Teaching in Andong

You know you are in for an interesting time teaching students when one of their English teachers calls the toilet a “piss building”. Initially I had no idea what to actually teach the students. I knew they needed help with pronunciation, but I didn't really know how to go about teaching such a thing. Because I was the 'foreign teacher', and considered the expert, I basically had to decide myself what sort of program I would do. This was both daunting and freeing. I was afraid I would have to teach some lamo English text from Oxford with nice little dialogues and grammar notes at the end. This would have bored me to tears. Of course it would have been helpful for the students, but they already do this sort of thing everyday. So I found this story. A story about Tom Sawyer. Little did I know that I would hear this text repeated so many times that it would nearly drive me insane. After working out a lesson plan with one of the English teachers I was ready for my firs class. I was quite nervous. Understandably, I would dare say. I have never lead a class before. With my Khmer teaching vocab merely containing the phrases 'repeat after me' (tadam knyom) and 'say again' (mudong deeut), I started my first lesson. In a previous lesson, where I had only helped out with pronunciation, I had gotten the 'say again' phrase terribly wrong. I said 'deeut mudong' which, instead of getting the students to repeat the phrase again, got me 10 seconds of blank stares followed by an eruption of laughter. This time I made sure I would not make a fool of myself and repeated 'modong deeut' to myself about 6 times before entering the class. I was teaching the elementary class. The class is what you would call a 'mixed ability' class. On the lower end you have students needing a simple phrase repeated 4 or 5 times and the higher end ones speaking better English than the teacher. The teacher sometimes gets one to do translating for him.
I played the student a recording of Chapter 1 and asked how many understood. No hands came up at first and I was starting to stress a little. After playing the chapter 4 times the look of comprehension started to appear on the faces of some. It took a few lessons until the students could understand the sentences and say the words correctly...well, almost. Khmer people find it impossible to say 'th'. Maybe some of the Wellspringlings can remember how Abe said 'fai' instead of 'faith', conveniently cutting off the 'th' sound at the end of it. However, some in the class have mastered it – albeit with much mouth wrenching and flying spittle.
Recently I have only helped out, within the curriculum, with the pronunciation of new words. I have the students split the words they find difficult to say into manageable chunks. I had much fun with the word 'Arsenal'.
So that is it I think. Still haven't been on my second trip to Oddar Meachey province because Abe's 4WD is getting a new engine. He said maybe tomorrow we'll go. Like yesterday and everyday for the last 2 weeks :P. The poor guy is actually getting quite upset about it. He seems a little worn out. Please pray for him!
So...I'm proud to say that in at least one village in Cambodia there won't be American pronunciation.
It is a very rewarding experience to have someone comprehend something you teach them. Even when it is something simple. Try it sometime.

What I've been up to...

At Andong – In Andong I've done a reasonable amount of teaching. Both guitar and English. I have found this to be the most rewarding of my experiences in Cambodia so far. The students at Andong are so keen to learn that they lap up everything one has to teach them. I have had so many students come up to me and ask me when I will give my next lesson. Or when I was sick they ask “teacher, why did you miss your last one?!” A really strange thing I have experienced is having students my own age call me “teacher”. It is definitely not normal. I have been teaching one guy, Vuthy, guitar on a regular basis. Every night he comes knocking on my door for a lesson. Such eagerness to learn is so strange to me. He picks up everything I show him so fast. He started with knowing only a few chords but now he is already playing in church. He comes back from school and he immediately gets out the guitar to practice. I hang out with the teachers quite a lot as well. We have dinner together most nights when I sleep in the village. This is always enjoyable because they are really eager to speak English with you and make friends. I find that it is really easy to relate despite the language barrier. During the day when there is no English lessons there is not really a lot to do so one has to find something to keep you busy. Other than preparing English lesson plans I've just been reading a lot and practising my Khmer (not enough of the latter). Abe has recently allowed me to use motorbike, which will no doubt take up more of my spare time than it should! The guy that takes care of me in the village is Uncle Chuen (pronounced Tune). He is quite the character. He became a Christian about 6 months ago and almost immediately started serving at the school. He does not speak a word of English but chats away with me as if I'm a native speaker. The teachers usually struggle to translate everything so I just smile and nod.

Travelling – I have spent a considerable amount of time travelling around Cambodia already. I did a massive road trip with Abraham earlier in December. We went to Oddar Meanchey province in the north of the country. This was an amazing experience for me because I got to see real rural Cambodia. I witnessed the three governors of Oddar Meanchey province sign over a 7 hectare piece of land for free to Abraham to start a school and a church. It was really encouraging to see the grass root beginnings of a faith based project in such a rural area. He did not have any money to start building at all but he told the governors that his God will supply. Sure enough about a week later he has a pledge for 9000. 2000 of that has already come in. However, there is no water in the village where he wants to build. So there is a need for wells and they cost 600 a pop. I will write more on this after I come back from my second visit to the place. I also spent some time on the coast in Sinahoukville with some people I met at church. This was really nice. I went on a dive trip to a tropical island called Koh Rung. The part of the island we were on was so secluded that most of the time the beach was completely empty. Diving I saw a sea turtle and hundreds of sea urchins.

Hanging in the city – I've had quite a few Khmer language lessons from a guy called Chantea. He is really good and I am picking up quite a lot. However my motivation to study is not that great because I am leaving so soon :P. The missionary family I am staying at is starting an English language school so I have helped out a bit in preparing the building i.e. scraping paint. I've spent a considerable time in the markets and in various internet cafes around the place. It is not overly hard to keep yourself busy if you have free time.

Anyway, that is about it. Sorry for he late blog update. I hope everyone is well.

Much Love
Christo

Andong Village

This place is truly amazing. It is so absolutely strange to see such intense poverty and such sincere joy all in the one place. Walking through the slum village of Andong was quite unbearable. I just wanted to leave. The conditions were unbelievable and I thought it couldn't possible get any worse for them. Then I got told about how during the monsoon period the people have to walk knee deep in watery muck. During this time most of the village people go into the city and sleep on the street. All this because the people were unfortunate enough to live on prime real estate coveted by the government. One man I met, clearly not in his right mind, took me by the arm and showed me his sorry excuse of a home in mock pride. The man lost his mind a short while after the people got displaced from Phnom Penh. He was so angry and inwardly disturbed by the move that he just snapped. He is not the only one, there are three people who suffered the same fate. They got moved away from a steady income and now live about 40 minutes drive away from the city. To make matters worse they got moved into the area of another village where the village people did not welcome their presence. They were unwanted and despised, desperately poor and completely without hope. Their children were playing in the streets, growing up to be just like mummy and daddy. However, God took pity on these people and worked in the heart of a man (who was himself saved is a wonderful display of God's grace) to come and live and dedicate is life in service to these people. Abraham was just the man needed for a situation like this. Along with his supportive wife (Sohpan) he came to live in Andong. A school was started and initially teachers volunteered their services for free. God provided for the building of a school and for the employment of a lot of the slum people. A church was started and with fervour and urgency the gospel was preached. Because of the visible love and service in the heart of Abraham and many others people were receptive to the gospel. A church quickly sprang up and is growing. So much is needed here but these people have hope. You can see the evidence of this hope in their sincere joy and thankfulness. They are the blessed ones. So very many others in Cambodia do not have such a hope.

First Impressions

How to describe this place? In less than 5 words I think it would have to be: 'CRAZY!' . It is just so different here. I'll give a couple of first impressions:

The People – Unfortunately I have not had plenty of contact with Khmer people so far. I will be going to Andong village (a slum village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh) today though. Most contact I have had with Khmers so far is just in the market where they are trying to rip me off by asking double the price of everything. You learn to bargain pretty fast, they expect you to. They are also very friendly and smile a lot.

The Traffic – The traffic here is like some form of bug colony. There are the big cars which can basically push their way in wherever, like big bugs. Then you have thousands of small motorbikes and push bikes zipping around them like a bunch of tiny ants. There are traffic lights but only on a few of the larger streets and mostly it is just a free-for-all. By free-for-all I mean you honk to let people know you're there and you push your nose into traffic like you would push a drill into a piece of wood. That is the way it seems to me anyway.

Transportation - I bought myself a helmet yesterday and had my first experience on a moto (a motorbike taxi). It is a very standard form of transport here and it costs about $1 to get to the other end of town. However, the moto drivers cannot read a map so you have to know where you want to go either by name or you have to point in the direction you want to go. When walking through the street moto drivers signal you for a ride. You don't have to do anything to get a taxi in this place. You just have to look western.

The Food – Is excellent and cheep! I had some of the best Chinese I have had in a while here and it cost me $6 for a meal and a beer.

The Coffee – They put condensed milk in it which kind of ruins it. An ice coffee is a black coffee with tons of sugar and ice in it. They seem to like sweet.

I'll put photos up as soon as I get my hands on a camera USB cable. Anyway, my internet cuts out soon so I'll have to leave it at that.

Priorities

Nearly there! Fly tomorrow! In the last two weeks I have been inundated with information about Cambodian culture, Cambodian religion and logistics of my travel and it has left me rather emotionally dry. Just getting bogged down in the details of a trip is the worst thing if you plan to enjoy it! I have been reminded about what is important for my trip and it is basically to pray, to be obedient to God and to value relationships.

Love all of you!