Toys

We're introducing a new slogan for the pre-school classes at the MMF school. In English, it translates roughly: Learning is play; play is learning.

Pre-school education doesn't need to be sitting on a stool, saying the alphabet by rote, copying letters from the board and writing them ten times each (at least save this fun for Grade 1!!). Pre-school schould encourage kids to want to learn, engage their natural curiosity, develop social skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, verbal skills etc etc.

To do this, they need toys and their teachers need to know how to use them! Over the past few weeks, it has been great to introduce the toys I bought in Bangkok at Christmas. Some short-term teams came and spent time using these toys to play with the kids. It was fun to see!

roads

Last week it was machines. This week: roads. I did a round-trip to Phnom Penh yesterday, spending 11 hours sitting in taxis (2am-7am; 1pm-7pm....kinda mad!). Anyway, on the return journey, a couple of the guys stopped talking about cars & girls for a few minutes and talked about roads instead.

A: This section of road is really bad...not like in developed countries. In Vietnam, the roads are wide and smooth and fast.
B: I don't know about Vietnam, but in Thailand the roads are smooth and fast... and there are clear road rules.
A: Huh? Well, do people actually follow the rules.
B: Yes! They do!
A: In Vietnam, they don't just have intersections, they have bridges. You're driving down a highway and come to an intersection with another road but you don't even have to stop- you just go up over a bridge and continue.
B: In Bangkok, half of the city is bridges! You drive from one place to another and you hardly touch the ground!
A: Hmmm... it's kinda like that in Vietnam too. And another thing: even the small roads are sealed. Everyone drives straight out of their house onto a sealed road.
B: Uh-huh. Same in Thailand. In developed countries, they hardly know what a sealed road is.

I will try to remember this convo next time I'm driving in Sydney, fighting with a few million other drivers for a little patch of the wide, sealed, smooth road...

Australia Day

One of the positives about living in an non-English speaking country is that I can read people's T-shirt slogans when the wearer is often clueless as to the meaning. For example, check this guy in front of his soccer team: "It's an unfair life- so many boys so little time."

Other recently spotted messages include:
Beauty and Brains
Will Work for Love
Don't stare at me just because I'm so GOOD LOOKING :)

i still stagger

Some days I'd like to think I could say with the Apostle Paul, "Follow my example as I follow Christ." Yes, I want to walk with integrity. I want to live a life of compassion, humility, honesty, love... But most of the time these words from Tolstoy sum it all up much better:

"Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me, rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side!"

machines

The other day I had a convo with Sim that started, "did you know that in some countries people use machines to wash dishes?"

Sim replied, "What?! No. Really?! I want details...."

So I talked about the "machine that looks like cupboard in the kitchen" and how the user puts the dishes inside, adds soap, presses a button and comes back later to find clean, rinsed, near-dry dishes. Amazing! (I forget about such machines when I'm in Cambodia so it was fun to tell the story.)

off the field...

soccer pics

Sports Tourni 1

One of the things that has kept me busy lately has been hosting a three day sports tournament, from December 31- January 2.

10 adults teams and 8 Under 16s teams participated. There were over 300 players, with several hundred spectators turning out too! The adults teams played soccer, competing for cash prizes as well as a fabulous 'Christmas Cup' trophy donated by a visiting Australian team. The Under 16s played shorter soccer matches on a smaller field (9 on 9 players). This gave them the opportunity to try their skills at volleyball and a casual sport/ game called "three ball".

On the the first morning we were just starting to set up when one of the Australian team members asked, "Pip, what's with the horse running around on the field? And should we scoop up the horse poo before the game starts?!" Honestly, I hadn't even noticed there was a horse on the field! Three of the team got busy scooping poop, the horse was chased off the field and we got on with the opening ceremony!

More photos to post... but wanted to start with these reminders that although it was a hectic time, everyone had fun!

The Power of doing Nothing

It's been a hectic (sometimes chaotic) few weeks. No recent blog posts because I haven't had time to stop. breathe. think. type.

On Tuesday I found myself with no deadlines. I was planning a day of work as usual but somehow couldn't urge my body to do anything. By about 11am I gave up... spent most of the day drinking coffee, eating Tim Tams and watching back to back episodes of bliss... That night I read this text from The Power of Now that seems to justify my choice:

WHEREVER YOU ARE, BE THERE TOTALLY

...Or is there something that you "should" be doing but are not doing it? Get up and do it now. Alternatively, completely accept your inactivity, laziness, or passivity at this moment, if that is your choice. Go into it fully. Enjoy it. Be as lazy or as inactive as you can. If you can go into it fully and consciously, you will soon come out of it.

Be as lazy or as inactive as you can. I like it!

omg MORE Inspirational Jesus Statues?!

Jesus Inspirational Sports Satues

The tagline on one of these statues from Catholicsupply.com reads: To remind children that Jesus is with them always. A contemporary statue for today's youth. Jesus is with us in everything we do, watching over us & involved in all of our acts & activities.