I went to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, last weekend to have a wee break with my mum and her husband Dave, who I hadn’t seen in almost 3 years.
Phnom Penh was an eye opener for me. It’s a complete genocide overload but what got me the most about the place was that it was developed. Buildings, streetlights and sealed roads everywhere. By my reaction and the fact my jaw was on the ground most of the time you would think I’d be in Antarctica for the past 6 years.
But ultimately I went down to pick up my mum and bring her up to Siem Reap for 7 days.
For as long as I can remember my mum spoke about wanting to go overseas to volunteer. But raising 4 kids alone and not having been in full time employment while I was young, it was only ever a dream that was being lived through me. How things were about to change!
I knew when I became involved in SAFE I’d end up on a trip at some time but when I made the decision to come to Cambodia I contacted my mum and said “Pack your bags. We’re off to Cambodia.”
At the end of her first day volunteering she said to me “That has to have been the best day of my life so far!” In the tuktuk ride on the way home she told me all about how the kids were really curious about her and where she came from and spent hours asking questions. She told me she had a new, 17 year old, boyfriend. One of the boys in the class took a shine to her and made her a picture at the end which said “Dear Karen, Thank you for teaching us. I love you.”
We decided to do a bit of a fun arts and crafts day with the kids and make masks with them as mum had brought over glitter pens, paints and stickers from New Zealand. They love English classes but we wanted to try something different. They would need to use a different skill for this and use new words to describe what they were doing. An English lesson without them knowing it!
We sat outside a café in the morning preparing for the arts and crafts lesson later that day and as I stepped away to take some photos of a woman for my Carrying Cambodia album, as usual a tuktuk driver went “Tuktuk lady?” I decided to talk to this man for a few minutes while I waited to get the shot I wanted and he started telling me about how he was a soldier and he’d left the army because of the corruption and how he liked being a tuktuk driver. I told him what I was doing here for the next few months and he thanked me over and over again. I asked if he’d ever thought about saying something different to the customers rather than “Tuktuk lady?” like every other driver does? He looked at me curiously and I said “Why not say……..Beautiful lady. Would you like a ride in my tuktuk?” His face lit up and I asked if he wanted me to write it down. He came over to our table and saw all the paper we had and asked if my mum would make him a sign he could hold up. Next thing he was off to the shop getting it laminated. Back 5mins later and a lady was jumping into his tuktuk after he’d shown her the sign. Doesn’t take much to make someones day.
We’d aimed at about 30 kids turning up that day, as most of them have to work in the rice fields or look after the buffalo during the day, but prepared for 60 kids just in case. We could not have been less prepared had we tried (very unLeah like). I set up tables outside under the shade of the trees for 30 kids, went inside to finish preparing and came out to see 60 kids waiting patiently for us to start. Then within the next 20mins at least another 2 groups of 10 kids arrived. Every time I looked up there were more kids coming to join in. There were kids I’d never seen before wanting to make a mask.
We were flat out for 2-3 hours making new masks for the kids to decorate and helping them with the ones they’d already made. It was at least 38 degrees (mum doesn’t like the heat and it's not even their hot season) and we needed to keep our shoulders and knees covered at all times while on the Pagoda site. It was a tough time keeping up with all these eager kids in the heat.
Teachers here are very serious people and hold much status in the community. I think I’ve been a little bit different for them (story of my life) and they have not known how to handle the fact I’ll get involved with the kids and will play and laugh with them. I’m not sure the kids have the same boundaries as everyone else though…………….
For some reasons some of the kids, as well as one of the grandmothers, have a thing about my bottom. They insist on smacking it every opportunity they get. I’m not sure if it’s the size, shape or just the fact I laugh every time that they keep doing it. Any time I bent over to help a kid with their mask I got this wallop on the bum followed by the sound of a kid running away laughing. Not quite like working in an office in London!
The kids were loving the glitter, coloured pencils etc that they were stashing them in their pockets and bags to take them home. It was so hard to say no to them. They found another use for the glitter though………………I was the victim of a glitter ambush taken out by about 70 kids. They covered my hair, face, neck, arms, back. I’m not sure what parts they left out. It’s taken days to get it out of my hair but made me laugh like I haven’t laughed in ages.
When the glitter fight was over I had 2 hours of lessons to assist with in the 38 degree heat. I was so itchy by this point.
To get to the school I was working at this week, I had to walk up a long dirt trail, through a small community, to get there. No westerners in sight, let alone one covered in glitter. As I was walking along I noticed this wee boy of about 4 following me with a huge grin on his face and his eyes open wide. He couldn’t stop staring at my face and giggling. I said “Hello” in Khmer and he put his hand up, waved at me to stop talking and went, “A-tay. A-tay” (No. No) but continued to follow me, stare at me and giggle. He followed me almost 1km up the path to the turn off to the school. He ran ahead of me and just before the corner, waited until I passed him and walked down the path to the school. As I walked down the hill to the school all the kids that usually run at me stepped back from me and went “Ohhhhhh teacher.” They spent the next few hours just staring at me and talking to each other and pointing at me.
During the class people from the village, including my 4 year old admirer, stood at the back of the classroom just watching me.
After class I went to pick up mum from her school to head back into town. They had not finished when I arrived but I quickly put a stop to that. As I walked in there was this roar of laughter.
The next day was the last day at school for mum. The kids showered her with food, bracelets, pictures etc. She was totally blown away by the generosity the kids had shown her. People give what ever they can to show their gratitude. We explained to one of the girls that mum was leaving to go back to New Zealand and her response was “But I haven’t learnt English yet!”
Every time it rains here I think it’s worse than the last. This week there have been amazing thunder and lightening storms. In the village I was working in last week, 2 people were struck by lightening and one has died. Another tree came down in the winds and hit a house. Needless to say this all scared the crap out of me a bit as I’d been driving through this village, on the back of a motorbike, during a storm the week before, am back at this school next week and hate lightening at the best of times. Shows how vulnerable and helpless you can be sometimes.
More photos from the week. If you can’t view them please let me know.
Volunteering – Is this really what I signed up for?
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