using broken Khmer, English and gestures. Then they practice, learn and read back to me. Normally we do 2, and afterwards I like to have a bit of a conversation with them, and try to introduce them to words and phrases they might not understand which might be useful in a hotel. We do a lot of wordsearches for fun, which everyone is very competitive about! We've created a leaderboard chart to map who is winning. Despite English being my first language, I am not currently on top.
11.00: Go home, maybe have aquick nap before lunch, although I've needed to do this less as weeks have gone on.
12.00: Lunch. Rice.
12.00-2.00: A couple of hours to chill out, as it is too hot to be out and active. I like to read, and its a useful time to plan things for that evening or the weekend etc.
2.00-5.00: Back for another 3 lessons at school, with an invariably sweaty football game somewhere in the middle. Then back to the volunteer house for an hour or so to chat, have a shower... or a beer!
6.00: Dinner. Rice.
7.00 onwards: Usually we have a mix. Everyone is always pretty exhausted, but about half the time we go out to have a couple of drinks, or if something's on, and we maybe have a 'bigger' night out once or twice a week. If not we stay in, chat, have a drink, and maybe watch a film. It is still, give or take, 78 degrees celcius at this point, and the air is like liquid... so nothing too taxing!
11.00-4.00 (am): Bedtime, depending on the occasion.
Lots of fun things have happened since my last update. We've had a couple of rains, although we've been instructed not to go outside during until the 3rd rain of the season, because there's some chemicals etc to be flushed out... I've finally realised my refusal to wear sleeveless t-shirts is impractical in this heat, so now have one in my wardrobe, although this is only because I won it in an eating competition!
Everything here has virtually ground to a halt, as it is Khmer New Year next week. It's their biggest festival, the equivalent of Christmas, and everyone is SO excited. We've been taught tonnes of Khmer games to play, which are all pretty violent, and they're beginning to party hard! All schools and most businesses close next week, as everyone goes back to their hometowns and provinces to celebrate with their families. As you can imagine, everyone has been too excited over the last couple of days to work or study, or even come to school!
My class invited me swimming last weekend, which was great fun, and then they asked me to go to their first 'New Year' party on Wednesday evening, just the older students and teachers. (New Year itself is from Saturday/Sunday through to Tuesday or so). Boy do they drink! It was a really interesting experience. They LOVE to party, and it's common for them to just point at you and say 'drink all!', and you both have to down your beer. It feels like as a country they are still in the early stages of discovering 'drink' and 'getting drunk' and treating themselves - for example, they had bought some chewing gum, which they were so excited about, and only knowing that they liked it but not really knowing when to eat it were handing out sticks in between sips of beer, and storing it in their mouths as they drank. It's just so lovely to see them all having a great time, and actually being there for their social occasions. I think it shows Cambodia is really a country on the up, having had a pretty brutal history. They are such a happy people despite everything!
Anyway, enough with all that. Obviously next week I have nothing to do here, as the school will be shut, and Phnom Penh goes completely dead apparently - everyone disappears back to their provinces. However, I've got quite an adventure coming up! One of my students has offered for me to go back to his province with him for 4 days for the celebrations, and I leave Sunday morning at 6. I can't wait! It's about 2 hours by moto, and it'll be like disappearing off into rural Cambodia with no other English speaker (ironically this student is the weakest in the class!), no electricity, maybe not running water... not sure what to expect! I think it will be a bit of a test, and amazing to experience the celebrations in the provinces. I imagine there will be much beer consumed... I've put the location of his province on the map in this blog, although I can't figure out from him exactly where it is! For the second half of the week, me and a friend are trying to go to this Buddhist Centre we've found at Udong mountain - it's like a retreat, you live with the monks and nuns and learn about meditation and buddhism, and its actually free- they provide a bed and food for you, because their temples here are provided for by their local communities. We're trying to organise that for 3 days or so - it would be quite an experience! If not, there are some other people traveling about and we would probably joing them and see some more of Cambodia. All very exciting.
Anyway, I'm off now! I've just done some more washing, Mum, and not its time to rinse. Goodbye and happy new year!
- comments
Virginia Banks Make sure you take your medipack! Sounds wonderful. Take care on the bike xxx
Tom Banks All sounds really cool Bruno. Have fun in the sticks and enjoy the ways of the Buddhist monks.
Jane Jackson Hi Bruno, I have at last managed to get on to your blog and have just read the most recent one. Hope you had a fab time celebrating the new year in the provinces - what an adventure! XXX
Fi Secrett Just caught up on your recent blogs. What a time you are having! The outing into the hills sounds amazing. Take care and look out for snakes! xx