English for Cambodians

Since arriving in Poipet I've been doing some English teaching. The text books we use are good for language learning... but sometimes I wonder about the value of teaching Cambodian students speaking skills through ordering hot dogs and fries or writing skills through answering comprehension questions about Mike's ski vacation. I was excited to find a series of small books called English for Cambodians in a local store. These are the books that students from Grade 7-12 study. Here are two of my favourite texts from Book One:

1. This is Mrs touch. She's got a nice family. It isn't too big and it isn't too small. She's got two sons and a daughter. Her daughter's got a baby. She's happy. Mr Touch's a grandmother, but she's only forty years old. She's lucky.

[So lucky! So Cambodian!]

2. Navy's got a lovely birthday present... a story book. The book is about two men in Australia, The first man is American. He wants to fly back to the U.S.A, but he can't. He hasn't got any money. He's looking for a job, but he can't one. He hates being poor. He wants to kill someone. The second man is an Australian policeman. He sees the American in the street with a gun. He runs after him. The American runs away, but he's slow. And he can't fly. Navy feels for him.

Concrete Solutions

There are times when part of the answer to a complex problem is concrete. Literally.

Take, for example, an Aids clinic. The patients need professional care, clean water, food and appropriate nursing assistance. They also need toilets and bathroom facilities. (As opposed to blocked toilets that leave stagnant pools of filthy water surrounding a building that houses desperately weak people who are trying to fight infections!) They need clean toilets. They need drains that will continue to flow even in the wet season. The solution includes doctors, medical administrators, relatives, visitors, donors, nurses, coordinators, volunteers... as well as concrete and a fresh coat of paint.

our place

We got a house to rent! Yay! It is a GREAT location (on the main road) and it is BIG! The house boasts 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, an office/ meeting space, lock-up gate at the front and a covered area at the back. This isn't the newest house in Poipet and it has some unusual features (e.g. some of the bedrooms are tiny... kinda more like staying in a cell than in a room...) but I think that it will work for us! : )

no taxi today...

Siem Reap. Battambang. Pnhom Penh. Every day there is a row of cars on the main road waiting to take me somewhere out of here... The drivers call out their destinations as I pass. Siem Reap. Sisophon. Phnom Penh. I often call back: Poipet! (yes, someone is staying...) Poipet! (not going any place else today...) Poipet!

I live here. I've chosen this sometimes-crazy border point. So I name this city as if the act of simply saying a place might give value to it. I guess I speak it out in the hope that this city might become a Destination. Home. Community. Family..... I say: Poipet.

This morning I went for a quiet coffee on my own. I took with me the notebook that Malis and I use to write down information about people we meet during the week. Most of them don't know I'm studying them. I don't know them well but it is my plan to learn them. So I take out the notebook and study their names. Rathy. Vasna. Heng. Pirom. I think about their families. I remember some of the things they've told me in conversation. I allow their names to resonate in my mind, holding them in thought. Even though I hardly know how to bless them I lift up their names. And I hope that whatever their Destination they might find a Home there.

smells of cambodia

The other day I opened my backpack and was almost overcome by the smell of prohok (Cambodian fermented fish paste). Funny- I've never used my backpack to make prohok?

The mystery was solved when I extracted a two-day-old used gym top that I'd overlooked in the last clean out.... Scary!

pikkies of home

Here are a few photos of my new home city.... Before the Storm. National Highway 5. Kids playing. Morning coffee : )