Last Two Weeks

Wooooooahhhhhh, two weeks seems to FLY by here!!

Phnom Penh.

On the weekend 24th to 26th January we stayed in Phnom Penh. The Friday night was spent in the 'Blue Dog Guesthouse', the mattresses here were so thin that every spring could be felt through it however I strangely liked it as it felt like the mattress I had in summer up at the cottage. The second night was spent in the "Little Banana"in a cute little dorm room. It had 7 mattresses on the floor a bathroom and not much else, but for $4 a night what else would you expect? We really liked this place so will definitely be going back in the future. On the Friday night we had our usual pizza treat, eating at the Top Banana and here we met Tyler from Canada. The next morning we ate breakfast with Alice from England then all spent the day at the market and in a cafe together. Then at Little Banana we met Tim from Germany and Dennis from Russia, and it was these two we went to a rooftop party with in celebration of the Chinese new year. The party was good, the music a bit odd. It was a mix between cambodian remixes then suddenly changed to meditation music... but the view from the rooftop was pretty good. After we hung out with some Khmer people who Tim and Dennis knew, and very nearly got brought to a karaoke place (luckily it was full).

Playing Pool at the Little Banana

Gwen the Professional Pool Player

I also won quite a few cans of orange soda, here we are celebrating.

We also went to The National Museum with Antoine, who is interning with Magna. It was quite interesting, if you like statues of Buddas. Because there were a lot of statues of Buddas! Or Budda-like objects. The gardens were nice and there was a monk casually sitting beside the pond.  This is becoming normal for us now (gradually). Here we got our palms read for one dollar each. I was a bit apprehensive because i'm not sure about anything like that but after watching Gwen and Antoine (and seeing what a load of rubbish it is perhaps due to difficulties in communication) gave it a go. Basically, I might travel somewhere foreign (who knew!), I need not worry about money and in order for happiness I need to get married soon.

Front of the National Museum

Gwen, Antoine, Me

Big Budda. (Notice monk left hand side)

Going into Phnom Penh is definitely a good way to meet people and it's exciting to hear about other people's travels and where is good for us to go.




Swimming.

For the last few years, the Magna volunteers have been bringing Sothy, who is deaf-blind to a place called Hotel 252 to swim. This gives him the rare opportunity of getting out of the Group Home. We rang up the manager to try and get this started up again, however she informed us that two summer volunteers (not from Project Trust) had brought children but not Sothy, they had made quite a bit of noise, left balls lying around and generally made a racket - resulting in complaints from the residents of the hotel. They wrote to Magna but got no reply, we asked about but no-one seems to know of anything. We are currently looking for somewhere else to take us and have sent e-mails out, but so far no replies.

Debbie
We finally got to meet up with Debbie this past thursday, who works with Sothy on using sign language so he is able to communicate with his peers. We arrived just as breakfast was finishing and I got to eat TOAST with JAM and drink APPLE JUICE. Toast has never tasted so good.!
The first session was just mainly playing, next lesson more work to be done. I enjoyed going to Debbie's as it's a relaxing chance to get away, but also nice seeing Sothy being able to play without his toys being scrambled for by the other children.

English Classes
We are making slow but steady progress with English Classes. The first week went well, then the school timetable changed and its hard to know who's coming and who's going. The kids here only go to school for half the day and each month that swaps. So if you went in the morning you not go in the afternoon etc. But some of them changed and some of them didn't, slightly disrupting our carefully made timetable of who should be in class when....
Also, sometimes a few of the kids seem to nap when they should be in classes, so we may have to make it a later class.  We'll see how things turn out...

Teacher Gwen

Blue Lemons

Chinese New Year Party
On Thursday the 26th February we celebrated the Chinese New Year (Year of the Horse) at the Group Home with a partyyyyyy! First we watched cartoons for a while, then played games - blind mans bluff etc, then was a traditional dance show from the older Magna Kids and they were really good! We had a BBQ for tea then spicy curry and baguettes. Then was the time to give everyone a present.
Since we wern't here for Christmas they kids didn't have it but Magna had bought each child a teddy bear, our job was to create a big heap of them on the floor then each clid came up and picked one. And it went rather well :)  The children were so excited and it was so warming to watch the gratitude spread right across their faces! Then A LOT of dancing. There kids love to dance.  And Khmer dancing at that.  Which involves a lot of animal like movements and twirling of the hands...

Teddies for Everyone

Chinese New Year Celebrations in Takhmao

After seeing the dragon. We were all so excited there was no time for shoes!

MA!

This week was fairly quiet at the GH.

English
We've been running a few English Lessons this week for the eager ones who want to start early. All in all it's been a pretty pleasant experience. We found that most of the younger ones can't read english and their only grasp of the alphabet is singing the song. Ask them to draw an 'L' on the board they can't. So we might have to get back to basics with them. Every evening we have been giving the older (advanced) group a lesson. We covered sentences such as "I am very/ I am not very... hungry/full/happy/sad etcetc. Also looked at Nouns/adjectives and Verbs and did reading with them. I'd like to look into getting proper reading books. i.e. 9 copies of the same book they can read then we look over in class, but the budget may not stretch that far.


Activities

Artistic

We brought 5 of the children for a walk to the river/park. Or rather 2 of them took us, and we took the other 3. I think we'd like to do this more often as the kids seem to enjoy getting out of the GH for something other than school.
We also tried finger painting with about 10 of the kids, all started well then chaos. A lot of paints got mixed, the patio has a bit of paint on it, so do my jeans. Maybe stick to pencils and crayons for a while longer.

At the Park

Food
Food this week hasn't been to awful. The Ma's have taken to making us something different than the kids, not sure why as sometimes theirs looks muchhhh nicer than ours.
Gwen also tried a coconut, and the juice is pretty nice! We ate a lot more deep fried bananas. Tried our first proper Khmer Street Coffee (2000 riel). Had a weird cold desert which I can only compare to the inside of a pavlova.  Got given a wooden stick where you peel back the bark and inside is sweet rice and coconut. Sweet rice balls with coconut on the outside in thick creamy coconut milk. (yum). Also a ... burger..., apparently their Chinese and consist of a doughy bread (if you can call it that) and the weirdest meat inside, and inside that meat is egg. Odd. Can't say we ate those as eagerly as the kids.

The 'burger'

Hospital
This week we were meant to start going to the CCH hospital which isn't far from the GH. We got brought for a 10 minute tour on Monday, then went on Tuesday - only to be told that there was nothing for us to do but we come along to the adolescent group counselling on Thursday Morning where they were going to learn about weening babies to porridge made from their mothers milk. So we went along. Watched some Mr Bean and then it got started. The whole thing was in Khmer, but we got the jist of it. In the 2 hour sessions there was 2 snack breaks, one for the rice/coconut balls the second for the burger, thing. Oh there was also crackers to eat at the start of the session. I swear these people don't stop eating.!
I think we go next week every morning to do activities with the children who are waiting for their appointments.

Bathroom Update
We started cleaning it, then some of the kids thought it looked an interesting activity and decided to join in. We gave the camera to one boy which resulted in loadddddsssss of pictures of the bathroom being cleaned. But now it's clean. :)

Lastly, the other night we also found a HUGE spider in our room. Gwen swiftly captured it and released it into its natural habitat.

Nam Bai

Group Home
The Group Home is actually a lovely building, we have a a room on the bottom floor which is well equipped with teaching supplies/ paper/ stickers etcetc which will come in handy. We have both put the photos we brought on our sides of the room. We sleep on mattresses on the floorwhich we pushed  together and put the big mosquito net over the two of them. Our room looks onto the front yard ( a big space where the kids play) and have no curtains to our room, and the windows are hardly ever closed as it would be to hot. Therefore even when we go into our rooms to recluse from the kids there's always going to be a few over this time to pop up to the window shouting 'ma', wanting something or  just staring in. We have an ensuite wetroom, that is stinking. We are going to buy some cleaning products this weekend then give it a good scrub.

This was AFTER a hose down!

Our room :)

There is a 'library' containing a few shelves of books in both English and Khmer, the english ones in my opinion are too difficult for them to understand as the kids english is veryyyyy basic. There are also games for them to play, but things like Monopoly/Balderdash that are again far to difficult for them considering its all in English (and half the stuff is missing). We've been giving them paper when we want a bit of rest so our room is now coming down with drawings which is brightening the place up significantly.

The Kids
As I described to my mum are 'terrors but so great at the same time'. Terrors as in there is not 5 minutes when their not yelling 'ma' at us to get us to watch, or they're hitting each other over the head with bats, or pinching each other.
But they are so great I have honestly never got so many cuddles in my life. Reading their files and understanding the background of each child really shows how different their lives are to most children growing up in the UK.
Currently attempting to learn their names, this is difficult and this week I have learnt 3. They have got my name as apparently is sounds like a type of whiskey, therefore often I am called 'Alixon Whiskey'. Gwen gets  'Goan" But mostly the younger ones just caled us 'ma' and the older ones call us 'sister' - it's quite nice really.

They spend most of their free time just wandering around the GH, I think the GH rely strongly on the PT volunteers to organise activities and lessons and they've found the 5/6 month gap challenging. Next week we start our timetable so hopefully that'll get them a lot more motivated to do stuff.

The amount of english they know is very little, which Phearun the GH Manager wants to change this year, no pressure on us then... There is a few of them with ok english skills but still not enough to have a conversation.

We enjoy talking to the older ones and mostly spend the evenings with them, last night the boys were showing us all 'Magic' - including a levitation act. With the girls we listen to music and sing, they seem to like J-lo and Justin Bieber over here.

The Food

Rice, rice, rice, rice, rice. The word Nam Bai (food) literally translates to eat rice. One day I ate 4 bowls of rice - can't be healthy. Ma made us a salad yesterday for lunch which was a pleasant surprise AND we got noodles for breakfast today instead of rice. She must have been feeling generous. Some of the kids came back with what we now know as deep fried potato pieces, and we took the bikes out to get some. However we both went for a deep fried banana at 500 riel each. Later that day the Khmer teacher at the GH brought us deep fried banana also, definately not complaining! =)

Lotttts of mango also. yummm, also quite a lot of fruit i've never seen before and only know the names in Khmer, but its good.
Coconuts here are also green.

On the plate, the white thing is one of the new fruits, I thought they we giving me a raw potato.

This weekend we're spending a night in Phnom Penh, eating normal food and going to the big market before heading back to the GH on Saturday evening.

Week 1!

Sewer s'day!!!
I was going to write a really detailed long winded blog but I got bored so you would too.

Flight
Long, but didn't feel overly long. Planes had a good choice of movies. :) Much preferred being by window seat. as it actually gave something to lean on. They gave us food and the rice was good and the customer service immaculate they gave each passenger slippers to wear. Amazing! We made a South Korean friend who gave us some Ramen which we are yet to try! :)

Immigration
No scams... so far ;)

Weather
Hot, 28 degreesish, though got to 33 today which we were walking about in! Nice breeze, not to bad.  Mornings are quite nice to go out in as it's not as hot then.

Cambodia/Vietnam Friendship Monument

Our Hostel
We stayed in the 'Mad Monkey' hotel from 6-12 Jan. Lovely room,  crackin food. Coke $1, fried rice and veg $3.50, big portions. For breakfast they have eggs and toast, french toast/ fruit/ granola etcetc as they are used to catering to backpackers. The rooms are nice and clean and the beds soooo comfy their also bigger than a standard single :)
I have also found out tat cold showers are quite refreshing, who needs warm water anyway?

Most of the people we met were from Australia, America and others from the UK. Normally go up to the bar every night and have a coke and practice our Khmer with the bar staff. Met loads of interesting people this way they gave us lots of tips on travelling - CHECK YOUR CHANGE!







Khmer
Slow but steady learning! Our teacher
e.g. This is my homework for tomorrow. (10th)

Khmon crop cane maong phram b gala. Khnom suc sa maong phram b, sigh sap phram nearte, bon dop me moa da. Bon dap be khnom slate pia cow aow meong phram bi. Khnom nai bi beat bra a phram bu dap phram near te. Bon dop be dok t'man.

Theoretically we can also count to 1,000,000.

We have learnt how to say/ask what colours we like/don't like. Introducing ourselves, where from/where we live/our age/ are we married/ citizenship/how to ask for a mobile number. Also learnt how to bargin in the markets/ how to buy fruits/asking the kids questions/how to order food.
Brain fried? Yes.




How to Cross a Road (for the benefit of my dad)
1) Step into the road
2) Wait for approaching very near cars to pass
3) Go.
4) Walk slowly but directly across the road.
5) Don't look back... all the approaching moto's/TukTuks will go around you.

Introductory Tour
Today, (12th) we had a 1/2 day tour organised for us by our country rep Imma, (who is great). She brought us to the Independence Momument, explaining the history behind it. We also had a look around the royal palace, it was more outside than it but it was all very interesting! Had a look at Wat Phnom, then finally onto S-21. I didn't know what this was, I thought it was a standard museum (wa-ong in Khmer) It's actually about the Khmer Rouge and how they detained people in this prision that was once a school. It was pretty gruesome but interesting at the same time. It's good to know the history behind different countries, but it's mad to think that this was only 40 years ago. In this one place alone it's said that up to 20,000 people were killed for being educated, doctors/teachers/mechanics - anyone with an education basically in case they rose and challenged the countries leaders.



Magna!
Tomorrow we go to Magna. Ahhhhhh!

Will update next week, maybe, hopefully! :D

Part of the Royal Palace.

Training!

Well hello. Here we are, and in 3 weeks Gwen and myself will be on a plane to Seoul, (then swiftly on to Phnom Penh) .  (crazy)

Sporting the front/back rucksack combo technique.

But about Training...

My partner and I met in Glasgow Queen Street Station to get the bus to Oban, meeting up with a few other p8 vols who were on our selection course. Of course, no trip would be complete without a trip to the backpackers plus and a game of Mega Jenga and our new sport Satsuma Ball, soon to be introduced to Cambodia, Ghana and Nepal.




And then started training.

It was so nice to step out of that ferry onto Coll again, I think it's a place that's special to every PT volunteer and I can't wait to go back in summer.

Training is intense, there's no point saying it isn't, however it is very fun.
Classes include teacher training (primary/secondary/TESOL/social care specific), individual country groups, classroom management, how to create lesson plans, health, safety, online communications -  blogs an that.. (how am I doing DaveL?) among many, many others. By far my favourite was with our country group, consisting of myself, Gwen and Heloise who is our desk officer. These sessions helped paint a picture of our time away and find out each of our hopes and fears for the coming 8 months and try to find ways to achieve or overcome them.

Selection Reunion!

Gwen, Me, Heloise

Most evenings were spent playing Irish Snap and doing lesson prep. Then of course ending with the infamous PT end of week ceilidh, which had me in stitches (literally and physically) as it followed from a delicious 3 course meal. (Ever tried baked banana wrapped in parma ham? no? You should.)

So yeah, 3 weeks to go and I know what i'm getting for Christmas; Deet, a mosquito net and a universal plug adaptor.

Next update will be from Phnom Penh. (Ah!)

Cambodia!!!

So on the 16th September I received a phone call from John at PT telling me that there had been an opening in Cambodia so thats where i'm heading!
After getting over the initial shock of being in a completely different country/culture/climate than I though i'd be in, I became really excited.

Program Details;

Magna is a Slovakian NGO that works with children with HIV/Aids. Many of the children it supports are either orphaned or unable to live at home, so the organisation has set up a home just outside the capital Phnom Penh to house them. You will live and work in the group home, getting involved in a wide variety of activities at the project. You could be involved in giving basic English lessons to children ranging from 2 up to 16 years old, working at the NGO’s office or doing administrative work at the Magna hospital ward. A
lot of time is spent just playing with and supporting the children as well as assisting the Cambodian caregivers run the home.
There is also a more medical aspect to the project. The children are all on anti-retroviral medication, the drug that inhibits the development of HIV into Aids, and it needs to be monitored to ensure that they are being taken correctly. Some children who come into the home are very weak and the volunteers have to pay particular care for them, ensuring that they eat correctly, monitoring their weight, behavior and taking them to the clinic for their assessments. The volunteers attend an educational meeting every week to discuss the progress of each child.
This project requires a lot of initiative, looking at the routine of the children and seeing what you can do to help or to enhance the children’s daily lives. You will also be involved in running PSHE lessons, running arts and crafts activities and play therapy sessions with a deaf and blind child who requires particular attention.
Accommodation
You will share a bedroom with an en-suite bathroom in the group home which is located in Takhmau, about half an hour from the centre of Phnom Penh. The room is next to the children’s and caregivers’ rooms yet allows
you to have your own space. Food is basic and is cooked for everyone in the home, including the volunteers, by local staff so you will rapidly get used to a Cambodian diet.

Life in Cambodia

Cambodia is a country with a rich history. The Khmer people of the region have developed a sophisticated society, which at its prime resulted in the building of the incredible temples and palaces of Angkor Wat. This has become a huge tourist trap but you don’t have to go far to get away from the milling hordes and discover a Cambodia that

is virtually untouched. It is, however, one of the poorest countries
in SE Asia and is still dealing with the effects of a long period of war and political instability. The Vietnam War had a huge impact, not only because of its indirect involvement but also the political developments it spawned, which resulted in the notorious Pol Pot regime. This led to political and economic isolation and appalling human rights abuses.

A shadow still hangs over Cambodia but it is becoming a player in the economic development of SE Asia once again. Cambodia faces many challenges ahead, as rural poverty affects a large percentage of the population, resulting in many living at subsistence level with low life expectancy and limited educational and economic opportunities. Corruption is also a major problem.

Having been a part of French-Indo China from 1887 until its independence in 1953, there is a strong French influence, particularly
in Phnom Penh with its French architecture and restaurants. French is spoken by some of the older generation but it is English that is rapidly becoming the foreign language of preference, albeit only spoken in the capital and main tourist areas. In terms of travel Cambodia has much to offer, from the ancient temples of Angkor Wat to the exotic islands and beaches in the South - you will have plenty opportunity during your year to explore this fascinating country. 

Next up is training on the 3-7th december held up in Coll. Meaning the actual dates i'll be away are the 1-8th December.

My Facebook post in our PT selection group. Where my partner and I accidentally bumped into each other! (Sorry PT!)

Why aren't you in Africa?

So I haven't updated this in a while and it's mainly been because I wasn't sure how to. Some of this blog is extracts from one written in March but which I never actually published.

Why aren't you in Africa?
In March 2013 my mum got diagnosed with breast cancer which was a massive shock to everyone. Subsequently I delayed my departure to January so I could be here for most of the treatment. PT were very supportive throughout this process and I wrote letters to all the trusts who had given me money to inform them.

This later departure date meant that I was able to spend my summer volunteering at Quaker Cottage, a family centre where I split my time working the the babies/preschools and the 6-12 age group. We did lots of craft and it gave me confidence around the younger age group who I hadn't had much experience before. (I am now a complete expert at throwing/catching/spinning/ chasing/piggybacking/wresting the under7's.)

Fundraising Updates


From March
'On the 13th of this month, while I was sitting on my laptop, I got an e-mail through from Vrigin Money Giving telling me I got a donor for £555.00. (!) What?
I couldn't believe this, and still do not know who or what trust it is from, but thank-you so much!

Today, again through the door another £500 from a trust.

For any future volunteers, writing to trusts is one of the most important fundraising steps. Though it may take a long time to initially research them, write that perfect letter, address them, stamp them, envelope them, then eventually post them.
It is so worth it.'

Since then my fundraising has kind of halted... but spending a lot of time at work means i'm not worried about the rest of the funds, I know it'll come :)

PT Parents Evening (March)
Another thing that happened was the Project Trust Parents evening, which for the Northern Ireland Applicants was held at Queens University. It gave the chance for all the Northern Ireland (and a few from Ireland) volunteers and parents to meet together and swap fundraising ideas. While I thought bag packs were out of the question (Asda said no to me) we found that other stores did let bag packs happen and it was very much a store dependent process. So I might ask around for over Christmas period. It gave parents the chance to chat, and gave them a support basis for when we are away - which  I think will be very helpful for them.

Those are updates i've probably left out a lot. I will write another blog post tomorrow about my new placement in .......... (drumroll please)...