Toy Library

Toys! Even though our children are extremely inventive and have their head filled with ideas of how to make toys, they are also really happy when given an actual toy. It is such a privilege to have some cars, dolls and games to play with. We are lucky enough to get both toys and games donated to us from children around the world, but we have nowhere to put them. Our children share a room between two or three of them and there is not really any space for them to keep any toys for themselves. It would also be great to have an area where all 240 children could get to enjoy the opportunity to play with these toys. I would therefore like to put up a building in the village to make a toy-library. I am looking for help to find funding for this and would like to get in contact with any company or private person that would be able to support this cause. If you have any contacts or ideas that you can share with me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone for keeping up to date with life in the village and my journeys!

Leadership

Every thursday afternoon/evening the older children in the village run camp for the younger children. I am so impressed and proud over the leadership they show and the work they put into this. They do different activities including sport as well as art and writing. They dress up and put on shows for them and teach them songs. It makes me wanna be a little kid and go to camp...the atmosphere just feels great and tonight they even had a camp fire going. Such a good thing to do for the younger ones that look up to them and such good role modeling.

Just had to brag about the children here a little bit :)

Thinking outside the box

Just finished an English lesson with the older children and some of the staff. In a try to make them think for themselves and not just copy things from the board, I was instead asked the question "What are you trying to teach us?" followed by "I have a text book from my old teacher that I can show you" and "we want to learn grammar and sentence structure." Meaning they want me to tell them what to write in their books and how to do it. Feeling a little bit discouraged and not sure how to proceed with class tomorrow. I just want them to think a little bit outside of the box. I had talked about attributes that describes our personality and asked them to think about words that would describe them, so that later on they can use this in order to write a letter about themselves...apparently not what they are expecting from class. Ideas anyone???

Oct 25th

Back to work again! A great holiday, but have lots to organize and get ready for now, it never ends...200 children takes up quite a bit of time :) Although a lot of it is just fun and play!

But I am happy to be back with these playful little rascals

Who seem to be able to make anything they find into a toy, such a great quality that these kids have.

And of course I missed my hoods in the sunrise

and the morning view of our beautiful village

Beach, Beer and Building

Back in the village again after a wonderful week spent with some really good friends.

Started off with a trip to Sihanoukville for some beach time. Found this great little bungalow area right by the water and we really didn't need much more than that. A great porch overlooking the ocean, some Angkor beer and good friends made for some nice evenings of chit chatting.

Our porch

with the ocean view

not a bad place to spend the day

the little beach right below us

Breakfast view

Found this Cambodian Children's Painting Project, which was a great inspiration for my art project. Got to talk to the art director there which will be a nice contact to have and she also gave me some good advice.

Constantly surrounded by children trying to sell us bracelets and we all of course finally gave in.

We also got to see the most unappetizing dish I have ever seen, one of the kids ate an unhatched chicken for lunch! Not something I even considered trying.

Back in Phnom Penh and enjoying some of the great food that the town has to offer.

And of course a few Ankors

The rest of the crew arrived on the Tuesday and we were all off for a visit to the PIO school (we also call it the dump school, as it’s set right next to the dump where many of the children go and look for garbage that they can use.) We did some fun activities and got to enjoy a dance performance that the children put on for us.

The next day we were off for house building in Kampot. We were greeted by some really nice and excited people waiting for their new house to be finished. A really good experience.

Some partying time was on the schedule as well. Quite a change for me as I am usually in bed by 8.30 now a days :)

We got pretty good at squeezing as many people as possible into the tuk tuks

All in all a really good trip and with some great friends and wonderful experiences.

Oct 16th

Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville

What a luxury! Last night I got to go out for a great dinner and some drinks in Phnom Penh, then head back to Craig and Angela's beautiful apartment where I got my own room with a comfortable great big bed. I of course woke up at 5am this morning as my body seems to be used to getting up once the sun arises, but it was nice to just relax and read for a bit. Got to enjoy an actual shower, a hot one may I add, and the luxury of having a fridge that offered yogurt and toast for breakfast. Oh yes, and internet at any time :)
Now I'm off to meet Kendra and Lisa for a trip to Sihanoukville and enjoy the beach for a couple of days, such a nice treat!

Live simply so others can simply live....

That does include me going on a holiday to the beach getting a couple of massages and drinking beer, right?

Off for a little holiday! Be back in a week!

Oct 14th

The count just jumped from 2 to 4…

Today when we came back from lunch some of the kids were outside our house with sticks hitting at a bush…or so we thought. It just happens that inside the bush was a neon green snake. I think my heart would probably have stopped from fear if I would have found it and was so happy our fearless kids were there. Then, later in the evening, we found out that a small snake is living in the crack between the floor and the wall in Jackie’s room, our solution…duct tape J

Oh, and the scorpion count is now up to 5

Oct 13th

It so happens that we are privileged with having the one of the two washing machines in the village, but it also so happens that it’s broken and with laundry baskets filled to the brim we had to retreat to hand washing…

Oct 12th

Oops,

I apparently should have gotten on a business visa when I came in to Cambodia, because a tourist visa can now only be renewed once for one month. This means that in a month again I am gonna have to leave the country for at least one night.

Hmm, I'm thinking a cheap buss ride to Ho Chi Minh City, or maybe a weekend in Singapore if cheap flights would allow for that. Luckily traveling around here isn't very expensive.

Oct 11th

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

It's rainy season in Cambodia right now, and up until now that has meant sunny days and cooler rainy evenings...so nice since there is no aircon to be talked about here. However today it poured down all day long! I've seen this kind of downpour in Singapore many times for about half an hour, but not for a whole day! It will make for quite a few floods and really bad traffic tomorrow.

Sunday

Movie night

A lot of work had to be done this weekend in order for me to get everything ready and organized for their new school year that starts on Tuesday, but on Sunday I enjoyed a movie and popcorn night at John and Kathy’s. We were there right at six when the power turns on since we only have two and a half hours of electricity and we were watching “My Fair Lady” which is just about that long. At intermission mid through the movie however, we decided to continue the second half the following night so we would still have some power while getting ready for bed and have time to go on the internet for a short bit. It does take a little time to get used to planning your time around electricity hours. My biggest problem is that I keep forgetting that the printer that I often need can’t be used at any time like the computers can, cause unfortunately I’m not known to be well ahead of time when it comes to work.

Oct 8th

Time for some fun with the older kids.

It’s hard to make sure you include everyone during the holiday with over 100 children to care for, so a third field trip was in store to go swimming with the older kids…lucky me! The longer trip also gave us the pleasure of getting to go on the bus this time, and actually the highlight of the trip was the bus ride there and back. All squished in and sharing seats here and there, the bus was full of laughter and Cambodian karaoke. Yes, the bus actually has karaoke, and the kids brought every music karaoke video that they have. They were all singing their hearts out into this amazing sound system, aka the tour bus microphone that every now and then cuts your ear drum in half with a very high unpleasant pitched tone. By the end I was even able to sing along in these heartbreaking love stories, and the excellent acting in the videos had us understanding exactly what the songs were about.

They all loved the swimming and are absolutely fearless in the water, which makes me into a worry bug as many of them cannot swim. They see you as this super hero who will save them if anything where to happen…scary! I was trying to teach a few of them how to at least stay above the surface, while standing like a guard trying to figure out what kids that belonged to us. All in all though, another wonderful trip and day spent at the beach and in the bus with the kids!

Oct 7th

Had to kill the most disgusting spider ever today. Usually I just see the smaller ones with the long legs and they mostly just hang out at the ceiling of my room. I keep telling myself that they are my friends as they kill the mosquitos :) but every now and then a huge one like this comes around and I have no choice but to get rid of it somehow.

So, with the broom in my hands I swung the handle at it about 5 times while at the same time jumping and running around because for every time I missed it came closer and closer towards me...all this with Kathy watching behind me, dying laughing. When I finally did hit it, it was with all my power and all the goo splashed out over the floor...yuck!

The count for creatures I don't always necessarily like, but have to share this place with:

Number of snakes seen: 2

Number of scorpions seen: 2

Number of spiders, geckos and unidentified creatures I share my home with: uncountable

I did also paint one of my walls blue today, just making it a little bit homier :)

Oct 6th

Another field trip

Today we took mostly the small children to go to the pagoda...which meant another 2 hour trip on the truck with 40 people. It wasn't as bad this time though as the small children take up much less space, but it still gives you a bit of a sore bum.

A sea of sleeping children

The monk that we gave our food to and who blessed us, a really neat experience.

Curry stuffed frogs, part of our picnic lunch that we brought...really yummy actually.

The children were so excited about the trip because the pagoda was just a small part of it, the main attraction was the wildlife sanctuary that we went to. We got to see a bunch of different animals and it felt like we were just out in the forest for a walk. It was nice to see the animals in this natural setting.

On our way home we stopped by a lake and went swimming. I stripped down and jumped in wearing a sports bra and underwear, while the kids all followed one by one...fully clothed of course :) And we finally got the other volunteers to go in as well.

The kids absolutely loved it...and so did I!

Our last quick stop was at an ancient temple. Which made for a really nice finish to a long day out.