Things Happen

Ta Prohm

Bayon

Well - of course things happen, but here they often creep up on you and take you by surprise. Like the three-day holiday last week to celebrate the birthday of the King.  To be fair, we had been given warning of this holiday, but we didn't realise that it would be for three days.  This gave us a chance, however, to do our regular trip to the Temples though this time we thought we'd cycle, even though the entrance fee to Angkor Park is still $20 per person.  We set off bright and early (well, I thought so - though Loll was muttering 'I thought we were going to have an early start' as we cycled away from the house at 7.13 am.) and soon found ourselves cycling around Angkor Wat and into the grounds of Angkor Tom and then to the mysterious temple of Bayon.  A little more puffing and panting, and we had almost completed the circuit and headed back via the overgrown temple of Ta Prohm, before picking up the road back to Siem Reap.  As it happens, if we'd taken a left turn before this main road, we would have found ourselves on the road to Kurata and Spitler Schools: they are very close to the temples although I would guess that very few of our children have ever visited them.

Another change - and this was really unexpected, so early in the year - was the sudden onset of torrential rain.  This began almost immediately after the Royal Ploughing Ceremony, so there was clearly a connection - but the roads both here and in Phnom Penh were no better prepared than last year for the downpour, and flooded almost immediately.  As it happens we haven't been too hard hit yet in Siem Reap, but we know that if we get much more rain, and if it is sustained for a day or two, then it will be very difficult to get into Spitler School.  Last year during the rainy season a sandbag bridge was built, with funding from the Foundation and help from the villagers and school staff, and this bridge is still there.  But we wonder whether it will survive another rainy season.

CPP Parade

The biggest upset to our daily routine was caused by yet another change to the tranquility of life here: the start of the Commune Election season. We set out on our bikes on Saturday morning for Kurata School, only to find our way blocked for some considerable time by a convoy of Cambodian People's Party supporters heading for a rally in town.  The CPP is the party of the ruling government, headed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, and it is expected that his party will receive a resounding majority at the polls.

Turn off for Kurata School

The long, straight road

We finally managed to fight our way onto the main road (the road that eventually connects with Angkor Wat) and then cycled to the turn off for Kurata School.  This crossroad is on about the only hill in the whole of Siem Reap, as it's where the main road (route 60) crosses a dyke, and it's along the top of the dyke that we cycle in order to get to Kurata school. At the turn off are a number of stalls seeling food and drink, but because they are on the main tourist road to Angkor Wat their prices for water are double what we normally pay: 1000 riel rather than 500.  We usually show righteous indignation at this blatant attempt to fleece tourists - and then realise that we are actually being required to pay 25 cents a bottle rather than 12 cents, and we may find ourselves in for a shock once we return to the UK! From Route 60 we have another incline up to the top of the dyke road, and many tuk-tuks get to this point and then require passengers to dismount and walk the five yards up the hill before setting off again along the long, straight, dusty (at present) road. Obviously we sail straight up the hill on our bikes leaving the water-sellers looking at our dust.

Vebol fixes the footballs

Things have been happening at Kurata school as well.  Since the start of the English programme there has been a sense of increased energy partly, no doubt, the result of the incredible enthusiasm of our two new teachers as well as the lively activity afternoons which also involve the whole school during their break times.  But the new play equipment is also helping - and Vebol is doing a great job in distributing and maintaining the equipment.  We saw him surrounded by a gaggle of anxious little boys as he checked for punctures in their football and then blew the ball up so that they could continue with their play.

The final 'happening' of this particular day was the English lesson for the Kindergaten children.  We haven't tried rolling the programme out to the youngest children before, but the two lessons a week they they are now getting from Ratha are proving a great experience.  The children are exceptionally shy and Ratha is still feeling his way with how to work with this age group.  However, he has the support of their lively young class teacher - Thierry - so the children are beginning to respond to this strange experience.  We joined in this week and began to teach them the song Five Little Speckled Frogs.  We're not entirely sure they understood all of the words or ideas (though frog is an important part of the rural diet), but they seemed to enjoy jumping off the 'log' into the 'pond' we had created out of coloured paper - and occasionally shouting 'YUM-YUM' and 'GLUG-GLUG' when they had built up a bit of confidence.

Five rather uncertain frogs: glug-glug.