Firsts & Statistics

Hello, hello fine audience!


(Pls note am not trying to flatter; I really do think you are rather fine and dandy).

Two whole weeks now that we have been in Kampuchea - and I think it's time we reviewed the time so far, as to help you catch up on some of the great events that I have just happened to miss out.

Day 1: Our first sight of Cambodia. Basically, we arrived and found our beds - pretty eventful. But truthfully, quite bizarre. We would be spending the next 4 months here after all.

Day 5: Our first day without any supervision (an important day, to say the least). It's strange what we chose to do today - the world of raging drinking/clubbing/partying open to us. We visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, which documents some of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. Extremely interesting, and of course, horrifying.

Tuol Sleng; the high school-turned prison throughout the
Khmer Rouge, now a museum dedicated to revealing the terrible history

Day 8: Our first teaching day. It seems such a long time ago that we were almost completely blind, wading through the murky swamp of teaching English to Cambodian students (although if I'm honest, it's still pretty damn muddy). There's no better way to say it - teaching is an odd experience, especially after just coming out of high school. Naturally, we all appreciate our old teachers much more since that first day of being rather awkward turtle.

It's surprisingly difficult; going from saying WHAT you like to WHY you actually like it.

Day 10: Our first night "out on the town" - led by our trusty guide, Alex Malet, another volunteer here at BABSEA. She's 22 and has a degree in Chemistry, though she wants to study even further - Medicine (eek!). I'm sure she'll thank me for divulging all that information about herself here. She took us to a really nice restaurant bar where we all chomped on chips and garlic bread, and slurped the yummiest cocktails, only 1.50 USD each - wowee! We also had a small (I'll admit it) drunken burst of wanting to all dye our hair bizarre colours. Fortunately we all woke up with the same colour we'd had the day earlier - as the hair dye costs 13 USD each. Nice.

Alex + Tien

Nick + Max

Will + I

Day 13: The first time Will and I held a lesson with colouring. It was amazing. The anticipation to get the colours, the hushed wonder, the silence!!!

I accidentally used flash when taking this photo - causing them to all look up simultaneously after I'd taken it.

Oh, and of course, that was the same day Will sang Gold. Check the vid.

Today is Day 15, so I suppose I told a white lie earlier - we are actually just past the 2 week mark, and surprised at how quickly it is all going. We definitely still have a lot more to relish.

The following are some statistical facts of our wonderful trip so far.

FOOD

Meals Cooked:

• Awesome Cambodian meal: once
• Instant noodles (probably a lot)
• Poptarts...multiple times
• Rice pudding (yay!)
• Spaghetti bolognaise
• Chicken pasta
• Pomelo salad 
• Chili con carne
• Stir fry x a million
• Rice x a billion

Bananas eaten weekly = 48

Loaves of bread consumed weekly = 5

Bags of rice = many

Times we've caved and got fast-food/take-out = 6

TRANSPORT

Number of times a tuk-tuk/moto driver will offer us a ride daily = 17
Number of times crossing a very very very busy road daily = 6

GIRL'S ROOM

Number of times the wooden slats have fallen out of the bottom of Tien's bed = around 37?
Number of times Erica has fallen out of her bunkbed = 3

Number of times we've frozen to death under a freezing cold shower = at least 12 times each
Number of times the girls have been lucky enough to have a hot shower = once or twice each
Number of times Ida's been in the bathroom and there hasn't been any toilet roll = countless

BOY'S ROOM

Number of times a day Max and Victor sing Justin Bieber's "Baby" = at least 3
Number of times a day Will makes fun of "Baby" with his more...unique lyrics = at least 3
Number of times we've seen Nick walking round in just a towel = a least once each
Number of times we've walked into the guys room and then left immediately due to the overwhelming smell = pretty much every time we go in there

So there you have it. I hope I have covered the last two weeks sufficiently, and that you enjoy this collection of the Cambodia experience thus far.


Much love,

Juliet; Statistical Reviewer Extraordinaire.

Bathroom Antics

An event of a most extraordinary nature has just occurred.

I, Juliet Miriam Clark, have achieved an action that mere mortals can only dream of.

I got the hot water in the shower to work.

Now, before you start planning to throw me a parade and celebration at which I am knighted in honour of my efforts, I shall tell you the entire story - just so you are aware of how much society is indebted to me.

*****

We arrived in Cambodge, pleasantly happy with our abode for the next 4 months. We had a bed each, fully-functioning air-conditioning, and no bugs to be seen. A place to put our clothes, a kitchen down only a flight of stairs complete with stove, oven and fridge, we even had a bathroom off our room!

Life was sweet, and we proceeded to live our (now 11 whole days!) subsequent time in our comfortable surroundings in the BABC office.

Yet one evening a few days ago, the girls suddenly discovered a rather disastrous truth.

The girl's room (Bonteay Srey) and boy's room (Preah Vihear) are opposite from one another on the same level and one day, the girl's bathroom was occupied when I needed to visit it.


I strolled over to Preah Vihear and opened the door (to find all the males using their laptops, as usual) and, being such gentlemen that they are, they immediately welcomed me to use their bathroom whilst the ladies' was unavailable (simultaneously apologising for the smell). 

None of us had ever been into the boy's bathroom but we just assumed it to be the exact same as ours - just over a metre in width and a few metres in length - toilet, sink and shower head grouped around a relatively small vicinity. It wasn't ideal, but we'd learned to use it and never thought to complain.

Imagine the boy's surprise when they heard me cry out - "WHAAAAAAAT!"

It appeared that the boy's bathroom was not only twice, but three times the size of the girl's. Of course, this was a mistake, a terrible mistake - an insult to humanity in general. Why do boys need a bathroom that size? They just stick their heads under the shower, and then drown their skin in deodorant and cologne (and in Will's case, suncream), surely?

I quickly recruited my fellow women to take a look at this atrocity. Their horror was equal, if not bigger than mine. But lo and behold, it got worse.

"It's not all bad for you girls though, I mean, at least the shower water is hot and everything."

Hot? HOT?!?!

It was too much to take in. Firstly, their bathroom was huge; secondly - they had hot water?!

Sigh.

Being the peaceful, calm and content females we are, we decided to completely let it go and never mention it again. Well. Almost never.

*****

Yet today - joyous of days, calloh callay and all that rubbish, I began to take my evening shower as to revive myself after the weekend, before teaching again the next day.

"Tumm-tee-tumm...showering in the shower...singing along...tum tum tum- Hmmmm? Why, what's this? A reset button? Oh, maybe we need to press that..."

KABOOM. HOT WATER.

So there. The most exciting thing that happened to me this weekend (not true - I had a great Friday, although Saturday was mostly spent writing my personal statement, whoopee) and an excellent start to the week ahead.

Better cease blogging for now - it's already 9pm and I need to do some lesson planning.

Much love,

Juliet; Water Goddess

A Taster of the Talent at Tiny Toones

Day in the Life of an English Teacher

It's just like teaching a child how to recount their daily routine. I get up, I eat breakfast, I go to school...the simple schedule, the course of the day. How would I describe my own routine here in Cambodia?

I wake up at 7am. I wash myself in a freezing cold shower (which can be either refreshing or excruciating depending on if we used the fan/aircon the night before) and I eat breakfast, so far which has been peanut butter and banana sandwiches with fruit juice. I then head off to work at 7.30 in a tuk-tuk with Max, Victor and Will. Max and Victor get dropped off at their morning placement, Lakeside School, while Will and I head to the Youth School. This is the first of the three schools we work at.

12 hours later we're heading home from our final placement after teaching a total of 7 hours (7 different classes), a traveling time of 2 and 1/2 hours and 2 and 1/2 hours of breaks. We then have to cook dinner - 8 people in the kitchen takes almost 2 hours - and do any laundry necessary. Then we plan our lessons for the next day. If we have time, we then chat or read or play cards, listen to music...

Needless to say, we live a pretty hectic life here in Cambodge.

My thoughts overall? Well, I'm presenting a rather mediocre-negative viewpoint on the whole matter. It is rather a busy day. Yet what I find the most interesting, the most a-MAZE-ing (I input the 'MAZE' as opposed to their incorrect pronunciation 'ah-MAZ-ing' here) is how whenever I have a moment to think, I realise and am somewhat surprised by my own constant elation. Every second of every day, I am practically drinking in the experience as one of the most thrilling I have ever encountered.

An easier to understand example is when coming home from each work placement in the tuk-tuk, everyone around me silent, I'm just grinning to myself as I think of the next thing there is to do, the next kid there is to teach.

A sum up: I LOVE IT.

It's currently 12pm on Wednesday 18th August, and Will and I have just held our first two classes! They went relatively well though I admit some improvising was definitely in order. We are rather proud of our progress with the older kids, with whom we managed to cover introducing ourselves as well as likes and dislikes. 

Just want to express joy from not having embarrassed ourselves with our bad knowledge of teaching yet! Yay!

- Juliet; the blossoming wisdom-giver.

In at the Deep End

Our first day (Tuesday 17th August) was mostly an introduction day. We observed each lesson that we would soon be teaching and were transported back to our lives as high school students, as we wrote pages upon pages of notes, trying to grasp the previous knowledge of the kids, where to start, what ages they were and the level of organisation that each different school had.

Our Schedule

8.00am-10.00am: Boeug Kok Youth School

We have two classes at the Youth School - firstly 6 to 10 year olds and then 10 to 18 year olds. We found the system of teaching quite dull - mostly writing vocabulary in their notebooks and then repeating the words aloud. The younger kids in particular found it extremely wary and dull. The older kids were more attentive, but we still feel we have a lot that we can teach them. Our main point of concern was whether the kids where actually absorbing the information properly or not. The younger ones definitely need a lot more colour and games to stay interested!

1.30pm-4.30pm: Tiny Toones Youth Group

Despite the three hour stint, Tiny Toones was where we did the least of all three work placements. The teacher's name is Cobra (yes!) and the kids seem to be working at about GCSE level. They follow a textbook - Cutting Edge, and it's great seeing the references to Madonna and Tom Cruise, especially as none of the kids have any idea who they are. Ooh, I should probably tell you that Tiny Toones is primarily a centre for teaching and practicing breakdancing. Amazing way to get the kids to want to learn, and they really stick by the idea that fun = learning. Check out the website. http://tinytoones.org/

5.30pm-7.30pm: Lakeside School

Tired from the length of the day already, we headed off to our final placement. The first hour at Lakeside we felt pretty useless. Again, they use a textbook called First Choice. What was interesting was that there was another volunteer working there, a typically American guy also called Will. I say typically in a good way - outgoing and friendly, he made us feel more at home with the process.

It was in the second hour that we really got the time to shine - and have already decided this is our favourite class of all. Ages ranging from 18 to 22, the students in the final class are practically fluent, and the Khmer teacher almost as good as ourselves. What he really wants them to learn is pronunciation as well as idiomatic expression. Can I be the first to say hellllll yeeeeeeeeeah! It's really relaxing and fun and the students are great to teach.

A range of different kids to be sure.

More tomorrow...once I've actually had a hand at proper teaching!

Juliet

Incoming, Impressions, Productivity, Sustenance.

Incoming
So I thought today might be a good time to post another post, as to comment on the experience thus far.

At the Boddhi Tree restaurant

Arriving was an extremely odd experience. It's difficult to explain how it is to come into a strange country you've never visited, knowing you won't be leaving it again for another 4 months. It's not just that we have this extremely new, pressure-filled position we're going to have to fulfill, but a strange type of independence, one where we have to really take responsibility in strange new ways. Silly-sounding aspects, from getting ourselves food and going shopping to making sure we have the correct amount of money when we leave the house. Being careless isn't really an option. Caution is advised, and generally required.

But this is all getting a bit serious too fast, a bit too fast too furious, isn't it? So let me offset that with some more lighthearted chit-chat.

Impressions
One of my best impressions upon entering Phnom Penh was achieved by our visit to the different teaching sites where we might be working. Wrote some notes in my blog on the way that might be of some interest:

• Tuk-tuk for 1hr! Painful!
• Smell of the city: mixture of bacon and egg.
• Congestion of motos.
• Smiley, happy people!

A tuk-tuk!

The first bulletpoint refers to the type of transport we used to get around, and generally what we use to get places. It is a revolutionary piece of transport technology - by the name of a "tuk-tuk." You can see an image of this to the right. I will probably speak of these often.

It's a great mode of transport, incredibly cheap and efficient. Yet on that particular day - without breakfast or water, a whole hour through the boiling heat, bump after bump - wasn't too lovely. Still, it was an experience.

The second is pretty self-explanatory. For some reason, maybe because it's just what it reminds me of, or maybe simply because it's what is available for one's morning breakfast, as soon as you open your nostrils to take in the surrounding air, you get this beautiful whiff of bacon and eggs.

The third could be compared to the first - as you can see, a tuk-tuk consists of a motorcycle pulled by a carriage. Another type of transport for the singular pedestrian out-and-about is simply a motorcycle alone, or as it is known: a MOTO. Though this is somewhat dangerous (at one point we did actually almost collide with a rather fast-driving one) it's also quite amusing to watch. Phnom Penh generally does not have an abundance of traffic lights, but at points where they are, it's great seeing all the motos lined up together with all the heads of driver and passenger poking out. Rather like watching a herd of sheep, in fact. 

The fourth is by far the most wonderful and important - the reaction of the Cambodian people to us, as the 8 western 18 year olds. Everywhere we go we get hoards of people and children staring. At first it was a little overwhelming but I noticed that as soon as I began to smile at them - they beamed widely back. Later, walking through a village on the outskirts of the city, we even got the kids waving and calling out "Hello!" and "Hi!", which we enthusiastically returned to great happiness from them. It's as if we're already a symbol of what our presence will (hopefully) bring in the next few months - of the knowledge we hope to bring to them to make their lives a little better.

Productivity

Just because we have not yet delved into the complex area of teaching does not insinuate that we have been doing nothing at all. In fact, we have been making a very good use of ourselves. For details, see the image below.

But I think it is important to say we have been having a lot of fun. As we would say in our conventional international-school talk, not gonna lie - the beginning was a little awkward and unsure - we don't know each other too well and it's going to take awhile for us to bond properly. But daily life have a habit of making us all talk, work and hang out together - a recipe destined to make us the best of frenemies. Sorry? Did I say that? I meant we're all going to hate- I mean love each other.

Sustenance

I could write a whole paragraph about our dinners-out, our attempts at cooking and our snacking on Oreos and Pop Tarts. But in my opinion, in general at least, our antics in the kitchen can be summed up by the following video clip. Hope you can watch it.

See you next time, my lovelies!

Juliet

The Post in Which I Begin

Well, hello there! (If you're curious as to the way I might have said that, try an Obi-Wan Kenobi style)

Seems you, the reader, has casually stumbled across my blog! I like to think that this will be a blogtastic experience for you and I as we journey together through the next 4 months.

Let me explain. I am currently residing in a small office building in Phnom Penh city, Cambodia, with 7 other companions. In May, we completed our International Baccalaureate at UWCSEA in Singapore and have embarked on this great journey to try and make a bit of difference in the world, if we can. Our mission: attempting to teach what I'd like to think we know best - some English!

During the next few months, I will make my best effort to give an entertaining account of some of our doings and happenings. I can't promise a constant or full-packed blog at all times, but I can promise that you will at least be able to read SOMETHING on here. Even if it's simply encouraging you to come here to sample some of the food (which is DELICIOUS by the way).

Many things await - and so now, I shall leave this short and sweet and hope to be speaking to you, my avid readers, very soon!

Juliet

p.s. Friday 13th today...ooooospooky. Well I think we already had our bad luck when we burnt a bit of spaghetti at the bottom of the pan..? Oops.