Week Two

Well week two of volunteering is finished (no school tomorrow because of Coronation Day- whatever that is..)  annndd it was pretty much exactly like week one.   Learned another letter in the starter class- moved on from B to P and continued reading the same 10 page story in the “advanced class.”  I’m already correcting the teachers and talking over them to pronounce words or fix their vocabulary.  I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of two months I’m teaching the class and the are chillin in the back.

Stacy and I started our “to do” list of Phnom Penh sights to see before we leave.  First, we went to Independence Monument, which is really just a big pointy temple type thing.  The most exciting part of it was trying to cross the city’s largest roundabout to get close enough for a good picture.  The roundabout seriously is huge but we made it successfully across AND back. We also went to the National Museum today (half day of school, again don’t know why) to see some Khmer artifacts.  Well, we walked through that museum in about 30 minutes butttt as we were wandering around afterwards we stumbled upon Anthony Bourdain (No Reservations on The Travel Channel)!  We both walked right past him and then did a double take and went back.  Shocking to see a celebrity all the way in Cambodia but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I tend to find celebs everywhere I go…anyways we lurked a little bit and when they stopped filming took a picture with him.  I’ll try to post it.  He was very nice and the journalist that was with him told us about some good street food to check out. 

Tomorrow we are headed to the beach for the 3-day weekend. Sunday is Halloween which they call “Ghost’s Birthday.”  They love ghosts here and 100% believe in them. Every single one of them has a story to tell you about one time when they saw/heard/touched a ghost.  It’s hilarious. That’s all for week two. I’m going to include some pictures of the orphanage so you can visualize all of these stories I’m telling you.

The main area where the kids play and hangout- our room is in that building on the left.  The girls dorm is above us.

The volunteer eating area:  The red tables behind are where the kids eat.  At 11 and 5 everyday bowls like that are waiting on the table for us.  Rice goes into the white bowl and the food is in the green bowl.  We have to bring our own forks and spoons from our room.

Some of the students in my advanced class

The next few pictures are of the kids playing with the games my parents sent.  I left them on a shelf, went to dinner and came back to find the kids all over the table and floor outside with every single game out being played.  I don’t think they knew how to play any of them but they just made up their own rules I guess.  I even found some kids playing with the box like it was one of the games.

(sorry dont know how to rotate this..)

Finally a picture of the dried sting ray Stacy and I wanted a picture of but the lady made us buy it to take a picture.  We both "tasted" it but all I could manage was a tiny nibble.  Not good. (It really looked like a sting ray until the lady put it through a flattener type thing and it streched out to this.  We didn't know how to communicate that we wanted it in it's original form, maybe next time.)