Final months are creeping up!

Travels and Tribulations.

Finally we are at the end of the placement and although we knew it was coming it seems to have not crept up but stamped up far too fast.

Although there are so many problems with this country and trying to build capacity is an uphill struggle all the time we have grown to love the pace of life, the endless sunshine, the cash only way of life and the happy people.

The last three months have gone far too fast and the last two will no doubt seem like next week before too long. Because I seem to have been rather lax about writing this blog recently I think the best thing to do is to regale you with the highlights and low lights of the last three months.

August

My education skills were put to rest this month as I became a contractor and spent my time hiring builders and carpenters to construct toilets for girls in my target schools.

 

 

 

Narin my translator was off sick for over two weeks which was quite challenging with so much to do. I also spent one day training teachers in a very remote indigenous school about interactive methodology for grades 1,2 and 3 which was good fun. David came too and did a couple of sports session and Anna my VSO colleague who luckily is a maths whizz.

 

However, the highlight of august was our trip to Battambang with other good friends from VSO to sample the tourist life: we made a vow to stick to Western food for our 3 days and it was so good. The bamboo train was great fun but my highlight was seeing the 14million (who counted)? bats stream out of the cave by the temple at dusk. It was such a good weekend being all together.

 

 

 

 

September

This month I completed school development planning workshops in target schools and also training for 46 grade 4 teachers in introductory English. As many of our teachers do not have Khymei as their first language and now introducing a third was very difficult for them. Not sure if Ratankiri is ready for this yet? Work has been very busy as I also supported school enrolment campaigns this month which I wrote about last year so enough of that.

Highlight this month was back to Kampong Cham with all the volunteers left for the final few months for a good memories weekend. It was a very special time which included buying a bottle of gin and having a great reminisce over the good and bad times in the past two years in Kath’s bedroom (she was the only one of us with a/c).

October

The new school year began with a flourish of very long and very boring school opening ceremonies which were not very child friendly. 2/3 hours of speeches in the hot sun and children from 3 to 17+ standing in lines!

16 days of the Pchum Benh festival was a great trial to us as the monks begin chanting at 4am every morning and go on all day finishing with “speed praying” at high volume at 10pm.

Although the Wat is quite a distance from us the sound travels so much and is so loud. We missed the last few days which is also public holiday time by finally making it to Angkor Wat. 8 days of holiday and 4 travelling but it was worth everything. The temples are on a very grand scale and magnificent. We got up at 4.30 am so we could see the sun rise over Angkor Wat and visited so many until we were templed out by 5pm. Our journey back to the hotel was hampered by the sad news of the Kings father dying in China where he had gone for treatment. Many people were travelling to the temples that afternoon in tribute to the King.

So now we are back home in Banlung but still hearing the temple music and the monks praying and respecting the dead King. National mourning is 7 days, the King will lie in state for 3 months and the next ceremonies will be in January and we will be gone from here.

I am very excited as Dave, Anna and I are off on Saturday to Laos and a motorbike trip around the Bolaven Plateau. That will be the essence of my next entry for you all.

PS. I have just spent 4 hours trying to upload more photos and just cannot do it as the internet is so slow. Sorry folks.