NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2010

Hi Everyone,

A lot seems to have happened since I last wrote so I need to sit back and collect my thoughts.  Work wise, we are still waiting for the Association approval which is taking forever.  The Government lady says she is waiting for the Deputy Prime Minister to sign it.  Far out! And now it’s Chinese New Year so things will stop again for another week!

We followed up with the electricity company andasked for a quote to bring power from the main road.  This includes a transformer as we are too far away to just plug into the main line.  Surprisingly, we had a professionally typed quote, with all the bits and pieces costed out, returned to us within two days.  The electricity man now attends our Upper English class.  Don’t know why because he did a great job, typed all in English and he explained everything to me in English as well.  Still he assures me he will make sure Kep Gardens will have enough power for our use even when others along the line start tapping into the supply.  So I guess it’s good to have him on our side.  We had a long talk with the local village authority and found out their priorities.  Power was one of them.  It costs 800 riel per kw and the people have to use at least 5 kw a month or else they won’t connect them.  We are talking $1 a month.  So we are talking to a UN village project man about power being a donation from Kep Gardens to the village people but have to make sure that we pay for the main line (we have to anyway to get power here) and that the village people get their lines into the village from donations that the UN receive for this kind of thing. The electricity man is also talking about donating his time and cable to run lines into the village so it looks like getting power into the village will turn into a joint effect which is great.  Also, an American man from Global Classroom Connection visited us and as our school cannot be involved unless we have power, he is writing some grant applications to American organizations to see if we are able to receive any donations to help bring power to Kep Gardens and so allow our students to join the global community through email.  So a lot happening, albeit slowly, with the power situation.

Had the well diggers out here too.  I never really believed in water diviners but these guys had metal sticks which actually work.  I held them in both hands and walked around and they moved all by themselves when they detected water.  Quite amazing!  So now I am a believer as I saw it with my own eyes and felt them move by themselves with my own hands and I didn’t move them.  Still, a well is not the way to go for us as it won’t be enough water for a long period of time so we have had the bore people out here.  There should not be any problem hitting long lasting underground water in this area.  They test for arsenic content so we don’t all get sick in 10 years time but the only problem we may have is the amount of lime the water may contain.  We just have to decide where we want the bore to be and they will come and do it.

We attended a party atCity Hall last night.  This is the place where we give English lessons 3 times a week.  They had a workshop all day where everyone in charge of one of the Governor’s office projects had to give a talk about what they have achieved in the last 12 months.  Kep Gardens was mentioned apparently and this is why we got an invitation to the party after the workshop.  All good for getting our project known and supported by local authorities

One of our students who left being a monk awhile ago and then got married (Lyndal and Peter, you went to the wedding) is now our part-time librarian.  He comes 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon which fits in all the classes either arriving or leaving. We really didn’t have time and this way the students get to use the books and he also has the time to keep an eye on books not returned and follow them up, repair books on their return and generally keep a bit of order to the whole process.  Once the library is built and the books from Australia have arrived, he may be interested in becoming the full-time librarian.

I have just finished the submission to the Education Department for Kep Gardens to issue certificates ratified by the Government for our English students.  Sothea is busily translating it now.  So another job finished.  Have to start on a similar submission for the Hospitality school as well as curriculums for the 5 courses being offered, Restaurant, Bar, Front Office, Tourism and Housekeeping.  Thanks to Lyndal and Peter for getting me started in the right direction.  A guy from the Education office is also attending the Upper class so he has offered to bring the official form we need to fill out and get the whole procedure started from his end.  I also have to prepare an “exam” for both schools, although the hospitality one will be mainly practical.  Occasionally I feel a bit overwhelmed by all this paperwork but once I have done it, it is done forever then and will only need revisions and changes as we learn from experience.  If anyone has any examples I could use as a guide to getting started with the hospitality stuff, I would be extremely grateful.

Borith’s wedding was a highlight on January’s calendar.  Great excitement around Kep Gardens including visitors from his home province.  I have been to many weddings since I arrived, some in Phnom Penh where there was obviously plenty of money in the family and some in villages where money was not in abundance but they had probably gone into debt for the whole affair.  This one was obviously very poor families but it was heartwarming to be involved.  There weren’t lots of guests and they weren’t all dressed up as usual as they couldn’t afford it either.  In fact, I felt out of place in my special wedding outfit.  There weren’t the usual marquees, we just sat outside under the coconut trees on a beautiful balmy night under a full moon.  The couple’s mums weren’t all dolled up as usual BUT the girl’s mum had obviously decided that her daughter was going to have all the usual trappings of a bride. They have many outfit changes, both bride and groom, which they hire for the occasion and makeup and hair professionally done.  She looked beautiful and Borith looked so happy. They couldn’t get the smile off their faces all night

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Apparently this is a symbol of loving each other until you are old and have no teeth left to eat hard food, only soft bananas

All the guests had a great time, lots of dancing, lots of laughing.  One of our farm workers was the official photographer using our ordinary old camera.  We put all the photos into 2 books, one for the couple and one for his family to take back to their village and had 2 photos blown up and framed as is the custom.  After walking about 30 minutes in all my finery through rice fields and a dried up, quite deep pond to get there, I must admit I had my doubts about getting home in the dark without incident but we made it.

Sothea’s dad stayed with us for a few days after the wedding.  He is a lovely man and through Sothea I had a good conversation with him. He talked about the American bombing of his village and surrounds in 1970 and about his Pol Pot experiences.  Really interesting.  He is a very gentle, intelligent man.  Used to be a teacher and Director of the local village school after Pol Pot time until he retired a year or so ago. He now works on his small land where he grows cashew nut trees.

Since our article in a tourist booklet, “Kep Revival”, we have people calling in from time to time.  Mainly Australians but other countries are represented as well.  Had a Danish couple with 3 children the other day.  Our young class sang them a song in English and then these children sang a song in Danish.  An English couple last week ended up staying for ages chatting and we invited them out on the boat the next day.  She works in textiles and has lived in Adelaide doing some work for Michell, the wool people (? spelling).

Talking about the boat.  Andrew’s cousins have been visiting for a week and so last Saturday we organized another boat trip out to the islands.  Had a great day but the only snag was that the lady who prepared the food forgot to put it all in when we picked it up.  We got a phone call and had to anchor for a couple of hours while she sent out a fishing boat with the rest of our lunch.  All adds to the spice of life here in Cambodia, expect the unexpected!  Another Australian couple also came out for the day.  They knew someone who has been working with Andrew occasionally on the units he is building and he said to contact me.  They came from Sihanoukville for the day.  Great couple, they live in Alice Springs, so I hope they keep in contact.  One of the beauties about doing what we do is that you meet all sorts of people from all over the world who do all sorts of interesting jobs.  The Australian couple from Alice Springs have been selling Aboriginal art for many years and are closely involved with the Aboriginal communities.

Andrew’s cousins had a marvelous time and appreciated the fact that because we live within the community they were able to experience daily life in rural Cambodia.  We went to a memorial ceremony one night near the market.  We buy our rice from these people and although I’ve never met them, they invited us and were happy for Doreen and Jayne to come too.  Quite a few of the monks who conducted the ceremony are our students.  Lots of old ladies there and towards the end of the evening they all just lied down on the mats on the floor and went to sleep.  Obviously they were staying the night – too tired to walk home I suppose in the dark.  They invited us to join them but we gracefully declined.

To add excitement to their visit, we arrived home on Sunday afternoon after a beauty parlour visit for pedicures and manicures, hair washing and head massage and face washing and face massage all for the bargain price of $5.  At the beginning of our road there was a fire engine!  Didn’t know they had any in Kep but there it was with a few police hanging around.  There was a bushfire in one of the mountains that surround our property burning at the back of the mountain.

Because they couldn’t get to it to try to put it out, they were going to wait for it to burn its way down to Kep Gardens and fight it from there.  I offered them the use of the dam water if they needed it.  They stayed around for awhile and then all went home and said they would be back in the morning.  Great!  When it got dark you could see the red glow but it wasn’t all that large an area.  Anyway, forgot about it and the next morning it had appeared to burn down the side of the mountain, not towards us.  Then a heap of people arrived and headed off up the track to walk as far as they could go to check it out.  We had 20 motor bikes and 5 cars in our driveway.  It gradually burnt itself out.  Bushfires here are nowhere near as devastating as in Australia.  For a start, the jungle is very green so it burns slowly and there was no wind this particular afternoon.  Also, the trees do not have eucalyptus oil in them that helps the burning process.  So, no big deal, we weren’t in any danger anyway as standing in the middle of Kep Gardens would be like standing in the middle of an oval in the Adelaide Hills, so we were quite safe, but a bit of excitement to add to a lazy Sunday afternoon.  One of the firefighters had been trained by Australians and had an Australian badge on his uniform so that reassured me slightly.  No better trainers I would imagine considering the horrific bushfires we have at home.

An Australian guy is coming to Kep Gardens for a month.  He has been teaching English conversation in Phnom Penh as a volunteer for a year.  His contract expires towards the end of February and his visa has a month left on it, so he decided he would like to stay in the country for the month and saw our article in “Kep Revival” when he spent a weekend in Kep so rang and asked if he could help in any way.  So for a month, I will break the Upper class into small groups and he can take a different group each night and they can get practice at conversation, something we can’t really offer as the class is too big.  I met this Australian guy when I last went to Phnom Penh.  He is older than me and obviously conscientious as he stuck it out in Phnom Penh for a year as a volunteer.  Comes from Riddells Creek in Victoria and had a friend staying with him from Gladstone when I met him.  They have both travelled to many countries together.  He’s retired but she has a shop in Gladstone.  Also had a young Turkish guy come the other day wanting to do something similar but I am not sure about him yet.  He’s never done anything like this before but his English is good with hardly any accent.  Have to think about it a bit longer before I commit myself.

If anyone wants a copy of the DVD we made of the students playing games and many of them speaking, Lyndal has kindly offered to burn them and send them to anyone interested.  Ring her on 0418842097

I am interested in what people want when they go on holidays.  Not only in accommodation but also food, things they like to see and do, facilities available, private or public relaxing areas etc.  I know what I like but want other people’s opinions so that when building our bungalows and deciding on what facilities to offer we can take many opinions into account and come up with something that will please most people.  I would be gratefully if you could think about this and email me back with your ideas.

(Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes)

Thefarm guys are working on making a big compost heap at the moment, chopping up the brown banana leaves, ordering cow dung, rice straw, rice husks which one of our student’s families gave us for nothing.  They are also preparing veggie beds for planting now that all the flowers and plants are in the ground.  All go at the moment.  Peter enthused them

I hope all is well withyou and your families and I look forward to hearing your ideas of what makes a perfect holiday.

Janine