20th March 2012

Very soon after my last blog we had the leaving party for Phearun, the other teacher at Magna. Before we arrived in Cambodia there was a tutoring centre with 4 teachers but this closed and they moved into the group home classrooms and downsized to only 2 teachers, which is how it was when we started. Around Christmas the teacher for the younger children was fired, and we were told that it was because they were now all old enough to be attending school for half the day so she didn't have much work to do. We took over her job as well as ours, so that we were providing activities for the half of the children who weren't at school in the morning or afternoon (children in Cambodia only go to school for half a day all the way through their education, either morning or afternoon and it swaps round each month). Phearun was teaching the older children whilst we were looking after the younger ones and mostly doing Khmer or Maths with them which was very useful as it's hard for us to teach things like that with a language barrier- not impossible, just better for him to do it. Phearun decided to leave due to 'career opportunities' and I can see why- he went from the head teacher in a small tutoring centre, to being the ONLY Khmer teacher, not exactly a step up. It's a shame for the children though, they were all very attached to him as he's been working for Magna for 5 years and spends lots of time with them.

We had a barbeque in the evening to celebrate and they loved that; any excuse for a party (so long as we can get it on the budget!). He was a bit late arriving so the kids all ate before sitting out the front of the house and using the chairs and tables from the classroom. The adults ate later when he arrived and had a big table with all the BBQ stuff on it, which was so tasty, probably the best meal I've had at Magna! They had a whole fish they'd cooked and lots of beef skewers and other tasty things it was so good. All washed down with Cambodian wine or coca cola, or as quite a few of the caregivers had, both! Bit of an odd combination perhaps but apparently the wine was disgusting so maybe it helped to disguise the taste. The glasses were the normal ones we use and look a bit like beer mugs and the overall effect wasn't quite delicate appreciation of the subtle flavours of wine! Whereas in the UK when we were celebrating something we would say 'cheers' once at the beginning, in Asia in general it seems that you say 'cheers' every time you want to have a drink and if someone says 'cheers' to you (or 'cheul moie' as it is in Khmer) then it would be rude not to reply and drink. It sounds like the rules to some drinking game rather than just common etiquette! Even if you get through several glasses it's not too much alcohol though, because of all the coke/ice that's been added. We had a really 'late night' that night and didn't get to bed until almost 9.30- which believe me is late if you're getting up at 5 and looking after 47 children all day!

Our next event was the 3^rd of March- nothing particularly special about that day other than that it was exactly half way through our time in Cambodia. We had a little bit of a celebration the 2 of us for that and went out for lunch to an amazing Italian restaurant that Bernie (our country rep) had taken us to when Kate (our desk officer) and John had come to visit. By our Cambodian standards it was expensive, but by western standards ridiculously cheap, especially given how good the food was- it was like being in a fancy Italian restaurant back home. I had a very tasty risotto, then pears cooked in red wine with mascarpone (mmm!!) and Flo had calzone, pulling the usual trick of ordering something with gluten in so that I couldn't pinch any of it! It's strange to think now that I have less time left than I've had already, especially as there are so many things to look forward to that it doesn't seem like long at all. My Dad and 2 sisters are coming out to visit soon, followed by my Mum later in the year and possibly another friend, we have a holiday planned to Mondulkiri province and we have the month travelling at the end, and I'm pretty sure the time will fly by. It doesn't even feel like I've been here 6 months yet (although as of last week I had) because I'm always so busy and probably also because of the wonders of skype. It's so good to be able to talk to people back home especially when things are happening (like seemingly my whole family injuring themselves on a near daily basis!)- it must have been such a different experience being on a gap year where a telephone call was an expensive treat  or where you just didn't have any contact with anyone outside your local community for the year. I can see benefits of both and I'm glad that I don't get too much internet access because I think that it would distract me from enjoying myself while I'm here. I could have more than I do but I've chosen not to- what's the point in going to a completely new and interesting place if all I do is think about home? Having said that, contact from home is lovely and I love being able to communicate with people- I just want some stories to tell you when I get back home too!

Our third big event that week (it was definitely a Big Week) was the rollerblading trips that we'd organized for the teenagers in the group home. We had 12 kids in the morning and 12 in the afternoon, and it sort of reminded me of taking the Brownies ice skating in Winter Wonderland at Christmas, apart from the fact that everyone was dripping with sweat and they were much, much worse at it than the Brownies were at ice skating! At least the Brownies who couldn't do it were mostly the very little ones so you could grab them when they started to topple and at least stop them coming down too hard, the teenagers were mostly about the same size as me or slightly smaller, so when they started to fall I was hard pushed not to get pulled down too. Two huge purple bruises on my knees were testament to me failure at this, and also a reminder of my trying to show off by skating over this ramp thing. It didn't work in the slightest- it was much harder than it looked when other people did it and very different to skating on the flat. Thankfully no one was looking so I got off as quickly as I could and went back to the nice flat area and picking up the many children who had fallen over. Later on when I was sitting with some of the children I suggested that Flo try it which she did and it was hilarious- they say laughter is the best medicine and it certainly works on bruises!

I wasn't sure that the kids would have enjoyed the trip that much, as most of them spent a LOT of time falling over, but last week they came to us and asked if they were to save their pocket money until they each had enough to pay for entry would we take them again? So that's what I'm doing this Sunday, but only for half a day this time- and my bruises from before have only just faded too! I must be mad to have agreed to it.

The next week was much quieter for us, which may have been due to the fact that on Tuesday and Wednesday we both had a horrible stomach bug ("I thought I was going to die it was so painful") and  it continued for most of that week but at a much lower level so that we could still work. One of the worst parts of this was that the water was off for most of that week so we had a very limited supply for washing and flushing the loo- really not what you want when you're emptying your digestive system of its contents. Flo's comment afterwards was 'I never want to have children if the pain is like that'!

That Thursday we had a day off for International Women's Day which helped with the recovery as we didn't have a 5am start and went into Phnom Penh to get a break from the children. Our plan had been to beg the use of an oven off one of our friends and make pasta bake and a joint belated birthday cake for the 2 of us, but unfortunately everyone with an oven was busy, so we had to find something else to do. Hopefully the cake will still get made at some point soon as we have a gluten free cake mix and tub of triple chocolate icing that we would like to eat, but I suspect that it won't be for a while yet because of parents visiting.

Our weekend was very nice too as Katie and Gabby (the only other Cambodian volunteers now that our country group has reduced to 4) had decided to come down from Siem Reap to visit Phnom Penh and see us. The plan had originally been for them to come down as a surprise on Flo's birthday but it wasn't going to work as they couldn't get holiday at the right time and this was the first weekend since then that we could all make. It was such a fun weekend and so nice to be around people who speak good English for a change- interesting as conversation with Flo is, we do end up talking about the same things very often! So that we could be out later than 8.30 we stayed in a guesthouse in the city which was a nice break too- very novel to not be woken up by children shouting outside my window. Plus we had Western food all weekend and cocktails on Saturday evening so very happy tummies by the end of it. On Sunday they came to visit Magna and see the kids who were cute and cuddly as always. It was nice to be able to show off the group home and our room too after all the effort we've put in to make everything look good and homely- it's definitely a lot tidier than my room back home is and more organized too as I just don't have the time to look for things if I can't find them.

Last week after they left was a fairly normal week in terms of the activities we were doing but very busy because we started the evening classes and PSHE that we've been planning. Now our timetable means that on alternate evenings either Flo or I do a class from 6.30 until 7.30 for the 6 oldest children at the group home, who were previously going to extra classes at a school. It can be very hard to find the willpower to do this when all I really want to do is sleep- whoever does the class only has half an hour after it finishes before they need to go to bed. They are fun to do though as the students speak the most English of anyone in the group home so I can do some more advanced work with them- and they understand jokes.

The highlight of this weekend was breakfast on Saturday- I cooked a full cooked breakfast for the 2 of us, including bacon, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and fried potato and that was REALLY yummy, even if we did have to eat it out of bowls using spoons. I'm pretty sure that by the time I come home I'll just have to eat all my food like a baby using a spoon and a bowl because in all the time I've been here I've hardly used a knife and fork once! We've been cooking some food for ourselves over the past week or so as Flo has gone off the Asian food and if one of us is having nicer food than the stuff they cook I would rather have that too! The main ingredient has been egg plus tomatoes, mushrooms, onions etc in various forms. The caregivers were fascinated by me making omelettes which looked much less impressive as they fell apart just as I was taking them out of the pan and we each ended up with a bowl of (still yummy) egg pieces mixed in with the fillings. Fried rice has also been the order of the day and it's really amazing how much more homely something like that can be when I make it myself in a familiar way with lots of veg in it rather than pieces of meat/bone which is how they do it.

Since the last blog we have moved offices too, so my address has changed. I've put it on facebook but for people who don't have facebook but would like to know it, it is:

Magna Children at Risk NGO

House #3 Eo

Street 75

Sangkat Sras Chork

Khan Daun Penh

Phnom Penh

CAMBODIA

Big Changes

Big, big changes afoot! FINALLY we have moved home and our new room is wonderful. We now each have a normal bed, complete with comfortable mattress, sheets and pillows all of which are a bit of a novelty for us. It's such a good way to have done it- now having stayed somewhere not so nice this new accommodation seems incredibly luxurious even if in comparison to what we would expect at home it's probably not even average. There are downsides to the new group home, most notably the even earlier start of 5am to help shower, dry, dress and feed the younger ones who live here. We've been on this new rising time for over 2 weeks now but it doesn't seem to be getting particularly easy, despite 8pm bedtimes; because we do so much work during the day and are kept so busy we go to bed before some of the older teenagers do which they find hilarious. 

We are helped along in not wanting to stay up by the very frequent power and water cuts, which occasionally coincide. The problem is generally not the lack of light but more the lack of fans to waft the hot air around, and we all roast until the power comes back on in a few hours. The water isn't such a problem- in each bathroom there is a big container of water with a scoop floating on it, so even without a supply we can get by without any coming out of the taps. Apparently there should be some system by which the water tanks get filled when the mains is working and then supply the rest of the house when its cut, but as with many things it's not quite functioning how it should at the moment and only supplies the outside kitchen area. I felt very uncivilized squatting outside pouring a bucket over my head, but in a choice of being hot and dignified or cool and looking a bit silly the second option wins every time. 

We're coming into the hot season at the moment and you can definitely feel it, the added bonus of which is a nice tan- it would be a bit embarrassing to be paler than my family when they come to visit at the end of March! All wounds take so much longer to heal in the heat which has caused a bit of trouble recently when combined with my inability to resist scratching bites. I ended up with an infection on my leg, but a course of antibiotics soon cleared that up. Honestly, antibiotics are amazing; I don't know what I'd do without them! I suppose it would be better to just not get ill/injured, but I've tried that and it seemed I couldn't manage that.

Valentine's Day came on the 14^th just as it would in Britain and was distinctly unexciting- I did get one card but it was from Flo, not some secret Romeo! The poem inside was very good though:

Mangoes grow in Cambodia, lychees grow here too,

But it takes a place like Edinburgh to grow a peach like you!

I made valentine's cards with the kids in the art and craft club that I run which they seemed to enjoy but was a bit more challenging due to a big lack of glue and scissors, meaning that most of them spent quite a while waiting for someone else to finish. They were cute when they finished them though.

At the end of that week came Flo's birthday which I'd been preparing for in not much secrecy. It's hard to surprise someone when you live with them and are around them almost 24 hours a day. Thankfully she went to the 'meeting' at the office (we're supposed to have a meeting every Friday morning with other Magna staff, but so far it's always been cancelled when we get there) and then spent the afternoon in Phnom Penh so I had plenty of time to wrap up some presents for her and create a masterpiece of a birthday card. It was actually a lot of fun preparing things, and nice to have some time separate for a change- I'm not sure I'll ever be in 

another living situation quite like this again.

Flo got to pick what to do for her birthday treat and chose gym followed by a buffet at a nice restaurant. We went to the cinema in the afternoon of her birthday to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol which was surprisingly good despite neither of us particularly wanting to see it. The meal in the evening was delicious too, with loads of different things to choose from. We both particularly appreciated the salad bar which was so tasty and difficult for us to get usually.

In these past weeks we've had a couple of visits from the children's sponsors and each time it as been slightly bizarre but nice. Both times in the hour before they arrived everyone ran around like headless chickens trying to make things look good and stop the children doing the kind of things they do. The youngest boy has a tendency to take off his trousers so we made sure we kept on eye on him so that they didn't get greeted by a half naked child! There were no major disasters though and it all went smoothly. The kids love having people come visit because they get so many cuddles and definitely adored the second group of visitors who brought them all sweets. They have been doing very well in terms of treats recently because the hotel where we take Sothy (the deaf-blind child) swimming has been collecting bits and pieces for us so twice we've returned with big bags of toys. A 'big bag' doesn't go far between 50 children but still, they enjoy it.

Last week we took 24 of the younger children to a big play park in Phnom Penh for the morning. The whole expedition was very exciting for them- before we left we had all the older kids trying to persuade us that they were actually 'tuik' (small) enough to go on the trip, but we assured them that they would get to go on a different trip for older children. We took a snack with us which was probably not the healthiest thing ever, but it was delicious- baguettes filled with banana and condensed milk! They had them halfway through the morning when they were flagging a bit after all the hard work of playing so intently. The play area was amazing- the area it covered was really big and the equipment was all really cool unique stuff. I'd say it was definitely one of the best I've ever been to; I only wish I was small enough to use it properly! I had to 'help' the kids play on some of it for which it was essential that I have a go on the roundabout and seesaw (both very cool) with them. I have some very cute pictures of the day as they were all having such a good time. The real testament to their enjoyment was the fact that every single child fell asleep on the tuk-tuk ride home, occasionally falling off the benches or onto each other, much to our amusement.

On Friday I had another excuse for a trip to Raffles for Happy 'Hour' cocktails as Andrea Wigglesworth from St Mungo's was visiting Phnom Penh for YWAM work. It was so nice to see her and be able to chat about Scotland for a little while as well as compare travelling stories of illnesses and fun. They had been doing some work in some of the very difficult situations that are unfortunately all too common in Cambodia, and we had experienced similar things so it was good to be able to talk about. There are elections coming up which is totally different to how an election would take place in Britain. Bribes are commonplace and the lack of education is truly appalling. If a teacher encourages students to think for themselves and challenge the way things are at the moment (not in a revolutionist way, just saying perhaps we shouldn't vote the same people back in) then they will lose their government provided job and their family won't be able to afford food. As it is they're expecting to work for 2 years after they qualify without any pay. This is only one of the many things that I wish were different in Cambodia, but we do what we can and hope that other people are doing the same. Westerners have a certain amount of freedom from the government- at least, their jobs aren't provided by them so they have no fear of not being able to buy food, and most have a foreign embassy to help them out should something go terribly wrong.

On Sunday we had an event that we've been looking forward to since we knew about it- our first Khmer Wedding! The morning was spent getting ready- having our hair and make-up done in 'Cambodian style' which would roughly translate into English as 'very OTT'! It was fun though and felt a bit like going to a fancy dress party, something I am always pleased to do! It was the wedding of the other Magna teacher's brother, who I've never met and I still don't know the name of, but this didn't seem to matter. Weddings here are definitely not a private or small affair- everyone who has even a vague connection is invited, and people have weddings as big as they can afford. In this case that meant that there were 85 tables, each of which sat 10 and some were used more than once! If we were surprised by the scale it certainly wasn't the only thing we were going to be surprised by. Having been driven the 2 hours to the location of the reception we met some of the other staff from Magna and all sat down to the delicious wedding food. 45 minutes later, having nicely polished off the food, the majority of the staff announced that they didn't want to stay any longer, got up and left! After spending so long getting ready and getting there it seemed crazy and to our British minds distinctly rude, but it seemed that whilst perhaps it wasn't what the wedding hosts want you to do, they didn't mind. We stayed however- having had these Cambodian wedding outfits made as we'd been told we must we weren't about to waste it by only staying such a short time.

After piles and piles of food we sat around for a bit and chatted before dancing in the evening- altogether a very fun event. People were amazed to see westerners there and we attracted many stares but after you got past the fact that that was how it would be, the wedding was a success for me. I think due to the difference in design of our outfits my outfit was a lot cooler and more comfortable than Flo's so I was freer to have a good time- poor Flo was boiling away in hers for the whole night!

A couple of days ago the last of the older children moved into the group home and today is supposed to be Phearun's (the Cambodian teacher at the group home) last day of work after he resigned at the beginning of Febuary. We are currently in the process of getting a new teacher and sorted out all the minor domestic tasks in the group home, but very soon I hope that it will all settle down a little bit and I might have no news for a while!