Boat Party

The week before last, I went to Phnom Penh with Gilly for some training on new teaching materials and for the VSO boatparty. We had a bit of a worrying journey when the wheel started making an awful noise but the driver wedged a piece of cardboard from a carton of beer and we reached our desination safely. That evening I caught up with Remy, a doctor from Holland who was on his way home after finishing his placement in Kratie. We shared many meals and trips to Koh Trong and I will miss him. We went to a restaurant we had been to with Amy and Kevin and here we are having a cocktail.

It was nice being in the capital again as life in Kratie can be a bit same-y! Read on!!
On Saturday we put on our gladrags and set off for Happy Hour at Raffles. After a Long Island Iced Tea and a few nibbles $5 approx £3 we set off for the boat.
It was lovely to see people I hadn`t seen since training and a good time was had by all.

Sonia, Louise, Me, Wendy, Scott and in front Neil

On Sunday I went to Pencil, the supermarket, and stocked up on some things you can`t get here e.g. cheese, baked beans and butter. I had no idea I would miss butter or margarine so much. Marmite on dry bread just doesn`t do it for me! Tea on Sunday night was Cheesy beans on toast-bliss!!
Monday morning it was back to `work` I use the term loosely! BUT I did actually get to go and observe 2 student teachers in 1 of my schools. I won`t say what I thought of the lessons on here but thank God there is no OFSTED here!
On the same theme here is a photo of a typical PE class which seems to consist of standing in one place, taking up different positions and counting-a lot!!!

P.E. or Maths?

Also on the work theme here is a picture of my VA (Volunteer Assistant) Tona. He is brilliant, and funny and he helps me buy gas cylinders, invites me to his house, buys me banana snacks, helps me with the Khmer langua(ge which I am getting no better at!) and generally looks after me! His wife is having a baby in December and I am going to be its English grandmother. Sorry girls I can`t wait for ever!!

On Wedsnesday of last week it was Children`s day so we had the day off. I went to Koh Trong with Abi, Gilly and Quennie. Here they are, notice Gilly embracing Cambodian headwear. They are very practical actually.

You can see from the picture it was a lovely sunny day but here is what the lady on the ferry was wearing!

"The sun will not reach my skin"

On Thursday" About 400 stalls at Kratie town’s market burned down in a blaze that vendors, many of whom have lost thousand of dollars worth of goods, fear could have been deliberately lit." My landlord has a rice stall on the market and had been bringing his stock home most of the night. It is such a shame for Kratie as it really is the heart of the town. They set up a temporary market along the river but now most of the food stalls around the outside of the market are back. When I went yesterday they were demolishing the market completely.
Another bit of excitement has happened-the carnival has come to town I went with Quennie, Abi, Gilly and Sam and Zac after being rained off on Wednesday. Well when I say carnival I mean a big wheel(not soo big but very fast) a thing where they drive motorcycles round a very confined space and a magic tent along with food and drink stalls and stalls where you can win groceries or if you are Sam and Gilly a cover to keep geckos out of their fruit bowl! Unfortunately, halfway through my 2nd beer I had a "stomach situation" and had to rush home on Gilly`s bike! So I never did get to see the thrills of the show or in fact finish my beer!
On Friday I went to Kratie Krong High School for a celebration of Children`s Day. Some of the girls did some Apsara dancing(Cambodian Classical dance) but I hadn`t got my camera.
On Saturday I went with Miwa to an orphanage to teach English for 2 hours. The students were very keen and their english was already quite good. I will hopefully go every week while they are keen.

Yesterday before 5.30 the heavens opened and it rained heavily and continually most of the night. This is my road when I woke up at 5.00 this morning!
Everyone was already out trying to clean up. The road just doesn`t drain when it rains but I think this must have been bad even for here. My landlord said the water came into their house when idiots(my word) in big cars came down the road and caused waves which just flooded into most of the houses. I feel really sorry for him because last night I watched him and his workers bringing all the rice, scales, stools etc back from the market, as he can`t leave it there now, on their motos in the pouring rain. Then he gets flooded as well. The people opposite have just paid to have a slope built and a wall reinforced at the front of their house to stop flooding but the water still entered their house! But they are all still smiling.

Before

After

I decided quite early on that there was no way I was wading/cycling through the rubbish to get to work. Especially as I can do what I do at work just as easily here! In fact the teacher trainer who leaves over the way hasn`t gone in either! To add to the geckos, mosquitoes, ants, dogs, and other creatures who live round here I actually saw a crab outside my house! The water is full of peoples rubbish, which they leave by the side of the road, takeaway containers, bamboo, flip flops, plastic tubs full of something I can`t even guess at and all sorts of crap, The strangest thing is a large gilt picture frame-God knows where that came from!! People are still driving down here too fast and a big lorry just caused another wave which has washed into the houses, so they have to sweep it out again.Here are some photos of the scenes.

                     

                                           An early morning paddle!

Wot no drains?!

The picture frame before...

The picture frame after...

Fun for some!

The morning commute

A Cambodian gnome? No my landlord`s daughter!

Not everyone made it through!

An ingenious contraption fashioned from wood and a cement sack to slow down the selfish people who go through here way too fast!


I`ve had a really good morning sitting on my balcony watching the goings on. The road has become something of a Waterpark to the children of Kratie and they`ve had great fun cycling, paddling, fishing, throwing, splashing! All for free!

Well who said life in Kratie was same-y? Oh yes- ME!!

The King`s Birthday and Buddha day

A random picture to start with:

Frangipani, my favourite flower,beautiful to look at and smells gorgeous.

May is a very good month for public holidays! Last weekend lasted 5 days thanks to the King`s birthday and Visak Bochea Day (Buddha Day). Lots of the volunteers from Kratie are away on holiday so I thought it would be quiet but instead volunteers from other parts of Kratie came visiting and a good time was had by all.  Katie, Esther and Louise, who I came to Cambodia with, came to stay with me in my new house. Esther and Louise came from Siem Reap on Friday and after what sounded like a horrendous 10 hr journey arrived here just in time for drinks by the river.
We had a tour of the hospital on Saturday morning and then Katie arrived while we were sitting having a drink by the river. In the evening we went to Gilly and Sam`s for drinks. Can you see a bit of a theme here!
On Sunday we went to see the dolphins, then somewhere I had not been before Kampi rapids.

                                    

 I think `rapids` is a bit too strong a word but it is a very popular place for families especially on holidays. They can go and sit on wooden platforms built over the water and have a picnic and swim. It is a really nice place and I`m sure I will go again.

Yesterday I went for a final cycle ride round Koh Trong Island with Remi as he is going home to Holland this week. We took his landlord`s daughter with us. She was a beautiful girl but dressed as if it was the middle of winter: jeans, long sleeved t shirt, woollen hat, hooded fleece. I had on a short sleeved tshirt and cropped trousers as I was baking. The girl on the ferry had socks and gloves on as well as the items above! We asked her why she had so many clothes on and she said it was to protect her skin from the sun! Nothing to do with skin cancer though it was more to do with the Cambodians wish for light skin.Most of their toiletries contain a whitening agent including deodorant! She had a lovely light brown skin which many people in the UK spend a lot of money trying to achieve but she wanted to have skin like mine which as you know is pretty white. I have actually got a tan now but the white skin under my watch strap sends them into raptures. I have been called beautiful 3 times since I got here not for my face obviously but the colour of my skin!!

Not a pretty sight I know but I rest my case!

                                                     Today I cycled to Phnom Sambok (about 45 mins) with Quennie and Miwa. We left at 7 30 to avoid the worst of the sun but it was still pretty hot. Although it is my 3rd visit I had never seen monkeys here before.

Monkeys on the roof!

Quennie and I

So this must be Miwa

A monk`s worldly goods, his robes and the bowl he takes out to get rice(begging bowl),but I wouldn`t be surprised if he had a mobile phone somewhere from what I`ve seen!

On the way here I saw something I haven`t seen before  a calf actually "fall off the back of a lorry"! It seemed o.k. just mooed a couple of times and ambled off followed by the driver. The way animals are transported here is a whole blog of its own which I won`t be doing as its too depressing! We got home without any more excitementt and I fell into my hammock and was quickly asleep. We were then subjected to a storm of which I took a video but I`m still not sure it shows how hard it rains here!

Still loving my house and having left my bat at my old house I share this one with the biggest certainly the noisiest gecko I have seen here. I have managed to block it from my bedroom by the careful placement of a booklet about Phnom Penh but it still roams free in the house after dark which can startle me sometimes

My lodger

Tonight I went for a meal with Miwa and Quennie and Remi joined us for his last drink in Kratie! Back home now at 8 30 ready to watch day 5 hour 7 of 24 which I am addicted to.


I don`t think the video is working!

House number 2

I think I have mentioned before how noisy my old house was due to the metalworks on one side (7 days a week!) and someone with an extremely bad and permanent chest infection which involved a lot of hawking up phlegm 24/7! So enough was enough and when I got the chance to move into Amy`s house as she had decided to leave Cambodia I jumped at the chance. So I contacted the tuktuk driver(Sithal) who had moved me in a month before and arranged for him to come round on the Sunday morning. Sam came to help as well and all my worldly goods in Kratie were put in a tuktuk and I moved 2 roads away.
The difference is amazing and I feel so much more at home here! The house is really well furnished by the landlord downstairs and Amy and Kevin left me a lot of stuff they had bought, toaster, hammock, coffe table, and lots of storage things from Ikea.

Living Area

Kitchen

Balcony

Beautiful Kratie Sunset

Will stop now as I did promise Ellie I would post the pictures today.

Irrawaddy Dolphins

This week has been quite busy as the other education volunteer and I had to plan out the activities, workshops, meetings etc,  we want to do this year with some money from VSO in Canada. So that took 2 mornings, Wednesday morning we had a meeting of all the VSO volunteers and the Volunteer Assistants in Kratie. It was a good chance to met up and find out what everyone does. On Friday afternoon I went to Joe`s restaurant to watch the Royal Wedding while wearing tiaras which we had fashioned from old boxes and aluminium foil!! I knew all those years of making hats with the kids would pay off!!

Yesterday I went to my VA`s house where his wife showed us how to make Ban Chow. It is a thin pancake made with rice flour (which they grind themselves), real turmeric(not ground) and coconut milk, filled with bean sprouts, meat or egg, onions and served with salad leaves and a sauce of peanuts, carrot, garlic, palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce (which they use as a seasoning). You use your fingers and dip the pancake with the salad into the sauce. It is delicious! They are a lovely family and were very welcoming and generous. It was a lovely lunchtime.

This morning I went along the Mekong to Kampi the home of the very endangered Irrawaddy Dolphins. We saw a lot of them but this is the best picture I managed!

This is a picture of Ami, who is leaving Kratie on Friday, Adrian, a doctor, who I met in Siem Reap and who was visiting Remi, another doctor, here and me(again!)

This is the entrance to the place where you pick up the boats to go Dolphin watching.

On the way back the tuktuk driver stopped and bought us some fruit which comes from a palm that they get palm sugar from.

They are the white things at the front which have been removed from the green/purple things behind. The texture is like lychee but they have juice in the middle. They don`t taste very strong but are quite refreshing, which out here is always a good thing.

We then went to a Wat at the top of a hill -Phnom Sambok. Which was very peaceful and had lovely views.

View to Mekong

When we got back to Kratie we went for a drink by the river then for lunch. I had a bacon sandwich, which was not bad but not like homemade!! Just off to Skype Ellie now and going out for dinner tonight!

Happy New Year

Met up with the group  I trained with in Siem Reap for Khmer New Year. Stayed at a nice cheap guest house which left more money for eating and drinking! We visited a butterfly farm which was more interesting than it sounds!

An Atlas  moth (largest in World I think)

We also visited a silk farm as Cambodia is famous for its silk but the real stuff is very expensive!!





the actual silk cocoons( put in this basket thing to make them easier to handle)





We did`t do Angkor Wat as it is expensive and I will `do` it when visitors are over here. The weather was really hot and we found an air conditioned ice cream shop with `beds` in it! Perfect!! so here for people who have commented they haven`t seen a picture of me....



This is why I don`t put pictures of me on this blog!! but the ice cream was lovely!

It was lovely to see everyone and I really liked Siem Reap!

Had to go back to PP rather than go straight to Kratie as the bus was overbooked because of the new year.! We were in a minibus containing 17 people. I couldn`t actually put both feet on the floor as my seat was right at the back over the wheel arch. We had Khmer karaoke, a manic comedy show and the usual violent , martial arts film blaring from the speaker right above my right ear. I had to wear one of my earplugs!! When I think of my space/noise level tolerance when I travel in the UK it has gone off the scale. You have to put up with noise of all sorts and if there are any quiet moments they will have to fill it with something-music. banging, drilling, shouting, hawking up phlegm(a favourite pastime of the young and old, chanting. baking(dogs) Geckos making loud gecko noises ...

Back in Kratie I have settled into my house and here to have to put up with not only all of the above but also bats flying around my living room and a huge cockroach in the kitchen!!

I finally started work at the teacher training Centre. I walked into the office I share with the deputy director , which is actally the staffroom, here is a picture of my table and my lovely plastic flower arrangement.

This was the scene on the table next to mine where the trainers had been marking books, I didn`t enjoy marking but I never resorted to an axe!! It was quietly removed later and I have no idea why it was there!! The rest of the staff seem quite friendly although with their english and my khmer communication doesn`t flow!! At the moment I am just trying to look busy. Yesterday I went to a 2 hour staff meeting which was not very enlightening. It started just like the ones at home. Some people turn up on time and sit and wait, then after a while someone thinks they could be doing something else and someone decides to go and round up the others so it took a while to get started! Still it passed 2 hours! This morning it was suggested (not to me I might add) that I should take a 2 hour english lesson as the tutor hadn`t turned up!! What could I do? i could hardly say I wasn`t prepared!! The students were very reluctant to speak English and although they have been learning for 3 years their language was quite limited. Anyway I somehow managed to get through the time and am now on my lunch 3 hours!!
We work from 7-11 and then 2-5.
Here are some pictures of the PTTC(Provencial teacher training Centre) where I work.

The view from my window, across the road is the river.





The outside of the PTTC my `office` is on the first floor to the right of the stairs.

Just one other thing-apart from never moaning about the NHS, the rubbish collections and health and safety in the U.K. again I would like to add staff toilets!!Anyway off to have another shower before I cycle the 5 mins back to work!!

By the way I can`t access this blog so I hope its coming out ok!

Life in Kratie

I was supposed to start work this week but after a 20 minute meeting with the director, I was told the college was shutting for 3 weeks for New Year and to come back on the 21st April! It`ll be time to come home before I`ve started work. Still I am making the most of it and on Wednesday I am going to meet up with my language group in Siem Reap for 4 days! I am travelling with 3 other volunteers from here so that will make the journey better.
After staying a couple of days with another volunteer I have finally moved into my own house. It is very handy for the market, near other volunteers and close to the river.

This is it! I have the upstairs and the landord and his wife live downstairs.

My balcony

  These are photos of the inside.

My cooking facilities!

Its lovely to be able to have ice and to keep things fresh!

I don`t have hot water and the pressure is very low at the moment but it is nice to have a proper shower!



The chairs I bought in Phnom Penh note the 70`s lino!!

This is looking in from the front door. As you can see I am going for the minimalist look!!

Anyway the house is nice but it is quite noisy but I think that is part of Cambodian life. They don`t seem to notice noise!
Sunday am.
Having said about the noise I was kept awake by dogs barking and loud music last night and woken at 4 30 by chanting monks and my neighbour(God knows what he was doing!) However I did get back to sleep until 6 30 when everyone is up and banging!!

This is sunset over Koh Trong

Yesterday I cycled around the island opposite Kratie called Koh Trong with another volunteer. We went over on the ferry and hired a bike on the island. It was lovely and shady and peaceful ,except for the wedding on the island and the noise of the one on the opposite bank! It was very rural although I did spot a satellite dish!

A bamboo pathway up the beach on Koh Trong

These people were washing clothes in the river!

Bananas growing. The flowers are beautiful and used in cooking.

The Beach.

Anyway thats all I`ve got for now. Will try and blog more regularly now I am settled.