NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2009

Hi Everyone,

I have just spent a very lazy weekend doing absolutely nothing but read and sleep.  Must have needed it!  But now ready and rearing to go again.  Actually, Sothea was away for the weekend at a cousin’s wedding and I couldn’t be bothered hiring a moto to do the couple of things I needed to do.  Not that important - they could wait until he gets back.

Holidays here again!  It was Coronation Day on Thursday and now Water Festival which goes on for days.  Quite honestly, if this country is ever going to become productive and better educated they must cut out all these holidays.  They are never at work or school because instead of taking just the one or two days for the celebration, they take the whole week as most of them go back to their home province.  It never stops!  We keep running the school and most of the kids roll up because they haven’t anything else much to do and it keeps them occupied.  A lot of them spend most of the day here playing and swimming in the dam anyway.  I think I told you that we worked out that the children only go to school for about 20 weeks of the year because the teachers are never there.

Consequently,the Association papers have not been completed yet.  We were supposed to get them all last week but then all these holidays intervened, so we have to wait until next week now to contact them again.  Can be very frustrating at times!

One of the pagoda celebrations I attended.  
This monk is a student of ours.

Andrew is getting closer and closer to coming here.  I realized the other day that it is nearly a year since I’ve seen him.  Won’t recognize him at the airport!

Most of the musicians in the pagoda band 
are also students of ours

Went to a celebration at the local pagoda the other day and was amazed at how many people I actually knew.  Many of them came up and said hallo and I came away feeling I had been accepted by the community.  Quite heart warming really but I guess with 160 students, there are many families involved and word of  Kep Gardens gets around.

Our students at Siem Reap are having a great time.  A couple of the boys have been chosen to help out at a 5 star hotel before their actual work experience placement starts.  They were very excited but I haven’t heard how they are going.  I do know they both hold the dubious record of being the first students at the school to break glasses while practising (both on the same day) so whether they wanted to move them out quickly to protect their glassware or whether they are quick learners I don’t know.

Kimsy, our female student has had a traumatic time lately.  Her father was involved in a moto accident.  He is in hospital in Phnom Penh but hasn’t “woken up” yet. They don’t do anything for them, just give them a bed and a drip so the family are collecting money from various relatives to take him to  Vietnam.  When I was in Phnom Penh a couple of weekends ago I went and visited him in ICU.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought.  Apart from the fact that the windows and door were open to the outside and flies and mosquitoes could get in, at least it was clean, although the relatives camped around the beds left a lot to be desired, no facilities for them.  The families have to stay there as they are the ones who look after the patient.  There was a lady with a white coat wandering around and I guessed she was the doctor but there were no nurses to be seen.  Kimsy’s family bathed him, fanned him and generally kept him comfortable.  Although if the doctor says to him, “lift your right arm” he does, but he can’t wake up.

Another of our students who lives on the corner of our road is very ill.  He has dengue fever.  Not the ordinary sort but the hemorrhaging sort.  There is a tree on top of the hill overlooking our place and a plot of land that the Government lady owns.  Phally looks after this land for her as it is next door to his house.  The old people say that spirits live under this tree and that they think Phally is a nice boy and want him to go and live with them.  That is why he got so sick.  Whether his parents believe this or not, thankfully they took him to a clinic in Kampot where he stayed on a drip for a couple of weeks.  Visited him too and he looked dreadful.  He is home now, at least they have taken him to an auntie’s house on the other side of the village, away from the tree.  I went to see him last week and he is looking much better, although very skinny and yellow under his brown skin.  He says he is eating rice so I guess that is a good sign.  Hopefully, the spirits will have to wait for many years before he lives with them.  He is only 15 and a lovely boy with a gorgeous smile

Some of the younger students.

Actually, this is quite a depressing newsletter, as two other students were involved in a moto accident in front of the pagoda last week.  They were taken to the local “doctors” house in the market.  He has a bit of a hospital ward there for sick people that have to stay.  Went and saw them too and they were both a real mess, particularly their faces.  At least they are alive as the other teenager on the other bike died.  Teenagers going too fast, no helmets, thinking they are invincible.  No different to any other country in the world.

That’s three different incidents in the village allinvolving students of ours within a few weeks, so hopefully all will be quiet for a long time now.  Me and my superstitions!

An area leading to the dam.

The start of the new school year and the new system we are trying out was a disaster.  Kids kept rolling up that we didn’t know about, others forgot whether they were morning or afternoon and rolled up when they felt like it.  It took all of the first week to sort it out but now it’s all settled down and the five classes are running smoothly.  It is much better with smaller numbers and similar abilities in the same class, although the Intermediate class is a problem.  Too many, all teenagers but it’s the best we can do.  We need another foreign teacher.  Nobody interested I guess?  We can feed you and give you a bamboo bed with a mosquito net but no money unfortunately.

Fido, our dog, died a couple of weeks ago.  The “vet” said she had dengue fever and her head was all hot inside.  She was acting really weird, ran away and terrorized the local market and even though he gave her 3 injections (always gives 3 injections no matter what is wrong) she ended up dying.  At least this time he came he was sober as he turned up one day for something or other and was as drunk as a skunk.  He said at this time of year a lot of the animals get sick from mosquitoes; the cows, pigs etc.  A pig had bit him the other day which is unusual.  So, we have to find another dog, although a decent one and not a scrawny village dog costs quite a lot of money.

Don’t know what we can do to protect it during the rainy season though except keep it smothered in mosquito spray I guess.

We have had two lots of visitors just recently.  If it doesn’t rain it pours!  Andrew’s cousin is involved with an orphanage outside of  Phnom Penh and comes to Cambodia every 12-18 months or so.  She had never been down this way before so she and three other ladies spent a couple of days in the area.  Great to have someone to chat to about home and family.  I’m sure she will be back and with her husband next time.  They were all impressed with what we are doing here and our plans.  This pleased me as I know many people think we are crazy.

I was in Kep saying goodbye to them and then went to the local market to meet the bus.  Actually, the bus was early so the people had to sit and wait which wasn’t a good way to start their time with us.  I used to work with this lady at Yankalilla Area  School and she and her husband had been touring Vietnam and had a few days spare in Cambodia before rejoining their tour so spent it with us.  I really enjoyed their company and they were a great help, giving ideas for my presentation to the Education Dept here as well as how the little bit of technology we do have we could use for the school.  They go camping a lot so roughing it here was no big deal for them.  The kids loved Bill and after they left called him Aussie Oi Oi Oi.

Took the boat out twice while the visitors were here.  Once with the ladies but as we didn’t have much time we just went up the estuary out into the sea and came back again.  With the other visitors we had an all day and half the night fishing trip.  Quite a large contingent of fishing boats congregate out on the water at night, some from Vietnam too.  There was about a dozen of us, one lady made some lovely food as well as BBQ’d some meat, caught some fish but nothing of any size to write home about and generally we all had a great time.  Went around lots of islands but we didn’t swim as it was overcast with a pleasant breeze so nobody was particularly hot and sticky and needing to cool off.  I would like to make this a weekend ritual and sleep on the boat overnight in a hammock as I really enjoy it.  I feel really safe and the sea is not rough as the islands give shelter.

We’ve been planting lots of different sorts of fruit trees and have ordered a few hundred plants to line the driveway down to the proposed bungalows to brightened the place up a bit.  Once they arrive it will be all hands on deck to get them planted.  Some of the village farmers will get some work for a few days if they want it.

Not much else has happened lately.  We have settled into the school class routine and life goes on very much like at home.  Work, eat, sleep and play come the weekend.

 

Janine

A day out on the boat

 

Many fishing boats started to congregate towards dusk.

Didn’t catch anything much to write home about.