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.

The start of the new school year 2012-13

They came from far and wide at 7.30 am on Monday 1st October to be on time for the Opening Ceremony to mark the beginning of the new academic year at Spitler and Kurata schools.  The ceremony was to be held for the first time at Kurata school, so the streams of students, teachers and parents that can be seen in the photographs are the Spitler family travelling along the dyke between the two schools.  Once we got to the school ourselves (and no overland trek by bike this time: Jim, Nick and Loll arrived in state by tuk-tuk) we found more streams of people young and old arriving by the main linking road, carrying banners and flags.

Parents arrived with their children and their children's siblings and offloaded them at the main gates of Kurata and gradually all the desks which had been set up on the volleyball court were filled.

Children crowded round the ice-cream seller and a few of the neater girls washed themsleves down at the pump after the long, muddy walk through the wet and dank countryside.

The opening ceremony was soon under way with speeches from Sarin, the Village Head Man, the Principal and, of course, the barang  (Jim, Loll and Nick.) The best, we thought, was from one of the children who spoke with wonderful confidence and optimism for the future. (You can just catch her in the photo below right.) The children managed to stay focused for a while, but by the time Nick spoke they'd just about had it and they began to drift off both metaphorically and physically.  For Nick, of course, this was quite normal as he's used to teaching in front of a class of sleeping students...

Overall, a great start to the year - and particularly auspicious at it was held at Kurata school and it is hoped that many of the parents of the children of Ang Chagn village will now take the opportunity to send their children to this school which has all the potential to develop and to grow as successfully as Spitler School has.

And the best of it was .. the children got to keep the balloons at the end of the morning!

Loll and Nick are welcomed back.

Well, it's been a drier welcome than this time last year when we arrived to find the whole of Siem Reap flooded and Spitler School cut off from the world.  This time the rains seem lighter and less regular - though most people are expecting a good deal more in the near future.

We made our first exhausting trip in to Spitler school this morning and found the place buzzing, as usual - even though the term hasn't yet started.  Teachers were sitting in the shade (as - yes - there has been a little sunshine) ready to enrol new students, Sokkol was teaching a group of Grade 8 and 9 students who still come back to the school, and Sam Nang seemed to have a full class of Grade 6 students.  You can't help notice the contrasts between a Western school during the holidays and a Cambodian one!  Here, there were plenty of kids around - not just in the classrooms, but in the play areas too, and all in school uniform.  A few were making the most of the new swings which Sral and Salut seem to have created out of old tyres - and two young boys had brought their tiny little sister to school and were pushing her on a swing, to her delighted chuckles.

 

 

The stilt houses on the approach to Spitler school were now sitting on top of a fair-sized river, and most people seemed to be content to get on with their lives.  Some of the kids, of course, were splashing around in the water lapping at the base of their houses.  Wonder how many of them know how to swim . . .

Their own swimming pool.

We thought we'd attempt the trip over to Kurata school after a while, knowing that it might be a little wet underfoot, but if we took the right turn at the bend in the road we were sure it would be ok. Of course, we couldn't have been more wrong.  So we enjoyed a pleasant half an hour squelching through the mud and knee-deep water, waving occasionally to cheering villagers who were harvesting the rice crop. You can imagine they thought us quite mad, as indeed we were. Only three days ago we had been walking the streets of Bangkok trying to avoid heavy traffic! You can see from Loll's face how much she was enjoying it. She did get a tad fed up with the frogs and other little beasties jumping around near her lovely new shoes!

But it really is magnifcent country side (when you ignore the water swirling around your legs.)

Kurata was a little quieter than Spitler School as we had arrived after some of the teachers had left.  Vebol gave us a wonderful welcome back, however - and we were delighted to see photos of his young son.

Dy Sam Nang's Trip to Singapore: a Tale of contrasts.

Teacher Sam Nang, the Grade 6 teacher at Spitler school, had just returned from a 5-day trip to Singapore, organised by Caring for Cambodia, and he was really full of excitement about his visit.  He didn't particularly like the large portions of spicy food, he said - but as it had been a working visit this was not too important to him. His trip took him to the Singapore American School, Chatsworth International School and Tanglin School (where our own daughters had been pupils way back in 1985!) Some visits to schools had been a real eye-opener, especially how cold they were because of the air conditioning. He also commented about the lunch boxes and the organised pegs for each child to hang their stuff. What had really surprised him was how children had been allowed to learn away from the confines of a desk and were lying around reading, talking and just getting on with work in a more informal manner.  He took plenty of photographs (see some below) and is now keen to share his experiences with other Spitler/Kurata staff.

Sam Nang sets off to Singapore.

Making the most of the available space!

One of the ideas Sam Nang wants to bring to Spitler.

Working with the computers in the ice-cold library.

Jim and kids at Hotel Victoria. With bikes.

                                                            A study in contrasts.

 

Shortly after end-of-the year school exams were completed, I got a call from Michael Horton, at ConCERT (an organization SSF partners with in Siem Reap).

www.concertcambodia.org

 

He said that there are several schools in the ConCERT network, and that this year Spitler School was selected to receive a donation of 11 bicycles from the Hotel Victoria.  ConCERT collaborates with the Hotel Victoria to collect donations from guests to buy bicycles for students throughout the Siem Reap Province.  This was our year to be a recipient!

Okay then.  So now we have 11 bikes to ‘give away’…but in light of appropriate practices we are trying to develop, we can’t just randomly select kids to receive a gift.  There needs to be a valid reason for the award.  I knew all the grade 6 students (at both schools) would be receiving bicycles as they venture into Middle School in town.  Spitler Foundation has over the past few years received generous donations from the Hess Familiy and recently from the Kenny King Foundation to fund the bicycle program for promoted grade 6 students.

So, back to the problem at hand…  I also knew that in some years, when funds were available, the top students in grades 3-6 would receive a bicycle.  But, this year, we were a bit short on this project budget.  Being the top academic student and receiving an award seemed to be a logical match and now we had a trove of 11 bicycles to re-institute this project!  Great timing, indeed.

So, doing some math (the kind from the 50’s, not that new fangled stuff), we looked at how many top students in grades 3,4, and 5 from both Kurata and Spitler Schools would we need to make 11?  After hours of white-boarding this difficult calculation, we came up with the TOP TWO students in each class!

Let’s see, that’s three classes at Spitler School times 2, making 6 recipients, and three more classes at Kurata School times 2, making 6 more recipients.  There, done.  Oh.  That’s 12, not eleven.  What to do?  Solution: Sarin buys one bike.  We’ve got a dozen deserving recipients and an equivalent (that’s a new math term, sorry) number of bicycles  (that’s 1 + 11 = 12).  Tah dah!

The teachers name the students and in a few days we’ve invited them and their parents to the 5-star Hotel Victoria for a mid-morning reception and ceremony.  It was a lovely event in an outdoor garden.  Many uniformed staff were there to serve our children like little royalty.  There were fruit drinks, tea sandwiches, artfully prepared fruits and sweets galore.  The parents were shy and reluctant to participate, and hunkered down on the lawn away from the activities.  But, the Victoria staff (mostly Khmer) respectfully invited them to be a part of the event, encouraging them to partake in the feast, and they did.  For most of these children and their families, they had never experienced such generosity of this proportion.  The bicycle presentations were quickly dispatched (it was super hot that day!)…and the event came to a happy close.

I am certain the families still recount the event to friends and relatives even today.  One funny, sort of, part of the experience came when the families were invited to take a little tour of the spectacular lobby area of the hotel.  In it is a series of koy pools, with bridges, and even a couple of small crocodiles to be seen.  As we were passing the open passage leading to the magnificent pool area our students, and their parents, were treated to the sight of a nice middle-aged woman walking to the café, in her ever-so-stylish bikini!   Oh my.  This was not exactly what these parents and kids bargained for, but welcome to the Western world, a la Hotel Victoria!  [FYI—The cultural norms of non-urban Cambodians dictate a significant level of modesty at all time. . . A woman displaying too much, eh, skin, is a ‘no no’ and quite shocking.]  We quickly shuttled everyone out of the lobby and hoped this particular story did not become the headliner at dinner that night!  Oh well, life in the big city!

It was a gratifying sight to see our 12 deserving recipients riding away from the Hotel Victoria, along with their parents (many on bikes too) heading back to their homes in Ang Chagn. These kids represent the best possible future for these families to escape their poverty and find a better life.  They earned those bikes, and the access those bikes provide to improve their condition.

Vebol the Dad

Vebol is one of the great un-sung heros of the Spitler Foundation.  He could so easily go unnoticed, yet his presence is vital to the running of the schools.  Vebol is a man of many talents:  administrator, gardener, pump engineer, painter and decorator, gardener, cyclist, tuk-tuk driver - and, occasionally - teacher.

He was appointed by the Foundation to be an administrator at Kurata School and his work here has been invaluable.  Regular blog readers (blogites? blogistas?) will remember photographs of Vebol blowing up footballs for the children whose interests lie at the heart of all he does.  He has also plumbed in and weather-proofed the water pump (recently stolen, we understand - but that's another story) and he was the first person to pick us (Nick and Loll) up in the new Spitler tuk-tuk.  As an administrator he's a marvel, spending days, and even weekends, at the school sorting out problems - or helping to put up whiteboards in teaching rooms as well as installing new ceiling fans with, perhaps, less regard to Health and Safety rules than you might find in the West.  When we first came across him, he was sitting at a tiny desk in the Kurata library on a child's seat, trying to work on the computer.  Jim quickly promised him a new desk and chair of  adult proportions, and this was promptly delivered to our house in Siem Reap.  It tested all of our powers of ingenuity cramming this rather unwieldy piece of furniture into the tuk-tuk.  But we managed it with minimal damage (soon repaired.) 

So it was with great delight - and some surprise, that we heard that Vebol had just become a father, though, being Cambodia, nothing goes entirely smoothly.  Jim takes up the story:

One day Vebol called me to say he would not be at school, saying, 'I'm busy,' a very common expression used by Khmer people.  He has beginning proficiency in English so our conversation was a bit light on content.

But, I pressed to know what he was doing.  (None of my business, but I asked anyways.)  He said he was busy with his wife.  "Oh!  I didn't know you were married!"

"Yes, baby."  He said.

 

Huh?

He needed to run, so the conversation ended.  Later, I found out from Sarin that Vebol was quite busy, but his wife was a lot more 'busy'.  She was having a baby!

So, Vebol was sorry he couldn't make it to work, but he was in the hospital with his wife, who was having a baby!!

After the baby boy (healthy, mom heathy and good...btw) arrived, I got another call from Vebol.  I congratulated him and his wife on their new arrival.  Naturally I asked, "What's his name?"   He said,  "Oh, no name!  You name the baby!" Okay?"

I said, "What? You want me to name your boy?"  

"Yes, you tell me his name!"

Totally perplexed, confused, and frightened by the prospect of this task, I set out to find out what's up...

Was this for real? 

Well, babies are often not named for days or even a month until there is a blessing ceremony with the monks.

The monks give a name to the baby, but the family also can select an additional name.  And tradition provides the child carry the parents' names in some form too.

It is popular and a bit of a badge of honor to give the child a Western name too.  So, it turned out, that apparently was my task.

So, off to Google I went.  Naturally.

Hmm, popular names...let's see....oh here's a list of 500 or so names..

Oh, and it better be easy for the Khmer person to pronounce.

And, easy to yell too...just in case.

No final consonants...no consonant clusters or blends...no difficult to pronounce vowels...

Keep it short...

I was panicked with responsibility!  In the meantime, the naming ceremony came and went at the Pagoda.  He received the name Visna (meaning 'destiny')...the parents also gave him the name "Joe"  (which PM Hun Sen carries as a name...didn't know that.)

So, I thought...Dang!  I missed the opportunity...and insulted the family.

But no!  What they wanted was a 'nick name'  a Western nickname to call the boy..."So what name is it?" asked Vebol.

I gave him 3 choices and he immediately latched onto the last one:  "Sammy"

Big smiles all around.

The next morning, Vebol calls (11AM), inviting me to a party, for Sammy.  I was AVAILABLE, of course.  It was a happy celebration, and Sammy was a trouper most of the night.

Welcome to the world Vebol Joe Visna  'Sammy'  (and a few other names, I think!).

Whew!

Grade 4 Singers meet Mr Damisch

About a year ago, I (Jim)  was contacted by Mr. Damisch through a mutual friend, John Furguson with American Voices.  Mr. Furguson has been sharing American culture in developing and war-torn countries for over 17 years by providing training, workshops and performances by professionals in the fields of art, music, dance, and theatre.  www.americanvoices.org

Mr. Damisch told me he was planning to be in Cambodia as part of a world tour he was doing in July 2012.  He offered to do a concert, free of charge, to benefit the Spitler Foundation.  It turns out Mr. Damisch, a lawyer from Chicago, has been doing concert tours for many years, paying all his own expenses, in hopes of bringing American culture and peace to countries around the world.  We could not resist the offer!

We began to correspond and fashioned a program that would work for the Spitler Foundation.

Jule (our German volunteer) and I went to some of the 5 star hotels to see if any would help co-sponsor this event.  The Sofitel Angkor Resort jumped at the chance.  Fabrice Ducry, the General Manager, is a strong supporter of the arts and cultural events and felt the idea of a benefit performance, in the middle of low season, would be a ‘win win’ for all involved. 

We decided the scale the performance should be small, since there would be so few tourists in town.  We’d depend mainly on the local Khmer residents and the ex-pat community.

Instead of using a ballroom, which might end up with 20-30 people (depressing!), we chose the luxurious lounge room which seated about 50 people in very comfy leather chairs with tables.  We promoted the event as a ‘salon style’ performance with food and drink available to the patron, mimicking a popular 19^th century style of classical entertainment where homes were turned into mini concert venues and performers did their programs in the salon.

The hotel offered to do a little reception prior to the event, which we thought was great!  We made posters and also posted the event on the Siem Reap ex-pat page of Facebook.  Within a week, the venue was almost fully booked!  The turn out from the ex-pat community was incredible! By the night of the performance we had over 65-70 committed to attend.  A full house!

Our expectation was that July 13^th would be an otherwise ‘dead’ time in Siem Reap.  But it turned out Siem Reap was a hotbed of activity that night!  The ASEAN Conference got booked into the hotel next to the Sofitel.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to be there, along with Prime Ministers from several Asian Countries.  The Sofitel also ended up hosting a big conference for Asian Women’s Rights and Equality (400 pax).  The Raffles Hotel down the road was hosting a major diplomatic event, and the Hotel Sokha was hosting Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, and a large delegation for meetings and festivities!

Traffic and the police presence was an awesome sight indeed.

Oh, and Spitler Foundation was hosting “A Classical Evening” with Mark Damisch at the Sofitel Resort!

Of course, the most special part of the evening was during the reception.  A select group of 4th Graders entertained the crowd with 3 songs they learned during English classes.  Special thanks to Nick Thorne for introducing these ditties to the kids. [Ditties?  This is choral singing of the highest quality!  Nick - Ed.]  The 16 children who performed had received nice clean tee shirts (Angry Bird)….for the show and really looked sharp.  And their performance was spectacular!  The crowd LOVED them.

It was a truly successful evening.  Although we did not press hard for donations, we did secure about $300 from the event.  Mark Damisch was a unique performer and his daughter Alexandra played a Chopin piece and led a sing along at the end with everyone joining in on the chorus of “All You Need I Love” by the Beatles.

Some links to Mark Damisch:

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070657265/7-Days/peace-pianist-to-play.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdmDGRkspC0

http://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/spring2011/alumnilife/close-ups/mark_damisch.html

Spitler School and the London Olympics.



We're back!

Olympic Torch – New Roads – Classical Concert.

. . . just some of the things that have been happening to the Spitler Foundation and its associates.  You may think that the movement of the Olympic Torch for the 2012 London Olympics has only a tenuous connection with Spitler School,  but we feel very strongly that this is not the case.  We (Nick and Loll) have been back in the UK for a few weeks now, having returned to do a little examining for the British A-level education system followed by some work teaching English for Academic Purposes at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, leaving Jim (and Jule) to keep things moving in Siem Reap.  And moving they have been, as poor Jim has been somewhat swamped by activities.  And the Olympic Torch?  Well, here it is passing by our front door in sunny Saltburn-by the Sea on its round-Britain trip before the opening ceremony in two weeks’ time. 

Meanwhile, back in even sunnier Siem Reap, the road to Spitler School has been renovated with funding from the Foundation and we hope that this will survive the torrential rain that we will be expecting from September when we return.  Last year the floods were horrendous and we spent nearly a month walking around up to our knees in water and unable to get out to Ann Chagn village as it was cut off.

More recently, Jim had arranged for the touring classical pianist, Mark Damisch to perform at the Sofitel Hotel in Siem Reap to raise funds for the Spitler Foundation.  He was also able to showcase some of the singing work that we had begun with the children of the school as part of their English programme and activity afternoons.  We have never pretended that the Spitler Choir would be a match for King’s College, Cambridge, but we have been very proud of their enthusiastic singing of The Wheels of the Bus, The Butterfly Song and One finger One Thumb.   Thanks to Jim and Jule, the Grade 4s built on this sturdy base and developed some pretty fancy routines to present to the audience at the Sofitel.  Here they are in rehearsal before the big event.

And how did it go? 

Well:  watch this space for Jim's special report on the evening - and of the other rather posh event involving our children, but this time at the Victoria Hotel.