Yaap Maan

In my title, I'm teaching you a bit of Khmer or how it sounds to me, yap man meaning very difficult....we say it to the sisters or the girls and they think its so funny, kind of like you are a piece of work or that at least how I have decided to use it!

I really need to improve on this.  I thought it would be a good idea to only post once a week, but by then I have too much to say! I'll try to work on this!

So,  another week of teaching, well three days because Monday was considered the actual day of an actual two week holiday for some who choose of Chinese New Year so we had the day off!  I didn't do much though, hung out with the girls, welcomed back all those that went home for their long weekend, took a wonderful nap and got dragged even further into the Hunger Games series....Poor Peeta, Gail and oh Katniss, what are we gonna do with her, luckily I will be able to get the movie about the time you can see it in theaters :)  So Monday was great , great day or rest and celebrating our new year of course, well the one for this month, Khmer new year is in April after the rice is harvested and people celebrate for a couple more weeks.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday always go so fast between teaching and our schedule for the day, Tuesday was a bit rough in class because it seems as if the spent the entire weekend NOT SPEAKING English, hey can you blame them, but it took a little time getting back into it on Tuesday.  We were working on Where you live?  and there are so many, many things I take for granted and when discussing these words and what kind of shops, rooms in houses and things you find in house because several of the things in the book, the girls don't know about, not because it is in English, because they don't have many of these things in their houses and places they go within the city, but I really do think they are warming up to me.  I am trying to do alot of icebreakers and keep them moving and talking because I DO have them for two and half hours and it is English and those things usually help.  Then on Friday one of the other Don Bosco elementary school was having a fun day at school with a long jump, relay races, volleyball, soccer and many other festivities.  Some of the sisters were going over and said we would be back in time for my class, but once we got over there and were in all of the fun, we ended up staying through our classes :/ the sisters just told us to enjoy and my girls were going to review for our test today and it was only a 35 minute class so I didn't feel too bad.

But good news, I have learned enough to be able to make friends with the little ones.  Suc saaa bye (this is not how they spell it oof course, but its what it sounds like)  it like a greeting but literally means How are you?  so I would ask that and then I can ask what their names are and after that we were holding hands and best friends.  The grounds at that school are very big and do not only house an elementary school that holds somewhere around 500 students, but also has a Don Bosco cooking and hotel management type program similar to ours for those out of school consisting of two years and an internship.  So we walked around and saw alot of it as well as some of the sisters and teachers that work there and many of the precious children.  Nothing is as precious as a 4 year old running up to you only to put her hands to her chest and bow as to say hello, something beautiful.  We, then continued over to the cooking part where we tried all sorts of things!  Donuts, mango cake and different kinds of breads.  So we eventually made it back home in Tuol Kork about the time the bell rang to end my class :/ and of course the girls were pretty confused as they walked down the stairs from my class to see me standing in the hallway, so interesting to watch them as you see them trying to form a new sentence, so many words and several languages floating around up there!

Friday night was the usual, dinner at 6:30 and then play time with the girls, volleyball is still the main focus because we are completing this week, but the basketballs are making an appearance, making me very happy of course :)  Then as I made my way up to my room for the night, I stopped by to see what the girls were watching because they were cracking up every couple of minutes.  Friday and Saturday nights are TV nights and the girls beg and beg to watch love stories everytime, but this night they explained that it was some sort of game show and although I had no idea what it was saying, it was pretty funny.

Saturday, we had a meeting in the morning with all of the teachers, where the girls wrote basically like an expectation or how are you feeling sheet out right before Christmas and we were going over them, trying to learn more about each of them.  But I'm starting to feel so bad for the other teachers because every Khmer conversation must be translated :/  But it was a good morning and then for the afternoon me and Carmen decided to go to the National Museum, where once again we were surrounded by white people and had no idea what to think....just not used to that these days.  But we looked around at many different statues of their gods and took some beautiful pictures and even tried to sneek a few of the monks, I love the pictures, but I don't want to make it obvious that I am following them around for pictures so usually me or Carmen will pose for a picture and have them in the background and then just cut the other out of the picture :)    After dinner, I went over to see what the girls were up and I was helping with their speeches they had to give about their heroes in front of the entire school on Tuesday (today).  We worked on pronunciations and things and then got to talking with several of them about what kind of job they were hoping to get after their schooling, and they never cease to amaze me.  So many of them are saying they want to work for organizations :)  They say they would like to be able to go back into their villages or help other poor children find a way out.  They would like to be able to help and give back everything that have achieved and learn from the sisters and the Don Bosco school, such a wonderful thing to hear.

:) yup this is very normal

You find the incense everywhere, in front of every statue and home!

The tile in one of the temples, so much detail.

Don't they make for such beautiful pictures.

Grafitti.

So right in front of the river they have a row of exercise equipment, bikes, elipticals, all sorts...

JOY

Celebrating

Precious little one at one of the Don Bosco schools

Still trying to figure out the whole Buddha thing, because I showed this to someone here and they said this isn't considered Buddha, but this is the usual picture we get!

Another temple.

Entrance doors, so pretty

The National Museum

Enjoy.

Happy Chinese New Year!

So, I spent my morning skyping with some of my favorite people, definately a wonderful way to spend my Saturday morning.  So as for my week!


Okay so last Saturday was my first day out in the city, we had lunch at home and then headed out.  We walked down on our nearby streets, where my tour guide/ fellow volunteer Carmen showed me some of the nearby shops and stores and even a cafe that we went and got french fries just to feel a bit like home.  Then we were going to go to the other side of town a market, so we got our map out to attract a tuk tuk driver.  We got one to stop, spent several minutes making sure he knew where we wanted to go and then bargaining on the price, which we ask the girls before we leave to see how much that should cost because they see us foreigners and decide to charge us 2 dollars extra, so we haggle it down to what it should and then are on our way!  This is where it gets crazy, instead of cars like you see in the States, you see a few surrounded by motos and tuk tuks EVERYWHERE and many people on them too! Like it is normal to see three or four people on a moto or a person with food loaded down everywhere around them OR you have the tuk tuks, which is what we took around loaded down with an average of about 6 people or I literally saw a mattress on top of one and sewing machine being taken home on another!  The markets are crazy too!  Rows and rows of booths of anything and everything, movies, t-shirts, buddha statues, drawings, fruit, food and many actually too many raw things!

My tour guide, the lovely Carmen!

I told you that they fit everything on their motos!

Can you tell what these are? CRICKETS, at a stand to buy TO EAT on the side of the road!!

Then Sunday, which has probably been my favorite day so far!  ORATORY DAY, so our girls, our students signed up at the beginning of the school, not forced they chose whether or not if they wanted to do it and then meet at 7 AM on Sunday morning to go out into some of the neighboring village outside of the city to teach the children of the village.  Such a beautiful thing to see! The girls we are teaching in our school are going out to provide English lessons and activities for the village children, so neat! So we loaded up with about 15 girls into the the back of this truck, its like a small truck and then in the bed has several benches and a tarp over it all and we all sat back there, enjoying the ride.

So we once we got there, a clump of bikes were around showing how they all made it from the village, some in these precious little uniforms, others in what they chose.  Then they divide up by age groups and went into their classrooms.   I went from one classroom to another watching the older groups work on conversations to the elementary age working on spelling words and the young-uns saying they alphabet!!  They stayed in their classrooms for about an hour and a half and then it was recreation, all of the children came running out, a couple of them opened shop, bringing their parents fruits and vegetables selling to the others during this break, while others played.  I learned a new form of dodgeball you could say so there were 4 sets of 2 boys, one boy was hunched over and the other on top like piggyback and then they were tossing a ball between the ones on top and then the second they drop the ball the ones on bottom, I believe tried to hit the one that dropped it and then exchanged places, pretty funny to watch!  Then some of the other were jumping over this elastic string, kind of like a long rubber band, but these kids would raise that string high above their heads and then those trying to go over would kick one leg high in the air and bring the band down moving their body across, don't worry I have pictures.  So eventually went back into the classroom, except for a group of older boys who we played a bit of volleyball with, we were in a field and the ground, very unlevel yet these boys were getting full approaches and everything, crazy!  Then the last "bell" rang which was a hub of a car wheel hit by a hammer, :)...then all the kids piled onto their bikes usually the oldest pedaling and the younger one or two hanging on in some way of another headed back home, something so different than life at home!

On the way out to the village, thought this was funny because it looks as if we are in the middle of nowhere, but here is a moto.

Going to school 

The little ones practicing their ABC's 

Play time

This was the dodgeball thing I was talking about 

Jumping the band!

Heading home with the family all on one bike!

We headed back, had a late lunch then went into the city again to meet up with some other volunteers at one of the other Don Bosco schools at another market which was much more local and HUGE!  The bottom level was strictly food, fruits of every shape and size, vegetables, and meat, pigs hung up, fish, cut and just lying on the floor and then all of these concoctions in bowls!  Needless to say due to the smells and some of the sites we didn't make it very long on that level and went up to the second where we found rows and rows of nothing but beautiful fabrics!  Anything you could imagine.  We roamed around one of the other volunteers got some fabrics to have skirts made and then we decided to stop and get a Coke!  We sat working on our few Khmer words we knew as well as learning a few other languages as well because the one of the girls is French and the other Austrian, so many languages.  And I also got a real taste for the city and how compact parts of it are!  House piled on top of each other, motos at a standstill taking up the width of the road such a totally different world.

Right outside of the market

You gotta love it!

Yup, it's fish laying on the ground!

Yummm, right?

So my typical day goes as follows: I wake up around 5:45 am, oh ya I know! I'm sure you don't believe, but listen to what my day consists of and what time I end up going to sleep and you'll understand how I can get managing.  So, I get up and everything and head down for mass in Khmer everyday except for Friday it's in English!  Then breakfast with the sisters at 7.  Then school begins at 8 with the raising of the Cambodian flag and then a good day talk from one of the teachers usually based on the life on someone within the Church and finding ways to relate and strive for different things on a daily basis. Then school begins, at the moment I am only teaching in the afternoons, I have the same class of first years from 1pm to 3:15 so in the mornings I am talking to the teachers, talking to someone at home and planning my afternoon lesson for the day.  We, then have lunch about 11:30 to 1, then I teach, they have split the first years into three groups for English:A, B, and C.  A knowing the least amount of English, C knowing the most of out the first years.  So mine are okay and eager to learn, but I do either like the first day I was a bit nervous or later I got very excited about an activity and slowing their hands come up saying, " Teacher, slow down, we don't understand! Oops, I'm still working on it and making sure I am using basic enough language to keep them with me, but throwing in a couple extra words to keep them on their toes, I try to think about my Sign Language class and what activities and things we did there, like conversations and vocab type stuff.  Oh, so everyday at the beginning of class and at the end, the girls all stand bow and sing.  Saying "Good afternoon teacher, and I say hello and a little something else and then the girls will stand and wait for me to tell them to sit down and then say "Thank you teacher!" and bow once again before they sit and then the same at the end "Saying Thank You and Goodbye, teacher" and wait for me to release them!  Then school ends at 4 where we go back out to the front and bring down the flag and then the girls are dismissed for their chores.  All of them had chores throughout the day, either in the morning before school, at lunch, doing dishes and things or after school.  So then the girls are hanging around talking or playing volleyball or something until around 5, where those that live with someone in the city go home and the girls that stay here, go and either work on school things or something else.  Evening prayer is usually around 5:30, which I have been trying to make but haven't been everyday becuase of school stuff or because I am doing something with the girls, then we have dinner at 6:30, just the volunteers and once we are done the girls have recreation time outside until about 7:45 so we go out and either dance or play volleyball or basketball or whatever!  Then after that we are free for the evening usually so we with walk around the courtyard or work on school or I just head up to my room, and begin to get ready for bed,  I'll shower, yes we have running water :) and then get ready for bed and usually reading or winding down 9:30, I'm such a night owl.  But the girls are still getting used to me and my English and I'm still picking up on the schedule of each day and week.  I live up on the 4th floor and have my own room and bathroom.  The girls who stay here during the week and also the girls that live here also live up on the fourth floor in a giant room, with rows of bunk beds, so I am on a similar schedule as the girls.

Friday was a special day at school, it was Laura day which I believed I explained earlier, she is a Blessed but had a rough childhood and aspired to be a Sister, but are a wonderful model for the girls at our school.  She had a bad home life, but stuck to her studies and was trying to make a better life for her family, but so are school we had a celebration.  In the morning, we had a volleyball tournament, where the first years played the second years and then the winner of that game played the Laura girls, the younger girls, that live at the school.  Also the day before we thought the Laura girls could use some practice so me, one of the Sisters, a couple of the teachers and then the three guys that work on the grounds made up a team to play them.  Sadly, they won and it was a big ordeal, but so funny to watch the girls celebrate their victory.  Anyway, so after volleyball the girls had time before lunch to practice and prepare for the afternoon skits and singing contests.  For these contests, we, the teachers were judges and the sisters had prizes for these winners as well as winners of the drawing contest.  The finale of the day was the "crowning" of the schools Laura, the girls had vote in the earlier weeks and picked 2 girls from first year and 2 from the second, so these girls were brought to the front asked several questions and then finally we announced the Winner that the girls voted on and presented her with a sash and crown (that Carmen and I made, you can only imagine).  Then after this weekend was a holiday and we let the girls go early if they could and wanted to because we don't have school on Monday due to Chinese New Year, the year of the dragon I am told.  I was also told how to say happy new year in Khmer, Chinese and Viatnamese :) Chinese is like gun-say faschi, sounds something like that :)

Some of the 2nd years, you can tell by their blue ribbons, the 1st years wear white 

Brand new painted lines for the big day

Carmen as Referee

Some of the girls and I

The winning team with some of the sisters

The Laura's

This week has been so much fun and there are so many things I could add but I'll leave it at this for now, hope you like the pictures!

peace and happiness for the "New Year"

My Cambodian Address

Hello All,

So I have my new address if you ever feel like sending something for me or the girls!  The address is:

           Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco
           Attn:  Kaitlin Darnell
           #60 Street #317, Tuol Kork
           PO Box 468
           Phnom Penh, Cambodia

As for the past couple of days, they have been full of lots of people, places and many languages!  I did take my ride on the tuk tuk, several times, explored several of the markets in town and have a couple of words in Khmer down, nothing that would make any sense to you all yet, my number, my name is..., I did learn I love you, but that was yesterday so I have already forgotten, I'll let you know when I remember!  Sorry such a short one, promise to fill you in later in the week and WITH PICTURES, but today is a school day and I need to make sure I have my day figured out!

love and peace,

Kaitlin

My first day.

Well I still am having to remind myself that I am here or atleast look out the window and usually that does it, such a completely different world.  So I was greeted at the airport by one of the sisters and our driver lol where we began my first adventure of my new home, driving through town!  So crazy, there are motos, tuk tuks and even bikes weaving in and out of the few cars and trucks out on the road.  I believe I will be taking my first tuk tuk ride tomorrow and explore a bit of the town for the first time tomorrow.  So then we arrived and my new home and school for my time here.  We were greeted at the gate by all of the girls, who were all on their lunch break.  They sang several songs and gave me a beautiful scarf and a ring made of flowers, jasmine I believe, that they slipped onto my wrist, both things very prominent of their culture.  Shortly after I found CARMEN, and we got to go eat lunch where I was introduced to the rest of the sisters and met our two lovely pets, Internet and Google :) bahah they said they used to have dotcom but he died and yahoo, but he died also, give you a guess on what the next one will be!  After lunch Carmen gave me a quick tour of the grounds including the technical school, parts of the house and the precious kindergarten side, all of them running up to bow to you and then running off before you can try to say anything to them!  Then about 2pm here, 3 am texas time so I made it to my to my room, thinking I would a bit of a nap and wake up again for dinner, hoping to start getting myself onto a solid schedule, but NOPE!  I slept straight through it and then woke up around 2 am here ready to start my day :/ so I ended up reading and pretending to sleep until it was time to wake up for Friday!

Friday was my first full day!  I woke to have mass with the sisters and the girls that chose to come at 6:15 and them breakfast at 7.  Now the school day usually starts at 8, today I was just going to go observe classrooms and my girls!  I am teaching the first year girls, they have divided them into three sections:  A, are the girls who know little to no English, B, are the ones that know a bit more and C, the ones that the most of the first years and this is the group that I will be teaching!  I have them from 1 to 3:15 pm everyday and for right now this is the only time I am teaching for right now, I believe that I will continue to pick up more the longer that I am here.  So, friday I went into this class and go to watch their conversations and meet the girls!  So they did their conversations for a bit of the class and then they asked me to stand up and answer some questions so they could find out a little bit more about me!  Of course one of their first questions was "Teacher, are you married?"  And I would reply, No and then the next question, "Do you have a boyfriend?" One track mind these girls!  They also ask about my family, where I am from, how long I am staying, what I already know about Cambodia and why I decided to come here!  They are very curious and are very excited to get to know always stopping in the hallway to bow and say hello.  That is another thing, that always bring their hands together and bow to say hello, to say thank you, to say welcome, to say goodbybe!  EVERYTHING, they even sing to me when I come into my class and before they leave either welcoming and to say good morning or to say goodbye and thank you and then they wait for me to either dismiss or to sit down to get ready for class, so different from anything I am used to that they stand and sing until I tell them thank you and to sit down.    Then we also had a volleyball game against the first years and the second year and they were all around beating on tubs and making all kind of noise, having such a great time, it was something that was really fun to see.

For this weekend, Carmen is taking me out to explore the city and meet some of the volunteers working in the city, my first ride in a tuk tuk :) and exploring the markets....wish me luck and I promise I will start to take pictures, sorry I have nothing to show you yet!!

peace and love,


Kaitlin

5 days and counting...

Hi guys

So this is my first go at this so go easy on me, but 5 days from today I will begin the journey of a lifetime starting with over 30 hours of traveling in the air and sitting in airports before I finally arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia...a place I look forward to calling home.

Currently I am putting all my efforts into packing and preparing to leave, saying goodbye to friends and family, selling my car (it's for sale, let me know if you're interested) and as sad as it is to stay trying to decide what clothes I should take.  This is continuously frustrating me because it shouldn't even be on my register, going to a new place, where it honestly doesn't matter what I am wearing but hopefully helping someone.   I'm working on it, don't you worry!

So background, I am volunteering or going on mission through a Catholic mission program called Salesian Lay Missioners.  There are a group of about 20 of us all over the world from Bolivia, Ethiopia and Asia!  Almost everyone from my program took off late summer, but the slacker that I am still had a semester of school left, so I am beginning mine while they are right in the middle of their experiences.  I am working in a school for 18-22 year old women, I know what you're thinking, "Kaitlin, they are your age and they are your students??"...I'll keep you posted on that, but I am teaching English, something I've been doing, learning and speaking for a bit longer than these girls!  I am told that I have classes waiting on me, so I'll be thrown right into these classes.  This scared quite a bit at our training this summer, actually being in a classroom teaching, but my last semester of school I was student teaching which gave me so much experience and to tell you the truth, I am pretty excited to get back into school even though I am transitioning from a kindergarten PE class to my English classes.  Please if you have ideas for me I am all ears, right now I am just seeing what my imagination can come up with.  I am living within the site where the school is with my fellow SLM (Salesian Lay Missioner)  Carmen, who I haven't seen since this summer, cannot wait and some of the other teachers at the school!

As of right now, that is about all I know, but give me about a week and I'm sure I could go on for days!

Happy 2012, pretty excited about my year of change!