megsimone

This is my last entry of the summer. I fly back to New York (via Bangkok, Hong Kong, Los Angeles) over the next few days. It's been a crazy ride, full of great people and fun new places and I'm sad to leave. The last month of my summer was primarily spent in Kampong Cham, where I did an internship with a local NGO KAPE (Kampuchean Action for Primary Education). I wrote a training manual for a multicultural education workshop. It's a model, primarily designed for teachers and directors of public and Islamic schools in Cambodia. My boss liked the training so much, he wants the whole KAPE staff to go through the training. The 2-day training was last week. It was so great to see some of my ideas come to life and, even better, ... read more

Since I last wrote, so much has happened. Things were really up in the air and I wanted to see where the chips fell before writing this blog entry. My previous internship ended due to lack of funding. But I'm now interning with KAPE (Kampuchean Action for Primary Education). They are a local non-governmental organization (NGO) that has been around for 10 years. KAPE is well known for their work in education in Cambodia. The KAPE office is located in Kampong Cham, about 2 hours east of Phnom Penh. I'll be spending most of my time there before I head back to the States on August 29. The best part about working with KAPE is that I get to develop multicultural curriculum. This is something I really want to do. As luck would have it, that's ... read more

After leaving Phnom Penh, we headed to Kep. Famous for crab, Kep was also a seaside resort for the French elite and the likes of Jackie O in the '60s. It's a pleasant place, if a little overpriced and spread out. It was also particularly sleepy as this is the low season. The crab market serves up some delicious seafood in Kampot pepper sauce. I'm not particularly talented at eating crab. We learned a lot about education and secondary schools there. For my birthday, we went to El Dorado, a restaurant surrounded by a lotus-filled moat. The owner and chef was Hungarian and the happy hour specials on food and beer were great. He fired up the wood-burning oven for our pizza while we played Trivial Pursuit. The next day, more people joined us from Phnom ... read more

This is my last entry and the longest. When I last wrote I was in Koh Tao, Thailand. After leaving Koh Tao, I headed north to Bangkok for a few days. I met up with Cari, a friend that I met in Dublin back in 2000. So it was great catching up with her as she is now married and expecting her first! Then I headed north to Ayutthaya to see more temple ruins. I met some great people there and then convinced them that they should do the night tour with me. The next day I rented a bicycle and saw a few more temples. Getting a bike was the right choice and I had a great day. Ayutthaya also has a fabulous night market with some amazing Thai desserts. My guesthouse had live music ... read more

Vientiane, the capital of Laos, did not disappoint. My Indian dinner with Michael (former Peace Corps Volunteer) was great. And I met some awesome folks at my guesthouse: Lili, Patricia and Kieran. Somehow it came out that Kieran's birthday was coming up, and having spent some birthdays far from home, my heart went out to him. So we rented bicycles to go to the temple and have an herbal sauna and massages. We also sat in on a meditation session, before biking back to town and eating ice cream on the beach. I had heard there was a great 7km cave down south, but was unsure how to get there. Fortunately, Patricia, Lili and Kieran were all going that way. The next day we made it to Ban Kong Lo (the village closest to the cave) ... read more