Littlebean

So just over 9 months ago when I boarded the plane to Australia and looked over Cambodia one last time did I realise that it would be so soon when I would be returning. As the plane landed into Siem Reap I got more and more excited, the colours, the flavours, the chaos and most of all the children. Jumping into a tuk tuk we drove towards the center of town and I felt as though I was back home. So this year I am only here for 5 weeks and working at New Hope - a project I visited last year and also spoke of in my blog entries. This project is in the extreme poor area, surrounded by brothels there is a high TB and HIV rate. I have been working an 8-6 day ... read more

Unfortunately Brul has not appeared and I have had no news. The only thing I can do is stay positive and hope that I have had an impact on him even in the short time scale I knew him. The 18th birthday party was fun (although it turned out he was actually 19.) Lots of dolled up Khmer girls and boys turned up. The girls looking glam in their dramatic fake eyelashes and whitened faces and the boys with spiked up hair. We had a whole cow to eat. The westerners were served pieces of beef on platters and a sauce to dip in (which I later found out was fermented fish.) Meanwhile the Khmers ate all the other parts (yes everything.) We were all handed an envelope to put money into as a gift. We ... read more

So the Puppet Parade was a great success. Hundreds of children from around the Siem Reap area gathered at 7pm for the parade. The whole city came out and the streets were rammed full of people watching and taking photographs. The atmosphere was brilliant. The children from my school made a giant crab which was on wheels and pushed along. All the children (and me) danced along and chanted ‘Grace House, Grace House!’ (the name of our school.) The humidity was sky high and everyone was drenched by the time we had finished but we had so much fun. Everyone gathered afterwards onto a big stretch of land where there was clowns performing (the oddest clowns you have ever seen) and dancing. The children then all jumped into a truck and back they went home. I ... read more

Hello Everyone, It is so nice to know I have so many readers! Keep the comments coming, I really appreciate them. Two young doctors from London have arrived for a couple of weeks which is great news. Every child in the school has been sent in to be examined. However, the doctors eventually stopped weighing and taking the children’s height because they were all severely underweight and under height. The doctors also picked out a lot of heart murmurs. A little boy in my class was sent in and when he took his shirt his chest was covered in severe bruising which was awful. Apparently he had a fever so someone had rubbed his chest really hard with a coin to ‘bring it out.’ It is a common practice over here and must have hurt like ... read more

So I have been here for just over a week now and I am slowly beginning to acclimatise to the poverty and the heat. Everything at the school is going well. I’ll be honest it has to be the most challenging teaching I have ever done. In Cambodia teaching is not regarded in such high stead as it is in the Western world, therefore you do not need to be trained or particularly well educated and the pay is minimal. Being put in a classroom full of 25 3-8 year olds can be difficult at times especially when they are not used to structure and don’t speak the language. Anyway we are getting there very slowly. At the moment it is a case of me teaching the class for half the day and the Khmer teacher ... read more