Day by day highlights at BCDO:

26.06.2012

LUCY’S BIRTHDAY. Travelled from Koh Chang (Thailand) to Andong Tuek (Cambodia) arriving at BCDO.

27.06.2012

Taught my first class. “Q is for queen…”

28.06.2012

Mediated my first game of board slaps.

29.06.2012

MY BIRTHDAY. First One Pound Whiskey Friday.

30.06.2012

Sawed wood for the drain cover. Sopheap went to the doctors in Phnom Penh.

01.07.2012

‘Pet’ cow got slaughtered; care parcel arrived from Lucy’s mum.

02.07.2012

We had bumpom dumlow (chip fritters) for the first time.

03.07.2012

Vanak left. Cut my hair, Cebolas: “Playboy haircut”

04.07.2012

Covered the drain in the playground.

05.07.2012

Lizard pissed on Mackie.

06.07.2012

Whiskey Friday.

07.07.2012

Hung over.

08.07.2012

First school trip to see the three legged elephant.

09.07.2012

Cilla and Norman woke us up fighting under our bed.

10.07.2012

Evening class got a bollocking off Kenha.

11.07.2012

Sopheap came back, asking Mackie for medical advice.

12.07.2012

Students woke me up at seven am to play snake and ladders.

13.07.2012

Much needed one pound whiskey Friday.

14.07.2012

Sockhong brought us rice wine.

15.07.2012

School trip II. Perry & Cecile arrived.

16.07.2012

Sopheap went back to the doctors in Phnom Penh.

17.07.2012

Morning class didn’t show - foot and mouth scare.

18.07.2012

Kenha got pissed on a whiskey Wednesday.

19.07.2012

Played grab the stick.

20.07.2012

Had lunch at ten am.

21.07.2012

Got rocks from quarry for the ramp.

22.07.2012

Boat trip to the waterfall.

23.07.2012

Evening class dictation. Everyone got exactly the same score…cheating.

24.07.2012

Evening class got bollocked by Poun.

25.07.2012

Finished building the ramp, AKA concrete mixer. Warwick & Fiona arrived.

26.07.2012

Border run. Cecile Left.

27.07.2012

Had to teach hung over.

28.07.2012

Ridiculously hot, too hot for hammock even.

29.07.2012

Elephant and jungle trek.

30.07.2012

Warwick & Fiona left.

31.07.2012

Massive storm.

01.08.2012

Evening class got cancelled because of bad behavior.

02.08.2012

Temple party.

03.08.2012

Had a five hour nap.

04.08.2012

Chailotte’s family arrived.

05.08.2012

Lea arrived. Went to the swimming lake. I saved a life.

06.08.2012

Tu cried because Kenha ate her cake.

07.08.2012

Learnt origami.

08.08.2012

Cancelled lessons and played football, Long cried a lot.

09.08.2012

Leaving party.

Thank you.

I would just like to this opportunity to thank Duong, Kenha, Cebolas and Tu for their hospitality and kindness for the forty six days we spend in their home. Lucy, Simon and I all had an amazing time and will certainly never forget it or you (not withstanding brain injuries such as amnesia).

My evening class had asked nearly two weeks before if we could have a party to commiserate (or possible celebrate) me leaving, and of course I said yes. Kenha had been organizing this party for an entire week, making decorations (origami flowers that Frank had taught us all to make) and collecting money. She insisted that we all get up a seven thirty to come to the market with her to purchase the required supplies for a feast we would be eating at the party tonight. This proved to be pointless as she didn’t want us to buy anything (we just gave her five Dollars each as a contribution to the party), or carry anything or do anything – so we went back to commune. The students had already started arriving by the time we got home (eight am) and all wanted us to entertain them, which became extremely irritating by the afternoon. We decorated the school with the origami we had made, paper chains and balloons; at this point many of the kids went back home and got change into their best clothes – which made them only look more adorable.

A small army of Khmer ladies had been peeling, chopping and cooking all day and just after it got dark the kids’ feast arrived and they guzzled down pop, sweets and food – seeming to love every minute of it.  Simon’s cerds (Cambodian nerds) from his computer class were also in attendance bringing with them a block of ice, four bottles of extremely cheap whiskey and some speakers, bringing the party to life. As the kids filled up on more and more sugar and we drank more and more whiskey the dancing began; Vee (Venn’s six year old brother) downed a bottle of coke that was almost the same size of him and then began to move. His dancing can only be described electric. Electirc as in a live current was running through his body – it was magnificent, and everyone else couldn’t resist so joined him. Our feast was ready shortly after but Lucy, Simon, Chailotte and I were enjoying ourselves so much we declined the food that we probably needed (to soak up some whiskey); I took this opportunity to teach my class the lunge – probably the only useful legacy I left in Andong Tuek, and they loved it!

Many of the kids had to go home because it was dark and getting late so the cerds, Khmer volunteers and we headed to our shack for some less strenuous (and sweaty) drinking; after an arm wrestling competition which did not make Lucy, Simon or I look good we decided to call it a night. Sopheap had returned half way through the party and awkwardly mingled with the students and new volunteers, although he was not ignoring us now we weren’t really interested in giving him much time, we wanted to say goodbye to the people who had really made us enjoy our time there: Cebolas, Kenha, Duong, Tu and the students.

Looking through our photos the next day was very interesting as Simon and I had given our cameras to students who literally filled the memory card with some photos, vastly varying quality.

09.08.2012 There Aint No Party Like A BCDO School Party.

Morning Class

Mackie’s and my morning class has progressively got smaller, by the end there was only seven students left standing. The three Kims, Pooh, Penin, Tu and Darlin. Kim-Lang is the leader of the three Kims and pretty much the entire class, she struts around the school screaming and shouting until everybody is doing exactly as she wants, including me and Lucy. She is definitely the best at English, which is half the problem as she does her work and then finishes everybody else’s -her hand writing can be found in most the of the other students’ books, especially annoying during a spelling test. Kim-Heng is completely gormless and spends almost all her time facing the roof, mouth wide open. Her work is always done though – normally in Kim-Lang’s hand writing. Kim-Chai is the worst of the bunch, gormless doesn’t even cover it, completely unresponsive might be close. Ask her a direct question, as simple as her name and she elicits no response, even Kim-Lang screeching the answer into her lug hole will not rouse her; come play time though she is screaming and shouting with the rest of them!

Pooh and Penin are the next double act, both relatively competent but prefer to spend their time playing underneath the school or sitting on the swings rather than in the classroom. As the class got progressively smaller they both got progressively naughtier, by the final week Lucy had all but given up trying to control these two and they spent her lessons sword fighting with sticks. Tu was also in this class, and although she wasn’t a model pupil she was no trouble either – until she decided she wanted to play slap the board that is, at which point she transformed into a Kim-Lang type student, meaning there were now two…headache. The final pupil in the morning class was Darlin, (the hilarity of having to say ‘thank you darling’, and ‘well done Darling’ was lost on the Khmer) and he was such a darling; he was never any trouble, did all his work and knew the answers whenever you asked him. Every time he got an answer right or won a game his cute little face lit up – if all the kids were like him teaching this brood would have been a breeze!

My evening lesson was another Jekyll and Hyde class: sometimes a dream, sometimes a nightmare; and had to be told off several times by nearly all the Khmer volunteers for their misbehavior! As I have already mentioned I had to favour the boys (Long, Lee Hooer, Kiim, Rudd, Jeeha, Kit and Venn) in this class because the girls (Nit, Nit 2, Nosh, Nigh, Lynn, Jian) out smarted them almost every time. Again the size of this class fluctuated but I will talk about the thirteen who usually turned up, even when it was raining! Long was bar far the smartest boy and was no trouble to teach, during play time or games though he was a right baby; during a game of football in our last week he must have cried three times, on the third and final occasion he fell to the ground as if he had been shot – causing Simon and I to burst out laughing. *Note to self, must not laugh at ‘injured’ students*. Lee Hooer was one of the thick kids but got away with it because he had a cheeky smile, I had just been telling Simon and Lucy that he was a close second (to Tu) for the cutest kid that I taught when he approached us – handing me an ice cream which he had bought for me,

“Make that joint first.” I corrected. Kiim was the nicest (he helped Tu (his girlfriend we think) save her puppy when Sopheap took him to the forest to get lost) and the dumbest student I taught, but at least he tried unlike Kim-Chai. During say and repeat exercises the responses that I got from Kiim would vary wildly, the only consistent theme was that they never sounded anything like what I had just said; after trying five, ten maybe fifteen times I would give up and accept that he was just incapable to pronounce that particular word. Having said that, come time for slap the board he knew where all the words were –often beating a much more intelligent students, maybe his tongue was just too big for his mouth or something! Rudd was another intelligent student and behaved almost all the time, unfortunately because he was clever and no trouble that all I really have to say about that. Jeeha and Kit were the double act in the evening class, and were both thick as two short stumps. They were often naughty and more often than not the instigators when the whole class revolted; but I couldn’t help but love them. When they were completely ignoring me I liked to put them on the spot, which caused their faces to contort in such extreme agony that I can only assume they were trying to find he correct word somewhere in the bottom of their gut and physically spit it out. It was these two that told Kenha they wanted a party before I went, to commiserate not celebrate my leaving they insisted. Venn is the final boy I taught in the evening, although I had never set eyes on him until our last weekend in Andong Tuek; when I leapt to his rescue – saving him from drowning. Maybe I became his hero, I don’t know (If I did he didn’t show I any other respect) but on the Monday he began attending my class, knowing more than most the others – for which I’m going to take credit, rightfully or not! He was also the youngest in the evening class (Jeeha’s little cousin) and when we played football insisted on pulling his shorts right up, possibly making him Andong Teuk’s first eunuch.

Although the girls were smarter across the board, they were also little bitches. I know I shouldn’t really talk about thirteen year old girls in such terms, but really it’s the English language’s fault for failing to provide me with a better adjective. Lynn was the only exception and shares the special space in my heart with Darlin for being the perfect student, and she was equally as shy. Nit, Nit2 and Nosh were the three witches of the class huddling around their books cackling every time I was caused pain or inconvenienced. Nosh was the ring leader for sure, the other two were very pleasant and studious when she wasn’t around – which I’m afraid to say led me to almost hate Nosh. I know hating a little girl is wrong, but she tested my endless bounds of patients and tolerance to their limits, if she had drowned at the lake I would have thought twice before diving in fully clothed to rescue her. Of course I’m joking! Or am I… Nigh was the dimmest girl and floated through the class like a feather in the wind, I’m almost certain she didn’t learn anything from me because she couldn’t answer a question without someone else whispering (more often than not shouting) the answer to her; but you can’t save them all I guess. Jian was an O.K student who would hide under her desk, on the floor or in the other classroom when her time to answer questions came and insisted on sitting at the very back but not going to hate a player for that.

All in all I loved teaching these kids, although they could be little monsters; but I’m not so old that I can’t remember doing the exact same thing not so many years ago.

Evening Class

Below are some observation, opinions and stories of some of the people we met and volunteered along side with at BCDO.

PERRY: Although Perry is Cambodian I have included her as an international volunteer because she was only temporary, opposed to the other Khmer who were permanent. Perry had previously run an NGO of her own and was now a fully qualified environmental officer (whatever that means) – she scheduled and took charge of two specialist environment lessons during her three day stay. I have already mentioned that teaching these kids about looking after the environment is all but a lost caused, but at least Perry could say she had tried; what she did accomplish was a couple of hastily drawn posters and a pile of dead grass (that the children had cultivated to make birds nest – which they never completed). Lucy took a particular dislike to Perry for an unknown reason, she was irritating and took advantage of our generosity (hogging our internet dongle that we said she could borrow) but Lucy detested her beyond reason, and scoffed at the idea that we should meet up with her in Sihanoukville – which made the accidentally bumping into her on Serendipity Beach promenade (Sihanoukville) all the better.

CECILE: Cecile was the first truly international volunteer to join us and came the same day as Perry. (Cecile had planned to go to another NGO but had let her down last minute so tagged along with Perry after meeting her in a bar.) She was French (which gave me an opportunity to flex my multi-lingual muscles – much to the amusement of Simon and Lucy) and was a lovely addition to the group; her only flaw was that she was on a tighter budget that us, if that is possible! This meant she didn’t participate in much whiskey fun and didn’t join us when we went to the waterfall (even though we said she could come for free), but I’m not going to hold that about her!

Towards the end I felt sorry for Cecile as she said the Khmer volunteers were ostracising her, personally I hadn’t seen this but I could tell it was getting her down. After finding out that she had had words with Sopheap regarding the way he treated animals I can believe he turned on her, as he later turned on us for no good reason we could think of. Cecile didn’t feel confident teaching English, but as some of the kids were doing French at state school she endeavoured to tutor them; these lessons warmed my heart. The kids struggled with English and French sounded impossible, when I can tell the pronunciation is wrong and accent is terrible you know you’re fighting a lost cause. My students often tried to show off their French skills in my class which led to the realisation that if that what I sounded like that in Khmer it was no surprise no one could understand me.

Lucy and I also travelled to Koh Kong with Cecile as we needed to renew our visas on the same day she was moving on to Thailand, and this was the only time she irritated me. We were on a tight schedule and Cecile is faffer- the breaking point for Lucy (who had been huffing and puffing at Cecile all day) came when Cecile failed to exchange enough Dollars into Baht to pay for her connecting travel, at this point we said our goodbyes. (Before Lucy’s head exploded.)

Warwick & Fiona: This Australian couple were a breath of fresh air when they arrived; both newly qualified teachers back home and ready to get stuck in. (To teaching that is, Warwick had undergone a operation on his back quite recently which prevented him for any heavy lifting or manual labour; why hadn’t I thought of that?!) In the end they only stayed five days as I think they felt they had nothing to contribute having come from a nine to five school in Thailand and maybe not enjoying the surplus downtime at BCDO; we were happy to give them our lesson but I got the impression that they felt like they were intruding – which they weren’t.

These two were well up for whiskey and rice wine, evening gifting us a bottle when they left (whiskey not rice wine) ; we also took a nice trip to the elephant with them and they were generally good company (I especially enjoyed their stories and impressions of their previous work away host). All due respect goes out to Fiona who didn’t hesitate to run out onto a busy road to scoop up an injured Cilla after she had been hit by a car, although ultimately she could not be saved. All in all we were glad to have met them both.

Chailotte’s Family: On our last Saturday a French family arrived: Chailotte and Frank (ages unknown), Angel (fifteen), Mariuse (thirteen) and Fanny (ten). (I also had to conceal a smirk when her mother introduced her.) They were a really nice family; they had brought two extra suitcases with clothes and games for the kids, and really liked to get stuck in – this suited me down to the ground as it mean Frank and Mariuse now did all the menial labour, giving me more hammock time! Chailotte (Kenha always called Madame) is one of the world organisers and likes things done her way, this potentially annoying trait didn’t bother me at all because she got on with what she wanted to do and left me to do what I wanted to do. Angel was very quiet (until party night when she wild) and Fanny was a standard ten year old – her lack of table manours being the biggest point to note, sometimes she would lean over so severely she would quite literally be between you and your plate. Only after this family arrived did we realise how small Khmer children were, all three kids towering over there Cambodian counterparts. 

Lea: Lea was the final person we met volunteering, she was also French and turned up out of the blue the day after Chailotte’s family. (Sopheap had forgot to tell anyone she was coming.) She was an art student and very pleasant addition to the team, although the dinner table was quite literally full now! She slotted in quite nicely teaching a, b, c and one, two, threes to the younger kids and drawing with some of the others. Her friendship with Angel soon led to her becoming Frank and Chailotte’s adopted daughter; possibly we would meet up with her again in Cambodia. (Especially because I left my Converse at BCDO and she could reunite us!)

An Aussie couple had arrived earlier on in the week so a third and final trip to feed the four legged elephant was called for! This trip was again very similar to the first two, although we didn’t take any students with us this time and the farmer who owns the stone well had now constructed a little raft. After quite a brief swim and paddle around we fed the elephant, Fiona kept giving her elephant kisses by blowing down her trunk which was reciprocated by what can only be elephant sneeze – sound like a good way to be covered in elephant snot to me.

We walked home through the forest coming across a patch of pineapple plants, which didn’t look at all like I thought they would and some mysterious rocks. The forest suddenly cleared and there was a large area of rocks, similar to rock pools you encounter at the seaside but in the middle of the woods; maybe because of this peculiarity they had been given some divine meaning and there were shrines and incense sticks a plenty, but then again maybe not. I wanted to plunge into one of these pools to see how deep they were, but was soon reprimanded by Cebolas for dipping just a foot in. As we continued the walk home we got a view of the vast rice paddies that surround all the villages, and saw many of the villagers at work – some no older than the children we had been teaching at the school and the reality of rural poverty really hit home; and on that pleasant note we headed home!

After the previous day of quarrying rock for the foundations of the ramp an excursion to a local waterfall is just what the doctor ordered, but it did mean that any hope of a lie in was gone. We set off from the commune at eight am, Cecile deciding she was too ill to join us. (She was reluctant to come because she couldn’t afford to split the twenty two Dollars that the boat cost to hire with us, and felt uncomfortable coming for free – although we insisted she was more than welcome. Enter miraculous phantom illness.) The boat was moored in a part of the village which I hadn’t visited before, and wouldn’t choose to visit again; the streets were very dirty and houses quite decrepit, a poor area of the town I concluded. We found our vessel for the day and to say she looked sea worthy would be an over statement, but we were only going on a river so I’m sure she would be fine; after Poun had bailed the water that had half filled the hull that is. Precariously we climbed aboard the extremely narrow boat (the houses that lined the river had their commodes detached from the house and perched over the river, making a very suspicious, smelly and sloppy river bank – something you certainly wouldn’t want to fall into anyway!) and tried to get comfy on the blank that I assume was supposed to be a bench.

Everybody aboard we set sail with Cebolas, A.K.A ‘Captain Jack Sparrot’ (Sparrow) at the helm, and spent the next forty minutes cruising the Andong Tuek River soaking in the beautiful mangrove and forest scenery and of course the sun. Turning off the main river down a tiny estuary the navigating evidently became more difficult, as Cebolas bounced us from one river bank to another – Poun and Rothna having to get out and push at quite frequent intervals - but we got there eventually. We all had to wade a short distance as the debris in the small stream of water made it impossible for the boat to pass, the river bed was covered with a thick layer of rotten leaves and foliage which released a foul rotten egg smell when it was disturbed, so with nine of us wading through the stink was terrible. We reached the foot of the series of waterfalls and after a short climb arrived at the pool for our first stop, Mackie and Simon both had difficulties on the very first set of rocks: Simon completely losing balance and falling in a  horizontal position whilst trying to supply Lucy with cigarettes AND her inhaler (her chest was probably hurting and she couldn’t decide which would relieve the pain); and Mackie’s main problem being  ‘she couldn’t get up them!’ so decided to take her own route which proved to be beyond reason and ultimately much more difficult.

As the climb got progressively harder Kenha, Tu and Mackie stayed at the first pool whilst Cebolas, Poun, Rothna, Simon and I went on – which was a good job, seeing Mackie and Kenha struggle up the first set of rock I don’t think they would have made it back alive if they had gone any further! Another stop of note was a heavy flowing section with a deep pool, this meant you could dive and jump in and sit under the falling water for the closest thing you are going to get to a power shower in Andong Tuek, if only I had brought my soap! The grand finale was a waterfall about thirty feet high with an almost sheer rock face, although we managed to scale it just long enough for a photograph; and then it was a jungle trek back to the boat. The jungle trek was fun but comparatively brief, it had taken two hours to scale the waterfalls and took twenty minutes to get back down, only stopping to peel the various leeches off my feet and legs.

The final stop of the day was The Floating Rock, the ‘old people’ as Cebolas called them say that this massive rock in the middle of the river diminishes to the size of your wrist by the time it hits the river bed, I suppose ill have to take their word for that…A temple had been built on the rock for a purpose we were unable to obtain and whilst the Khmer prayed we splashed around pretending to walk on the water (as most of the floating rock was just beneath the river’s surface causing us to emulate Jesus). Another forty minutes on the river soaking up more sun than scenery and we were back a ‘docks’ of Andong Tuek; having thoroughly enjoyed the day and hiding from more exposure to the sun we all rested until tea.