This
is the second and last Blog Stuart and Barbara will be posting as we have
finished our work at the two schools. We pressed on with our work at the bigger
of the two schools, Spitler, but were looking forward to working at the smaller
Kurata school. Unfortunately, unforeseen events delayed this as usual as, at
short notice we discovered that on 14th and 15th Feb, the
children from both schools gathered at Spitler school for health checks. A team
of administrators, nurses, pharmacists and 6 young Japanese doctors on a week’s
internship to the local children’s
hospital in Siem Reap gave every child a top to toe examination. What they
found, I’m not sure and whether anything
could be done if they discovered anything more serious than typical hygiene and
diet based problems I do not know, but at least the job was done.
We did eventually get over to Kurata but matters were
further complicated by the presence of a group of 16 more Japanese students
plus administrators and photographers who had come to paint the school, taking
about 5 days over the job and well supervised by a young schoolboy.
They
did a reasonable job and even threw in
an unintended Jackson Pollock on the ground in front of the classrooms.
Meanwhile we set up some craft activities during the 2 hour
lunch break. A little group of 4 had the courage to join us-
- but by the end of lunchtime the population had swollen to
about 60.
One
bright idea we came up with was for the children to design bookmarks, using any
design they wished. These could be used to give as a small gift to visitors to
the school.
The idea was put to the test last week when a group of about
20 American tourists visited Spitler school and we arranged for 3 of the
children to say a few words and distribute the bookmarks to them. You could
almost hear the sound of hearts melting. (The bookmarks have the school’s
website on the back).
An interesting income generation project at the school is the
fishpond, a rather stagnant pond which
we are told has been stocked with 1000 small snake-head fish and just left. The
strategy is to drain the pool at the appropriate time and see what turns up and
sell them. I would have loved to be around on that day.
Meanwhile, back in town, an ancient ceremony dating back
about 5 years took place on the evening of 23rd Feb. This was the children’s
giant puppet parade, a very colourful mini mardi gras with groups from various
orphanages and institutions parading their exotic creations.
The following Monday was a public holiday in honour of an
even more ancient landmark- It was Buddha’s birthday. As Cambodia is such a
universally Buddhist country we were bracing ourselves for loads of action, got
up early and visited three of the biggest wats in town. To our dismay we found
very little going on - in fact the gentleman below was about the most dynamic
one we encountered.
Out of deep respect for Buddha, I chose to copy this
gentleman’s posture in my own environment.
However, at about 4pm I was awakened by the sound of
chanting, so we followed the noise to the nearby Wat Prom Rath where there was
some reasonable activity. The monks chanted, the band plonked and chimed and we
left when the abbot started what sounded like a very stern sermon - an
interesting experience but not as spectacular as we had hoped. It seems as
though the late king is held in higher esteem than Buddha himself.
Back at the schools, in a perverse sort of way, these
children have the distinct advantage over modern western children in that they
are not tied in the stifling strait jacket of Health and Safety. How many
breaches of H and S can you find in the picture below? And note the haircutting
going on behind, just out of reach of the swing- or perhaps not.
And
on the way home the kids happily ride along main street on their bikes- some
too big for them some too small for them some with their mates on the back and
wave happily at us as we pass them
in
our tuk-tuk oblivious of any hazards.
On the subject of tuk-tuks our driver, Daro, after a few
teething troubles, did a pretty good job of getting us to the right place at
approximately the right time, until on our last day he ran out of petrol on the
Angkor Highway. This meant that we had to push the contraption to the
nearest roadside shack, where he borrowed a bike (and $2 from us as he had no
money), cycle back down the road to where a lady sits roadside with a table full
of old whiskey bottles full of petrol in the baking sun, and cycle back to us.
But we got there in the end and carried on with our work. We ended up working
with pretty large groups at Spitler school as word had got around about
something interesting happening.
At Kurata school particularly Barbara organised some
supplementary activities. Here she is directing ‘The Three Bears’ with a
sleeping Goldilocks on the right.
And teaching the ankle-snapping kindergarten children ‘Heads
and Shoulders’ with teacher Ratha. Notice the smart new donated uniforms- a bit
on the large side but they have to last for a year or two.
I said in my last blog that the boys seemed to have more
interest in making dolls out of old bottles than the girls, but when the girls
got going, they totally outshone the boys.
So
we feel we have left some sort of legacy- a craft room full of lively work by
the students.
And a lot of children had a wonderful time exploring their
creativity and conversing a little in English.
In the early hours of last Thursday a lorry driver crashed
into 11 power pylons near the Thai border, thus removing all available
electricity from Siem Reap province. Since then we have had very occasional
mains electricity. This is not so much of a problem for the big hotels as they
have their generators to fall back on but for small guest houses like ours, run
by a very enterprising Cambodian, Chantou, it can spell disaster as many of his
guests moved into more expensive hotels with generators. We have stuck it out
and with a little ingenuity and stoicism, it’s not much of a problem.
Eventually Chantou took the plunge and yesterday, Saturday, bought a small
generator, enough for fans and light - probably a wise investment and people are
sure to come back.
There are strong arguments for staying in a locally run
Guest House like Horizons rather than a 3 or 4 star hotel - apart from the
obvious one of cost. Firstly, it gives young enterprising Cambodians the chance
to better themselves - and their extended families. Also, they are so much more
sociable. For example, a retired Aussie couple, Terry and Sylvia, who had been
working in an orphanage, left last week and organised a little farewell party
for the guests and Chantou’s very extended family - a lovely evening with
raucous songs from us westerners.
And, when they could eventually be persuaded, some delicate
love duets from the Cambodians.
I can’t imagine this happening in the lobby of the grand
Hotel.
What with power cuts and unseasonable rain I think it is
time to move on after 4 wonderful weeks working at Spitler and Kurata Schools.
Many of the children from the village come from extremely poor households, like that of Buo, a twelve-year old boy from Ang Chagn Village who talked to our long-term volunteer Jule last year about his family. He and his family have lived in the village for seven years and every morning his parents go to Siem Reap to cut grass. They earn about 7000 riel ($1.75) a day between them. He loves coming to Spitler School where he says his favourite subject is English because it's a lot of fun and he sings songs and plays games. When he returns home from school he helps his parents with the housework in the one-room house. In the photograph you can see Buo, his father, his oldest sister and her daughter.
