too much hairspray

Two weeks in the new village, Tackok Charai. It’s like a whole other world compared to Rock. Driven straight to the door of the school, we were dropped off and left within minutes, to fend for ourselves. Sitha’s brother, our translator, let us into the ghost of a classroom that was our new home. It was dark and the windows were jammed from having been closed for so long. There were tables pushed up against the walls and planks of wood everywhere and a thick layer of termite-residue wood-chippings and dust all over every surface. So Vera and I sent the teacher to the village to find two brushes and arranged the tables and swept everywhere. Then we were shown around the village. Unlike Rock, which was spread out along one long “road”, Tackok Charai is nuclear. Immediately after crossing the bridge into the village, you are surrounded by houses, with fires around them and pigs and chickens and geese pottering in between the stilts. There is a community hall where the school teachers sleep and as we passed, a group of children were sat under a tree, holding the front paws of a puppy and a kitten, and forcing them to fight each other. We met the chief, an old man who welcomed us very kindly and who looked like the wise turtle in Kung Fu Panda.

We were all ready to start from scratch, having the children avoid us for the first few weeks before realizing that just because we’re white, that doesn’t mean we’re dangerous. But these kids are completely different to those in Rock. Maybe because the school is older, so the kids are more used to seeing Western people. The throw themselves into everything we do with them. On the first day we played a copying game, getting them to chant funny noises and do silly actions and they have asked us to do it with them every day since. Their confidence, however is sometimes not so great, because it means they spend every afternoon, until it gets dark, around the school, the younger ones playing ball or drawing while we read and the older boys playing volleyball. Though it’s nice that they want to be there, the constant company gets a little wearing.

We wrote a story for the children, of a prince who goes in search of the perfect girl, (we actually stole it from AC camp, where it was told to our first-years before we sent them to bed) and had it translated and then asked them to illustrate it. The younger kids all drew houses and castles, so we had to forbid the older ones from drawing either of those. Still, we managed to compile a proper, bound, story book that we have given to the teacher to read to the children.

Last week, we were joined in the village by two guys working for another NGO who were looking to put proper water piping and sanitation in the villages. They were great company and entertained us with badminton and cards. One was from Sri Lanka, so we learnt all about the civil war there, while the other was Khmer and so kept bringing us new food to try from the villagers. It was just nice to have some english speaking company.


We went to Sitha’s sister’s wedding. We all got traditional Khmer costumes made especially and it was an experience to say the least. Weddings in Cambodia last for two days and we were invited to the second day. It began at 6am, in a rented house, empty except for the main room, which was full to bursting with golden bowls of fruit, meat, beer and whiskey, and wreaths of flowers. From there, the fruit was then carried by the guests, two by two, to the house of the bride, with the groom at the head of the procession. Then the bride came out of the house to greet him, wearing matching orange, and covered in bangles and necklaces and sporting the biggest tiara I have ever seen, and we watch the groom start in happy amazement at at beautiful she looked. They were then taken to change costumes, which they did five times over the course of the day, each time a different colour, always matching, ending up, by the end of the evening, both in white. Then we ate breakfast and watch some more ceremonies, all including the bride, the groom, and/or their parents. In between serious ceremonies, were a man and woman who sang and told jokes, making fun of the bride and groom and their families and attendants. One ceremony required the parents of the couple to roll tobacco in banana leaves. Another had every other couple in the room, including Iain and Bella, and Sitha and his wife, to go and stand behind the bride and groom and pretend to cut and comb their hair. We then left just before lunch, in time to get our hair and make-up done for the evening party. There, I couldn't stop smiling. The food was incredible, and after we had eaten, the bride and groom entered for the first dance, watched by well over 500 people. Then Sitha came over and handed us each one of his Khmer friends to dance with, and we didn’t stop dancing until we left. The highlight of the day was seeing Sitha, with his youngest girl in arm, climbing onto the stage with a mic and singing, with perfection. I also found out that the wedding had been arranged, in a “we’re your parents and we like his parents, so what about it”  kind of way. But they had been school mates for years and seemed perfectly happy, if not a little exhausted by the event.

traditional Khmer costume

three months down the line: how you're REALLY meant to ride in the back of a 4x4

proper food

Enter bride and groom

EVERYONE THROW THINGS AT THEM!!

Feeding each other fruit

Khmer dancing

Two new girls have come to join the project for a few weeks, one who is my first year from AC. The other three girls have all left on various christmas travels, but I am staying here for christmas with Gilly, Bella and Iain. We’ll see how that goes, I’m sure it will include a lot of funny anecdotes. Xanthe, my AC first year, and I went to the water falls today. We walked to the market and got a moot for the trip. Our driver was Lim, he spoke no english, but was very pleased to take photos as we swam and giggled like a little girl when Xanthe took a photo of him. It’s been good to talk to someone from AC, and have a bit of time out of the villages. Bring on Christmas.

Kachanh Waterfall

Lim, the moto driver

first time in three months that I've shivered from the cold

all good things

the tree that looks like an old man

the dusty road

It is the end of our final week in Rock and it couldn’t have ended better!

We had a slow start to the week, with no school on Monday and very little time with the kids on Tuesday, but that gave us plenty of time to properly spring clean the classroom in time for the open day. We even had some free time to discover that balloons of different colours have different tones if they are hit, and Vera and I spent a happy morning working out how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb with balloons! But on Wednesday we had a wonderful day of origami; making paper snowflakes, cranes and doves with the kids and making mobiles with them to add to the displays in the classroom that we have become increasingly proud of. Also, the teacher spent part of his lesson time, teaching the older boys a game that was comprised of cartwheeling and jumping over and under a length of string, a game which the older boys blatantly found very emasculating and that the youngest ones tried their best to copy:

Everything we have done so far culminated in an Open Day on Thursday which was meant as a chance for the parents and villagers to come and see the work we have been doing over the last seven weeks. As it turned out, no villagers actually came, but that didn’t dampen the mood of the event. We spent the first hour of the day productively, Vera making an excitingly large and colourful Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Buffalo, and me setting up different games and creative things for the kids to do. Then at 8am we began playing the game Vera made with the kids, which they found hilarious. The kids all crowded round to watch each other attempt to pin the tail onto the buffalo’s abnormally large bottom. They figured out, way too quickly, how to cheat at the game, feeling with their hands the indents in the paint where the red cross showed where they should put the tail. But that didn’t matter. The giggling and cheering that the game inspired was perfectly satisfying. Gilly, Bella, Sitha and Bunthen arrived at 8:30, in time to see the game in full swing before the kids all broke off to do the other things we had set up for them. By 9am there was a sea of children in our classroom and on the school’s platform, making sand and glue drawings, painting, doing jigsaws and playing with dominoes and attempting to blow up the left over balloons which I gave out.

the joy of balloons

the one who only smiled when something was REALLY fun

 There was an atmosphere of calm and it felt like the children really were completely comfortable with us, and vice versa. When we finally packed all our things onto the boat and hoisted our rucksacks onto our backs to leave, they all hung over the railings of the school to wave us off. Vera and I experienced the complete satisfaction that we had managed not only to teach the kids something, but also to build up a relationship with them, despite the language problems, inspiring their memories and encouraging them to continue to use some of the skills we gave them.

waving good-bye

Vera and I after by our river before we leave Rock for the last time

I may be be exaggerating in my positivity and faith in our actual impact over the last seven weeks, but needless to say, I am pretty proud of myself and am now convinced that all the frustration and insecurity I have been feeling led to some kind of positive outcome.