25th Jan 2009
Since my last month's missive I thought what there was to write about but worry not there’s lots to note, so much so my editor (Jan) will savage this sagacious commentary! In this edition I will highlight some of the Cambodian ways mixed with what we are actually doing (please keep reading it will not be that bad (promise).
We held another VSO team nosh night, once again trying to capacity build one and all. We decided to expose them to more ‘Barang’ delicacies namely, steak pie followed by pineapple upside-down sponge and, of course custard! As always this, seemingly, straight forward event became a culinary challenge. Kia, our local P'nong lady who does for us three days a week (came with the deal for the house along with Zacki the cat), kindly did the extreme shopping for the ‘beef’. When I say beef I really mean buffalo or whatever as we are unable to track its provenance unlike all UK meat!! Anyway, our forward thinking / planning had created sufficient time to suitably prepare said meat. This means ‘nuking’ it for approx 1 hour in the pressure cooker (our most precious and sensible purchase from PNH). Problem one, after the allotted time and much hissing from the cooker the meat was still only suitable for use by shoe repairers. We return the cauldron back to full steam for another thirty minutes but alas with no apparent improvement. After another forty minutes we saw some slight change but we were still concerned as the ‘meat’ was not even starting to disintegrate. Thus, my vision of breaking the crisp herb pastry crust, on the table (yes we have a table, luxury eh!) to reveal moist succulent chunks of tender ‘melt in the mouth’ meat aka the Great British pie, was becoming a nightmare. At this stage, one day before the event, we did not have time to repurchase another lump and try again, so we comforted each other by sharing the immortal words ‘it will be fine’ but secretly convinced otherwise. I can now report that it did turn out very well (still slightly tough but no
where near suitable for the use by the shoe repairers). The picture also shows respect shown to Desparate Dan Pie. By the way we served it with green ‘snake’ beans, carrots, garlic mashed potatoes and loads of gravy (many thanks to Jean, Jan’s mum who furnished the appropriate magic powder in one of her Red Cross food parcels.) What about the pud I hear you ask? This was a triumph though I say it myself. Jan created a delightful light as air melting sponge to support our caramelised ‘fresh’ pineapple pieces (alas we could not get tinned rings!) The delight, sorry dessert, was very well received and adorned with viscous custard.
On our return to work Jan has resumed the momentum initiated prior to the (Christian) Xmas break which all Khmers also seem to take. She is forging great links with her district schools and even beginning to tackle the mysteries of classroom teaching by preparing model (science) lessons. She seems happy to support all manner of initiatives to encourage the very poorly paid teachers (nothing changes eh! But, $30-$40 per month!!! It's low even for Cambodia; we volunteers get $340 each + rent allowance so it’s no wonder that the education system is in the state it is in.) Teachers commonly have classes exceeding 50 at times and often coping with multi-grade classes (i.e. children of different grades at the same time but have a different curriculum). We are astonished to find that there is some excellent work going on in desperate conditions. Teachers keen to learn and listen to ‘new’ ideas with enthusiasm really caring for their pupils. We must also present a balanced comment here. There are also those teachers who don’t give a toss, not really interested in being there and often don’t even turn up sometimes for months without seemingly any sanction (but we are told that the ministry is going to do something about this! Yes and I’m entering the swim the world in a week contest next month!) I said there were some real parallels with the UK.
My work situation is slightly different. I’m supposed to be working with staff at the Provincial Office of Education (POE) capacity building, whatever that means, re: writing school action plans and supporting the school inspection process. The plans are to ‘hit’ a district for three to five days inspecting all Lower Secondary and Primary schools. Currently several inspections have been proposed but all have been deferred, postponed or cancelled for a variety of reasons. For example, the ministry call the POE the day before we are due to go out and instruct the staff to attend a meeting or workshop or….. whatever. As a consequence things are changed at the drop of a hat. Whist this is the cause of much frustration all round I am starting to forge links with the local Lower Secondary School who have not received any support at all. Thus my short term project will support issues related to teaching and learning with a focus on the delivery of practical science activities. To this end I’ve just returned from a two day workshop in PHN organised by another NGO training teacher trainers i.e. teacher trainers from the regions are being trained in using simple ‘home made’ apparatus to then train future science teachers in the colleges (all sounds over complicated but it does make sense!)
Since my last month's missive I thought what there was to write about but worry not there’s lots to note, so much so my editor (Jan) will savage this sagacious commentary! In this edition I will highlight some of the Cambodian ways mixed with what we are actually doing (please keep reading it will not be that bad (promise).
We held another VSO team nosh night, once again trying to capacity build one and all. We decided to expose them to more ‘Barang’ delicacies namely, steak pie followed by pineapple upside-down sponge and, of course custard! As always this, seemingly, straight forward event became a culinary challenge. Kia, our local P'nong lady who does for us three days a week (came with the deal for the house along with Zacki the cat), kindly did the extreme shopping for the ‘beef’. When I say beef I really mean buffalo or whatever as we are unable to track its provenance unlike all UK meat!! Anyway, our forward thinking / planning had created sufficient time to suitably prepare said meat. This means ‘nuking’ it for approx 1 hour in the pressure cooker (our most precious and sensible purchase from PNH). Problem one, after the allotted time and much hissing from the cooker the meat was still only suitable for use by shoe repairers. We return the cauldron back to full steam for another thirty minutes but alas with no apparent improvement. After another forty minutes we saw some slight change but we were still concerned as the ‘meat’ was not even starting to disintegrate. Thus, my vision of breaking the crisp herb pastry crust, on the table (yes we have a table, luxury eh!) to reveal moist succulent chunks of tender ‘melt in the mouth’ meat aka the Great British pie, was becoming a nightmare. At this stage, one day before the event, we did not have time to repurchase another lump and try again, so we comforted each other by sharing the immortal words ‘it will be fine’ but secretly convinced otherwise. I can now report that it did turn out very well (still slightly tough but no
where near suitable for the use by the shoe repairers). The picture also shows respect shown to Desparate Dan Pie. By the way we served it with green ‘snake’ beans, carrots, garlic mashed potatoes and loads of gravy (many thanks to Jean, Jan’s mum who furnished the appropriate magic powder in one of her Red Cross food parcels.) What about the pud I hear you ask? This was a triumph though I say it myself. Jan created a delightful light as air melting sponge to support our caramelised ‘fresh’ pineapple pieces (alas we could not get tinned rings!) The delight, sorry dessert, was very well received and adorned with viscous custard.On our return to work Jan has resumed the momentum initiated prior to the (Christian) Xmas break which all Khmers also seem to take. She is forging great links with her district schools and even beginning to tackle the mysteries of classroom teaching by preparing model (science) lessons. She seems happy to support all manner of initiatives to encourage the very poorly paid teachers (nothing changes eh! But, $30-$40 per month!!! It's low even for Cambodia; we volunteers get $340 each + rent allowance so it’s no wonder that the education system is in the state it is in.) Teachers commonly have classes exceeding 50 at times and often coping with multi-grade classes (i.e. children of different grades at the same time but have a different curriculum). We are astonished to find that there is some excellent work going on in desperate conditions. Teachers keen to learn and listen to ‘new’ ideas with enthusiasm really caring for their pupils. We must also present a balanced comment here. There are also those teachers who don’t give a toss, not really interested in being there and often don’t even turn up sometimes for months without seemingly any sanction (but we are told that the ministry is going to do something about this! Yes and I’m entering the swim the world in a week contest next month!) I said there were some real parallels with the UK.
My work situation is slightly different. I’m supposed to be working with staff at the Provincial Office of Education (POE) capacity building, whatever that means, re: writing school action plans and supporting the school inspection process. The plans are to ‘hit’ a district for three to five days inspecting all Lower Secondary and Primary schools. Currently several inspections have been proposed but all have been deferred, postponed or cancelled for a variety of reasons. For example, the ministry call the POE the day before we are due to go out and instruct the staff to attend a meeting or workshop or….. whatever. As a consequence things are changed at the drop of a hat. Whist this is the cause of much frustration all round I am starting to forge links with the local Lower Secondary School who have not received any support at all. Thus my short term project will support issues related to teaching and learning with a focus on the delivery of practical science activities. To this end I’ve just returned from a two day workshop in PHN organised by another NGO training teacher trainers i.e. teacher trainers from the regions are being trained in using simple ‘home made’ apparatus to then train future science teachers in the colleges (all sounds over complicated but it does make sense!)
Mid January and it's time for the annual conference at the POE for all districts offcers of education. As I entered on the first day, with Vorthera, one of our VA's I was greeted by the Mr Boss (not his real name) who said "You will tell the conference about the work of VSO in Mondulkiri" . I was unsure if this was a request or otherwise. Having no prior 
warning I quickly got some thoughts together and went into BS mode for about 10 minutes. On the Friday evening we were invited to the post conference party which was held infront of the POE offices on the 'lawn'. I'm told that Khmers don't drink a lot but when they do, hey really do (oops, another contradiction I thought Buddists did not drink - yeah, right!). Immediately we sat down they introduced their special guest entertainer, at every table, Mr. Johnney Walker and the Red Labels (see photo for secondary or was it tertiary evidence?) This was consumed at a rate Oliver Reid would have been proud of. The food was similar to that described in an earlier 
account but the real Khmer live band was soon done to be replaced by district areas kareoke! Soon after this we made our apologies and left the continuing celebrations.
warning I quickly got some thoughts together and went into BS mode for about 10 minutes. On the Friday evening we were invited to the post conference party which was held infront of the POE offices on the 'lawn'. I'm told that Khmers don't drink a lot but when they do, hey really do (oops, another contradiction I thought Buddists did not drink - yeah, right!). Immediately we sat down they introduced their special guest entertainer, at every table, Mr. Johnney Walker and the Red Labels (see photo for secondary or was it tertiary evidence?) This was consumed at a rate Oliver Reid would have been proud of. The food was similar to that described in an earlier 
account but the real Khmer live band was soon done to be replaced by district areas kareoke! Soon after this we made our apologies and left the continuing celebrations.Just to finish. Jan and I are off back to PHN for our second bout of ICT or In Country Training i.e. two weeks of Khmer Language torture / instruction. If you have read earlier blog entries then you will understand my sheer joy at the prospect of demonstrating my skill at the level of a five year old. Dribbling and drooling trying to remember the most basic vocabulary and trying to string what resembles a sentence together much to the amusement of my fellow linguists. This is followed by a two day EST (Education Support Team I think!) meeting. A forum for all education volunteers to discuss all things educational – should be fun!
Keep well, keep smiling soon be spring!!
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