Hi everyone,
Well we have managed to fit heaps in this week. On Wednesday night we went to one of the local restaurants where the students from Krousar Thmey perform a traditional Khmer shadow puppet show, traditional folk dances and are backed by music students from the blind school. They were all very excited to have us there and equally we were just as excited to be there to see their performance. The students do this every week and raise money for the orphanage. It is great for their self esteem and at the same time they are learning their cultural heritage.
We are feeling much more at home at each of the centres. The Family Centre children have 2 foster parents that care for 10 children. It seems a good model as it gives the children stability and security. They attend the public school for their Khmer lessons. The older ones are quite nurturing of the littlier ones. At the Protection Centre there are about 42 children. From what we understand, there is one full time principle that has 2 other assistant carers and 2 other people who assist with the cooking. The children all are expected to do their own washing, assist with the cooking and also help with chores around the orphanage. They all seem to be quite responsible and are learning lots of life skills. Generally they can stay there until they are 21 years. The Deaf and Blind School have quite a number of children that live there but also there are a number of students that come from outside each day.
I am trying not to get a complex about my weight, but the children have taken to sitting either side of me when I read them stories and pinch the fat under my arm. Apparently they find this quite fasinating! It is on the one hand refreshing in Cambodia that you are considered beautiful if you ar fat, but on the other hand, my years of Western conditioning just won't allow me to see this as a compliment!
Thank you to everyone who gave us invaluable hints, ideas &c for teaching. Particular mention must go to Anne Bartley who supplied us with a suitcase filled with excellent worksheets which have been fantastic! So far we have taught the children the alphabet, days of the week and months of the year, body parts and numbers. They love to play games and are particularly fond of bingo, memory, Simon Says and the Hokey Pokey. They are very tactile and love to have a cuddle (even the teenagers!). We have finally worked out how to teach the blind children. They write in braille and we have learned the Khmer words for Please Spell, Please write and Please read. They know the alphabet so we can now ask them to write the English words and use the Khmer dictionary to tell them the Cambodian word. Most of all though they love singing and we always spend half the lesson learning songs.
With the teachers we had a theme for the week and role played going on a holiday to Australia. The first day we went to the travel agent to buy a ticket, the next day we applied for a passport, then on Thursday we packed a suitcase and Friday went through Customs. This seems to be increasing their confidence to use English and they seem to enjoy this style of teaching. Next week they want to learn an English pop song, so Barry is having to do some homework!
Today (Sat) we went to a Cooking School in town. You can have a 3 hour Khmer cooking class for $us10. We started by going to the market to buy the ingredients and then cooked 3 dishes. - Amok Fish, Chicken Curry and Green Mango Salad. Then you eat it for lunch. The money goes to support the students at the cooking school. They then write out the recipe for you. However, any resemblance between what we cooked and the recipes we got was purely co-incidental. While we taking our lesson we noticed one of the cooks putting fish into the oven - when we looked a bit closer we noticed that the fish were still alive!
This afternoon we visited a Silk Fair. Lots of different organisations had displays of the most beautiful silk weavings, bags, scarves &c. Many of these organisations are teaching people with disabilities these traditional crafts which gives them access to employment.
Well we have managed to fit heaps in this week. On Wednesday night we went to one of the local restaurants where the students from Krousar Thmey perform a traditional Khmer shadow puppet show, traditional folk dances and are backed by music students from the blind school. They were all very excited to have us there and equally we were just as excited to be there to see their performance. The students do this every week and raise money for the orphanage. It is great for their self esteem and at the same time they are learning their cultural heritage.
We are feeling much more at home at each of the centres. The Family Centre children have 2 foster parents that care for 10 children. It seems a good model as it gives the children stability and security. They attend the public school for their Khmer lessons. The older ones are quite nurturing of the littlier ones. At the Protection Centre there are about 42 children. From what we understand, there is one full time principle that has 2 other assistant carers and 2 other people who assist with the cooking. The children all are expected to do their own washing, assist with the cooking and also help with chores around the orphanage. They all seem to be quite responsible and are learning lots of life skills. Generally they can stay there until they are 21 years. The Deaf and Blind School have quite a number of children that live there but also there are a number of students that come from outside each day.
I am trying not to get a complex about my weight, but the children have taken to sitting either side of me when I read them stories and pinch the fat under my arm. Apparently they find this quite fasinating! It is on the one hand refreshing in Cambodia that you are considered beautiful if you ar fat, but on the other hand, my years of Western conditioning just won't allow me to see this as a compliment!
Thank you to everyone who gave us invaluable hints, ideas &c for teaching. Particular mention must go to Anne Bartley who supplied us with a suitcase filled with excellent worksheets which have been fantastic! So far we have taught the children the alphabet, days of the week and months of the year, body parts and numbers. They love to play games and are particularly fond of bingo, memory, Simon Says and the Hokey Pokey. They are very tactile and love to have a cuddle (even the teenagers!). We have finally worked out how to teach the blind children. They write in braille and we have learned the Khmer words for Please Spell, Please write and Please read. They know the alphabet so we can now ask them to write the English words and use the Khmer dictionary to tell them the Cambodian word. Most of all though they love singing and we always spend half the lesson learning songs.
With the teachers we had a theme for the week and role played going on a holiday to Australia. The first day we went to the travel agent to buy a ticket, the next day we applied for a passport, then on Thursday we packed a suitcase and Friday went through Customs. This seems to be increasing their confidence to use English and they seem to enjoy this style of teaching. Next week they want to learn an English pop song, so Barry is having to do some homework!
Today (Sat) we went to a Cooking School in town. You can have a 3 hour Khmer cooking class for $us10. We started by going to the market to buy the ingredients and then cooked 3 dishes. - Amok Fish, Chicken Curry and Green Mango Salad. Then you eat it for lunch. The money goes to support the students at the cooking school. They then write out the recipe for you. However, any resemblance between what we cooked and the recipes we got was purely co-incidental. While we taking our lesson we noticed one of the cooks putting fish into the oven - when we looked a bit closer we noticed that the fish were still alive!
This afternoon we visited a Silk Fair. Lots of different organisations had displays of the most beautiful silk weavings, bags, scarves &c. Many of these organisations are teaching people with disabilities these traditional crafts which gives them access to employment.
More next week
Love to all, Rhon and Barry
1 comment:
Hi Barry & Rhon,
we admire you so much for what you are doing and the we're sure the children absolutely love you, bringing so much happiness to their class. we look forward to a very interesting dinner party when you return!! Marg x
(I've just realised that i haven't been "publishing my comments", so you probably haven't received my previous ones).
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