5/1/2011
Expecting to be picked up at 8 by Svenja to start my first day at the orphanage I got up at about 6 (as usual while I've been here) and prepared for the day as usual. Just before 8 Xanthe and I went downstairs to wait for my ride so that she could say goodbye as she was meant to leave for Kompong Speu at 9. However by 8.30 I was still at home and so called Svenja. Having been mixed up about my living situation she would come at 10. Shortly after that Sebastian texted to let us know that he would come for Xanthe at 10.30. So with some spare time on our hands Xanthe and I went back upstairs and chatted for awhile. We have decided that on the weekend I start my 'travelling' part of my trip and head up to Siem Reap she will also come up for the weekend, very exciting.
Sebastian arrived around 9.45 with a Canadian volunteer also headed to Kompong Speu. The two stayed for coffee and we all had a nice chat about nearly everything under the sun. Mummy fawned over Sebastian too which was quite hilarious as he got very embarrassed when she began harrassing him about getting a girlfriend. Eventually the three set off around 10.20 and I waited for Svenja. Five minutes later when she arrived I found that she was a little confused as to the whereabouts of the orphanage as it had recently relocated.
Eventually we made our way there and the car was mobbed by children (I now know what rockstars feel like!) who grabbed our hands and dragged us inside. Unfortunately none of the adults at the orphanage speak English but with the help of our driver as translator we managed to get mine and the other volunteer's schedule sorted. So we go to work from 8-11.30/12.00 and then have a lunch break until 3, working up til 4. Our job is to entertain whichever half of the children are not at school and help them with their English (which is actually quite good). After Svenja left the other volunteer (her name is Lauren) and I discovered that there were absolutely no materials for us to work with and lunch was about to start. So I suggested that we head to the Central Market to get some stationary supplies. When we reached the market and I found us the stationary section we bought plain and coloured paper, felt pens and crayons. That gave as something to get us through to the end of the day if nothing else. Both being to scared to sample the local street cuisine I navigated us to the Sorya Shopping Center for lunch. Over lunch I got to know Lauren, a New Zealand born Australian who has been working as a nurse for about a year. There we also found a proper stationary store where I bought a few colouring and excercise books. The colouring books had simple pictures of animals playing games so I came up with an idea to entertain and teach the kids. Because we could not spread 3 books around 10-15 kids I traced each of the pictures onto a sheet of paper and wrote a basic English sentence to accompany each ie. "Dog playing with ball." The idea was the children could retrace the picture and copy the sentence, we would then teach them to say the sentence and write their names on the picture and they could colour it in. The idea went down a treat, the kids LOVED it! They were so exicited by the pens, crayons and pictures that it hardly seems possible that it was only worth $5, definitely a Mastercard priceless moment.
After work I went home to find a note from Xanthe on my bedside table. It was a beautiful letter admiring my bravery and decency in coming to Cambodia and not leaving the host family for the guest house. It made me cry! I also called Mum at a slightly more respectable hour and hit the internet cafe before dinner. After dinner I prepared more pictures for the next day and bought a bouncy ball from across the street.
6/1/2011
Along with being my first full day at the orphanage it was also my first ride on a moto. I was pretty terrified to begin with although my host father giving me a helmet was a huge relief. I may be the only passenger in Phnom Penh that wears a helmet but it makes both me a Mum very happy. My host father has also organised me a moto driver who will take me to and from work twice a day and has also offered to take me around on the weekends. This is helpful as now that I am by myself it is far cheaper to go by moto than tuk tuk. After having been on the moto once I found that in fact was quite fun and not soooo scary even if it is hard on the bum.
At the orphanage I meet the morning kids who were all eager to learn. They set up the makeshift classroom (some small plastic tables and two chairs for us) and got out their books. To start with we had them write "Today is..." to try and teach them the date and develop their writing but this lost their attention quickly. I moved on to teaching (or reteaching as they knew most of them) the parts of the body. I drew a reasonably complex stick figure (aka it had the joints as well as limbs) on the board and had them take turns coming up and writing the name next to the part, which worked well. Very funny was the fact that while they can remember all sorts of body parts (neck, elbow, eyebrow) they cannot distinguish a foot from a leg! Then Lauren and I taught them "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" which they enjoyed. Following that we moved on to ball games such as passing it around a circle while reciting the alphabet (whomever has the ball on 'z' is out) and piggy in the middle. At one point I had two girls 'out' on either side of me and they began fighting over who could sit on my lap. I offered one side to each but this lead to a full out fight. Sadly violence is quite common here but no big injuries are sustained, the fight stops when the bigger child asserts a tiny bit too much force and the other backs off. We saw this behaviour again while playing piggy in the middle (or monkey as it is called here). A group of three bigger boys tend to pick on this one who is a little smaller. He does not, or cannot, speak any English (although I've never heard him make any noise) and seems very distant to the others. It is my aim to try and get him more involved/ happy/ confident while I am here (he did come out a bit when we were drawing later).
Having worn the kids out we set them up with paper and pens and they had fun drawing their own pictures. By the end of half an hour Lauren and I both had many picture gifts, many saying 'I love you', so sweet! We also gave them the tracing pictures and continued with that exercise. During this time I met the 2 orphanage dogs, Dao and Bupsi. While both are gorgeous I prefer Bupsi who is still really a puppy. I think she has taken a shine to me too as she know sleeps behind me. I think this may be for protection as the kids can get a bit rough with the dogs and I think the adults cane them, whereas I just stroke her softly. When lunch time came around the kids did not want us to leave and there was much "Sista, you eat rie (rice) wit me!" (most of the girls call us sister while most of the boys call us teacher).
I was so exhausted after lunch that a slept before going back to the orphanage. For the afternoon session we continued with the tracing but also taught them the months, seasons and the 'Barney' song. I believe that those working at the orphanage may now hate us both as the kids would not stop singing this song "I love you, you love me...". When 4 came around the children didn't want us to leave (especially as it is a long weekend) and followed us all the way out and waved us off on our motos. My plan so far is to adapt the tracing game into a connect the dots to help them with their counting but that is all I've got.
