What a day! I've met so many children at 5 different schools, all in some kind of basic need, be it being homeless, orphaned, malnourished or just too poor to go to school because family couldn't afford the simple needs of dark skirt/trousers and white shirt, and the daily bribe to get a place.
Four schools are conducted on a tarpaulin, where the children sit and work on the dust of a back yard. One was next to the pig pen. One was a typical Cambodian school building and the Christian songs the children sing do Battle Of The Bands with the wailing and chanting of the next door Buddist temple. This place they have started a school garden to grow the most fragrant herbs and salad leaves to suppliment the rice a charity provides for their meal of the day. We watched as the 5, 6 and 7 year olds nimbly picked through the beds looking to remove weeds, and we were too afraid to help for fear of damaging the tender plants.
I've had so much to think about that I've not had enough to drink today. We've jumped from the bus the second it's stopped lurching down the country tracks striaght into teaching geography and acting out parables under the blazing sun, then back into the bus for the next school. Drinking while on the move on the bus seriously risks the dental work. I don't fancy visiting the dentists here, with rubbish heaped high on the pavement and the stench of rotting meat and vegetables in the air. Much of Poipet is a dodgy pit. I'm getting over a wobbly head.
Like Stuart I'm feeling incredibly helpless and struggling to relate what goes on here with all I know at home. There really is so little common ground. It will take me a while to get to grips with it all.
This week has gone by the fastest of my life and everything in it has been new. A fast learning curve. Even the toilet facilities - wait until you see the photos.
Four schools are conducted on a tarpaulin, where the children sit and work on the dust of a back yard. One was next to the pig pen. One was a typical Cambodian school building and the Christian songs the children sing do Battle Of The Bands with the wailing and chanting of the next door Buddist temple. This place they have started a school garden to grow the most fragrant herbs and salad leaves to suppliment the rice a charity provides for their meal of the day. We watched as the 5, 6 and 7 year olds nimbly picked through the beds looking to remove weeds, and we were too afraid to help for fear of damaging the tender plants.
I've had so much to think about that I've not had enough to drink today. We've jumped from the bus the second it's stopped lurching down the country tracks striaght into teaching geography and acting out parables under the blazing sun, then back into the bus for the next school. Drinking while on the move on the bus seriously risks the dental work. I don't fancy visiting the dentists here, with rubbish heaped high on the pavement and the stench of rotting meat and vegetables in the air. Much of Poipet is a dodgy pit. I'm getting over a wobbly head.
Like Stuart I'm feeling incredibly helpless and struggling to relate what goes on here with all I know at home. There really is so little common ground. It will take me a while to get to grips with it all.
This week has gone by the fastest of my life and everything in it has been new. A fast learning curve. Even the toilet facilities - wait until you see the photos.
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