June

This week I had my first ever dream about teaching that wasn’t a nightmare, so I think that means I might be missing it. Nonetheless, work has picked up over the last few weeks, and on Monday we had a really good open day at Pu Trom Chah school. We went with fairly low expectations as the director isn’t always very reliable, but they did a great job, with the children performing plays and model lessons, the community arranging a Punong blessing of the new library, and families bringing food to share with everyone.

We also went to Sreiee for a community meeting about the dropouts, and had lots of fun driving through the very muddy roads.

And this weekend we’re also going to Phnom Penh to buy library books for a school called Pu Choo which we’re just starting to work with. As the school year is about to end, lots of the activities in our plan will need to wait till next year, so libraries is something we can work on over the next few months. In September and October we’ll begin focusing on enrolment campaigns and school openings.

I thought I’d start by writing a few paragraphs about work, as someone pointed out that most of my blogs are about drinking. Also a bit concerning is the fact that the beer seller near Tak’s house in Phnom Penh knows me by name, and that when I was walking past a shop on the way to Jeltje’s house the other day, the woman shouted, ‘Whisky? Beer?’ (I think I’ll get Tak to do the shopping in future.)

Anyway, the past few weekends have been lots of fun, especially Ingran’s birthday weekend when he and Gilly came by bike to Mondulkiri. They were welcomed by a delicious Cambodian beef soup that Eng has taught me to make, and it wasn’t until a few days later that I remembered that Ingran doesn’t eat beef. Still, nothing like a bowl of plain white rice to celebrate a 30^th birthday.  

We had a walk in the rain to a waterfall before coming back to a house party. This was the biggest one we’ve had and was lots of fun, although since then Gilly and Ingran have been spreading lies and photoshopped pictures, which you can see at www.ourvso.com and http://ingran.wordpress.com.

Sadly not everyone managed to stay as sober as me.

We spent the following day eating about seven meals and drinking lots of tea, before going to the Sea Forest for some fresh air. 

Family holiday

Firstly, to Pu Trom Chah, the school that was building the library. Last week we took the books to the completed library and it was lovely to see the children so eager to start reading them even before they had been organised. This child was particularly thrilled with a story about a magic mango tree:

This month, we will try to help the school organise a community day to open the library and to encourage families and community members to take an interest in their local school. In the other two schools where we’ve supported libraries, the children are going to expand the book collection by writing their own stories or non-fiction books. There’s only about one more month of the school year so we will need to work hard to do as much as possible while the schools are still open.

Secondly, eight months of shopping in Phnom Penh markets have left me quite blinged up – with my $6 Rorex watch, my Leevi’s jeans and my real leather Dolce and Garibaldi wallet – and this week it was the turn of the ‘Dream to have a bit of a makeover, with a $5 new seat cover. It’s the same cover used in the latest version of the Honda Dream, so I can pretend my bike is a lot better than it is. (I’m aware that readers are probably not as excited about this as I am.)  

And thirdly, I feel the need to offer a correction following my last post in which, like an early 1990s Sun reporter, I outed our cat Tony. It turns out he’s not having an affair with Sarah Brown at all; instead Sarah has been illegally entering the house to steal Tony’s food, and Tony is understandably having none of it. As well as apologising to Tony, we’ve passed draconian immigration laws and are forcibly deporting all foreign cats, with a squirt of water to discourage repeat offences.

And now to the visit of my parents, who came for a week on the 15^th May. They came with someone else too, someone who just sat and got drunk all week, but I can’t remember who it was now. Anyway, we had a lovely week’s holiday in the south-west, going first to Kampong Som to have a few days relaxing at the beach. 

We also stopped in Ream National Park on the way to Kampot, and took a boat to a small island where we had a beach to ourselves, with just sea urchins and jellyfish for company. It felt very idyllic, apart from the company (the jellyfish, I mean, not my sister). Tak and my family got on very well, and Tak announced his intention to steal them, or at least to steal my passport and take my place in the family.

                                                                                         

Kampot was very nice and we went to Bokor Hill, which used to be a mountain retreat with a hotel and casino built by the French, but which was a site of major fighting between the retreating Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese-backed forces who overthrew the Pol Pot regime in 1979. The Khmer Rouge were holed up in the old Catholic Church and the Vietnamese were in the hotel, and both buildings are grim places, the walls littered with bullet holes.

The area is very beautiful though, with cool mountain breezes and extensive forest views. Sadly, a private company is developing the site, which meant we had to pay a huge entry fee and also had to walk part of the way as the road is being rebuilt. I enjoyed the walk uphill through jungle tracks, but it seemed bizarre to be paying so much money to have to walk. We all managed it though, even Tak who claims his legs are too short to move by themselves.

At the abandoned hotel we had fun taking photos until I realised that Tak was in fact just taking photos of himself, like this one:

 Here are some taken by others:

In the afternoon Dad, Tak and I went on a boat ride along with river which turned out to be very nice. 

And then we met up with Jim, Sarah and Jen who had been in the same area but a few days ahead of us, and had dinner together. 

After dinner we went briefly to a disastrous nightclub, before sending Tak and my sister Lucy to buy alcohol (another disastrous decision) and sitting on the river front drinking rum. It was fun and everyone got on well, with Sarah telling my sister that she was much more fun than me, which was a bit rude but also true as Lucy was on top form.

After Kampot was Phnom Penh which was hot but enjoyable, with another good night in DJ club. On Sunday Tak’s mum came back to Phnom Penh after being at a family wedding in Kampong Thom, and she and my mum enjoyed talking to each other in French. We decided to go out for lunch to avoid any potential conflicts about vegetable-chopping methods.

It was sad to see my family leave on Sunday afternoon, so Tak decided it was just the time to buy half a crate of beer, followed by three bottles of whisky at various street-side locations in Phnom Penh and another trip to DJ club. I was dubious to begin with but decided he was probably right.

The hungover trip back to Mondulkiri the next day was a bit of a struggle, and Tak decided to take advantage of my weakened state to find me a wife, telling people at every stop that I was looking for one. At Snuol I think I was offered a choice of two, and if we’d stayed any longer I think I would never have been able to leave that less-than-delightful town (the Crewe of eastern Cambodia). 

Since then we’ve also said good-bye to Jen who has been missed by all, but who decided it was time to leave Curly and go to seek a better life with Raquel in Kuala Lumpa. If she doesn’t find one, she’ll be off to Sydney, New Zealand and then America.

So now it’s just the three of us again, and only another five months before I’ll be leaving myself.