Takeo teaching

  Takeo province, Cambodia
Friday, November 10, 2006

Hello.



This is very brief I'm afraid, am teaching in about 10 mins and have got a 40 min motorbike ride back from town to the school! Hmm.

Anyway, all is good here. Still teaching lots. There are a lot more kids each day now, sometimes up to 37 and I have to teach them on my own! They are all lovely and the older ones try so hard and retain much! They are desperate to learn and better their lives. Even if they are able to speak English really well, it still doesn't guarantee them work - even in a restaurant, but it means they have more of a chance.




One of the boys is so clever and gorgeous and tries so hard, he knows more about auxiliary (?) verbs and the technicalities of English than I do! He is desperate for 'god-parents' in the west, so he can come and study. So if you know anyone who can 'adopt' this boy, let me know! It's so hard because you want to help all of them, to send them money every month so they can go to
university, else all they can do is work in a factory, be a prostitute or help their parents in the rice fields - even if they DO have good English. It's such a shame.


I have bought some good grammar books and the like today, for the more advanced ones. So now I have more interesting, new things to teach them until I leave. To explain why 'ing' is on the end of some verbs and not some others is quite a challenge, especially when they don't speak great English anyway.



Food is GRIM! but I couldn't write that the other day as I had Mr. Chum (the teacher) practically ON MY LAP whilst I was typing and he was reading everything I was writing and asking me questions about WHAT I was writing every 2 minutes- being a major distraction- whilst simultaneously coughing all over me AND asking me to hurry up. Food wise, some days it is RICE with green beans and peanuts (I thought I was going to die!) or very smelly, salty fish and
green beans and peanuts, with rice. Everything we get given smells of market, so I feel like heaving before I've even eaten any! Have lost some weight, but will pile it back on in Oz! Get the steaks ready!



Claire, the new volunteer is brilliant. She is very chilled out and a bit of a hippy. She has friends at home with dogs on string and who live in camper vans and the like. Very entertaining stories. She very luckily found a bag of weed on the floor in Phnom Pehn (!!!!!) the day before she left to come and join us at the school, so our evenings have been MOST entertaining, talking absolute shite in the hammocks outside the hut. We go to sleep at about 10pm and get woken up at 6am everyday,
by chickens, kids or whatever else. I look forward to a shower, a real bed and TV every day!




I am staying until Monday, then flying to Bangkok and then meeting up with the girls, somewhere. Not sure of the plans yet though. Claire has decided to stay with me over the weekend and also leave on Monday. This weekend we are planning to go back to Phnom Pehn on Sat to do a bit of shopping for the school kids, whilst simultaneously getting some decent food and a shower. Heaven!

Will email soon, thanks loads for the emails from everybody! You have all been the best correspondents this week!


Love to all x