Grease, models and thinking outside the box

Wednesday

Riding home from work on my bike today I couldn’t help giggling to myself. Here I was in the middle of all these motorbikes. And suddenly I get Grease in my head.

 I am in this weird twisted Cambodian series of Grease. Weaving in and out of traffic in the middle of a group of Mods. Except there are no leather jackets and shiny shoes. Instead we have lone Mods, Several mods on one bike- and even mods carrying all manner of items on their bikes such as – a bird cage with 20-30 tiny birds fapping about inside and chirping away. His whole family- with the toddler on the handlebars. His business-an attached food stall on the side-what a marvellous idea! But of course these are not Mods- its just my cranky imagination getting carried away cushioned in the middle of all these roaring bikes on the road riding home- feeling part of the clan. And how innovative these Cambodians are with using the bikes in all ways one could imagine- and indeed in many other things. I really have noted the people are really so creative with everything they do.

I am really excited. I planted 40 sunflower seeds that a dear friend gave me as a leaving gift. It took me 5 weeks to get it together but I did it. I found the plant place. I found the man that sells soil which consists of a very lumpy soil with occasional bits of paper inside it. I wondered whether seeds would grow in this stuff- and 5 have sprouted (6 days later)!! Hooray! I am just a bit nervous of the responsibility- and am hoping I can see them through and that they might even grow into proper flowers! Fingers crossed. Like these are all my little babies waiting- or I am waiting rather- even if only 2 sunflowers grow I will be tremendously elated.

I had my second Khmer lesson Saturday. I absolutely love my teacher. Where I live, there is a Khmer family on the bottom floor, and in fact a few that you see spilling out onto the street in the evenings. They seem to really be very sociable in their families. It also means every time I come home, the whole of the street knows I am home. Lucky I am a good girl with nothing to hide (at present LOL)  and if I did- I wouldn’t be able to hide it –that’s for sure- with a dozen eyes curiously following my movements!  Anyway- they were all extremely intrigued to see the tuc tuc arrive with the man in a smart business suit- and a huge whiteboard and brief case tucked under his arm! What on earth was the likes of him doing coming into this rather hippy crumpled clad girl's apartment they wondered (or maybe they didn’t at all – but they did look a bit baffled to me!).

Dara is a really brilliant Khmer teacher. I met him through another chap I met when I arrived at the guesthouse, and he recommended him and said he teaches all the ambassadors here. He has a very good grasp of the English language- spoken and written, in addition to speaking 5 other languages and it felt he had an exceptionally good understanding- I loved my lesson. He rearranged my front door into a teaching area propping up the whiteboard on my shoe rack, and proceeded to teach me I, you, him, her, they and us. Then he taught with, and at, and like and school.

I can say' I love Cambodia, I teach in Cambodia, I teach at ican School, I like, Cambodia, I like you, I like him I like her ect ect, I teach with Esther at iCAN school in Phnom Penh' and other such sentences, The way he taught was really clever as he only taught me a few words but in such a way that I could construct sentences and already strike up a conversation. Most importantly – he taught me how to say ‘food’ haha!

 Feeling all clucky and chuffed with myself I proceeded to practice my Khmer on the staff at ican. It was received with kindly giggles and corrections- very specific. The pronunciation I find quite tricky – even though the constructs of the language seem relatively straight forward.

 Later on:

Yesterday I came home in a River. I was giggling so much on the motto as the water nearly came up to my feet. What a downpour- we have more of this to look forward to with the rainy season!!

Wat langka- I took some more pics of the place so you can see where I go to meditate when I can.

Sunday eve

This weekend I collected clothes I had made for me- I basically took a couple of dresses and skirts I had already from uk and some material I picked up from the market and they copied my dresses and what a marvellous job they did too. I also discovered a shoe place-introduced to me by another collegue- whereby you can have any type of shoe made for you by hand- and I mean -any. Even boots- even though I am not sure who would wear boots here! My colleague was telling me that he had a friend who send him a cast of her foot for what she thought was a school display and he ended up surprising her by having loads of shoes made for her and sent over- so any requests fire away although you need to get me a cast of your foot!!!

I went to the Gym today- ahhh a little piece of heaven. I am working hard but realising there are plenty of places to unwind and find myself again although it has been taking me a while to just even know where my road is in relation to the rest of Phnom Penh- and this is more about me having a rather vague sense of direction rather than the fact that P.P is hard to get around as the mapping system is relatively simple, although having said that occasionally you get a road, and then they decide to build some buildings in the middle of it- and the road disappears- which has caught me out on one or two occasions!

There is so much more I want to share with you folks but I don’t know where to start or end! I have had a couple of wobbly moments in adapting and missing home (especially when my phone got stolen and I had no wifi so couldn’t contact anyone from home) but am overall so happy and excited to be here! I feel like I am so blessed and lucky to be having these experiences – and this is just living in Phnom Penh- I have yet to explore the countryside and coast of this incredible country.

 I feel so positive for the people here too. It really does feel to be an up and coming city and good for them after all the hell and struggle they went through. Good for them for being proud of trying to get an education and be successful in life after losing everything. I went to my first ever fashion show- we had an invite from one of the parents of the children at my school- a Cambodian lady- a beautiful one at that-  who runs a modelling agency called Sapora- for of course Cambodian models and there is a huge amount of excitement and fuss about the top model there as she is going to Australia to a big international show and she is the first ever Cambodian model to be recognised internationally- Cambodia is so proud- and I felt really touched to be there as very often it is all about western models here and the beauty of western people with their white skin ect ect – the billboards with pics of Kate Moss I saw at the junction which is all very well except to me baffling -as I see al these absolutely stunning Cambodian women and they are all trying to put cream on to make themselves look western ! So to actually see a beautiful Khmer model – representing the incredible beauty of the women in this country felt so touching it really did- and it felt a real honour to be there.

One other thing that is amazing is the community here- it seems so interconnected- or that many people are connected. My Khmer teacher, for example is married to one of the parents at my school- whom I met at the fashion show- everyone has connections.

 I am loving my job. The kids are absolutely amazing- also seem to have this creative ‘anything can happen’ streak about them which I seem to have noticed here- and are really good in expressing themselves overall. There was one boy in my ks3 songwriting class who wrote a mindmap of ideas for his song about all the emotions he had with his Dad leaving to go abroad all the time on business and he expressed his anger/sadness emotions and everything, but in a really open and positive way- he felt safe and I was so impressed to see such maturity and also his classmates were so supportive and it just felt so amazing to see that- whereas I would have seen a different reaction in many of the schools I taught in before from a student’s peers I think…One thing I really like at my school is that students and staff alike are encouraged to think outside the box- and to be more open minded about everything. So refreshing!

Well -I have had another stunning weekend, and am connecting more with some lovely people here. Sorry my blogs are few and far between- I am working hard in the week- although really enjoying it- the time seems to fly and I have less time to be on here typing- being out there. I feel so excited to be here and just happy to be finding out about and exploring this wonderful city.

 

I must also sleep and meditate- to give me the fuel for the rest of the week so I am to now retire lovely reader.

Please feel free to send me a little message to let me know how you are doing- or even a little comment on here is always welcome even if just to say hi-nice to know if you swung by.

Sending you love from Cambodia. Xxx

Just tried to add my pics but seems to be a new problem with it- will try again!