Wurkin and stuff

Got up late because my cute room is majorly hot and the fan's not making it any better. And I managed to clog our toilet after using it once. Awesome. Not that any of you needed to know that, but I thought I'd share anyway. I'm not really sure who is reading this so I'm going to say whatever I want :-)
After a breakfast of bread and Nutella (yum) Megan and I headed toward the river to walk around, orientate ourselves in our new town, and find some schools. We considered following kids in uniforms, but decided NOT to be the creepy foreigners following little kids... We found a university of "specialties" and wandered in to get more information. The guy talking to us (the director, perhaps? not really sure), after trying to get us to teach there as volunteers, was super helpful and gave us tons of information about the city and schools. Apparently there are no public universities and only 4 private ones. We're hoping that we can tie in a business teacher or something from this school to our own school eventually. We're going to have this blanket business course, so that would be great. We wandered a block farther and found a polytechnic. This is pretty much the stark opposite of a university. This is where kids go who can't afford or have dropped out of school to learn trades such as sewing or motorcycle maintenance. Our school is going to be unique because on top of our academic program, we're going to offer electives in career-based skills (not sewing or motorcycle maintenance, but tourism, computers, business, commerce, etc) so that kids who decide not to pursue a university degree are a step above the rest and competitive for higher level positions. This doesn't exist in Cambodia yet and we're hoping it'll be a selling point for the wealthier kids who will pay to go to our school (we have a half scholarship half paying model).
After visiting there we wandered on and found a Chinese school. We walked in and the staff grabbed a few 9th grade boys to talk to us. Their English was AWESOME and apparently so is their Chinese- they learn both (plus Khmer) from 1st grade. They explained that they will either continue at a Chinese school (10-12) in Phnom Penh or go on to be translators at Chinese factories. Now that's a niche that isn't held by many in Cambodia. Way to make them marketable. Awesome. The kids really reminded me to my Japanese schoolboys- they had the schoolboy swagger down pat :-)
We also visited a traditional art school for disabled kids and orphans, but they weren't having any practices until later in the evening when I had a meeting scheduled (they have public practices where people can come and listen to their music and see the dance).
We found a cafe right on the river and chilled there for a bit. I made a to do list for when I'm back in Phnom Penh. Pretty much I need to hole myself up in a room with a computer and Wifi and not come out until I'm done with the million and one things I need to work on.
We went to the Jasmine Cafe to meet with an ex-Peace Corps member who was teaching English at the local high school. He was great and gave us so much insight into actually working in the system here, and hooked us up with some contacts to help us along our journey. The food there is awesome, too- had yummy pumpkin soup.
After we headed back to the guesthouse to check email and work on stuff. We all decided that there's not much more we can do in Kampot at this time, so we're kind of splitting up and heading either back to Phnom Penh, staying here, or heading up to Battambang. I'm in the group heading to Phnom Penh tomorrow but then up to Battambang on Wednesday morning. Battambang is in the north and there's a university of Education and Development there that we want to visit. There's also a school run by a guy I met in NYC but he's unfortunately (for me, not him) on vacation in Thailand right now. Guess I"ll just have to go again :-)
Sia and I had a dinner meeting with an American lady who is working in the teacher training center here in Kampot. She was AWESOME and gave us SO SO much information that will be really helpful. At the same time it made me realize exactly what a daunting task we have before us... We'll do what we can before September!
After dinner we went to a bar called the Rusty Nail and chilled outside for a bit. The weather is nice and it's right on the river.
Tomorrow: time to pack up and head back to PP and the Top Banana!

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