I don’t know my luck that I have had a couple of busy weeks back in my town and I could have never been happier. I know eventually all good things come to an end (aka more work than the fun get togethers/gatherings) but at the same time I think this is a great way for me to go into the new school year (and don’t get me wrong, I really love teaching too and I love my students).
Last week, we had the end of the last year of school, so it was a lot of sitting around for me and a lot of prep for the teachers and students for the new school year. On last Friday, we had a “Start of the new school year ceremony” where the acknowledged the top students from the last school year and then gave out
certificates to all the teachers for teaching (I even got one! They accidentally spelled my name wrong, but I didn’t have the heart to tell them so currently I am known as Alexandra Banker). After the ceremony, everyone said “See you tomorrow Alex!” despite the next day being a Saturday. I thought, ok it seems as if I need to go into school on Saturday this week to get my teaching schedule. I went to school and sat there the whole day (doing work on my computer, using my school’s wifi) but didn’t really have to do anything. When I left at lunch time to go home everyone said to me “see you in the afternoon Alex!” and so I also assumed this means I had to come back after lunch… so I did. It wasn’t until 3 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon that everyone said “wait Alex why are you here?” and I told them how it seemed like I needed to be here. It turns out they forgot that “tomorrow/today” was Saturday. Also, I never did get my teaching schedule because it wasn’t finalized yet. Oh well, it was still nice being at school, and I got to set up a reading, coloring, and puzzle station at
my desk for the kids to come play at (which has resulted in all the kindergarteners coming to my desk during recess to “play” aka throw all of the games in a pile on the ground).
After a nice Saturday, I already had plans with Alma, another volunteer in the big town near mine, to meet-up and get coffee to catch up about our breaks before going back to school. Just getting coffee turned into a whole day of things to do to because she was invited to a lot of things and offered for me to go too! We got coffee and then ate lunch at her house and then we went to a Khmer horror movie, which her host sister had the plans to go to. I have noticed that most movies that are being advertised at movie theaters that were made in Cambodia are horror films, usually to teach people lessons. Unfortunately, I don’t like horror movies and I don’t want to be kept
awake at night thinking the ghost behind my house who lives in the big tree will come to haunt me (or the ghost that pushed me off of the swing set at the primary school by my house). The theatre was packed with people and it was nice to go to the movies to get the feeling of it, despite having my hands over my eyes most of the time, just peaking through my hands to see what was going on. I am actually glad that it wasn’t too scary of a movie, there were just a lot of jump scares where the dead grandpa was about to kill off one of his grandsons in revenge. After the movie, I actually saw one of the friends that I made in my town and she was going to the movies after I was, I tell you the world is too small! We biked a little out of the big town to go to a friend gathering that Alma was invited to from the people at her gym and I tagged along a little bit before having to head home. The other volunteer in the town who I went to the boat races with the week before was also there as well as a new friend I made (who I have plans with eventually to go to the market where they sell cute shoes for big feet, the struggle is so real finding cute shoes). When I biked home, I came to see one of the old students who graduated from high school hanging out outside with my host family and my neighbor, and so the party continued! I got to play my music and we had a nice time hanging out outside the house before I had to go inside to get some good rest to teach the next day.
On Monday it was a (the only) regular teaching day for the week. This year my Monday is pretty jam packed because I teach 3 classes on Monday which is a total of 6 hours, but this means that on Thursday and Friday I only teach 1 class in the afternoon, so it balances itself out. Tuesday morning I kind of taught a regular class, but none of my students brought notebooks and they were going kind of crazy because their main teacher wasn’t there, so it was just a quick review class before more festivities started. A random group of Americans put on a concert at my school. Now since being here for over a year, I feel more part of my school than with random guests that come to visit. While the people were putting on a clown-show for the students, many of my students came up to me and kept asking “Teacher are these your friends, because you are from the same place?” And then I explained to them how the country is so big that I do not even know what part of the country they are from. They left, and I learned that I did not have to teach in the afternoon so the people set up for the concert. I went back to the concert later with some of the kids from my house, but then I saw there was a table of some teachers hanging out and they invited me over to join and eat. Eventually I went home with the kids I brought (aka my siblings) and it was a nice and busy weekday! On Wednesday, was it a normal day? No, it was not.
Another NGO (this one is Japanese and has provided my school resources in the past) came to the school to officially celebrate the opening of a new school building that they built. I tell you, the building is actually really nice, and I even have to take my shoes off to teach (for context, in buildings with nice floors you take your shoes off, but when the floor is dirty, you usually keep your shoes on). They finished building it in July, but since the new school year started, this was a good time to have the organization come back to celebrate. It was a very official ceremony with one of the head’s of the ministry of education in my province coming to speak. Truth be told, I was sitting in the far back and some of my students and I were chit-chatting….don’t tell anyone (the ceremony was in Japanese and Khmer and most the questions I was asked was “Alex can you speak Japanese” and usually my response was “I can barely speak Khmer, how do you think I can speak Japanese”). After the ceremony, the students went home, but then for the adults and teachers we had a ceremony meal, which was equivalent to meals that you have at weddings, funerals, etc. where you all sit at a table and eat family style. After we ate, I went home to change and was expecting to just be home, but then a teacher told me “Alex go home and change and then come back in clothes that you can maybe dance in” and I was like “ok whatever that means sounds good.” I came back to the school to see a full on party going on with the teachers. We were eating and drinking and having such a good time, it was honestly a nice way to truly kick off the school year by hanging out with the teachers. Then all of a sudden, they started singing happy birthday and they brought out a cake for me! I almost started to cry again because usually when they do something nice for me it is always so touching. They knew my birthday was later but since this was a teacher party it was actually so nice to have it with just them. After awhile, I went home feeling on top of the world because it was such a simple afternoon just hanging out with the teachers but it felt so nice like they are truly my coworkers (which they are) but it is always nice when they don’t treat me as a volunteer and just treat me like another teacher.
On Thursday, did we have a normal day of school? No. The first month back to school, the kids don’t have regular class on Thursday and instead they spend the day at the school gardening, picking up the weeds, digging dirt etc. I usually don’t go to school those days but I went to go see if there was help needed. Before I got to school, I went to go get coffee for my co-teacher (I owe her a coffee because she got me one) and also to get some other people in the office a coffee. While I was there waiting for my coffee, my coteacher, who I bought the coffee for, showed up because she went there to eat breakfast. I skipped breakfast at home that day because I wasn’t hungry yet, so when she asked if I had eaten breakfast already, she was not happy with my response of “no”. So we ended up getting breakfast together at the restaurant before going to school. We also had a good talk and I didn’t know until recently that she decided to stop teaching this year/ take a break because last year was tiring (she taught 5C which was one of my more rowdy classes). Then when we got to school, we saw in the main office that part of a water pump leaked in the building so we spent time cleaning that up. I went home later from lunch and then after that I started to run errands around town with my little brother. We went and got ambok, which is pounded rice, and you can eat it kind of like granola with bananas, milk, and sweetened condensed milk (kind of like cereal). So you can imagine that I went to go buy all of those things. Later, I went to get my nails done, and instead of my little brother going home, he decided he wanted to wait for me at the nail salon. However, when we pulled up to the nail salon, he was not in a good mood. I have sadly turned him into an iPad kid because he will ask to watch Scooby Doo or Shaun the Sheep (which he calls Sopan Masee) and then when I tell him no he gets super mad and then won’t talk to me. Or if he is mad, the only way for him to calm down or stop being mad is to watch my phone. I have created a monster. And so to make him not mad at the nail salon, what did I do? I gave him my phone and I sat there and studied my Khmer book. Once done at the nail salon, we went to the corner store to get some good snacks, and you wouldn’t believe what they had: cheese! So I got the cheese and some chips and I shared this with all the students at my house, aka the best snack ever. I won’t go buy this every week because it is expensive, but it was a good way to start my birthday for next week. I then had to go to my Khmer lesson from 4-5pm because I have a Khmer exam coming up in December, so I am trying to cram in as many lessons as I can.
On Friday, I do not teach in the mornings so I was sitting at the office waiting for the afternoon to come (and also was doing work). I taught my regular afternoon class (4C and they were actually really good!) I went home and we all started to set up for a fun birthday party (joint birthday party with me, Sey Ha (birthday twin and student at the house), and expat neighbor (birthday was on the 9th). I have noticed Cambodians are very adamant of celebrating on your actual birthday (but I wanted to celebrate on a Friday so more of the students could come).
I would say it was truly a Cambodian birthday. We had Khmer Curry (one of my favorite dishes), we drank, dance, sang karaoke, and listened to many many many Khmer remixes. Honestly it was a very nice birthday because I spent time around my loved ones at the house. I also got to sleep until 8am the next day which I never do and had a lovely (and very chill) morning.
I think I have learned from my (second) birthday in Cambodia (this one with my community, the last one with volunteers) is that I am truly grateful for all of the people I love. My community, my friends, my family, the students at my house, my students at school, my fellow PCVs all wished me happy birthday and have always made me feel loved, and that is something I am truly grateful for. Some students at my house got me a hair clip and a small towel for my birthday and said "no money so we all buy together" and I think that pefectly sums up my time in Cambodia, everyone's kindness, and my gratitude for being here.
P.S. WE STARTED BUILDING THE BASKETBALL COURT
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