Lent

12 words of lent

It's character building,
apparently.
I wonder again how much character one needs.

Cheryl Lawrie
[hold :: this space]

Sitha and his speeches

Sitha studied at the KEC English school for about 6 months. Last week their class finished the Pre-Intermediate level book. Sitha was a diligent student. He walked to the English school and always arrived on time. He participated in class activities and asked questions when he didn't understand. Sitha had a ready smile and a gleam in his eyes behind his glasses. Almost every evening, he would stay behind for a minute to thank me for teaching that class.

On Saturday Sitha was killed in a motorbike accident. He was taken to hospital but his injuries were too serious.... another Cambodian teenager lost in a road tragedy.

Over the past two months one of our interns, Dave, taught Sitha and the others in the 5:20pm class. I dropped in last Tuesday evening and talked with Vanna and Sitha. Sitha made another speech, saying that he was very happy to see me and wished me a happy Khmer New Year and safe travels back to my homeland and good heath and etc etc . This time I joked with him, "Hey- no need for big speeches today! It's a long time until KNY! I will see you soon.... this week or next week at the latest!" I rode off with Teacher David on the back of the moto while Vanna and Sitha called out, "Yes! Thank you! Goodbye!"

I'm sad that I won't hear another of Sitha's speeches. And I have just one short speech in reply:

Sitha, Congratulations on finishing Pre-Intermediate. You were a great student. We'll miss you in the new class. Thank you for bringing happiness to the classroom and for motivating me almost every day with your gentle, polite, encouraging words of appreciation. May your family and friends find comfort in their grief.

2010 Champions!

My team won their soccer final! Amazing!

A few months ago I started training and coaching this group of Grade 7-9 Girls from Poipet High School. Yesterday, after a 2-2 draw at full time, our best player stepped up to play goalie, our most skillful shooters lined up for penalty kicks and within a couple of minutes our team had won the game.

The girls were so excited... jumping around, hugging, screaming and laughing in the rain. I'm sure this will give them something to talk about at school today.

The Cure at Troy

I've seen a couple of different versions for this poem by Seamus Heaney. No matter, my favourite part is in every one of them. I love the optimism expressed in the second stanza. Very quotable/ preach-able.

Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge,
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing,
The utter self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.

close shave

Last weekend some friends passing through Poipet asked if they knew where I could buy some head lice shampoo. (Yeah, yeah... some "friends" wanted hair lice shampoo? Yes! Friends. Not me!) Anyway, I jumped on my moto and asked at four of the larger pharmacies in town but none of them sell it. (They'd never even heard of the stuff!) Their advice was:

1. Use regular shampoo (think they've been using regular shampoo already...)
2. Have the person cover their eyes and then spray their head with regular canned insect spray (like Raid?... are you kidding?)
3. Shave their head (umm... it's a girl we're talking about here... not going to happen.)

So my advice was:

4. Wait another day until you are out of Poipet and keep searching!

best job in the world...

Get up U13s!

Getting Up

What makes kids excited to get up at 5am? In Poipet, it's soccer! The March 8 competition was really grassroots stuff... six team, guys and girls playing together, about 90 kids... something simple to get them up, excited and into the experience of playing sport.

Standing Up

We played soccer from 8am-12:30pm and then had lunch. This was time for the girls to stand up... literally. Many had never eaten in a restaurant before and they refused to sit down to eat! Instead, they stood so they could reach all four dishes on the table. They ate two, three or four bowls of rice. They didn't leave the table until everything was finished. The table was a mess. Iced tea was spilled on the floor. There were grains of rice stuck to their cheeks... and they loved it! If there was a trophy for eating the most food at lunch, the girls would have won it!

Next?

A number of the coaches and team leaders asked when the next U13s tournament will be held. I want the kids to keep practicing. I want them to keep competing. I want the coaches and leaders to keep developing relationships with their players. But I can't organize a tournament every month. So I'm holding a meeting to pitch the idea that they organize another small tournament in April. I hope to see emerging coaches, referees and administrators step up to lead so that more young people can get into playing soccer in Poipet.

U13s Soccer

On Monday March 8 we held out first Poipet Under 13s soccer tournament (in cooperation with SALT Academy). It was such fun!

no offense

Someone told me yesterday that every "overseas missionary" he knows was "socially inept" before they even left the US.

I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it. Perhaps he has only met a special select "missionary " few. Or maybe he forgot to add that Australians who choose to live overseas are generally confident, competent, intelligent, articulate and socially adaptable creatures.

...At least I would like to think that being a weirdo wasn't my primary recommendation for being sent here.

Perspective?

I've heard I'm supposed to keep perspective. I don't know.... I lose it. I find it. I lose it again. Maybe it's more about viewing a situation from several vantage points then deciding on one that seems right?

This week I've been planning for the Under 13s soccer tournament coming up on the public holiday Monday March 8. It's all in the details. Which field works best for kids who play barefoot? Who pays for transport? How many coloured vests do we need to distinguish the teams since they're not wearing uniforms? What is a reasonable deposit for loaned equipment that will encourage the coaches to take responsibility for the balls, pumps etc? How does this activity line up with our organisation's values of empowerment, accountability, equality, servanthood, partnership and sustainability?

When I heard that the NGO I thought was going to provide some lunch wasn't able to do so anymore, I considered a number of options. Bananas? Snacks? A shorter program?

There will be about 100 kids and some of them will have traveled for over an hour to get there. I don't want them playing outside in 30-degree heat for 4-5 hours and then send them home nothing more than a banana in their fist. This time we're booking a restaurant. For some of these kids it may well be their first time to eat in a restaurant. We'll turn up sweaty, dirty and wearing whatever combination of ragged shorts and T-shirts we can find and we'll eat rice with four hot dishes and clean drinking water. (It's US$1.75 per person.)

I don't know if this is the right perspective but I hope the kids have a great time... and maybe that this little party makes God smile too. I want to show these kids that they are highly valued. So this time we're doing lunch not bananas (and lots of soccer too!).

Training... for something

A couple of months ago I signed up for the Canberra marathon on April 11. Turns out there's a legal dispute in the Federal Court over who owns the right to manage the event so it's not certain that the race will go ahead in 2010. Some media reports have said that the race has already been axed. The Canberra Marathon website promises that it hasn't been canceled.. yet.. but that they are "seriously exploring all options for April 11". I'm still running and still training for whatever race I can find sometime in April. Over the past week I've tried two different training runs.

1. The 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Run.

This is a winner! Perfect speed & endurance session for training for a half-marathon or a mid-week session in a marathon training program. (I did it at a gym with my music kicking through the speakers and the sports channel on silent on the TV.)

Run 5K at half-marathon pace
Break 5 mins (ab bench/ core work)
Run 4K at pace
Break 5 mins (weights/ upper body)
Run 3K at pace
Break 5 mins (walk/ stretch)
Run 2K at pace
Jog 1K to cool down

2. The Sandwich Run

It might be called a 'sandwich run' but this aint no picnic! The goal is to do two long runs over two consecutive days in order to build strength. My first bite at the sandwich wasn't good... I need to try this one again!

Day 1: I ran 25K at a good pace. It was fun and easy.
Day 2. I had planned to run 30-35K. I ran 20K. The first 12K were fine. The next 8K were slow. Then I quit. I was nackered.

Next time...