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?