February 23, 2007

Last day of School (Katy)

This morning was quite a strange one. We got up early as usual but instead of cycling towards the rising sun, all we saw was clouds. There were even a few spots of rain, but it stopped there.

It was strange riding past all the people who always wave and shout "Hello" and knowing this would be the last time we would see them.

Classes were good. We just went over loads of the things we've learned and played games. I tried to explain that we were leaving and I thoought they understood but then went on to say "See you tomorrow" so I'm not quite sure.

Second class at Khnar were noisy as usual. I have learned the Khmer for Be quiet - Sannapp. I think I would need to extend my vocabulary if we were staying longer though. Phrases like "Stop hitting that boy with the ruler and start paying attention please" and "Just because you're hiding under the desk doesn't mean I'm not going to give you this work. I can still see you" might have come in handy. Again tried explaining that I was leaving, again they seemed to understand and then again I got "See you tomorrow". Maybe it's "See you tomorrow they don't understand and not the fact that I'm leaving.

Rode to Lolei for the very last time. Still pretty cloudy so not too hot for a change. Again arrived to bus loads of Tourists and children everywhere but in lessons. My class pretty much back to full numbers today. Just more recapping and games. And I think this time they actually understood when I said I was leaving. I was quite sad when we set off on our last ride back down Route 6, back into town.

Now just finishing off our packing and getting ready to leave early in the morning.

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February 21, 2007

Wednesday 21st (Katy)

After not much sleep last night, this morning came around way to early. The electricity was off most of the night and it was so difficult to sleep without the fan, it's so hot.

Riding in to school wasn't bad and classes all went to plan. My first class were awake again but are always so reluctant to write anything down. They look at me for ages pretending not to understand (I know that they do) and then eventually one of them will give in and get their book out, one by one the rest will follow. I started WEATHER with this class this morning. The only weather they have is sunshine and rain, so the rest was hard to explain.

Second class we just re capped some recent subjects. I don't really want to start anything new with them because it takes a while for them to understand. They speak very little English, well they did until I started.

A couple more turned up for lesson at Lolei, I think there were about sixteen of them today. They were all a bit excitable when we started lessons. There had been a coach load for tourists making them pose for photographs. As soon as they saw me they all went straight back to the classroom and sat down ready. It still suprises me how much they want to learn and how enthusiastic they always are.

The ride back went pretty quickly, only one more day of school now. We have tomorrow to pack and get sorted out, Friday at school and then Saturday we leave for Vietnam! I can't believe how quickly this month has gone.

Posted by admins at 9:13 AM | Comments(0)

February 17, 2007

Sports Day (Katy)

Another early morning. Off to Khnar nice and early. We were told that lessons would be starting earlier this week. Although they are starting earlier the children don't get there any earlier, 7.20ish, so I start the class with about 5 people and by the end it's up to 35.

After Khnar, off to Lolei. Feeling a bit tired today so not as quick as usual.

Some of the volunteers had organised a sports day at Lolei. That was just getting into full swing when we arrived. All of the 90 children from the school were out on the grass together. They'd been split up into teams of ten and were just doing the egg and spoon race when we arrived. They looked like they were reaaly enjoying themselves.

Next was the three legged race. We gave them a demonstration of it first, got them all in to pairs and tried to start the race. As soon as the whistle was blown pretty much all of the starting pairs hit the ground. It was absolute mayhem and the children they loved it. Some of them were trying to tie their outside legs together, others couldn't do much for laughing, but astonishingly no one got hurt.

There were a few more races then came the tug of war. We split them evenly between the two sides and it was a fairly even match. Then they decided it should be all of them against about 8 of us. You can guess who won.

Everyone got a little prize. There was absolutely no way of knowing who the winners were, and they all seemed very happy about it... bit of a difference from their normal school day.

Riding out down the road, some of the children still had the energy to race us to the end. After that the ride home seemed twice as long as usual.

Posted by admins at 4:54 AM | Comments(1)

February 15, 2007

Thursdays (Katy)

It's Thursday again which means no school for us, although I'm not sure why. We were given some kind from explanation by Jay (the Cambodian guy who works for the charity) but he didn't seem too sure himself. Teachers didn't used to have to work on Thursdays but that has now changed so they should be working but not many of them do. We spoke to Anna on the street. She said she had been to school this morning but all they did was play games. So who knows, it remains a mystery to us, but at least it means one less early morning!!

So today we had a bit of a lie in. I was wide awake by 7.30 though, and we're just using today to catch up and do lesson plans. And we're not going to ride our bikes all day!!

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February 14, 2007

Wednesday (Katy)

We were both feeling tired this morning, and the weather is getting so much hotter. It's hard work riding in such heat. Anyway, we made it to school. Buiders encampment was gone from the playground at Khnar, which means they must have finished the building work. I wonder where they're living now.

It was only this morning, riding to school that I realised the children even bring in their own brushes in to sweep out the classrooms. I rode past a girl walking into school with a brush, then later I saw a boy with a paint pot with a rope attatched for the well. They carrry them in every day and then home again at night. That's commitment for you.

Lessons went way to quickly and before I knew it we were riding to our second school of the day, Lolei. Children here good as always. Getting on to some more complicated things now like feelings and I like/Idon't like. The children that are better at English always help out those who don't understand.

On the way home from school we decided to treat ourselves and stop at the swimming pool. It was so good to cool down and relax after all that riding.

Posted by admins at 10:03 AM | Comments(0)

February 13, 2007

Tuesday (Katy)

School again, up bright and early. Ride to Khnar is good, getting to appreciate it more now. Just as we turn off the main road on to a quiet dirt track, the sun is rising right ahead on us, massive and an orangey pink colour. It looks so amazing. Just after that though we pass the abattoir, which is not so pleasant. You can't see anything but the smell is pretty horrible and you do hear the occassional squeal. Spurred on by that, we rode on to school, arriving way too early again.

There was a bit of confusion this morning when the flag got stuck at the top of the flag pole, eventually they missed out the singing and ran straight off to finish watering the plants.

Lessons were good, as usual. I still can't believe how happy they are to be at school, how much they want to learn and how grateful they are for everything. I gave them a bit of paper today with some clocks on. They thought it was amazing. I did run in to some problems with my second class. I started COLOURS with them, but then realized I would have to share my couloured pencils out between a class of 50. It took a while but we got there in the end.

Now off to rest and plan for tomorrow.

Posted by admins at 6:02 AM | Comments(2)

Tuesday at school (Joe)

Tuesday 13th February 2007

Really tired this morning, had another day of getting up at 5.30am in the dark.
First class today was Khnar 7-8am. The class seemed about as awake as I was. Two children were just about asleep and a few turned up late but they tried in there best English-Kamer to say why they were late and they were sorry. The lesson today was on time, after drawing a clock on the board and lablelling it they started to wake up a bit. The 7-8 class are really bright but today all I could get out of then was the odd answer to any of my questons. Hope tomorrow is a lot better. We are working on colours.

Kanar 8-9
Really good group today. They managed to get a lot more done. The topic was "time". I thought we would only get to o'clock and half past, but they managed to understand 1/4 past and 1/4 to which was really good. We spent the last 20 mins doing games to do with time. Tomorrow hopefully we will be able to put some basic sentences together.

Lolei 10-11
The ride to Lolei is a killer. Its about 10km from Khnar and all the way on a busy main road with not much to see, and for the last two day the weather has been really hot about 35-40c, with no shade on the road. Once there it's a really amazing school. All the childen really want to be there so teaching them is a pleasure. At the start of the class I did a quick exercise, getting them to stand up whenever Iwrote on the board and then sit down, stamp their feet,hands on heads,clapping hands and so on. I thought this would only take about 5-10 minites. They thought that this was amazing and it took about half and hour. The rest of the lesson was recapping on Monday.

The ride back to town was so hot and such hard work today. Not sure if it's the steak I had last night but I think I'm getting more unfit rather than fitter. Once we got back into town we went for lunch. I manged to drink about half a bottle of water in a few seconds. Hope tomorrowis easier than today.

Posted by admins at 5:53 AM | Comments(1)

February 12, 2007

School

Monday came around all to quickly again so it's back to school. Up at 5.30 and a half hour ride on our bikes to Khnar School. As usual we waited around until about 7.20am for students to arrive, sweep out classrooms and water plants. Plant watering involves the children collecting their paint pot, making sure the long rope is tied on tightly and taking it to the well. Collecting the water then distributing it around each other and the plants. It does seem to be the plants nearest to the well that are the biggest, I think most of the water has been spilled by the time they reach the other side of the playground.

About half of the children arrive on bikes (the lucky ones). You always see the smallest child on a bike bigger than he is, he can't even reached the seat and the bigger children on tiny little bikes. One of the other volunteers did a survey with her class about transport. No one in the class had ever been in a car, and only two of the class had been on a bus. Mopeds and push bikes are the way forwards!

I gave my second class, at Khnar, a wordsearch to do. All the other classes had loved it. This class was totally bemused. I had to go round every individual child to explain (there's 45 of them). They loved it in the end though and when the lesson ended, none of them wanted to put it away.

Quick ride to Lolei, I must be getting fitter, didn't feel quite so tired today, 10 mins to recover then straight into lessons. This class must have learnt English before at some stage because they're really good. Started TIME with them the other day so continued with that, they got quite confused with quarter and half past, and as for quarter to, thats not even worth mentioning.

Played a little problem sovling game, re arranging the numbers in a grid. They loved it but it took them ages, I think they're just not used to having to think like that.

Ended with a stand up, sit down, jump, etc game. Even the teacher was copying down the things I'd written by the end of it. Maybe he'll join in next time

Posted by admins at 5:44 AM | Comments(0)

February 9, 2007

Back to School (Katy)

Just finished our first week at school. It's been an amazing week but we're so tired now. Getting in to our new routine was pretty hard at first. School starts at 7am so we have to get up at about 5.30am to get ready and then cycle there. The first day we arrived to teach we were at school by about ten to seven, and we were the only people there. No students, no teachers, just the builders that are building the new classrooms, but that's just because they sleep there (I don't think any of them were awake). So we waited around and slowly but surely children started to arrive. Just after 7am the Ice Cream man arrived on his push bike with his cool box on the back. That kept the children occupied for a while. Then at about 7.15am the Headteacher came in on his mo-ped and all the children lined up around the flag pole. They then sing a song while the chosen student takes down the flag and puts it back up again. Just before 7.30am, we managed to get to class.

The classes seem to vary quite greatly in age and ability. There's usually an age range of at least two or three years in the class. Some of them are very intelligent, and others, not so much but all seem very happy to be there and extemely patient, considering we don't even speak the same language.

All three of my classes seem to have improved already, which means I must be doing something right, and they really love any kind of learning that doesn't involve just sitting copying from the board.

Children go to school on Saturday as well but luckily, we don't have to go, I don't think I could manage another day getting up early and cycling all that way.

If anyone has any ideas about simple games or tasks that we could do with the classes please let us now, the more fun the better.

Posted by admins at 9:33 AM | Comments(1)

First Week at School (Joe)

Friday 9th Febuary 2007

This week has gone pretty fast, working in a school where most of the classes don't speak English and I don't speak Kamer (Cambodian) is quite good fun but it takes lots of sign language and my Kamer to English dictionary to get there.

It wasn't such an early start to the week. We headed to Kanar school at about 8.30am. It is about 6km east of Siem Reap, the fun part was getting there with three people on the back of the moped.

Once there we met the head teacher and had a look at all the classrooms, most of which are still under constuction. Didn't do any teaching at Kanar on Monday - not sure why but in Cambodia everything gets a bit random and no one knows seems to know what's going on. We left Kanar at lunchtime and headed up to the next school Loli which is about 13km from Siem Reap.

Loli school is very small - only three classrooms. Unfortunately it is just beside one of the Ankor Wat temples, which is not so good because groups of tourists, 20 to 30 at a time, think they have the right to walk round each desk and take close up shots with camcorders and cameras.

The first teaching session went really well. We sorted out everyone's names which was fun trying to translate Kamer to English... and then spent the rest of the session finding out what English they had done before.

The rest of the week went well apart from the fact that the first leasson starts at 7am which is ok but we have to cycle 6km to get to Kanar and then 13km to Loli. All the children are really nice though and always smilling and laughing so teaching them is not as hard as I thought it. might be.

Today, (Friday), we went outside to play some games. Everyone loved it. We played catch and they thought it was amazing and couldn't stop laughing.

The week has been really good - hope all goes to plan next week but who knows...

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