WEEK 1: Overwhlemed with attention, soup, and exhaustion.

There were so many amazing memories and experiences that we had at "The Centre", that I cannot possibly list them all here. It was a truly unique experience that we will both never forget. So that this doesn't turn into the longest blog of all time, I am going to try to list some highlights from each of the 4 weeks we were at the centre. Will try to be brief, but that's not usually my style :)

As we got into the van and left Phnom Penh, we really had no idea what to expect. We drove for a while into a rural area and then found ourselves at the gates of the centre. Some curious kids ran up to the van to see us, but we got a good look around the place led by one child, Dara, who had escaped from Kindergarten class to be our personal tour guide! We were told that due to high winds, the rooms we were supposed to be in aren't available because they now had no roof! So we were shown to another building that we had all to ourselves that had 2 rooms, AC (surprisingly!), and one "bathroom" (aka no hot water and a toilet that didn't work. You can't truly say that you've traveled rough until you have had the conversation with your travel companion as to whether we could both agree that peeing in the shower drain was OK. The answer, by the way, is yes.) After a meeting with Yee, we realized that they had absolutely no plan for us while we were there, and that we could do what we wanted. We set up a meeting with the English teacher, Mey, and POOF! we were suddenly English teachers... for 5 hours per day! After watching Mey teach for only one day, we were given some students to teach and off we went. I have never worked so hard or been so exhausted in my life. Having 2 teachers for parents, I knew that already, but this just confirmed how insane and how needed teachers are... and also confirmed what I already knew... I am not cut out to be one!! Considering we had never taught and didn't know any Khmer, we did the best we could during the first week. Our job was made so much easier by the fact that the children at the centre, as well as the children from the local community that we offer classes to, REALLY want to learn. It was amazing to see their excitement at being able to study, some of them for the first time in their lives, and they just couldn't get enough of English class. Such a dramatic change from the kids at home! The attention these kids need and crave is so intense. Many of them came from such broken homes that they had nobody to pay any attention to them. As soon as we appeared anywhere, we were literally swarmed with kids that wanted us to play with them, watch them do something, etc, etc. We were constantly bombarded with shouts of "Teacher! TEACHER!!!", but you couldn't help but try to give them as much energy as possible. It's no wonder we got addicted to drinking Cambodian instant coffee packets!
The rest of the first week flew by. We were up every morning at 6am for 6:30 breakfast. Every meal was rice and some kind of soup and water to drink... very traditional Khmer food. We love rice so it was OK for us, but a whole fish on your plate staring at you before 7am was a bit much sometimes! Everyone at the centre was impressed with our eating, and said that most foreigners don't eat Khmer food or get sick. We blended right in... except for the whole foreign white skin thing :) Every night, without fail, we got eaten alive by mosquitoes. (not in our rooms, but around dinner time). Just for fun, at the end of the first week, I counted 79 bites on just my legs! This continued for our entire stay at the centre (our strategy of just letting them bite us at first then they will go away was not successful).
Not wasting any time, we planned our first activity for the kids at the end of the first week: Movie Night. It was with best intentions that we planned this night, went out and bought a movie that was dubbed in Khmer (The Waterhorse), bought soda pop for each kid, and bought a Phnom Penh street popcorn vendor's entire stock! However, when movie night came, nobody, including the staff, had any idea what we were talking about! Most had never been to a cinema before, and there isn't even a word for popcorn in Khmer! We explained that at home, we go to see a movie and eat popcorn and soda. Everyone LOVED it! The kids and staff were so cute and so excited. They all crowded in to watch the movie, and some of them even saved their precious pop for a later day because it was such a valued treat! If anything we left behind sticks, I bet it will be movie night!

From L to R: Srey Ka, Chanthy, Srey Leak, Srey They (Outside their patea); Pheaktra and Kim; Mars and Rim outside Rim's patea (home); The kids enjoying popcorn, pop and a movie.