Death of King-Father, Pchum Ben Festival and School Activities.

The death was announced yesterday of former King Norodom Sihanouk, in Beijing, where he was living and receiving treatment for his heart and other ailments.  Sihanouk was known in Cambodia as King-Father, although he abdicated in 2004 and his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, was appointed King. We understand that there will be a week's official mourning, followed by three months lying in state, before a ceremonial cremation.  According to the news he was 89, though some local people are suggesting that, using the Khmer calendar, he was actually 90.  A good age.

We have all been on holiday since last Friday, for the major festival of Pchum Ben which finishes on the 15th of the month.  Here's a brief description of this festival from a local contributor to Facebook:

"Every year in Cambodia, it begins with Kan Ban on the first day of the month, and ends called Pchum Ben on 15 of the month. During this two-week period, Cambodian who are Buddhist go to pagodas to give offerings to those who have passed away.

Held throughout the country, the Pchum Ben is one of the major annual religious-socil-cultural ceremonies in which almost every Cambodia take part. It is believe that this ceremony allows the souls of all those who have passed away to enter into peaceful journey in the cycle of life and death, including reincarnation.

Those meanings, I thought that there could be inspiration for thinking about issues and questions of reconciliation, or memory, or mourning."

We have been told that the week of mourning will mean all government offices will be closed, though Sarin  says that school will be open again from tomorrow.  This is good news as we have a lot of work to do!  So what's been happening since the start of the new school year?

One step forward . . .

We have started working again with the English teachers on the activity days and helping to produce materials and planning for new classes that we want to introduce.  First of all, we are extending the English programme to the Kindergarten children in both schools and introducing extra classes for children in morning or afternoon sessions when they would not normally be in school.  To a Western child, this might seem like a mild form of torture - but most of the Spitler/Kurata children are really happy to be in school. Look at these shots of the kids in activity sessions at Kurata and Spitler:

Little girls cutting out Goldilocks characters at Kurata.

Warm-up exercises before singing, at Spitler School.

Our theme for the activities has been Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  It's always amazing to us how well these Cambodian children take to traditional Western fairy tales - even the older ones happily joining in with the story as re-counted by Jim or Nick with much drama and role-playing.  Loll always does some word-building with them (just to show that it's not just entertainment!) and they also do singing in English along with some craft-work. We always try to use the parachute, although there was some concern last time we got it out as some of the kids got a little dirty because of the mud under foot, and this may place some strain on school-family relations! 

So - this has been a successful start to the term.  Less successful has been the establishment of a mother and child 'Play and Share' session with Loll.  When we first arrived in Spitler school, Loll started these sessions partly as a way of getting puppets made for the English classes and partly as a way of getting to know some of the women of the village.  They were remarkably successful  and involved not just villagers but kids not officially in school for that session and the caretaker, too.

Women of the village, last year, at Spitler School.

Loll directs proceedings - with volunteers Kim and Koljia
in the background.

The whole school became involved in the end!

We had hoped to begin the sessions last week, just before the holiday - but our local knowledge let us down once again. Vebol had put the word out to the women living near Kurata school, but none of us had realised the importance of the rice planting at this time of year: everyone is involved.  The result: no women, but plenty of activity in the paddy fields.

The view from the English room at Kurata School.

Still, there's plenty of time for this, but we really want to get it going as it will help to bring the school and the village closer together and also help to bring the Kurata experience closer to the Spitler experience.  

One other thing on the agenda is the training of all Spitler and Kurata staff in the Child Protection Policy, which we have been developing and recently had translated into Khmer.  (The full policy, along with volunteer Guidelines, will appear on the Spitler School website soon.) We are working with Nari, from ConCERT Cambodia, on delivering the training in Khmer.  Nari, the assistant director, has a lot of experience working with volunteers, and she will be able to engage our staff in discussion on the vital importance of child protection and then take them through the policy in some detail, which they will then sign in agreement.  We have a similar policy for volunteers.

We are looking forward to getting back into the schools after the break and re-invigorating the English programme.