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.

Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei

Sorry haven`t added anything to blog for a while but have been on Placement Week in Kratie.
this is the trip we went on before we left.
The legend about the 2 hills is-There were two teams, one of men and one of women. they were competing to build the tallest mountain before sunrise. The competition happened because the custom was that a man needed to go to the woman`s parents to ask permission to get married and the men were challenging this. The women lit a fire at night, which made the men believe the sun was rising. They stopped working and the women won.

So men still need to ask the woman`s parents for permission to get married and Phnom Srei(woman hill) is higher than Phnom Pros(man hill)



part of the temple on Man Hill







View of woman hill from man hill

We didn`t walk up all the steps to this hill. I don`t do steps-especially not 300+

We gave some of the monkeys bananas.

.
Between the 2 hills is a Killing Field and the smooth shiny bit on this statue is where the soldiers used to sharpen their swords before they killed people. There is a small building with a pile of human skulls inside it nearby and people still search through the killing field for valuables!

Buddha teaching his pupils

One of the highly coloured statues

Thats all really about our trip. It was very interesting.

Last week I went to Kratie and sorted out a house and met my colleagues and the rest of the volunteers. They are really friendly and I had a really good time. I am none the wiser about the job really but everyone feels like that. I don`t have an office but they have given me a table (with a rather lovely artificial flower decoration!!) in the office of the Deputy director of the Training College. There is a school in the college`s grounds which I was taken to and the children were asked to say something to me in English. Everyone asked me how old I was! They wouldn`t get away with that in England! I found a house which is not perfect but I think it will be fine. It has 2 bedrooms a large living room, a proper toilet and shower-no hot water though! Unfortunately I didn`t take any photos during the week cos I had so much to focus on and I will have enough opportunities when I finally get there. Kratie has a lovely riverside where we had drinks and a lot of restaurants. It has a market where I think I will be able to buy most things I need everything else I will have to buy in Phnom Penh. Now I am back in Kampong Cham for another couple of days language training and a homestay where we go and stay with a family in one of the villages for a `Cambodian Experience` I am not looking forward to it at all but its got to be done!!

Will tell all about I post the next blog.



Mekong river trip

This morning we cycled to the market which sells material amongst other things and some people bought some material to make some workclothes. I didn`t get anything as I`m not sure yet what I will need. The weather is very hot today(33 degrees) and the market is very hot and stuffy!
This afternoon we went on a boat trip up the river organised by one of our favourite restaurants. We went up the mekong where we saw all the houseboats/floating villages.

It is amazing that people actually live likethis but they seem very happy and always call out "hello" and wave1

We stopped at a village where we met some more beautiful children!

These two were sitting at the desk in the school, which was literally a shelter with no walls and a couple of really old desks. We gave them some lollipops and every one of them said thank you unlike a lot of children in Bristol I could name!

This is the "school" and to think we moaned if the internet was down!! They have literally nothing not even a board!!

This is the boat we went on and I was very relieved to see that we all had a life jacket. As Cambodia seems a little lax on health and safety rules this was a plus!

This is a mill which they still use inthe village!

This is an ox cart which they still use in the rural communities. It is quite a contrast to the Lexus` and 4 wheel drives wich the well off and NGOs use!

This shows the high water level when the Mekong floods in the wet season! Its incredible how high the river comes!

Anyway I had a brilliant day even though I did get a bit burnt as it was soooo hot!! When we got back we had a few beers and my usual mee chaa chi moy ban lie or fried noodles with vegetables. I have this a lot and have hardly eaten meat since I arrived!

Must go and do some language work now!

Cambodian weddings etc

Well I have heard a lot about weddings in Cambodia-the excessively loud music, the women`s clothes etc and it is all true!!
We were told there was to be a wedding along the river where we eat and drink and sure enough yesterday morning we were entertained by the groom, (carrying what seemed to be a table decoration) and the guests bearing bowls of fruit and a pigs head! all processed past us as we were eating our pancakes! They were all wearing very colourful clothes. Unfortunately it was the one morning I didn`t have my camera. But no need to worry it was still going on yesterday evening so I went and asked the bride and groom if I could take their picture- and here it is!

The Happy Couple!



The Marquee!

As I had heard the music was extremely loud, coming from a huge bank of speakers. In the evening the entertainment was cranked up and this very attractive girl group took to the stage!

As we have been told we have to cover shoulders and knees and dress conservatively these came as quite a shock! The wedding started at 3 in the morning and went on til about 11 last night and by this morning there was nothing left to show a wedding had been there.

This was todays wedding party looking very happy?!



I thought the groom and his mother looked particularly happy!

Now for just some random photos!


                                           

This is the ice man who delivers ice locally every day! No refrigerated lorries or fridges round here!

This is the mass exodus when university finishes. As you can see motorbikes are the transport of choice.



One of the toilets at school!

This is the building I have my Khmai lessons in. The room is on the left at the top of the stairs.



Cambodian ladies love their pyjamas!



Aerobics by the river every night about 6!





In Cambodia it`s a spectator sport especially popular with young men on motorbikes!

Anyway thats all of interest for now.