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.