Phoebe enjoyed being part of HOPE International Schools first High School production, Godspell. We were blown away by the amazing talent of the cast, musicians, chorus and costume and set designers. it was a great way to start the Easter holidays by looking at the life of Jesus through drama.
This weekend is one I hope I don’t forget for a a long time. It started on Friday when we were inundated with food and clothes donated. we spent the whole day organising it into food parcels. Everyone pitched in to help.
On Saturday we got up at 5:30am to get a tuktuk to ABC Driving school to meet the coach that was going to take us to Prey Veng. When we arrived there were piles of bags of clothes, food parcels and sacks of rice being loaded onto the buses. (These had been donated by listener to a local radio station who had organised this trip) We then went down to school to collect the 387 (to be precise!) food bags we had put together.
We were struggling to fit all the food and people in! 31 people came from the HOPE community. This was students, teachers (Khmer and expat) parents, friends and family. I was overwhelmed by how many people wanted to help.
As we drove to Prey Veng all along the roadside we could see evidenced of the massive flooding.
We arrived at the meting point which was at the side of the road about 2 half hours out of Phnom Penh where a rather small looking boat was tethered. We were told that both buses loads and their passengers were going to go on this boat!
As the boat was loaded with all the food and passengers from the other bus it went further into the water so, after some discussion we managed to hire another boat to take us.This did cost more but we felt we needed to be safe especially was we didn’t know what the water currents were like.
We travelled about an hour on this boat and all e could see for miles was water with the tops of trees poking through or small islands.
When we arrived at the island hundreds of people had come from the little islands to get the food. As we docked there was a burst of applause. My first reaction when I saw all those people was we don’t have enough for them and a little worried that we were going to get mobbed! However it was very well organised and even on this deserted island there was a PA system!!! The local official gave a speech about the are and how it was affected. I think there were 1,000 families affected and 300 who had been badly affected were selected for the aid. Each group was then invited to give a speech. Graeme McKenzie and Chak (the student who organised this) gave a speech and said we were a Christian school and we wanted to give this as a way of expressing Gods love to them. We were sorry it was so little and we knew it would not solve their problems but we wanted them to know we cared and hoped that soon they would get their life back to normal.
Then all the chiefs got a pile of bags and calmly everything was doled out to the people whose names were on the list. We also ran an impromptu clinic with a Doctor who had come with the radio station and our school nurse. When I stopped counting there were 292 people who had taken tickets to see the doctor. We only had time to see some of them. One boat load of people travelled 4 hours only to find there was no food left. They got some clothes but it was heartbreaking to see how patiently they accepted their lot. Many people needed antibiotics but we ran out or didn’t have the right ones.
One family we talked to had been living on their roof for the last month and had lost their rice fields and farm animals. they were so appreciative of the small food parcel and clothes that they got.
If you sent a donation here are some of the people you helped. This lady could not stop saying thank you.
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| This lady was not one of the lucky ones she will have to wait. |
A very tired team arrived back at Phnom Penh sometime after 6:30. Sometimes when I do things like this I think was it worth it because we seemed to do so little to help. There were so many other people who needed help but we could not help but as I thought about it I remembered the verse in the bible which says For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink…‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,f you were doing it to me!’
God knows the heart and desire behind the gesture and says it is like we are doing it for him.
This year the children from school years 3-6 went on their school camp to Baray Homestay. Baray Homestay is in the Kompong Cham province and was set up by Esther an amazing lady who wanted to help the people of this poor area of Cambodia in health, educaion and job opportunities. She links up with local pastors and in this way can reach into the hundreds of surrounding villages.
The theme of the School Camp is learning about serving others. The children had all been learning about rural Cambodian life and customs so it was great to be able to go and experience what life in the Cambodian countryside is like.
Years 3/4 mainly experienced the cultural things like noodle making, ox cart ride, khmer dancing and pony cart rides as they only had two days to cram everything in.
The Year 5/6 classes did all the above but they went out and did service projects each day. The school sponsors these projects, buying the materials and paying for local specialist labour where needed. The projects they did invovled either building the paving round a village well, building a rubbish burner at a school, teaching english and playing games with the school children and going out into the villages and giving bags of rice and clothes the children had donated.
It was so lovely seeing Phoebe’s amazing photos of the fun they had in the Khmer schools. They were so amazed at the lack of resources. Many school have only a few books to share around and learning is by rote. Children are someties punished if they come to school with a dirty uniform and some families do not have enough money to buy a uniform for each child in the family so siblings will share a uniform. One will go in the morning and one will go in the afternoon. All across Cambodia there is a shortage of teachers so school is either in the morning or the afternoon.
Some of the stories from these home visitis were so amazing and really touched the children who went on them.
At one house they arrived and the family was so overwhellmed by the bag of rice because the previous day they had run out of rice and had no money to buy any more. They had been wondering what they were going to eat when this group of foreign children arrived with a bag of rice.
Another house Phoebe went to the little girl opened the bag of clothes and put on a sparkly dressing up top which Lucia had chosen specially to give away.
The last house Phoebe’s group went to, they were all tired as it was hot and they had been visiting houses for most of the afternoon. They had one bag left and when they looked in it all it had were baby clothes. They were wondering what to do as they had not seen any babies in any of the other houses. They thought the family would be disappointed to only get baby clothes…until they went into the house and saw a young girl and in her arms was a tiny baby only about a week old!
These experiences will be building blocks for their character and futures.
Sometime people say to us (as a family) being in Cambodia mean the children are missing out on so much. Yes they do miss out on lots of things but when I think of what they have experienced in Camp Week here I know that they are richer for it. I love the way they are learning about need and poverty and how they can help. Also how God takes ordinary people like Esther, gives them a dream and uses them to reach and affect hundreds and hundreds of people.
Are they missing out…I don’t think so. 🙂
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| Poison Ivy |
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| Dash from the Incredibles |
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| Frozone |
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| Bubbles from the Powder Puff Girls |
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| The Amazing Mrs. Incredible Jane! |
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| Even Batman needs a cuppa |
My class had fun today attacking a few classes as we were pirates….
Tomorrow is the last dress up day….the theme “Your Dream Job” and has got all of us thinking what will we be?
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| Gorgeous rose plates! |
This semester at school ths children are learning about rural Khmer life. We revameped an old play house and Mr Thueon and Mr Rit, our caretakers, covered it with the Khmer leaf roof so it looks like a field house.
I went shopping to buy some of the things you might find in a typical house.(consultation and help from Sina my classroom assitant!)
The idea is the children will experience life through role play senarioes. They will be able to practise Khmer they have learnt in class and already know. Also they will learn about the culture from our Khmer assistants.
I think my best buy was the stove and the rose patterned plates and the little stove. I am looking forwar to see how the children enjoy playing with all these things.
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| little charcoal stove (think we will not have the charcoal!) |
Ewan and Lucia have been having great fun trying all the things out! It was fun to watch them organise all the items and set out their “house”. Lucia and Phoebe were doing the cooking and Ewan was washing up!!
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| Grilled fish for dinner? |
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| Why is “play” washing up more fun? |
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| Do you want some “Bai Chaa? |
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| Traditional dinner of rice, egg and fish is served |
Last week Mark and Jenny (Mark is the art teacher) hosted a silk party where you had to come in a silk item. It was really fun to get dressed up. Anyone who know us well will know wwe love dressing up! So it was off to BKK market which is a predominantly second hand market where clothing can be bought for as little as 75c or 50p if you know where to look.
Phoebe and I had a long list of required items for the party and the assortment of costumes we needed for Sports Week at school this week. After a three hour shopping trip we managed to get all the required items and treated ourselves to having our hair straightened.
The children all went as super heroes and Colin wanted to go as a pirate…after raiding my jewelry box!
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| Award for best “new trend with silk for 2011) |
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| The lovely Kate, Danielle and Carrie |
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| Becky, Me, Danielle |
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| Becky, Chloe, Kelly, Katy, Kate |
This morning I had to drag myself out of bed at 5:45…ok well the alarm went off at 5:45 and I had to be in the lobby by 6:20 to get the bus. it was tight! Me and Jane were do excited by the Special K with Strawberries (simple things make us happy) the guys were not so excited by that. We were disappointed byt the tea and couldn’t understand why it wasnt turning brown ..it was some sort of yellowish colour, until we relaised we had put the chinese tea in!
The conference was inspirong. The firs tkey note speaker was talking about the media and the influence for good and bad that it has on out children. I went to workshops on teaching ESL kids one on learning the other on writing, digital portfolios (@ Fiona if you are reading this you have done a great job with the wiki ..you ticked lots of boxes so thumbs up!!) and Motivating Teachers. The most inspirational of all was a lady called Dr. Josephine Kim who talked about being culturally sensitive but it was really her testimony of how she switched between Korean and American culture and eventually went to an international school. She shared how one teacher in America turned her life around and made her feel worth something,. I had tears in my eyes. Also how the hard times in her life when she was confused as to where she belonged helped to shape her into the person who she is now,a lecturer in Harvard University.We went to find somewhere to eat at teh shopping centre and ended up at Burger King (we ate all Korean yesterday!) Then a coffee and cream puff in Dunkin Donuts. They have these cool gadgets. When you by a drink you get a balck disc like a spaceship.When your drink is ready it lights up!!
After this I went shopping….got some little goodies for my lovely family!!!
When we took the taxi we found that the youth hostel in in the old walled city of Suwon overlooked by a hill covered in maple tree in a wonderful range of yellow, orange and red leaves. There are even leaves on the ground to swish through! (Jane one of the other teachers got very excited about this. The youth hostel is very nice and in such a great location. The rest of the city reminds me of a tired town in England…lots of tall grey buildings, but the part we are in has all the history.
After we had rested we went for a wander through the city centre to find out bearings (and suitable coffee shops or places to eat) There seems to be so few people about until we discovered a side street. I love the way you just see a street and have to walk down it and then discover a whole area with lots happening. By this time our stomachs were reminding us we needed feeding. So we set abotut trying to find a place to eat. There were plenty of clothes shops, household shops, the odd pizza place (which face it we could go to in Phnom Penh) and street food. Most of this seemed to be dried octopus or fried bugs which at this point of sleep depravation none of us felt up to trying. We then saw some steam and there was a display outside a shop of different steamed cakes and patties of meat. The lady at the stall was gesturing to us and we noticed inside some low tables and other people eating so we went in. 
Everything was in Korean except some prices but there were pictures, so we pointed to two soups. One was a pork and vegetable dumpling soup with the most delicious dumplings. The other one was a beef soup which was also lovley. It was served with rice, and pickled vegetables..eaten with chopsticks and us seated on the floor. At $4 each it was also a good price we think!
One of the things I am loving about HOPE school is the opportunity to broaden my teaching expertise. I am a trained primary teacher but when I trained I did Art and Design as my main subject. This was to degree level and so any opportunity to teach art is always a delight to me.
There is something so fun about giving children unusual and unique opportunities to explore materials, ideas, artists and techniques. The new art curriculum called Interact Art is so amazing. We are looking at five modern artists and how they interpret the vehicles in the world around them through art and sculpture.
This week we were looking at an artist called Richard Goodwin who makes these amazing sculptures out of pieces of cars or motorbikes. It looks like the cars/motorbikes are exploding.
The class thought is was so awesome and I really wanted them to have a go but was struggling to come up with something practical and which didn’t stretch the budget!
I had bought these Styrofoam models of cars but I only had two so I photocopied them and we stuck them onto the polystyrene trays you get food in. Then they coloured some bits in and cut out all the little shapes. Then we randomly (but planned random of course) stuck the pieces together with toothpicks.
I was not sure how it was going to work but was so excited about the way their models turned out. The class had really taken the idea on board and produced some wonderfully crazy models…..
I am excited to see how art can promote discussion and deal with ideas and issues that are in the world rather than creating pretty pictures ( which are nice) that don’t really say anything. Art is about what you are passionate about and should reflect something of you in it.
I am interested to see how my other Y7/8 class interpret this artist!
Cambodia Through Our Eyes 