Too much love to manage

So sorry for the delay before this post, we have had many festivities as well as our first weekend trip, hopefully I'll be able to fit it all into this post.

So February 27th, we celebrated Gratitude Day, something the happens in every Don Bosco school from what I am told, just to take a step and realized everything you have to be thankful for and in our case, especially thanks to the sisters for founding this particular schools for our girls of Cambodia!  The girls were preparing for WEEKS after dinner, as well as Carmen and I preparing things for the girls, sisters and teachers all so generously welcoming into their lives for our short little space of time. So Sunday night we had the internal gratitude with the staff that works and all the girls that live within the school.  I cannot begin to tell you how excited they were.  All in makeup with flowers in her hair and in different costumes.  So we were welcomed into the main hall, while the girls were singing and dancing and once we were all in place the festivities began.  The girls had skits, songs, dances and the Laura girls did a performance with a pyramid and all of these different things is was crazy, hard to explain, sorry.  Some of them were very funny, some heartfelt and some silly and then they all got together at the end and sang a beautiful song, very sincere and presented all the staff, us volunteers and the sisters with gifts!  We all TRIED to say thank you, Carmen and I were a bit choked up but I did manage to get a few words out.   After we had a huge celebration afterwards with these sweet beans the girls love, I ate them, hmmm I'll just show pictures and follow with dancing, of course as every festivity here does!  Such a wonderful evening, and then the next morning it all started again with the school and the precious little kindergarten, oh ya so good.

So we began with a mass within the school and then the kindergarten performance, precious!  They have skits including one explaining the story of one of the sisters and at one point she was sick where a doctor (kindergartener) came to check her heart rate on her stomach and raising her up to take medicine and then he literally pushed her back down so cute!  Then they did a khmer dance where one of the girls was working it a bit more than the others, getting her hips into it and a hip hop dance where the boys were in these little Hawiian shirts and the girls in these tummy shirts and little skirts with their hair standing up, there are pictures don't worry and a song in English, then the finale where two of the boys were dressed as priests, don bosco and friend and they work to start the Salesian Sisters, 12 tiny ones in habits and were crowned with flowers and then all they continue with the history of Cambodia where 4 Salesian Sisters came to begin their work in Cambodia, so 4 little girls walked out in identical dress to our Sisters here!  So great!  To finish they gave a beautiful bouquet of flowers to all the sisters and rings of jasmine to the teachers. 

Then after the kindergarten, our girls began their program began.  This year also marked 140 years of the Salesian Sisters, so lets just say their were a lot of Sisters in the skits and things.  The girls did many dances, Khmer and disco as they call it.  Had a program through the entire time interviewing of the sisters about Cambodia, and a song and performance where the created a home from bricks but they were explaining they were missing something and then began putting lights inbetween the bricks and asked every sister, teacher and us two volunteers to come put our "light" within the house to make it a "home" very touching.  And they finished with several songs that once again brought Carmen and I to tears, and presented the teachers and sisters with gifts.  Us, teachers also performed a skit for the sisters and students. :) I won't go into too much detail but lets just say 5 more sisters came on stage and depicted a normal day and what all our sisters do for all of us, silly and heartfelt things and finish with a song that the girls helped us to sing to them.  We all shared a meal with the girls after with eating on the floor, rice noodles ( a treat), chopsticks and lots of laughs as the girls watched us trying to use them.

Carmen and I also did a bit more.  We had some help, but wrote a note of thanks to the teachers and learned how to say it in Khmer saying thank you for always translating us and keeping us always in the "light" of things. That they are our lights into this world!  And YAY!  they did understand our khmer, we were a bit nervous.  We also did a little chant with T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U, cheesy I know but we thought the sisters would enjoy and also cooked them a meal from Carmen and I.  We could fajitas, Cambodian style and the sisters SAID they enjoyed it!

After lunch we danced for an hour or so and then the external girls were released and the internal had some time to nap and many went out to the market with us to get our supplies for dinner.  Really such a beautiful day, I believe everyone in the school and house was asleep by 830 after all the festivities, but definately a day full of love and blessings to all.

I really admire them all so much!  Regardless of the homes/families they come from, what they have or do not have how truly happy and grateful for everything little things.  Everytime they are given a gift whether a package, a piece of candy or even a sticker in class they always bow and say thank you.  Really makes me take a step back and realize they magnitude of things and more importantly PEOPLE I have in my life, so also to all of you I truly say, sing and dance my gratitude and thanks to you.  Thank you for supporting, praying, keeping in touch and loving me all the way in Cambodia, its means so much and helps me give so much to my girls.  I say thank you, thank you, thank you!

Continuing to share all the love they have shared with me.  That was Monday, then we continued on our regular week and Thursday was my 23rd birthday and although they don't really celebrate them in Cambodia much, they know they do in the US so they go above and beyond.  I got up and went to mass, trying to start my day off right, where I greeted by Father in mass with birthday wishes and the girls lined the hallway after mass and sang me happy birthday for the first time of the day, very nice.  Then we continued to breakfast with the sisters and Carmen where they had put up balloons and had a present waiting on me on the table, very nice.  They sang to me again and i was greated with many hugs and beautiful wishes.  We continued to the good morning talk before school started where I was brought to the front and several of the girls presented me with little gifts and notes and then my 1st years from class, they made me a poster with a picture of myself and they had drew me in the skirt I was actually wearing that day, also with a shirt saying I love Cambodia, which i so do more and more everyday.  And then suddenly was told to sit down and my eyes were closed and they came out with a cake and candles and then continued to sing until it was time for class. Luckily the afternoon before I had gotten a slip from the post saying I had a package so I got to go to the post office and pick up my birthday package and got to skype to my parents for a bit as well, even the tuk tuk driver understood enough to tell me happy birthday, good day. We had cake with the sisters at lunch, yummm.  Then I had English with my class of girls, I have barely walked into the room before they greeted me, took my things, quickly did our greeting and then began singing many more notes and a big card with pictures from every girl in the class.  They singing continued for 45 minutes, every English song they knew, then once of the girls came to the front and said they had a program for me and did a couple more little things.  Then I shared my gifts from my parents with them showing what they had sent and we did do an activity, but it was a fun one, I didn't want them to just sit and listen to me, I wanted to play so we did a game and sang a song I have given them the lyrics to.  As the bell rang for class to end, they sang one last time and wish a happy day as if with all of them if it could have been anything but!  Then after dinner at the good night, the sgirls sang and did a bit more giving me more cards and pictures and they closed my eyes and had another like cupcake for me, with suckers and candy and this heart made out of tiny pieces of paper and then some of the 2nd years stood up to say they had made a song that wishing me a happy birthday, wonderful life, "more beauty forever" --they always say and that they hope I never forget this moment and all of them, perfect day.  Then they presented me with the sheets with the song and their own little drawing and notes.  I later found out that one special 2nd year wrote and she also wrote me a note that she made me promise that i wouldn't read until I made it to my room, which in the end was the best because it put me over the edge, couldn't contain my tears anymore.  She wrote me a message about that I hope I had a wonderful day and that she was sorry it was something bigger like a car or clothes but that she meant it all from her heart.  :)  Then continued in the next paragraph that she hopes i find a handsome man soon, such a punk!  But it hit me.

I was so worried about my birthday being so far away and afraid I would get emotional, because hello, it what i do and although i did miss them and i wished they could have shared it here with me.  I absolutely loved my day and how much love and energy they put in to showed me how much they care and enjoy me being here.  So word to the wise, always mean it from your heart!

Then next week was a bit of rush, we only had school Monday-Wednesday, because apparently March 8th is International Women's day, where was that in the United States huhhh, so we didnt have school and Friday we took off for our staff outing with the other teachers and staff and a couple of the sisters to Mondulkiri.  Its an eastern province of Cambodia and it borders with Vietnam, at one point we were 12 kilometers from the border.  But the drive was a bit of a trip around 10 hours each way, but the scenery was absolutely beautiful.  We drove through jungle, saw many waterfalls, went to visit a hill tribe that is still speaking their own language and living in huts and and Carmen and I had a little thrill of excitement. 

So I will share many pictures and leave you with one more story for this post.  During our trip we literally had one hour on Saturday free to do whatever.  Some rested, some went to the market.  I had the brilliant plan to rent a moto :).  The town was very small, pretty quiet, so I thought hey what a perfect place to try.  So after leaving the sisters and the group who we told were "going out." We had seen many internet cafes or places to arrange trips and many also rent motos for the day( ding ding ding), so we walked over to it, lol we already couldn't stop laughing and barely got out what we wanted.  So we started out with how much does it cost to rent a moto for the day, our response, $8!  Lol then we really started laughing and were like well how about for just and hour.  The man tilted his head at first thinking he didnt understand us correctly.  He repeated One Hour back to us and we said yes and explained we had to join back with our group then so we only had an hour, oh ya silly foreigners is what he was thinking.  Continuing, he thought about it for a second.  I don't think he really had to answer that before, finally he said....$2 like it was a question asking if htat was okay, we looked at each other again, giggled and said sure!  We each handed him a dollar, and he said thanks and handed us the key.  That's it!  Our 2 dollars and DONE, we have the key.  No license, papers to sign, information if we decided to ya know steal the thing, no waiver, nothing!  Just okay, so we went with it, except Carmen had already said it would take a bit of getting used to, to drive and she asked Do you know how to drive it?  "Carmen, ya, my brother had a dirt bike...it can't be that different right?" And that was enough for her!  So after we had the key we both got a bit nervous and were kind of hoping for a bit of explaining of the bike, a refresher if you will.  So we finally asked, So can you tell us just so we understand how THIS bike works, as if its not the same as the other million bikes within Cambodia.  He then looked at us and said, "I'm gonna give ya two helmets too."  They showed us how to start, Carmen let me put around for a second and then jump on.  We rode up and down the same street multiple times just so I could get used to it, then put a little petrol in it and off we went.  We had no plans, they had tried to tell us a couple waterfalls to go to or things to see yet we had already seen them, so finally he just said Okay then just drive around.  We drove out aways, enjoying and getting some pretty funny laughs, I'm sure the look on my face and Carmen taking pictures off the back, told everyone how clueless we really were.   We then decided to try to make our way back to one of the places we had gone to the day before, so we went down the road we thought was the one, made it down a ways and started to think we were confused and then were distracted by the cardboard sign on the side of a dirt road saying Elie (elepant) org and an arrow leading us in the direction of what looked like a never ending dirt road.  We were living and definately couldn't pass that up.  We heave down a couple roads and never found it sadly, and only had a bit of time before we had to be back with the group, but Carmen did want to test out the bike for a bit, so I got off :) and explained how to change gears, the gas and break (yes, i was explaining to someone else how to drive a motorcycle that I had driven for about 40 minutes :))  Okay so then I backed up and got out my camera.  She started out similar to me, jerking around and I am running behind her, helmet still on, camera in hand yelling at her to brake.  Okay so this continued for a couple minutes and I thought she was getting the hang of it until she tried to turn around when the bike slid out from under her, wheels up in the air and me screaming, running to you.  So behind me yelling and the commotion of the bike we had attracted an audience of local farmers for their free entertainment of the day.  So Carmen, totally fine, got up and tried again this time doing a bit better as the farmers began walking out to the road to get a better view until Carmen once again turn around and every time me chasing after and the farmers started yelling.  We then realized we needed to head back and made our way back into town, the whole time trying to figure out how to tell the Sisters what we had down.  

Gratitude meal with the girl after oratory at one of their houses.

Four of the volunteer of Don Bosco Vocational Training Center

:) So our skit for Gratitude Day, I acted like Sr. Lina, the one on the end next to me.

Carmen giving blood!

On my birthday, listening to the girls

The poster of myself

Internal Gratitude Program

Some of the girls, after the program.

The sweet beans, interesting for sure!

:)

One of the kinder girls dancing

So cute

Carmen and I in Mondulkiri

Sr. Dory and I about to head home

Going around town

One of the teachers and me

The group

Carmen getting acquainted with the culture

Some of the staff dress up in the traditional dress!

Riding free

February fun

So everything has settled down for a bit these past couple of weeks.  Last week for the first time since I have been here I had an entire week of class, the entire time and every day, doesn't happen all that much!  Although Valentine's day was a bit of an excitement.   So first off I received my first package for home, remember if you feel like sending me something for the girls or me, the is address is here ;)  But I received my first package from Mom and Dad and it was full of valentines, erasers, coins and things, I think Mom got a bit excited about it!  AND OF COURSE I was VERY excited words from home, always a good thing!  But I got my slip on Sunday and then decided I would go on Tuesday morning to get it.  Everyone was in class and I didn't have class that morning so instead of paying double to take a tuk tuk I took a moto, first-timer yup, me!  So I was already a bit nervous and supa excited as well so I go out fully prepared some of my khmer statements as well as the post message for my package, thanking hopefully he will understand this to get me there.  He pulls over to me, and do the Suc Sa By greeting (Hello how are you?) and then I try to tell him post office, and NOTHING he has no idea so I show him my sheet and in English it says Cambodian post and underneath what i assume is the same thing in Khmer only this didn't help at all.  Next step I get out my map and start to show him where I'm wanting to go ( ya, I can identify where things are on a map, I'm moving up in the world)  and he nods and tells me to get on as well as some other things in khmer that I didnt understand at all!  But I have been trained to not get on until a price is settled, so then I say Tlai bpon mann (Cost, how much?)  He says something very fast in Khmer, luckily i did catch proum (five)  but then I'm afraid he is seriously trying to steal my money for a $5 trip or 5000riel which is very reasonable, finally i understand 5000 and ask him to if he will take me there and back which was a piece of cake for him.  So I jump on the back and hold on for dear life.  And off we went.  Traffic is a totally different thing when on a moto, i mean its the same its just now, these tuk tuk or cars are very close to YOU not you car or tuk tuk lol.....needless to say I made it, he dropped me off and started again in Khmer which i nodded like i understood because I did understand him pointing as I will be here or you need to come to this spot for me to take you back!  So I went in and paid the whopping 2500 riel  (about 50cents :)) to get my package and then made my way back to the corner he pointed to and there he comes driving up with the sweetest toothless grin I have ever seen and we made our way back, survive with my package and without a scratch.  Although I did survive, I decide to email my Mamom the same day and told her the same story and she was NOT happy with me.

So Mom had seriously warned me not to open the package until I got back because it was packed full.  Although I really wanted to rip it open at the post, I waited and glad I did because to the second I opened it these like heart erasers flew EVERYWHERE.  She told me that nothing would fit in their bags, so everything she wanted to send fit, but only by just putting it all in the box.  :)

Anyways I had decided we would have a fun day in class to celebrate Valentine's and played several games including this one where everyone is in a circle and whoever is in the middle must go around and say Will you be my valentine, please smile!  If they laughed or grinned then they had to go into the middle. And at first they were all laughing and then they caught and the girl in the middle had to work for it, ya were they learning lots of new words, no BUT they were working on PRONUNCIATION and animation...It all fits in I promise and it was so much fun to watch/play!  Another where they had a valentine type word on their back such as pink, hearts, candy, sweetheart and then had to go around and ask yes or no questions to find out what is was and well as our final activity for the day was each drew someone in the class and then wrote them a valentine or something kind about the person they drew as well got wonderful valentines and stickers and things from me (thanks mom)

Truly felt alot of love, they came running up to me with rings of jasmine and hand made paper flowers, hearts made out of riel, sweet little notes and even one of my girls made me a bracelet :) lots of love around thats for sure.

My other two Sunday of course are the days I want to talk about!  So the Sunday before Valentines, we went south of Phnom Penh over the river, out and several dirt roads later our tuk tuk stopped in front of what sounded and smelled like a temple due to the incenses and the raised roof.  I started wondering why we were there and where in the world we were teaching, we passed the church, not a temple, I figured this out by the statues of Jesus and Mary on the inside as well as the crucifix above the alter, anyways, we walked behind and found a tiny little row of school rooms used for the church as well as things like what we are doing.  So as we past I asked one of my girls from class, Sena what was going on because it wasn't a mass and she told me she didn't know because it was all in Vietnamese. So we dropped off all of our school things and then they told us that we go join church and teach after, so as usual left our school outside and went and found our seat on the floor. You think I get weird looks in the city, you can only imagine what I get out in the villages.  Little kids wondering how my hair can even be that color.  Anyways we sit in our groups and the group in front of us starts handing back books to us.  Some Viatmanese, some Khmer, I just nodded and kept passing (although BIG NEWS some of the other volunteer at one of the other Don Bosco schools are getting to take Khmer classes and a card for mass with the Khmer words but romanized so we can read it!) Okay continuing, we sat for several minutes and then all of a sudden, here comes a priest and we have mass, pretty cool, half in Khmer, half in Viatmenese.  After mass, the parents come back and drop off their kids, now usually at Oratory we are teaching a bit of English to the kids, but here our girls have a much harder time because almost all of these kids don't speak Khmer, so instead of teaching them English, they are trying to teach them more Khmer, but they have a much harder time, because they cannot communicate at all. So we taught for an hour or so and then recreation time, where some of the boys pulled out like a tall stand and then we played volleyball, passing over this stand with a soccer ball of course, but for not having much to work the boys had it down.  Me and one of the younger ones played against an older boy and one of my second year students, lets just say me and my little guy made a pretty good team.  Also one of our students lives in this villages so at some point during the teaching she walked us down the road to meet her mother and see her home.  Neat to see where they come from as well as their parents and that this girl also is extremely fluent in Viatmenese.

This last Sunday we went to yet another villlage I cannot remember the name of that was just on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, we drove out to the airport and then turned right and drove about 20 minutes and arrived at a fairly big school, with an old temple behind.  While the girls were getting ready for class, the kids were playing wiht the balls and hula hoops we brought as well as several of the boys playing that marble game I think I tried to explain in my last post, kind of like shuffleboard where they are knocking the other marbles out of the way and trying to get their marble into this dugout pit, all the while the monks at the temple are sweeping and facing the day at the temple in the distance.  Pretty nice to take in.  The kids here were precious and very attentive and our girls were very prepared, having them learn words, play vocabulary games (I actually played one this week in my class :)) and checking their notebooks and giving a little quiz.  During recreation time for the first time at any of the sites we played group games with the students like Mr. Wolf what time is it, red light green light, hula hoop races and do you love your neighbors and their English was actually pretty impressive, all of those games they played in English.  After recreation the kids went back to the classrooms, the teachers divided up between teaching and lice duty and I was very interested in checking out the temple behind and an old student that used to come to class on Sundays was there and wanted to work on his English walked with Carmen, one of our girls and I explaining what different things symbolizes, pointing our important trees or statues and taking pictures!  So great, we learned quite a bit, I'll explain a bit more with some of the pictures.

Oh I almost forgot, about two, well almost three weeks ago, we had our parents day at school.  So on a Saturday parents were invited to come see the school, teachers and see our their girls were doing, because many of the parents haven't been before just putting the girls on buses or things to get them into the city, due to the expense of getting into the city.  So we had an introduction, a Khmer dance, the fishing dance I think it is called which was funny because its supposed to be a boy/ girl dance but our school we have no boys so several of the girls were dressed as boys and walking all macho doing the boy's parts.  Then a "disco" as they call it, dance, which is just a popular song now that they like to call this disco, just go with it!  And then also all of the girls who weren't in either of the dances, were apart of a song the girls sang to their parents.  Now, I had seen them practice and it was sweet, they had motions and everything but it was all in Khmer so I didn't know what it was saying, only that the girls were nervous about "singing it and getting upset" they would say.  Then on the day, before they even start singing, many of them were already crying, some just tears, other were having a hard time keeping it together.  So now the song was explained as a thank you sign and at one point a promise to always make them proud and a thank you you have done for all the things you have done for me.  They sang with such sincerely and all of this emotion, of course I start tearing up and then turn to look at the parents and many of them in tears as well.  Beautiful moment, after the sisters if any of the parents would like to speak and they got one of and she began saying how hard things were with her daughter away but how happy it makes her to see her school and how dedicated she is to it.  So I met many of my girls parents, brothers, aunts, nieces and nephews; all sorts.  Most I bowed and said Suc Sa Buy or Chim rip suah (both how are you, one more formal than the other)  and they did the same back to me.  A couple said other things, where then my girls would tell me that their mother or father wanted to say thank you for teaching and sharing your time, so this continue the majority of the morning and afternoon.  Although one of my girls brought her brother up to meet me and I bow and greet him in khmer and all of a sudden he says Hello, how are you?  and i was so caught off guard, but definately a nice surprise.  Sadly, there were many girls who didn't have anyone make it, I did get asked multiple times to be their mother for the day, regardless of the fact that we were the same age, my students and I. 

One of the girls cut Carmen's hair before the parents arrived

Sin, she asked if I would be her mother for the day, I of course said gladly but that they would believe us.

Nuuum buy  (Eat rice)  lots of rice.....so researched and between us, the sisters, the girls and the kindergarten; everyone at our site, we go through a 50KG bag of rice every FIVE meals........these girls looooove rice

Eating outside for the day

I believe this is the Harvest dance, done for the parents

The girls singing, this is when it got a bit emotional

view of the river from our tuk tuk

Teaching at the Vietnamese site

The boys weren't quite willing to come into the classroom, but were watching from outside.

The church I was telling you about, pretty neat

Random vendor, but he is selling of these clearing supplies: brooms, mops, mats, anything in that category guaranteed to find somewhere on that bike.

Another Oratory at Puchentong

Look at their little board, learning my name and have it written in Khmer

Studying hard

This is the marble pinball game, I'll keep watching trying to figure it out!

one of the temples

This is the tree by the temple that people are said to have to climb if they do something terribly wrong, doesn't look like too much fun to me

So I know that at the beginning of this post that everything had settled down, but after writing it doesn't seem that way huh?