Culture shock and a cool 74 degrees

    Ha ha don't know why I titled this the way I did.  I guess I'm blaming being hit with pink eyes on Oct 1 (my b'day), followed by a fever, cold, bad congestion and general body aches for the month on culture shock.  At home in the states I rarely got ill with anything.  So I am not used to being incapacitated.  I felt like I had no energy, therefore I couldn't cook, didn't feel like going out, didn't work at the school in the afternoons (only missed one morning), couldn't blog and was generally miserable.  I was beginning to think Cambodia and I don't mix well.  And I was losing faith that Jess had any nursing skills.  Try as she did nothing she recommended was working.  Finally she gave me some allergy med a few days ago, perhaps it was this med or the timing of it was right but I'm feeling 95 % better.  The month of Oct, usually my favorite month, well sucked.  She and Jaz were very kind putting up with this miserable wretch, thanks.

  So I still like Cambodia and do love being here.  It was really the kids that kept me from jumping on a plane.  Of course where would I have gone?  The comfort of my home and wonderfully comfortable bed is being enjoyed by Jess's brother.  And could I have imposed myself on my kids in Portland?  To do what?  These thoughts did cross my mind, but as always little kids I work with pull me out of those weak emotional moments.  These past few weeks those kids helped me more than I them.

   Ahh the school, the hut, the teaching, what an experience.  I was feeling bad physically but I was feeling good about the progress I saw the kids achieve. And felt like I was getting a handle on how best to work with them.  I was getting a little freedom regarding my methods, which is have them have fun and learn at the same time.  The rote-teaching and them parroting what I said without really knowing if they understood anything was not working for me.  I got lucky as usual as a friend of the director returned to the school and we met and talked over dinner.  She turned out to be an educator (teacher/principal) and supported my ideas.  In fact she wants to write a grant so New Hope can start a program for children 0-5.  Whether and when this even happens who knows?  But I did get her ear and she advocated for some outside movement/activity time for the kids and other suggestions I had.

  So we were able to split the class up part of the time and have them be more manageable.  At about the same time Meda, Jess's mom, and friends of hers sent a package with some much needed 'supplies'. Included were new books, the few I had had to be getting boring for the kids.  This was a great help, THANKS.  I saw the kids actually start to learn their colors, begin to recognize the alphabet, cooperate with each other, have a bit more self-control and start to request songs we'd sing.  And foolish me I forgot I'm in Cambodia this would not continue, another challenge would be presented.

  The class has about 25 kids most days sometimes more, not often less.  It was working well to split them up for part of the time and then bring them all back together.  I've tried different things with them and some have worked better than others.  I felt like I was getting on a roll and they were enjoying the ride also.  And I was learning most kids names.  You'd think learning names wouldn't be so difficult but it's not like there's a Mary and a Tommy, familiar names.  It Sokum, Srei Nit, Kvai, Chamda etc...., it's new words to pronounce/remember and attach that to a face.  In any case I was doing pretty well finally getting their names down.

  Here's the challenge:  a slew of new kids from a different village have begun at the school.  By the way the little girl Lea who I mentioned in the last post has returned, yea!  So w/o any warning, no that's wrong we were told the day before they arrived that there would be more kids.  So now the class is pushing 45-50 kids.  Yeah I know why?!!  Ok I can complain that not much forethought was given on the impact of this.  And that there are not enough Khmer teachers to help or sure we have volunteers now but that won't last necessarily.  I can complain that I was getting a system and 'lesson plans' in place that seemed to be working.  Kids who were learning will be set back and the new kids may not get anything of quality either I could complain.   I can complain, complain but I doubt if it will do any good.  So I have been trying to convince myself to think of it as the Family Room's 'drop in' time.  FR had a time when a family with kids could come and play in our space.  We would never know who or how many kids we would have.  I actually liked that..... a lot.  Of course we were set up to deal with that.  Well I better deal with this I guess.  New Hope is very caring and really wants to help folks, but sometimes it's better to help a certain number of people well instead of many more people not that well. I think we even had that challenge at the FR.  So I'll go with the flow and be happy that I have some energy now to perhaps direct the flow a bit.  Whatever that means but I like that I wrote it.  For the record there are some very lovely kids in this new batch , though some look like a deer in the headlights.   Below the class before the infux and the road to school.

  One thing that was ok when I was sick was that I still pretty much had my appetite.  So I was still eating well and I did try something different, dog.   Don't know what to say about it I only had a bite, and it was sauce laden.  But it was good though I won't go seeking it out.  Jaz said she had to go to a shakey part of town to get it.  I hope to start cooking again and I did still do a bit of cooking but can't remember anything except the usual morning glory that we all love.

  The cool 74 degrees refers to the weather here.  It has cooled to the 70's.  It has been extremely pleasant.  Sorry cold weather folks but not really missing the cold, rainy/snowy weather.  And it is odd but as I came out on the balcony to write this there was a breeze and I went back in to put on long pants and a shirt, our temp said 78.  Weird to me too that that can feel cool.

  I hope to post more pics soon.