CAMBODIAN COMINGS CAMBO'DEA

Lest one thinks that life in the tropics is all sunshine ..it does rain sometimes...and here sometimes at this time of the year often outlasts a lot of the time...(if you can get my meaning)

Cambodians call foreigners as Barang, especially if they are gringos (North Europeans and North Americans.) But they assume that any Non-Asian person is aBarang. It corresponds in the Thai language to Farang.

And when you are a barang you sometimes need the comfort of barang contact if only for the ease of speaking reasonably clear english and some shared cultural values and common understandings. It might be as simple as not having to explain why you like bread and don't eat rice (ri as they say) with every meal. Most of the barangs here are just tourists passing through for a day or two to do some forest trekking and see some elephants.

Living here has limited outlets in terms of diversions...no tv, coffee shops, real pubs, cinema etc and if you wake up early in the morning it can be an interminably long day. I found myself eating cigarettes, literally; like 3 or 4 with one cup of Ovaltine (coffee substitute)

The restaurant run by Callum Walker from Van Diemans land became a life saver for me. This is Callum and his Cambodian partner Sopeak and her son from another relationship (marriage). Sopeak's family had a guest house and Callum set up a restaurant 6 month's ago. The place is called Sovankiri the Kymer for golden hills.

Callum is a decent, sound, clued in young man and we spent a lot of time together drinking Cambodia beer, sometimes the Mondulkiri coffee which is actually grown in Vietnam (like a lot of the agricultural produce sold in Cambodia and I got him going on doing cryptic crosswords.

His partner, a grand girl, is pregnant a with his child and is suffering badly with the early stages of it and probably giving C, not unnaturally, a hard time at times (I sometimes address her as the queen of Mondulkiri) so sometimes I provided the opportunity for him to talk about things.

This is George the gecko who haunts one wall of the restaurant devouring the rich insect life of Mondulkiri. Its hard not to like geckos..so different to rats , such as inhabited the attic of my house

This is Callum Walker treating me to a drop of Johnny Walker (no relation)

This is his waitress Soriboor who possesses a most wonderful smile. I uses continually ask her if she was practicing her dancing. "oh no cant dance" was the constant reply.

See what i mean..great smile

This is Taka with the unlikely surname of Burke Gaffney. Father is Irish Canadian and Mum is Japanese. Nagasaki Irish via Canada and he does a mean version of Seven Drunken Nights and tries to live up to his Irish roots by out skulling every barang in the joint. Great company at the table and probably needs the beers as he spends his day with elephant trekkers and in rain and sunshine.

Chips for that old feeling of nostalgia

Me , the queen of Mondulkiri and the smiler sitting at traditional heavy Cambodian furniture

Where would we be without the devil , drink

A crowd of barangs with one brave Kymer teaching who is now a good friend of mine.

Happy people wishing me well on my journey home .

Happy VSO volunteers who also look happy to see me go (joking)

I went to a type of Karaoke one night (was treated my a few of the Cambodian teachers). It was interesting and different to Sovankiri, dark with coloured lights, a club like ambience and more up market. Where we went is a cross between a restaurant and a karaoke (partial brothel) and this one had mixed groups eating and singing. There was an inner sanctum where the ante, i am told, is raised and one could have individual attention from some of the ladies (seen here dancing). I hope they were better at service delivery as their dancing was poor or maybe they were bored.

We got a little individual attention but mainly to get us to drink the beer faster.

This painted lady greeted us on our arrival and kept saying sometime to me about a girlfriend (in broken English). I presume it was a pitch of some type. She was also part of the band that were playing and had a fine voice. Then she reappeared at out table, things were quiet on the night, and helped herself to our beer dispenser.

Then the big surprise when my Cambodian teacher friend Kongkear sang two songs and did so beautifully in a romantic falsetto style that seems popular here.

It was worth going to see, especially as Cambodian men love talking about Karaoke BUT my pleasures are simpler and hanging out at Sovankiri kept body and soul together.

And now holidays to Ireland and decision time about whether to return or not are imminent. I have accomplished more than I initially expected, have set up the first science laboratory in the province, produced a manual in English and Kymer with about 40 experiments, have had a number of training sessions with the science teachers and a couple with groups of students, done a bit of networking with other NGOs in the science education area, produced a small dictionary of science terms in English and Kymer. So I feel I have achieved a number of the goals set for me. However, they want me to be part of a Dutch funded project that extended into the middle of next year and i just can't commit to that length of time. So I may or may not be returning (for a short stint ) in the autumn. Lack of sleep and continual sweating does take its toll.

All to be decided but glad I came.

Its not every town that puts up road signs to greet its transient inhabitants but Sen Monorom obviously made an exception for me as you can see below.

Having been to the hills of gold a green horn is crossing/going back to Ireland.

Maybe returning but its unlikely but Cambodia and its people will have left a special mark in my heart.

THIS is my biggest blog so stick with it please

some pics from a workshop

try to imagine this workshop without hands

I actually entitled the workshop HANDS ON; MINDS ON

so when given these photos the hands just jumped out at me

much harder to see the MIND ON bit

but in the modern world if its caught on camera , who cares

look mum, no shaking

my name is HANS, look

what's dat dad

now here's a point

and another

better light one candle than curse the dark

google glasses Cambodian style

no, goggles and no hands

and no workshop would be complete without the old condom flame test (joking)

my hands are full

Hands ON

Look mum NO HANDS at all

WHY have these WORKSHOPS

Due to corruption in most parts of Cambodia’s institutions, the education institution is not spared either. Although there is an increasing awareness of the importance of education which directly correlates with employability, citizens are merely attending schools for the sake of obtaining paper qualifications. There is no great impetus to learn actual knowledge and to increase one’s productivity. The quality of education in Cambodia remains doubtful and not all citizens are capable of undertaking tasks that their paper qualifications state they are capable of. (Wiki)

Science teachers have little or no experience of doing practical work and mailnly teach by rote learning from a book

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) built the Resource Centre (I work in where the only 2 labs in Mondulkiri exist) in an efforts to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at upper secondary schools in Cambodia.

Through providing science lab equipment for our teachers and students, we want to give young people the opportunity to experiment. Students today will be able to learn by doing, in a hands-on approach that reinforces what they learn through lessons and reading. I trust that the science lab equipment that you see today will be fully utilized and properly made available for educational purposes. (from an ADB presentation to the Ministry of Education.

Welcome in to a Cambodian chemistry class

This is the chemistry teacher, Mr Sakada, who is an older brother of my volunteer assistant. When his class is full it contains 45+ pupils. Teaching style in Cambodia is mainly teacher talk but but Sakada did involve the students but they tended to respond by reading directly from the book. These students never get into a science laboratory. Mr Sakada is aware of this but he himself has no laboratory experience and has asked me to take his class (45 students) to the lab. We have planned to do a few demonstrations for them.

Here is the high school taken from the resource centre balcony

The library, but I haven/t seen any students use it.

Very often teachers are not in their classes, sometimes for legitimate purposes but often as they may have other occupations to make living possible. As a result the playground is usually full of pupils passing time. Its the way school life goes here.

And if the lads (girls don't seem to do it) are free and if the courts are free its volleyball. Volleyball is a passion here and the courts seem to be in use all day. And even thought Cambodians are quite small its volleyball, volleyball, volleyball...number one sport.

While the girls adopt a more classical pose

and I seem to be doing a Michael Jackson move

and into another class

Salary levels often push teachers below the poverty line, evident from the fact that

newly qualified primary school teachers in Cambodia are paid as little as US$50 per

month. The combination of low salaries and their late payment brings financial

accountability at district and provincial level into disrepute, with teachers feeling that

there is a lack of respect for their welfare. This also affects their position and status in

society as they may be unable to make ends meet without supplementing their income

by holding a second job, charging informal fees or tutoring in order to survive.

Although one is inclined to think of Cambodia as a poor country, one would not guess this from the number of students who drive their motorbikes to school. There certainly a lot of rich kids in this town which is a provincial capital with lots of government jobs and opportunities for supplementing ones income.

Here is a row of teacher rooms. They mainly consist of 2 rooms and may house a family. The rooves are made of thatch and are porous in the heavy rain (which is frequent at this time of year). In the house I was in the teacher had to place plastic over his bed to keep his bed dry. The accommodation is very basic and is mainly occupied by single teachers and what appears to be families who may have houses elswhere (not fully sure)

Despite the existence (for some) of considerable wealth in Cambodia many public servants are very poorly paid. A lower secondary teacher may get about $ 50 a month. So supplementing your income is a natural consequence.

School children are introduced to bribery on their first school day, and they participate in it throughout their school life. Bribery is as much a part of everyday school activities as assembly and attendance registration. Students have little choice but to pay their teachers daily for their extra-class courses and lesson papers, school attendance, forgiveness, examination marks, certificates of completion. After leaving school, many go on to pay for a good position in government. In return, the people have to pay them back. (from

Human Rights Education in Asian Schools Volume VI

AND another report

Because of poor pay, an elaborate system of unofficial charges to supplement income has evolved in the civil service. For example, traffic regulation policemen extract "fines" from motorists. These unofficial charges are widely tolerated. Collection of charges in many areas of public service is based mainly on what can be negotiated between officials and payers. Very little of the revenue goes to the government. Most is taken by officials and their superiors.

AND from another report

Corruption also fuels the education system, with students able to purchase

exam answers from teachers, and buy their completion certificate even if they

have not completed high school. Students can also pay their teachers to

progress to a higher grade even if they fail their exam. It is also common to pay

teachers to change their class absences to attendances. With all these factors, it

is understandable why only 8% of the population has gone on to complete

tertiary education.

AND another

Salary levels often push teachers below the poverty line, evident from the fact that

newly qualified primary school teachers in Cambodia are paid as little as US$50 per

month. The combination of low salaries and their late payment brings financial

accountability at district and provincial level into disrepute, with teachers feeling that

there is a lack of respect for their welfare. This also affects their position and status in

society as they may be unable to make ends meet without supplementing their income

by holding a second job, charging informal fees or tutoring in order to survive.

And a lot of students pay for extra tuition from their teachers. Here is a teacher's house close to where I live. I am told the teacher is a very good maths teacher. In Cambodia learning to write in Kymer and doing Maths are the most highly prized subjects. Here is the home of a teacher who has a class room in front of this house (which also doubles up as a shop for school supplies) and as I pass it every day I can tell you he is doing great business and from 6 am in morning and at various times during the day.

Given how poorly paid teachers are most of them seem to do private teaching to their pupils along with their main teaching job.

Spot Wally. I asked the teacher if I could take a photo of his class.

And planning the next set of workshops, on my office/veranda, is my VSO line manager Dara and a real HANS from Holland who has been at this business in Cambodia for a few years.

A couple of teachers asked me to take some of their pupils for a lab session and I did 2 this week.

For the first one last Monday I told the teacher that the lab could only take a small number, I suggested 12. A lot more arrived but the teacher didn't appear at all at any stage, which I found disappointing. Also I hadn't slept well the night before and didn't feel like doing the session. But the kids were so interested and pleasant that I ended up really enjoying it.

Here are some faces from both sessions. In the second group (which I suspect were the richer kids) many had the most up to date phones and could have been from any country in the world given how smart they looked. Quite a few had good english language ability.

Of the group of 6 pupils who remained after the lab 4 wanted to do law nest year and 2 of the boys engineering. None wanted to be teachers. I wonder why !!!!!!

HOB KNOBBING

I wasn't very long here when the school grounds were taken over by piles of tents and uniforms. Scouts and all to greet one of the country's vice-prime ministers. Lots of police and soldiers and huge reverence. I got to sit near the big boys. Just was sent these pics yesterday more a fellow VSO volunteer.

Scouting is big in Cambodia and a lot of teachers are involved as are the political parties. THere were hundreds of kids in uniform parading before the viewing stand.