My weekend away to work on the computer was cut short this morning when my PC would not boot up. Could it be due to the damp weather and mold setting in? Or, maybe the battery pack is about to call it quits - it is getting up there in age, about 4 years old. If it is the hard drive again (last year I lost the hard drive to a virus), the bad thing will be losing the pictures of Cambodia. Yesterday I moved them from the camera to the computer and meant to back them up on the external hard drive but forgot before going to bed. I will let the computer rest a few days but the weather forecast says rain for the next 10 days and it has been raining mostly on the last 3 days.
All that aside, I have been enjoying my time here without question. The students are all smiles and love to come to play before classes or to hang out. Classes start at 3:00pm and go until 8pm. The classes range from beinners to intermediate. Reading and English conversation are also being offered before or during class. My first week at school I participated in the reading and conversation program and found that a great way to get to know the students - there are about 85 signed up to attend. The names are a challenge for me but I try to get another 2 or 3 down a day. The youngest student is named Sopieth and I refer to him as Soapy but not to him. He is a live wire and can mimic people pretty good.
During my second week I taught and centered the theme around drawing a village to review vocabulary and to create a picture day by day. They made some nice masterpieces by the end of the week and I was exhausted. Teaching straight from 3 to 8 took a lot of energy but it was fun nonetheless. While I am out and about I am very happy to be running into my students. They are very polite, respectful and helpful. I bumped into one in Kampot and he took me on his moto to the market area and stayed with me while I selected. tested and purchased the bike.
Two volunteers will be finishing this week and I will miss them both. Another one is suppose to start this week.
Up to four volunteers can share the bunk house and so far for the last 3 weeks it has been full as random people come and go. The quarters can be tight at times but it is only for 5 days at a time. During the weekends I head out of Dodge and stay in other places. This weekend is Kampot, the Durian capitol of Cambodia. There is a large Durian fruit at a key roundabout in Kampot and I went to take a photo of it this morning and ended up walking into a huge political rally for the elections next week.
Random observation: people like to smoke here and expats really like to smoke because it is cheap - $5.50 for a a carton of 200.
Please look at the Cambodian Album for photos I added last night while my computer was still working.
