It feels weird that I am already half way though my trip and have almost finished at my placement.
17/1/2011
As I was still feeling slightly under the weather and hadn't really eaten since Friday I stayed home from work on Monday in favour of sleep.
18/1/2011
Today I went back to work as by morning I was feeling much better and had managed to keep two meals down. I took Playdough to the orphanage which the kids all loved but was of course destroyed quickly when they decided to mix all the colours. Painful to watch. Lauren also brought in some iPod speakers so that we could play the kids Lady Gaga, the only music they know and we have. They all insisted that we write out the lyrics for them and teach them to sing the English. This was highly awkward at times as some of her lyrics are rather raunchy. During my lunch break I booked a hotel for mine and Xanthe's trip to Siem Reap, exciting! After work I picked up my washing and read my book, whoop whoop. I saw the 3 new volunteers briefly at dinner. I feel very disconnected from them, perhaps because they met earlier and are all heading to the same place we don't share the necessity for social contact. They all went into the lounge to watch a movie, I was not invited (ouch) so stayed upstairs in my room. Guess I didn't make any lifelong friends there.
19/1/2011
The new volunteers had left before I got up so I was once again on my own (possible better in this case). Work was very much of a muchness and Lauren and I left 15minutes early for lunch as we had nothing to do. Instead of going home I headed to the Sorya shopping center and central market after stopping by Capitol Bus to pick up tickets to Siem Reap. I picked up more things for my gift at the stationary store (english and colouring books, skipping ropes) and then headed up to The Pizza Company for lunch. The Pizza Company was on the 5th floor of the mall and I was seated right by the window, and so had a great view of the entire city. It was amazing eating Western food. I felt pretty foolish sitting all alone surrounded by families and groups of people so I read my book and texted home throughout the meal. After eating I perused the stores and ended up with some DVD's including the best box set on the planet, a 39 DVD set of 142 Disney movies! I also picked up some things at the supermarket before heading overto Central where I got a couple of dresses (very touristy) and some fake sunglasses. Afternoon at the orphanage was again very average. Over dinner I showed Mummy my photo's from home which she absolutely loved. She especially liked my house and thought the street looked so quiet (not hard compared to here).
20/1/2011
Today was the first and only day that I had to 'teach' on my own at the orphanage as Lauren had contracted a 24 hour stomach bug that had been working its way around the guest house. I think I managed to keep their attention reasonably well as they stayed interested (ish) until about the same time as usual, a miracle. I reminded Phan (the 2IC) that Friday was my last day which lead to all the children writing me farewell letters (with my help). All the letters are very sweet and say something along these lines:
Dear Caitlin
Thank you for teaching English. I wish you goodluck everyday. Love...
Many of the boys took turns at highjacking my camera which resulted in 20 000 of the garden which I had to delete although I did find one really impressive/artistic shot of some Marigolds in front of a shrine. Its not fair that I can't take a good photo to save myself while an 8year old can do so by accident. I was too tired to go out over lunch so I just stayed home and relaxed (hence the no updating for a very long time). The afternoon session was good as usual but very sad. The other kids wrote me some farewell letters and one of the boys also gave me his Hello Kitty soft toy. I was so touched I almost cried but managed to hold it in until I was homeand on the phone to Mum.
After dinner I went to Sorya shopping center to buy small individual gifts for each of the kids. I ended up with 2 lucky dip bags, one for girls and one for boys. For the boys I got toy cars, watches, spinners and Rubick's cubes while for the girls I got headbands, hair ribbons, hair clips and bracelets. I then stayed up for several hours wrapping all the gifts.
