Last Kick

I've got mixed feelings about the youth football league having finished last Sunday. I'm looking forward to reclaiming Sundays as a day of rest. However, there have been so many great things that have come from the relationships that coaches, referees & assistants have built with their players so it's sad to see the season end. For three months of the year I get out every Sunday to see children and youth have a great time playing soccer! We work hard to see them have fun. Some highlights from last weekend's final games:

• Great weather! Cool, overcast skies.


• Having morning friendly games with a dozen teams.


• Playing fun games and eating snacks.


• Hosting 6 referees and volunteers from out of town.


• Enjoying watching the final games and seeing how the kids have improved.


• The 'organised chaos' of the tophy presentations.


• Seeing the Under 13s all show up for the champion's dinner in their winner's T-shirt, medals & soccer shorts. Hearing the appropriately rowdy celebrations over dinner.


• Talking with some of the teenage girls about playing and coaching.

Last kick last weekend tho... now it's time for me to run away to Europe for a holiday.

Football Finals

Football Finals

Football Finals March 27

a simple black T

I was copying some handouts for my 3pm English class today when I noticed a T-shirt worn by one of the employees in the shop. It read-

I started with nothing
and I've got almost all of it left.

It reminded me of an article I read last week in the Cambodia Daily about migration. It quoted the Cambodian Development Resource Institute (CDRI) as saying that less than 5% of migrants leave Cambodian with proper paper work. If this is accurate, 250 000 people may have left the country in 2009 alone. Most of them pay to go illegally. They generally do 3D jobs that nobody else wants to do. (3D = dirty, difficult, dangerous). They work in construction, fishing, agriculture and factories. Sometimes they get paid between $3 and $8 per day for their efforts. Sometimes they get nothing. And there's always the risk of getting caught, locked up and spat out in Poipet. The Cambodian Daily article added that government officials said that more than 100 000 illegal Cambodian migrant workers were deported by Thai authorities via Banteay Meanchey's Poipet border crossing in 2010. Enough stats already? Here's the story of one young woman who started with nothing...

Chantha, a 19 year old from Banteay Meanchey, grew up in a poor family of four. She was unemployed and decided to go to Thailand to seek work after hearing from other villagers that there were well-paid jobs available there. She contacted an organiser who had already taken a few villagers to Thailand... To go to the intended workplace, the organiser asked her for 250 000 riels (about USD60). Chantha's household could not save such a big sum and was forced to borrow from a moneylender. The $60 did not cover everything. Chantha needed to pay for transport from her home to the border [which took four hours and cost a further $7.50].

Chantha earned 14 000 riels per day [about $3.50] while daily consumption cost her only 2500 riel [about 60 cents]. She worked hard but was happy that her hard work paid off. She expected to save 172 500 riels per month. With that, she could pay off the debt and send some money to support her family. On the 15th day of work, her expectations came to a sudden end when she and other Cambodians were seized and jailed by the police. She could not even recover the cost of transportation and the fee paid to the organisers. She was kept in a crowded room and provided food like pig feed. The room was so packed with illegal migrant workers that it was impossible to move. On the third day of her imprisonment, the police extradited her and the others to Cambodia via Poipet.

Although Chantha had such a bad experience, she believed that working in Thailand allows workers to earn more income, which can lift their families out of extreme poverty, and to learn new skills and get to know foreign places.

(Case study from CDRI)

Maybe perspective will come... but right now I'm stuck on the stupid, depressing T-shirt!

mid March

I don't know about you, but at this time of the year I'm often asking myself a few questions such as, what am I doing? why am I trying to do so much? & how come I'm so tired when it's only March?

In response, I've been thinking about my job description. (Yay that I can write and rewrite my own role whenever i need to!) Here's what I want to do:

- to make suggestions
- to get the money
- to tell stories
- to say thank you

To make suggestions. In networking with other community leaders and finding ways to cooperate in shared activities, I can't tell them what to do. I need to make suggestions and be flexible with the outcomes. Similarly, in working with a team of staff & volunteers, there's great value in throwing around ideas and seeing what seems to spark interest in the team. While our staff are still young & are growing in there stills, there remains a need to direct at times (even command!). However, I want to spend much more time making suggestions rather than giving orders!

To get the money. Yeah... I guess 'donor relations' or something would be the more commonly used term. We don't need a lot of cash but we do need some. It's my job to ask for it. I think we're a good cause!

To tell stories. I love telling stories about the work that is happening here, both to encourage other people and to motivate myself to faith, love & hope! It's great to tell stories in one-on-one conversations, group meetings or in writing. I also love telling stories about Jesus and want to keep getting better at articulating my faith using clear, interesting Khmer language.

To say thank you. There are always reasons to be thankful. I work with volunteers every week; people who invest their time coaching sports teams, helping as referees and teaching English classes. I pick up packages from friends in Australia with gifts for our work and for our staff. A few times a year I receive unexpected gifts with 'little luxuries' (mostly edible or readable!). I appreciate always having reasons to say thanks.

English class

Kids are learning at home too!

We've been working on a small activity to help twenty eight Cambodian pre-school kids Study At Home Too. Survey results just in show that the resource packs we distributed are being used by parents to help educate their children at home! In fact, almost half of the recipients are helping their kids to study at home between five and seven days a week!

On January 14, we gave out 28 Study At Home Too resource packs to children from 26 families. Each contained: alphabet flashcards, number flashcards, Grade 1 Khmer textbook (for reading practice), Grade 1 mathematics textbook, 2 story books, a writing board, chalk, an exercise book, pencil and a sharpener. Over the past ten days we've been able to survey 25 of those families and hear how they are using the books and materials to teach their pre-school aged kids.

Our survey found that 64% of the families could name five or more of the items they received. A further 28% could remember four of the ten items. When asked how many times per week they have been using the items: 28% said they used the resources 7 days per week; 20% used them 3-4 days per week and 24% used the items 1-2 days each week. (Two families didn't respond.) CCFC Poipet was surprised that over a quarter of the families say they use these resources every day!

The recipients were asked about what items they use to teach their children. 62% said that they use the alphabet cards. 52% use the Khmer textbook, 44% use the story books, 44% use the flashcards and 32% said they use the exercise book.

The question was repeated in a different way, with families being asked to give reasons about which products are the most useful. Some of the responses are as follows:

- The Grade 1 khmer textbook and the maths book are useful. The books are clear, simple and they make it easy for children to understand and to learn quickly.
- The story books with the pictures help children to be interested in learning. My child also likes the stories because the language is interesting.
- We use the exercise book, number flashcards and alphabet flashcards the most because they help my child to quickly learn the alphabet and numbers.
- The most useful were the maths book and Khmer book because these have lessons in the books that we can use. These books also have chants we can remember.
- I'm very pleased with all of the items, especially the Grade 1 Khmer book.

The next stage is to choose another 28 pre-school children and give them the same Study at Home Too packs next week. The results from Phase 2 of this activity should be out at the end of April!

U17s Stories

Two stories from U17s players. They're not dramatic life-changing or life-saving testimonies. Life-enhancing? Maybe. If so, that ok with me.

MAO PISETH: (First photo.)

My name is Piseth. I'm 17 years old and I play with team Christian. I study in Grade 9 at Kilo 4 Lower Secondary School. Most of our team study together. It's good to have this league because we don't have opportunities to play organised sport at our school. There's no playing field, no sports teacher and no competitions with other schools. Our team just started playing in the league this year. I like to play goalie. Why? Honestly, the reason I first played goalie is because I like sport but I'm not very good at football! But I think it helps that I'm tall. I think I've improved my skills as a goalie through training and playing in the last few months.

HUONG KIM HUA: (Centre, yellow jersey.)

I play for First Kick in the Under 17s division. I joined this team because I like to play football. I don't study with any of my team mates. I've had to stop studying. Now I sell cakes. Football is the only thing I do in my free time. I don't have time for any other hobbies because I'm busy selling the whole day. Football is very important to me because it's the one time I can relax and play sport with my friends. This is the first time I've ever been part of a sports team.

Women's Day- celebrating the positives

Tomorrow is International Women's Day. At this time of year I'm thankful to the Kiwis for paving the way by giving women the right to vote back in 1893. (March 8 is a Public Holiday here so I'm also compelled to take the day off!)

International Women's Day was first celebrated a hundred years ago. In 1911 more than one million men and women attended rallies in Europe and the US to ask their governments to give women the right to vote, receive training and to end discrimination. Over the past century there have been great gains in recognising and upholding women's rights. Despite the reality that globally women's health, education and violence against them is worse than men, tomorrow is still a day to celebrate the positives.

What are we doing? I've prepared some information, questions and 'homework' activities for my Khmer staff to pass on to a Grade 2 class and two English classes this afternoon. They can explain why students don't have to go to school tomorrow and ask the kids some questions:

Do women have the right to work?
Do women have the right to vote?
Do women have the right to play sport?
Do women have the right to call the police if there is a problem at home?
Do women have the right to buy land?

For homework, the children will be encouraged to think of one household job they can do tomorrow that one of the women in their household usually does (or to help with a chore). If asked why they're doing it, their teachers will instruct the children to respond, "Today is Women's Rights Day and we want to help women!" I look forward to asking some kids later in the week if any of them remembered their holiday homework!

off field action

Breaki with U13s Super Ranger team (February 26) & dinner with Bridge of Life U13s (March 2). Fun times!

I am a football player

Last night we invited the Bridge of Life team to have dinner. We played games, talked about what they're learning through football and shared about Jesus. About 6 or 7 people responded to the message to say that they wanted to 'cross the bridge' and put their faith in Jesus. Very cool. Whatever else comes out of it, it seems that youth in Poipet are enjoying playing soccer on Sundays. They put on a uniform and for an hour or so a week they're someone different. They are football players. Here's one story:

My name is Meas Chandara. I play in the Bridge of Life football team in the Under 13s league. In my family there are seven brothers and sisters. My mother died. My father is old so he doesn't work- my older brothers and sisters support me. I'm in Grade 6 at Primary School. Many of my classmates play in this league too- some in my team and some in other teams. It would be great if we could play at school too but the playground is very small.

Most of our team grew up in the same neighbourhood. I think this helps us to play as a team. Actually, we've wanted to play for a few years but didn't know about any organised competitions. It's good that we have this league... and it really makes a different to have uniforms too. Also, it helps that we have a good coach. What is a good coach? I don't know but I think that all of the coaches in the league are good coaches!

I like to play football because it's fun! It's also good for health.. and I like to see my friends. My friends and I play every day. We play barefoot, though, so sometimes our feet get hurt with cuts, swollen feet, sores and things like that. When this happens we do have to stop for a couple of days.

I also like to watch football on TV. My favourite team in the English Premier League is Arsenal. I don't know why but I've followed them since I was little. Whenever I was outside and I'd hear someone say, "Arsenal is playing," I would rush to watch the game.

So I guess I have always been interested in football. Before I would mostly just watch it and kick a ball with my friends. Now I am a football player.

March

The dawning day, the brand new month was off to an interesting start when I was heckled by a monk who rode past on the back of a moto while I was running. (Seriously nutter- haven't you ever seen a chick exercising before?!)

I got up before dawn to check the weather report. Sydney is expecting a 'scorcher' 36 degrees today. Poipet is meant to reach 36 by 10am, peaking at 41 degrees at around 1pm. It's quite normal for March. Maybe it's just not normal to attempt to be training for a marathon in this weather?! Perhaps the orange-clad dude was just surprised.

Anyway, at least I can retreat to the gym when I sleep in and miss the 5am relative cool. I'm doing better than this marathoner who claims he was kicked out of his Bangkok gym for running too fast and therefore "too loudly"!