Our final few days in Kampong Cham (start of October) saw the last of our torture, sorry Khmer language lessons, and getting sorted to go to placement to Sen Monorom the ‘capital’ of Mondulkiri province.
On Friday evening 03rd October we held the second of the VSO world series pub quiz across from the Mekong hotel in Kampong Cham over looking the mighty Mekong river (perhaps why it’s called the Mekong Hotel as a wild guess!!).
Two teams duly assembled and battle commenced with a series of questions comprising general knowledge of all things Irish (as Rachel and Aoif (a bizarre way to spell Effer if you ask me!) are from the Emerald Isle). This was followed by other, more sensible general knowledge questions, then a ‘guess the relation’ photo round in which ‘contestants’ viewed various snaps which had been presented to the quiz masters for scrutiny, probable censorship and general appropriateness! I’m sure Kate and Sophie (Jan’s two!) will be horrified to know that we submitted for approval, and was successful in doing so, their cartoon image of flying under La Defence building in Paris on one of our visits when Sophie was (supposedly) studying!
The later stages of the quiz involved a music round and finally a two part pictionary round. The first in which we had to identify the graphic / cartoon in Khmer and the second in ‘normal’ mode. This was good fun with Claire Wyatt producing some excellent ‘daubs’ whist carrying out some outrageous cheating techniques. As a consequence our team won!!
The Saturday eve October 04th saw the final day (of this session) language training and then a ‘party’ get together at Frank’s otherwise known as the Mekong Crossing bar / café / restaurant (or poach-a-near-a-tan in Khmer). After sustenance (fish and chips for us) and Anchor beer we were embroiled in celebration for birthdays and farewells. The birthdays involved Alice, Meghan and my good self. This consisted of a specially made chocolate cake, with candles, which were all duly blown out with great ceremony and much spreading of airborne diseases.
The sad farewell involved Aiof, a specialist obstetrician (of quiz master fame), who was to begin her placement as she is a short term six months volunteer, what a lightweight, (only joking Aiof just in case she reads this blog!!). We have subsequently heard that she has delivered her first Khmer baby; I just hope that ‘it’ is not given some ‘weird’ Irish name to live with for the rest of it’s days!
Celebrations continued unabated with presentation of gifts. I received the most spectacular pressie. A football key ring, which in itself would have sufficed (and has already been used) but no there was more! I was presented with a beautifully wrapped postcard sized ‘soft’ parcel. On further investigation it consisted of the said key ring and the most impressively decorated pair of boxers (see photo insert!). The highly decorated unmentionables were adorned with exquisitely drawn graphics and labelled with my beloved Kizuna bridge. For those outside of my language group this is probably both boring and of little consequence. Why this was the cause of much mirth is that the Kizuna Bridge is the longest (until 2010 I think when another will supersede it) in Cambodia and happens to be in Kampong Cham. This bridge has been my saviour in class as it has figured heavily in any event I have had to highlight in Khmer, irrespective of fact or fiction! For example when did you visit last night….go for lunch…..where will you go tomorrow……where did you cycle to etc, etc, etc. Ultimately, I have thus used it as a mild source of irreverent comment, namely, “kiss my Kizuna” (strange that it doesn’t seem at all amusing when written, if it does / did in the first place!). What is really impressive is that Hollie apparently braved the local market to purchase said item using her superior knowledge and skill in Khmer and then decorated them (thanks to all involved, in particular, Hollie for the thought and courage which must have been above and beyond the call of duty).
After being made to model said boxers (over my shorts) the final part of the evening consisted of pass the parcel where Jan unwrapped the final package to reveal a bag of Foxes fruit sweets (as well as avoiding carrying out a forfeit!) The very last game consisted of pinning the tail (I think it was a tail) on the bull elephant, again very skilfully drawn by Claire Wyatt who used her primary school skill to the full.
On Friday evening 03rd October we held the second of the VSO world series pub quiz across from the Mekong hotel in Kampong Cham over looking the mighty Mekong river (perhaps why it’s called the Mekong Hotel as a wild guess!!).
Two teams duly assembled and battle commenced with a series of questions comprising general knowledge of all things Irish (as Rachel and Aoif (a bizarre way to spell Effer if you ask me!) are from the Emerald Isle). This was followed by other, more sensible general knowledge questions, then a ‘guess the relation’ photo round in which ‘contestants’ viewed various snaps which had been presented to the quiz masters for scrutiny, probable censorship and general appropriateness! I’m sure Kate and Sophie (Jan’s two!) will be horrified to know that we submitted for approval, and was successful in doing so, their cartoon image of flying under La Defence building in Paris on one of our visits when Sophie was (supposedly) studying!
The later stages of the quiz involved a music round and finally a two part pictionary round. The first in which we had to identify the graphic / cartoon in Khmer and the second in ‘normal’ mode. This was good fun with Claire Wyatt producing some excellent ‘daubs’ whist carrying out some outrageous cheating techniques. As a consequence our team won!!
The Saturday eve October 04th saw the final day (of this session) language training and then a ‘party’ get together at Frank’s otherwise known as the Mekong Crossing bar / café / restaurant (or poach-a-near-a-tan in Khmer). After sustenance (fish and chips for us) and Anchor beer we were embroiled in celebration for birthdays and farewells. The birthdays involved Alice, Meghan and my good self. This consisted of a specially made chocolate cake, with candles, which were all duly blown out with great ceremony and much spreading of airborne diseases.
The sad farewell involved Aiof, a specialist obstetrician (of quiz master fame), who was to begin her placement as she is a short term six months volunteer, what a lightweight, (only joking Aiof just in case she reads this blog!!). We have subsequently heard that she has delivered her first Khmer baby; I just hope that ‘it’ is not given some ‘weird’ Irish name to live with for the rest of it’s days!
Celebrations continued unabated with presentation of gifts. I received the most spectacular pressie. A football key ring, which in itself would have sufficed (and has already been used) but no there was more! I was presented with a beautifully wrapped postcard sized ‘soft’ parcel. On further investigation it consisted of the said key ring and the most impressively decorated pair of boxers (see photo insert!). The highly decorated unmentionables were adorned with exquisitely drawn graphics and labelled with my beloved Kizuna bridge. For those outside of my language group this is probably both boring and of little consequence. Why this was the cause of much mirth is that the Kizuna Bridge is the longest (until 2010 I think when another will supersede it) in Cambodia and happens to be in Kampong Cham. This bridge has been my saviour in class as it has figured heavily in any event I have had to highlight in Khmer, irrespective of fact or fiction! For example when did you visit last night….go for lunch…..where will you go tomorrow……where did you cycle to etc, etc, etc. Ultimately, I have thus used it as a mild source of irreverent comment, namely, “kiss my Kizuna” (strange that it doesn’t seem at all amusing when written, if it does / did in the first place!). What is really impressive is that Hollie apparently braved the local market to purchase said item using her superior knowledge and skill in Khmer and then decorated them (thanks to all involved, in particular, Hollie for the thought and courage which must have been above and beyond the call of duty).
After being made to model said boxers (over my shorts) the final part of the evening consisted of pass the parcel where Jan unwrapped the final package to reveal a bag of Foxes fruit sweets (as well as avoiding carrying out a forfeit!) The very last game consisted of pinning the tail (I think it was a tail) on the bull elephant, again very skilfully drawn by Claire Wyatt who used her primary school skill to the full.
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