Andy&Jules Cambodia Travels

Last Friday evening we went to the local Wat (temple) for a children's dance peformance.  Here, the monks and a dance teacher provide language and dance instruction to nearly 2,000 street children, orphans and other children from very poor families.  The Wat is pursuing outreach to other NGOs and funders so we were given front row seats.  Wearing colourful costumes the children of various ages poored their enthusiasm into the traditional dances.  Many of the dances were performed as stories with some narration.  The numbers included some from minority hill tribes.  The concentration and effort on the part of the kids was tremendous.  By the end of the evening the shared recognition between the children, monks and teachers, and the audience that these children had achieved so much resulted in a lot of emotion.  Julie and I are keen to return for another show and if you visit it is a must see!

On Sunday, we got on the boat which Julie had reserved for us again.  This time we took a shorter trip up the Mekong to Wat Hanchey.  An overheated engine required us to pull over to the river side but after apx 45 min we were back in action and chugging up river.  The Wat proved to be unique because it sits atop a hill and gave us sweeping views to the east over the Mekong and its islands.  Other than some temple dogs which decided to ambush Julie from around a corner with loud barking it was a serene place.  We got coconuts with straws to go which hit the spot on this hot day. 

Today is our first day off where we have nothing scheduled except coming to the internet cafe and sleeping in. We do have an informal wrap up meeting with the Assistant Director for the VSO (Sarah Knibbs) this afternoon, but it should be a short meeting. Yesterday, Andrew and I finished our 5 1/2 weeks of basic Khmer language training. We are happy that we will not be in language class 6 days a week and that the 10-hour VSO classroom workshops in sweltering buildings are over.  Also, it will be a nice change to leave the 'Big Brother' house in Kampong Cham.  The novelty of living side-by-side with 25 other ppl 24/7 for nearly 2 months in a reality TV-like setting eventually begins to fade.  However, there is sadness as the group is ready to split up and pursue their our own lives.  We will miss this interesting and fun bunch.  Anyway, we will be back here in Kampong Cham in late January for two more weeks of advanced language training as a follow up to the basic training we just received. 

Tomorrow, we leave for a three-day village homestay with Khmer farming families with language immersion.  The families go to bed at 7:30pm and rise at 4am and because the homes are small we will all be going to bed at the same time.  Julie is going to sneak in her headlamp so that she can read.  We expect they may give us some farm work to do and we will probably have a soccer game with the village kids which should be fun.

Off we go!  We'll write you next week from Phnom Penh.

A&J