Our trip to Kampong Cham was uneventful (if you ignore the road traffic etc). We had a brief stop to be offered deep fried spiders and all manner of ‘food’ from questionable origin, which we politely declined as we had been advised by other VSO volunteers.
The Mekong Hotel is clean and comfortable in VSO’s price range (which isn’t much) and overlooks the mighty Mekong River. We were allocated bicycles (ferried up from PP by pick up truck from the VSO office) and promptly toured the ‘city’. This didn’t take us long. The place is much smaller than PP (as expected) and has indoor and outdoor markets selling almost everything and various shops and assorted ‘eateries’.
We have just completed (Sept 27th) nine days of Khmer language training. This consists of a 06.15am ‘get up’ with breakfast and last minute panic re: practice vocabulary ready to cycle to Western University (or in Khmer sal-ar-reeaan-Western, which translates (as written phonically) as the Western School (although it is called a university locally). I won’t even try to write it in the actual written form as this is nigh impossible to decipher even with dictionary and the Enigma (code breaking) machine from Bletchley Park!
We cycle on some of VSO’s best cycles to Western University. Our three, one hour, language lessons begin at 0800hrs with a half hour break after each hour. This may not seem much to you but I can assure you that we are kna****ed at the end. Jan is doing well but I find it a cross between simultaneously having pins inserted into underneath my toenails whilst having dentistry without anaesthetic! When we finish we either go for lunch or return back to the hotel to lie in a darkened room with blocks of ice attached to our heads. THEN we have bl***y homework, what the ……..! A guy in our class finds it amusing that 2 teachers are being made to squirm when they don’t know the answers (which is frequent). So I would like to unreservedly apologise to past pupils whom I have harangued over the years being a great exponent of ‘no hiding place’ in my lessons!!! Sorry!
Our ventures into the local market to buy goods is becoming ‘more fun’ as our Khmer becomes almost recognisable. As haggling is par for the course we use an interesting potpourri of pigeon (black country on my part) / English / Khmer patois much to the delight of the locals and the embarrassment and dismay of Jan. We even get teased at the use of their mother tongue and expressive body language with the occasional animal mime or sound to qualify or reinforce our conversation i.e. the odd moo, snort or flapping arms to resemble a chicken (or satch-mon in Khmer).
Anyway, this weekend (remembering that we have lessons on Saturday morning as well), today, Sunday Sept 28th, we have just returned from a boat trip with most of the other loonies (sorry volunteers) down the mighty Mekong river to visit a really old wooden pagoda and then on to a village which is renowned for weaving silk fabric. Both were really fascinating and all the people we met were really friendly, helpful and genuinely interested in why we are in Cambodia. This gets a bit of getting used to and is somewhat different to experiences back home where most people we have talked to about our VSO ‘adventure’ fall into one of two camps, namely, that we are either barking mad or they are really impressed and with many saying that they would like to do something similar!
We have a welcome day off on Monday 29th Sept as it is a big festival day called P’Chum Ben or ‘Old Souls’ where everyone goes to the local pagoda, or wat, and makes offerings of money, food and drink passed to the monks as the medium between those on earth and their ancestors, thus paying respect to the departed loved ones.
We begin language torture (sorry training) on Tuesday 30th Sept for another five days and then go for a preliminary visit to our placement to Sen Monorom in Mondulkiri province. We have ascertained that this part of our ‘adventure’ will take approximately eight hours from Kompong Cham which will require a four-by-four with chains on wheels due to the difficult terrain (ie mud on big hills) - oh joy!!
Meghan, another (much younger) volunteer is coming with us; she is quite barmy (having swum in the Mekong river today) and is really looking forward to the team building activity promised by our colleagues ……. more on this to come ………
The Mekong Hotel is clean and comfortable in VSO’s price range (which isn’t much) and overlooks the mighty Mekong River. We were allocated bicycles (ferried up from PP by pick up truck from the VSO office) and promptly toured the ‘city’. This didn’t take us long. The place is much smaller than PP (as expected) and has indoor and outdoor markets selling almost everything and various shops and assorted ‘eateries’.
We have just completed (Sept 27th) nine days of Khmer language training. This consists of a 06.15am ‘get up’ with breakfast and last minute panic re: practice vocabulary ready to cycle to Western University (or in Khmer sal-ar-reeaan-Western, which translates (as written phonically) as the Western School (although it is called a university locally). I won’t even try to write it in the actual written form as this is nigh impossible to decipher even with dictionary and the Enigma (code breaking) machine from Bletchley Park!
We cycle on some of VSO’s best cycles to Western University. Our three, one hour, language lessons begin at 0800hrs with a half hour break after each hour. This may not seem much to you but I can assure you that we are kna****ed at the end. Jan is doing well but I find it a cross between simultaneously having pins inserted into underneath my toenails whilst having dentistry without anaesthetic! When we finish we either go for lunch or return back to the hotel to lie in a darkened room with blocks of ice attached to our heads. THEN we have bl***y homework, what the ……..! A guy in our class finds it amusing that 2 teachers are being made to squirm when they don’t know the answers (which is frequent). So I would like to unreservedly apologise to past pupils whom I have harangued over the years being a great exponent of ‘no hiding place’ in my lessons!!! Sorry!
Our ventures into the local market to buy goods is becoming ‘more fun’ as our Khmer becomes almost recognisable. As haggling is par for the course we use an interesting potpourri of pigeon (black country on my part) / English / Khmer patois much to the delight of the locals and the embarrassment and dismay of Jan. We even get teased at the use of their mother tongue and expressive body language with the occasional animal mime or sound to qualify or reinforce our conversation i.e. the odd moo, snort or flapping arms to resemble a chicken (or satch-mon in Khmer).
Anyway, this weekend (remembering that we have lessons on Saturday morning as well), today, Sunday Sept 28th, we have just returned from a boat trip with most of the other loonies (sorry volunteers) down the mighty Mekong river to visit a really old wooden pagoda and then on to a village which is renowned for weaving silk fabric. Both were really fascinating and all the people we met were really friendly, helpful and genuinely interested in why we are in Cambodia. This gets a bit of getting used to and is somewhat different to experiences back home where most people we have talked to about our VSO ‘adventure’ fall into one of two camps, namely, that we are either barking mad or they are really impressed and with many saying that they would like to do something similar!
We have a welcome day off on Monday 29th Sept as it is a big festival day called P’Chum Ben or ‘Old Souls’ where everyone goes to the local pagoda, or wat, and makes offerings of money, food and drink passed to the monks as the medium between those on earth and their ancestors, thus paying respect to the departed loved ones.
We begin language torture (sorry training) on Tuesday 30th Sept for another five days and then go for a preliminary visit to our placement to Sen Monorom in Mondulkiri province. We have ascertained that this part of our ‘adventure’ will take approximately eight hours from Kompong Cham which will require a four-by-four with chains on wheels due to the difficult terrain (ie mud on big hills) - oh joy!!
Meghan, another (much younger) volunteer is coming with us; she is quite barmy (having swum in the Mekong river today) and is really looking forward to the team building activity promised by our colleagues ……. more on this to come ………
3 comments:
Who are you calling "loonies"?! Not all of us were silly enough to swim in the nasty river. I'll be keeping up to date with you on here when we all spread out around the country! My blog's http://onebarang.blogspot.com - Hollie
Looking forward to hearing more news as you emerge from language study and move on to "the real thing"
Hi K & J. Keep sending updates, I am following your every move...
Jan H
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