Just a mini update- sorry -sparse at mo as been quite busy- but am loving every single minute of it here.
Short summary of up till now:
Kep beautiful- albeit wet- coming back in November. We
stayed at a beautiful guesthouse called the Boat House and Lori happened to alo
be in Kep, invited us over to her guesthouse for a drink, to join her and her
beautiful 2 Khmer children…So nice of her to invite us.
Lena- the owner took her to her village and we visited some absolutely beautiful rice fields!
Back in hot Phnom Penh on the bus- I was kind of happy despite tropical rain being exciting and not quite the same as a rainy day in UK!!
Markets- underground- many stalls- little areas for DIY,
meat, vegetables, food stalls, clothes stalls ironing board stalls HEHEH. I am defo going to add some pics of this soon (she says hopefully).
In England – imagine you get a taxi to the shopping mall,
and he gets out and comes and helps you shop! Well that’s what they do here- my
tuk tuk driver gets out, helps me find the ironing board stall and carries it
for me! What a sweeti- so many sweet people here I cant get over it at all
Monday
Went to the ‘bike street’ today and bought myself a beautiful
red bicycle. And just in case you can’t tell what colour it is- it also has the
labelled words ‘ROUGE’ on it. LOL
First day of term today, kids are filtering in bit by bit
all week, and I start teaching Music next week which is cool as gives me a bit
more time than had expected to set up things- have been feeling a bit
overwhelmed with wanting to prep things really well- and do a really good job
so if I have time to do that is even better. My assistant Borith- who is
absolutely adorable- came in and helped me set up the displays in the room. We
both sat there in a kind of blissful peaceful state Bob Marley singing in the background
cutting bits of paper.
At the end of the induction David (the Vice Principal) said “
hey guys keep Friday free if you can as I am having a party at my restaurant
for my 40th”
I don’t remember being invited to a head of my schools birthday
before. How is it the principles can be so welcoming and open? Just this sense of the
head and deputy being completely at ease, and even though of course leading the
school, just kind of in it with us rather than being above, distant and separate,
as what can happen often times in work corporations.
Went to local pool with Dav and Anina today and we were
contemplating how lovely things were, with feet in pool, cold drink in hand- 5pm in the evening
after a successful bike purchase adventure by Dav and myself.
I come home, remembering I have some ironing to do-wanting
to look reasonably presentable for my new job.
Upon arrival I discover that Ming Ming has emptied my
wardrobe, and ironed every single piece of clothing in there including my
swimsuit.
I nearly cry.
To explain- Ming Ming is a beautiful lady in her 60’s with a
beautiful wide smile and I met her when I came to view my apartment holding a
huge bunch of bananas offering me one. Had
heard about people having cleaners, but I wasn’t sure this was a tad extravagant
of me. Euan (previous tenant who is a Dutch chef you may remember), explained
to me MingMing lived downstairs and cleaned his place twice a week for which he
paid her. He asked if I would continue to take her on- as she would then have
lost a job in effect, so it just kind of organically happened that MingMing
would now become my cleaner.
Never in my life before (apart from when I was a young kid)
have I come home to clothes all put away and ironed. I have no clue where some
of my things are – and she has organised everything in this very particular
way- its so funny and sweet and I feel so unbelievably nurtured !
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