''An Average Day in Crazy Cambodia''

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The first few days I was here I was a right keeno in the mornings! I think that was more as a result of jet lag as opposed to a new improved me! Lol! I seemed to be awake at the break of dawn, venturing out on my earliest run ever at 5am!!! It appears the Cambodians like to be up and about earlier than the average human beings with 4.30-5am wake up calls to go about their day! I was amazed to see so many people about, mostly getting their food stalls sorted for the morning but there was the occasional 'exerciser'... Bless them they really don't have a clue! Some are wearing wooly, yes wooly hats because of course 29/30 degrees is freezing!! I saw one guy attempting to jog in flip flops! Madness, but I admire the effort!

So anyway.... Now I have acclimatised to the time difference I am rudely awakened by my alarm at 6am for my early morning run, with my motivational quote being 'get up and run you will regret it if you don't' as I attempt to beat the heat! How can I describe running here.....
Well some may call it running, I feel I am more in training for netball as my dodging skills are now faultless, as I am yet to incur a collision!

There is nowhere 'quiet' or 'flat' to run!! There may be a system that cars have a 'side of the road' in most counties and here to some extent that is true but it is also acceptable to drive into oncoming traffic!!! Crazy I know! The system that we have all been taught as children to 'look where you are going' has clearly not been implemented here, as cars pull out, people step onto the road, wing mirrors seem simply unheard of to actually use and even in these crazy circumstances people still text while driving a car or moto while travelling with several young children without helmets!!



So in short, I spend my time weaving in and out of traffic, leaping over children that have decided to step out in front of me and avoiding pot holes in the bumpy road!! My observational skills will be immense, dad always says 'expect the unexpected' ... predict what other drivers are going to do before they do it! A skill which is valuable here... I would pass my hazard perception test with flying colours now!!!

After my daily breakfast of baguette and omelette or peanut butter (not together, don't worry!) I head off to school for 8am! This is the school I attend which is run by voluntary monks! The school is basically several huts with wooden benches and a white board! I have one pupil, but strangely that's how I have come to like it!!! He is called Reatrey and is 19 years old! His English level is really low but he is massively keen!! There have been many mornings where the khami teacher has failed to turn up, translation then is a big problem!! My artistic flare then comes into place to try and draw what I mean, and failing that I have become quite the drama queen! Making an idiot of myself here has become a daily habit as I mime or act out the words I mean! For an onlooker it would be highly amusing! Some classics have been pecking like a chicken, going over on my ankle (when the students weren't quite sure if I was acting or genuinely hurt) and stomping around like an elephant with a trunk!

From 10am - 3pm when I go to school again can often be very lonely! I have had to learn to enjoy my company, which for anyone who knows me well will understand that this is not a pastime I enjoy doing much! The first couple of days I took myself off on adventurous cycles into the country, sampled a lot of street food and busied myself familiarising myself with the area! I have become a regular at the local pool, the main reason being they give you free salted crisps!!! There are not many things in Cambodia for free so this is a treat I love to abuse 😊
Many of you are probably thinking.... Sunbathe!!! Ironically for someone who is a bit of a sun worshipper I couldn't think of anything worse! Yes it is possible for it to be too hot!! I am a sweaty mess sitting in the shade here! ... Tom has lots to look forward to when he gets here! Ha ha!

3pm - 7pm is the quickest and best part of my day! It flies in! That's when I go to VDCA school, every day I stop and get a pineapple on the way and whatever else tickles my fancy off the street! I love school, but its hard work! I have been given no direction about what to teach, no indication about where the pupils are at and little help! For the teacher in me this has caused a lot of stress and frustration at times, (having no curriculum, no schemes of work, no assessment and certainly no previous lesson plans is a territory I have not yet encountered! PE and English are very different) I have just had to learn to deal with it and come up with new ideas .... Bringing fun and learning into the classroom which I hope I have achieved!

Each day pupils greet the teacher by standing up with their hands in prayer position and chant 'hello teacher, how are you today?" I love this and find it hard not to just grin at them, I respond and ask how are they and they will chant "I am good thank you teacher".... always emphasising the word teacher! So funny!



I've tried to bring some fun ideas! The students loved 'The Name Game' a bit of competitiveness and they were screaming and leaping from their seats! Another personal favourite was teaching the use of adjectives through writing a past card, you would have thought I had given some of them a piece of gold!!! They refused to write on it, and wrote in their workbooks for me to correct then came proudly the next day with their work written on the postcard! So cute! One boy had even written on lined paper and stuck over his original postcard because he had made a few mistakes!! They take such pride in their work!! The younger children love pictionary, wordsearches, bingo and unscrambling words!



Every evening we leave school in the pitch dark, the school is in the middle of nowhere in the country, and children as young as 5 walk home!!! It is unbelievable to think that children at home would be nicely tucked in bed as these children walk along a country dirt track in the dark to their little shacks where most do not have the luxury of electricity! I found it saddening when asking the children about their family how many have lost a parent, from such a young age these children are expected to look after themselves!! Many of the teachers stay and live at the school, one sleeps in the library on a wooden bench and the rest of teachers and some older students share one room, the toilets are holes in the ground and the shower a wooden box with water! I do not know how they arrange food, I can only assume they visit some of the neighbouring huts and buy street food!

I cycle home with the Germans (Sarah, Judith and Paul) and feel guilty everyday leaving complaining how hungry I am! As by that point I am starving!! We cycle to our usual restaurant, nothing fancy with red plastic chairs, a huge wok, lots of annoying flies, lizards on the wall and a dog with baring teeth.... But we love it! The most amazing food for 1.5 dollars!!! Not to mention the incredible shakes, yummy!!! Good job the portions are big as we all just about make it there before keeling over and gobble our food down like we've never seen food before! Lol! And we are creatures of habit, frequently ordering the same thing everyday!!



At night occasionally we go to a bar which has a unique selling point!!! FREE popcorn!!! Ahhhh! Such a treat!!! It's the little things that make you so happy! Ha!

I like to wonder around the night markets, I wish I could say this was a pleasant experience, which all in all it is but 'tuk tuk lady' 'massage lady' 'you want to buy lady' 'good price for you lady' gets a bit much!! I still hear the echoing in my sleep!!! Lol! However I did enjoy my first foot massage the other night and for someone who usually will not have their feet touched! It was incredible.... Definitely opened a can of worms there as now I can understand the westerners addiction to daily night massages!!! Lol!

Anyway..... Think that's enough now, no doubt you have fallen asleep at your keyboard with a pool of drool as I have bored you senseless!

But that's a little piece of the "life of me" ATM!

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