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"