Hello!
these are my last 24 hours in this school! isnt that weird? for me anyway.. tomorrow I am standing in the airport waiting for David! we will travel for three weeks and on 2nd of July I am in belgium again!
I am looking forward to go home, to be in Belgium again and to all the things belgian people do (sit in a pub and drink a beer?). and to visit my friends and family. On one hand it is also a bit scary, as I have to look for a job, a place to live, find my friends again (because everybody is moving!)….
I am also really looking forward for my holiday now and the most important thing to see David again ofcourse. also this is a bit scary!
but i also know i will miss it here and i will need some time to adapt myself again at home. I lived in such a different way, in a different country,… for nine months… I learned so many things. I saw so many beautiful things. I also saw so many “ugly”things. I met wonderful people. Especially I will miss my students. this week we had a goodbye party and it was really nice! i also got some nice presents and a lot of letters and cards, so nice. but one of the best presents is that they talk english and that they say they improved.
I am so thankful I got this opportunity and chance and also that I took this chance…
anyway, I hope i will see you all soon !
Love
Jox
Filed under: my life in cambodia
After a weekend sea and beaches and snorkeling at sihanoukville, I am ready for my last three weeks and a half as a volunteer!!
Sometimes I wonder, did I really do my best? Is it everything I can do? Every day I learn more things about Cambodia, about the people, about how things are.
My students tell me more about how the people are afraid of things, of talking against the government, changing things… if we listened to Sunday bloody Sunday, they were so surprised people in europe can sing these things, because here they would get killed, they say.
I am reading this book,
Cambodia now (Coates), and it also answers some of my questions. For example… I always go to copy in the same copy shop. There is a man who I think has an intellectual disability. His body is also covered with red circles. I thought of it before, what can it be… it looks like it was burned one time. I thought of torturing (during khmer rouge maybe). I read a chapter about health. Probably it was not “torturing” but “a medical treatment”. Hot glasses should suck out the bad spirits who make someone sick (or in this case, intellectual disabled). I only see this man, not only with his disability, but also covered with red circles.
I read about projects, working with all kind of possible groups and helping on all kind of areas.
I visit projects. Last week I visited the sisters from Sister Teresa (you know, the famous one 
) They work with children and adults with aids, TB,… I walked around in their little hospital. I admire their work, but I also see a lack of so many things, like every where.I see people alone in their bed. I see a boy with a disability walking around in wet pants. I see another girl with a disability tight in her bed (for good reasons, that is not the problem… the problem is there are no people who can do things with her). I think about the people with disabilities I know in my country. My degree should be able to make me work with them. But do they really need me? I am wondering then, if I see these people. They get love, they get attention, they go to school, they have people who speak for them, they can speak theirselves, … Here, the only thing they see is their ceiling or the “doctor”who burns them with glasses. I don’t know… So although I still learn every day, there are also more questions every day.How do the people really think about me, about “us”? My own students, who know me pretty well, surprise me even sometimes with their images of Europeans. ‘Teacher, I thought you never cleaned before in your country!” I want to live in the kind of
Europe they have in mind: nobody has to clean or to work, money just falls out of the sky… I KNOW certain things are much much much easier, but still… I know they think I have sooo much money because I can be here. And you know what; I also know some people in
Europe think this. Because they think “she can afford working nine months for free”. I am not going to put my energy in making these kinds of discussions. The people who know me know I don’t come from the richest family in Belgium. I only know that the most people around me have more.
What do you have to do with the little children who come to sell things and say “it is not fair you don’t buy from me! You are not nice!” while you are reading that it is better not to give streetchildren, but in stead bring them to shelters, or support the shelters and organisations who work with them because then you really change their style of living, on long term. If you just give them, then they will do this always. But how do you explain to a toddler who just wants to eat NOW?
So I am wondering… Who learned from my work here? Maybe I am the person who learned the most! So that is kind of selfish almost! No, I was thinking… ofcourse I didn’t change a lot or my work here meant so much. But that is normal. Because who are we to change another country? The people think so different, they are different,they have to do things different… so I think the only thing we can do, is show how we are, what our knowledge is, give some support… and the rest they have to do theirselves in their own way.
My students are the seeds. I just gave some water. Other people also give water: education, love, hope,... But they also need a good earth to grow in, a good environment to be in. Only
Cambodia can give them this and this is sometimes lacking here. They need schools, support, hospitals, laws, security, rights… They also need some sun, and this is their own power. How they believe they can do things, how they want to work, how they want to change and think they can change… I see the sun in a lot of students here, it is very nice to see, but sometimes it is also shining not so hard. They are afraid. They think it is not possible anyway, so why trying? Or they don’t take initiative. This is not only in the “big”way, also in small things, for example just in class that they sometimes are so passive or don’t try to think. Also some other people I meet on the streets or somewhere else. Maybe I see it wrong. I KNOW they think and act different and they do things in so many different ways and that mine is not the right one. But that doesn’t stop me of sometimes feeling frustrated and having the feeling I want to take them by the shoulders and shake them a little bit (what I do NOT do by the way… I just think sometimes). Anyway, a lot of questions and thinking and much more than I write here and much complicated that I write here. It is so funny to read this again, the way I am writing now, it sounds so.. I don’t know how it sounds or should sound. Anyway. So everything is very fine here. I am only red. Stupid sun!But it is also raining every day now. Interesting to see the nature change like this, suddenly more noise (animals), green,...
It will be weird, these last weeks, but I will enjoy them! JO x
How can you meet a princess and a bride in 3 days time? *Meeting the princess…Last Thursday was a very special day in this school… you could notice it the days before. Everyone was cleaning, everything was clean, and people were running around like crazy, things were moved, tables were getting decorated … A red carpet arrived… Guests from Europe, Thailand and
Japan arrived too…It was the blessing of a new building of the elementary school! Thursday more guests arrived, from the embassy or from NGOs. The most special guest was of course a princess, send by the King who was too busy himself to come. The princess is a cousin of the king. The children danced and sung, and she smiled, like a princess should smile! She went around the school and went on the picture with me. She said she felt like a sandwich, as I am two times taller as she is. A very funny and friendly lady who did not act like she was the most important person that day.
*meeting the bride…Saturday morning at 5.30 the taxi arrived. I still cannot find an answer on the question ”how many Cambodians do you get in a taxi?”. Maybe it is infinitive, or anyway, that is the way it looks like. Every time you think the car is full, people keep entering the car. Or they will just take a place on the roof if it is really full (it was a little bus so this was “possible”. We also had a chicken on our roof). We drove to the
Mekong, in Kampong Cham province. Then we left the “normal” roads and the adventure begun. More then one hour on sand roads, between forests, fields, cows, and little villages… nowhere you could see shops, electricity, and so on… I think this place was really the most far I ever got from things like this. It was really cool. But I cannot describe… me and bernadeth were wondering how we have to describe and my only answer I can give you is “go yourself”. We arrived in their village… all wooden huts, a lot of sand and dusk, cows, more animals… we met the bride and the groom, Dany and Hai, two of my evening class students and two lovely people. Then we rested… we got a place in a house of a relative. Also the house is difficult to describe… everything is in the same room… it is very simple, if you compared with the houses I know at home. Maybe you see it as an attic, as the roof looks like a roof on an attic. Above my head (where I was sleeping) there were birds making their nest. Of course I did not think about where the birds went to the toilet… As soon as we arrived, we were not alone… people followed us, came to look how we were resting… and then we were going to wash ourselves.. Although the Cambodians will not wear clothes which are too short or bikinis or whatever things that are too naked, they can wash themselves outside in a sarong (they throw water over themselves). For us this is weird, I mean, I feel quiet comfortable in a swimming suit if I go swimming, but I would not feel comfortable by washing myself outside... And also, we think, can you get really clean if you still wear a sarong? (but probably yes) Anyway, there was also a bathroom, next to two very cute pigs!, (though the same principle: you have to throw water over yourself) (because there is no other water) but I think also here they still wear their sarong. They were very surprised that we didn’t take a sarong and they were more surprised that bernadeth went in and closed the door and I waited outside for my turn. They were so surprised that everybody started to laugh. Maybe there was still another difference, I don’t know why they were laughing, but it was very funny according to them...Then we ate. Rice of course. But the food and the way they eat, I really like. Then the first ceremony started. A few Buddhist monks came and talked or sung in their own Buddhist monk way, you should hear it to know it. Dany and hai had something at their ears, I don’t really know the exact meaning, also the monk with who we talked later could not really explain, but it is for good luck probably. And then we went to bed. Also here, the people thought “let’s follow the barang!”(barang=foreigner). So there we were, three or four people sitting next to our bed, looking how we were getting ready to go to bed!!! I am normally not shy to change clothes in front of people I know, but this was so weird for me too… people I don’t know, just sitting and really staring at us. Maybe they found us impolite because we were a bit annoyed and wanted to go to sleep. And of course, we are used to something that is called “privacy”, but I think this is quiet a western something, I don’t know… for us it was also a weird situation, we found them impolite. These things are really difficult sometimes. Trying to find out what things they are used to, how they see things, what they expect… especially if you cannot really ask them (language..). But we slept well on the floor until 4.30 am because they started to sing! The next ceremonies started… everybody blessed the couple, and then there was the cutting of the hair… in between we ate our rice soup as breakfast… The ceremonies were really interesting to see.. so different. And so many things! We don’t have so many ceremonies at home.. and, for every new ceremony, the couple had different clothes! They rent the clothes of course, which was funny because the costumes of Hai were always a little too big. And you cannot really recognize dany, as they use really a lot of make up. Ohyeah, they make the face whiter! WHITE! And in
Europe every girl tries to make herself brown. I decided I will not give money to products who say you will be more brown or whatever. It is just crazy if you think about it. The people here love my skin and I love their skin. So maybe we should all start to love our own skin more and stop spending money to make it different. I tried already to tell this to my students but every night I still see them putting cream on their face who promise them a white skin. And a girl still told me about her niece (one of the cutest children in school), she is not beautiful because she is so brown. Anyway, back to the wedding!We decided we were tired so we went to bed again and I think we missed one ceremony but we thought it was already break time… At three pm it started again, dinner was served already! (we didn’t eat lunch because we knew it was going to be like this). The food was good. There came a lot of guests but they also went quickly… they eat and go! Well, not everybody because also the dancing is a very important part like everywhere! Drinking too although I think the people drink less alcohol then on any Belgian feast. But maybe that says more about the Belgian people then about Cambodian people. I tried to teach some men how they have to put beer in their glass but I did not succeed. I think a lot of Belgian men would think they rape the beer. (They just “throw” –instead of doing it properly- it in a glass full of ice!) But now I like it already, beer with ice. Or sometimes ice with beer. It is quiet nice because it is so hot. The dancing was nice too. We could impress the people because the students here taught us already how to dance a bit on Khmer songs. And the ‘disco” songs we are more used then the Cambodian (especially the girls, the boys seemed to like these songs, the girls seemed to like the Khmer songs more). Especially the hands are so important in these dancing. Did I tell you already about my Khmer dress? Well, you just look at the pictures! The skirt is made of silk!We had an evening snack which was –guess! - rice with chicken. It was a very cool way to eat a chicken, but as I said before “just come and do it, you will see”.At 11 pm we went to bed, the music stopped one hour later… at 4 am the day later everybody seemed to be awake and at 5 our taxi was there again… It was really nice… to see Hai and Dany so happy, they are so lovely. To see the wedding, all the ceremonies… it seemed to be so important, all these things…to dance, to eat… to be in a village like this… wonderful people who –although it was sometimes not easy to understand them- are so nice. I am really happy I could go to a wedding like this and I am even happier that it was in a village like this.
Pictures online soon! Not much other news… Oh yeah, of course, David has a job (Starting in September) (Well done you, stoeferke ) Byebyeeeee Joxxx
Filed under: my life in cambodia
It’s already the end of March… wow, times goes fast…….. Anyway, I am still fine! March was a very calm month but also a nice month… We didn’t go very far, just in
Phnom Penh but I did some interesting things though! Maybe tomorrow I will put some pictures online from the next activities: I went one day with the first year’s students to a kind of garden. They were all so excited we wanted to come with them and they were very happy. I also went to visit a house of a girl, also first years. Very friendly family, nice neighbourhood, only too much food!! And more student related activities: yesterday I went to a party of a girl from the second year. It was a party for her new born niece so I could buy cute clothes! Jeuj!Oh, and one day I also went again with the CCH (see February) to do some activities in a poor neighbourhood in
Phnom Penh. It was weird, a completely different part of the city where you normally come as a tourist… no cars, very small streets, and a lot of garbage/dust…. But it was nice. So I think it was a month in which I saw again a bit more of
Cambodia’s life.
It is also getting hotter… but last week it rained so that was so nice… the smell and the sound of the rain…
Ohohohoh and good news! Two of my evening class students (=staff) are going to marry next month!!!!!! I am so happy for them, they are two lovely students!!! It went very quickly, because they are not so long boy and girlfriend… they wanted to wait a little bit but their family decided also a little bit. But they look very happy!! And maybe I will go to the party too!
This week we have exams and then holidays! I will go to
Thailand but I will tell you more about it when I come back…..
Byebye!
Filed under: my life in cambodia, projects, sponsoring!, travelling in cambodia
Oops I am sorry for my absence… but… I am back! And apparently you still want to read because there are still people visiting my site, even if I didn’t write for such a long time. Probably I didn’t write because I have” my personal diary” and I type everything in emails and not on this site. Anyway, I am fine! Still teaching (which is sometimes very nice, a lot of fun and also rewarding. And sometimes frustrating) and visiting the country and enjoying and getting brown (well, “Jo brown” which means white with a little brown color in it)
But…February… If I think about last month I think about….:
*The Garbage dump. In February I “visited” two times the dump. If you think about all the garbage the capital in your country and you put it all just on the ground, and you imagine high temperature, no rain (for the moment) ,: you can imagine how it looks. And how it smells. A big mountain, smoke, bad bad smell. And people working on it. And (naked) children. Little children. If you see toddlers running around barefoot, as if it is normal (well, I guess for them it is normal. But that makes it even worse), like in a garden, you ask yourself questions. They shouldn’t be there. But they have to work, pick the garbage. For almost no money. They live in a house next to the garbage. The “a room with a view” gets a new meaning here! Anyway, I visited the first time with a lot of children of the CCH (see links on this page! On your left side I think). They are children who used to work on this dump. Now they are in the centre. Sometimes they come back: they give the children who are on the dump bread, they play with them, they read stories, they dance, they learn them to wash their hands… very very beautiful to see, an experience I will never forget. I visited the CCH and the dump the second time with my mother (see later). It was nice to see them all again, very nice children and staff, they gave you anytime a warm welcome. Of course it is good, they take care of the children who should not be on this dump. It is even very good. And it is also good if you support them (about supporting: a part of your sponsormoney went also to the CCH!) but still I think other things there should be done. Why do the people have to do this kind of job? Why is there this awful smelly mountain in the first place? But apparently nobody here, who is important enough to change things, is asking these questions.
*the visit of The Mother. Mothers are weird creatures, no? They say they are scared of flying and that they are not interested in countries which are so far away. And still, one day they are standing in front of your nose. And with a lot of chocolate, “Den Humo” and Jenever (but keep this quiet for the sisters). Very nice to show someone at home how my life is here. And to have some decent conversations, in Dutch! We visited some things in the country, some projects too,… and we stayed here in the centre, my mother was in my class sometimes (good student!), she learned to dance,…. Yes, very nice. You can admire our faces on the pictures page
*One year!February was also the month of realising that time goes fast (when you are in love).
“That’s all, teacher!” (The way my students end something when they speak or write)
Kiss,Jo
Hello everyone! It`s been a while that I wrote on here. Shame on me! How are you?I am fine! More and more I am starting to get to know my students better and I feel that I am also growing as a teacher. I try more things and I follow more my own style of teaching. I also know the girls better. It is sometimes weird to be a teacher here, because after schooltime you are getting more and more friends with them too. You talk to them, they learn me khmer,… very nice!Last Saturday I also went to a birthdayparty of a sister of a student of me. I was very happy she invited me and it was a nice party. Nice to observe some things, like how boys and girls behave to eachother (girls don’t really speak with the boys.. my students who normally talk a lot, were very silent when they were close). Sometimes it is difficult teaching here, not because of the language or something, but because on on hand it is less organised but on the other hand there are some stupid, strict rules. The combination of the two can make it very frustrating sometimes. You don’t have materials, there are not enough teachers or teachers are absent, hours can change every five seconds,, nobody checks what you are doing in your lesson,… are the chaotic, not organised examples. But there are also these rules that the (Asian?) sisters have or on some things they can be strict. Most of the time I don’t get annoyed by it. I am quiet flexible and I knew this in advance too. And I can adapt myself to a lot of situations. Sometimes it can be more frustrating. But anyway, I don’t make myself angry in it, that is no use. I try to work in all kind of situations, it is interesting. And sometimes it also has his advantages. Anyway, I just try to focus on doing my best with the girls. Other things I did in the past weekends…mmm I went swimming one time! Can you imagine, lying outside at a swimmingpool in november? And I also went shopping and I walked around in town. Relaxing things. But you need it. Well, I need it sometimes.
Then I wanted to write something about the sponsormoney. I gave till now some little amounts to projects here and there that I came across during travelling (see earlier things I wrote). I gave a bigger part to the sisters here, to use for my students. Let me explain, these students are studying Home and Food management. So they learn how to cook. But there is not enough money to buy all the ingredients, so the girls have to buy it and bring to class. But they are too poor to buy it all the time. So they learn a lot of cooking without cooking. So part of the money is going to ingredients.Another small part I used for the volunteers room. We have a volunteersroom but it was more like a doctors waiting room (ilarias words). Because I think the volunteers here are very important and they also deserve something nice (not only this years volunteers, but also for the next years) I bought a radio and a pinboard. On the pinboard there are now pictures, a calendar…. So our room looks nicer now and we have music!I think in total I used now about half of the money. I will give a better report at the end of the year. If people still want to donate, just email me (Jo_Frederix@hotmail.com) and will give you my belgian bank account.I (and the other volunteers) also started to make an english “book”. The girls don’t have english books here, they write everything down in a notebook. I also started with making copies for them with the money. But I am typing now in word a kind of book. They need some special english, about hotel, restaurant… and they need basic english.. so a combination of the two, that you don’t really find in excisting books. So if this is finished I will give maybe more money to the school here to print this book for the next years.
So, I hope the people who helped me are happy that they know a little bit more J But I am happy here. Sometimes it seems to be a long time or you miss some things. But there are so many nice moments that makes you feel warm and happy and you forget the less nice moments like that in a second. now I can already tell you about the nice moments of last month but I don’t remember the other moments. That is good no? Oh and not only the people here make me feel that way. I am still receiving nice mails and cards from people who are reading this. They say me things like “you are doing a good job”or “because of you I realised there are so many possibilities in life”That makes me go wooooooooooow. Thank you so much. Love,Teacher Jo X
Hello everyone! It`s been a while that I wrote on here. Shame on me! How are you?I am fine! More and more I am starting to get to know my students better and I feel that I am also growing as a teacher. I try more things and I follow more my own style of teaching. I also know the girls better. It is sometimes weird to be a teacher here, because after schooltime you are getting more and more friends with them too. You talk to them, they learn me khmer,… very nice!Last Saturday I also went to a birthdayparty of a sister of a student of me. I was very happy she invited me and it was a nice party. Nice to observe some things, like how boys and girls behave to eachother (girls don’t really speak with the boys.. my students who normally talk a lot, were very silent when they were close). Sometimes it is difficult teaching here, not because of the language or something, but because on on hand it is less organised but on the other hand there are some stupid, strict rules. The combination of the two can make it very frustrating sometimes. You don’t have materials, there are not enough teachers or teachers are absent, hours can change every five seconds,, nobody checks what you are doing in your lesson,… are the chaotic, not organised examples. But there are also these rules that the (Asian?) sisters have or on some things they can be strict. Most of the time I don’t get annoyed by it. I am quiet flexible and I knew this in advance too. And I can adapt myself to a lot of situations. Sometimes it can be more frustrating. But anyway, I don’t make myself angry in it, that is no use. I try to work in all kind of situations, it is interesting. And sometimes it also has his advantages. Anyway, I just try to focus on doing my best with the girls. Other things I did in the past weekends…mmm I went swimming one time! Can you imagine, lying outside at a swimmingpool in november? And I also went shopping and I walked around in town. Relaxing things. But you need it. Well, I need it sometimes.
Then I wanted to write something about the sponsormoney. I gave till now some little amounts to projects here and there that I came across during travelling (see earlier things I wrote). I gave a bigger part to the sisters here, to use for my students. Let me explain, these students are studying Home and Food management. So they learn how to cook. But there is not enough money to buy all the ingredients, so the girls have to buy it and bring to class. But they are too poor to buy it all the time. So they learn a lot of cooking without cooking. So part of the money is going to ingredients.Another small part I used for the volunteers room. We have a volunteersroom but it was more like a doctors waiting room (ilarias words). Because I think the volunteers here are very important and they also deserve something nice (not only this years volunteers, but also for the next years) I bought a radio and a pinboard. On the pinboard there are now pictures, a calendar…. So our room looks nicer now and we have music!I think in total I used now about half of the money. I will give a better report at the end of the year. If people still want to donate, just email me (Jo_Frederix@hotmail.com) and will give you my belgian bank account.I (and the other volunteers) also started to make an english “book”. The girls don’t have english books here, they write everything down in a notebook. I also started with making copies for them with the money. But I am typing now in word a kind of book. They need some special english, about hotel, restaurant… and they need basic english.. so a combination of the two, that you don’t really find in excisting books. So if this is finished I will give maybe more money to the school here to print this book for the next years.
So, I hope the people who helped me are happy that they know a little bit more J But I am happy here. Sometimes it seems to be a long time or you miss some things. But there are so many nice moments that makes you feel warm and happy and you forget the less nice moments like that in a second. now I can already tell you about the nice moments of last month but I don’t remember the other moments. That is good no? Oh and not only the people here make me feel that way. I also had some really nice mails and cards from people who are reading this. They say me things like “you are doing a good job”or “because of you I realised there are so many possibilities in life”That makes me go wooooooooooow. Thank you so much. Love,Teacher Jo X
Filed under: my life in cambodia, usefull information about me in cambodia
Hello everybody!
so, already another week passed by, unbelievable how fast time goes! and still, a lot of things happened…
Ilaria, the italian girl, arrived last saturday. I stayed in the house that weekend to show her around and stuff. she is a really nice girl, almost 25 years old, talking a lot (italian way! ),… So it is good that she is here too, it is nice having already someone! the austrian girl, my future roommate, will arrive tuesday. ilaria and I hope she will be nice too…
The classes also started this week. So we teach in a vocational training, called Home and Food managment. the girls are between 15 and 24 years old, coming from provinces, and most of them sleep here in the school. They are very very nice girls. There is the first and second year. first year has 10 hours a week english, second year 8. we divided them in groups and each group is around 10 students, so a really nice class to teach! It is sometimes difficult because they dont really understand me all the time and i dont understand their english. my first years (advanced group) have also the same level as my second years (intermediate). but i think it will be really nice year.. they are so nice and willing to learn a lot. they dont have it easy at home,…and are so happy to be here, even I think it is not nice for them living here”: sleeping together, taking showers together, getting up at 5 am to start cleaning, a lot of rules, a lot of work… it is -for me and ilaria- as they live in a kind of army. still it is normal here and the girls seem to like it.
Sometimes their english is funny to, see title of this post! 
so, my day looks like: I get up around 6.30 (although I wake up at 5 when the girls are getting up because i sleep in a room next to their room, but i fall asleep again), have breakfast at 7, go have a look at the children playing in the elementary school, at 8 there is the flag ceremony and then there is a goodmorning talk. At 8.15 classes start till 11.30 and from 1 pm-4pm more classes. I have 3 or 4 hours of teaching each day. it doesnt seem a lot, but wait, there is more! during the day we are busy anyway: preparing, resting a bit, eating a bit, cleaning our room or doing our laundry… From 4-5 we assist girls in playing games,.. (first they have to clean again) Normally we assisted them to from 5-6 in taking showers but the sisters said we shouldnt do that anymore but take a break for ourselves. from 6-6.75 there is homework assistance and we will also start teaching english to a few girls who are following a teacher training here. then there is dinner.. after dinner we go and play or dance (they learn me khmer dances!) with the girls. at 7.30 we have a goodnight talk. and normally we were free then, but the staff (cook,….) asked if we could teach them too so we will teach them from 8-9. and then we are free . but maybe we will try to make this late lessons with two volunteers so that one is free for a night. Fridaynight, saturday and sunday we are free and also on holidays.
It is kind of busy and it also takes a lot of energy. you are all the time with these girls, you are more than just a teacher. but the thing is; the moments that they are free and talking or dancing of playing, these are so great too. you get to know them and it is fun. (and it is the theorie of Don Bosco too eh!) also, these girls need attention, friendship and love. It is worth the energy i think. but i am so tired in the evening! you also dont have a lot of time for yourself during the week, but anyway, our volunteer room is nicer now and during free times you can relax there or in your own room.
This weekend me and ilaria went to town each day. it was really fun. we did markets, pagodas, just walking around, sitting at the lake,… but it also makes you tired because you see so many things.
I am uploading some pictures for the moment, so you should have a look there. I am quiet proud at some of the pictures.
so everything is really fine here. oh, i also received a lot of post this week and a parcel from my mum with cote dor chocolate and other nice stuff.
I feel like i have so much more to tell, there are so many things going on here, but I think i will stop now and write some emails.
byebye,
Jox
Hi!
Monday and tuesday: first days school for the elementary school and kindergarden. children come to me, look at me (how tall I am, or at my freckles…), touch me, laugh at me, talk khmer to me… the little ones pretend they are in prison, crying all the time, being sick, calling for their mummy… the parents, worried and concerned, but proud…
wednesday: sister Maria had to go to another sister community in Battambang for two days. And I went with her! we were leaving early to be there around 1pm. sitting in the car was very cool… so much to see… rice, lots of rice.. very flat country (what i have seen till now), little wooden houses, a lot of water (it has been raining a lot lately), poverty,… soo different….
arriving in battambang, one of the sisters there took me and agness, the chinese woman, around. small city, not so busy as phnom penh. nice. we went to visit a few projects with people with handicap. dont know if you know it, but there were and still are in some areas a lot of landmines in cambodia.
but what interested me the most was the work of the sisters here. they have a little centre for literacy and skills training for girls between 16-25 years i think. these girls come from very poor, traditional villages. most of the time they didnt go to school because they couldnt pay it, or because the school was far away and it was too dangerous to go there. some of them have a history of abuse. or another girl was sold by her family. trafficking of girls and children… so the sisters try to teach them a few things (reading, writing, making things….) but also try to give them a home and the chance to develop themselves as a person.
i met a few girls and they were really nice! thursday there was a market in town and the girls also were selling thigns so I helped them a bit (and i bought things ofcourse). you can feel they attach quickly to persons (by the way, this is also here in PP, the children really come to hug you all the time and ask you if you like them, say that they love you… ) I went round the market with them and they said thank you for that…
anyway it really touched me. and i will support that centre but i have to think about how many money i will give to each centre… am now looking around a bit and will decide that later
coming back in PP was nice. there are some girls here who do a teacher training who asked if I could teach them a bit in the evening, some english. they are about my age so that is also great and they will teach me more Khmer.
I am getting used to this life. I like it. the sisters are great too, I see them working hard, take care for the students here,… they are good women, although i dont agree with everything they say but that doesnt matter. I admire them for their work. and they can be soooooooooo funny and cool too!
it is strange how we can have certain ideas about groups of people. judgements we make. sisters are like that. asian people are like that. generalisations. for example: asian people are closed and you will never know what they think. by saying that, you say the same thing about sooooooooo many people. I mean, people who were on erasmus, noticed already that people from another culture in europe can be different. we wouldnt like to be called the same as people in france, germany, england, the netherlands… but we do it for people in africa, asia…. it is normal that we do it I think, but we should realise it. the same about sisters. i also had a certain idea and i think a lot of you have. anyway, i am not going to write more about it or i will still be writing tomorrow morning.
but everything is very good here. I enjoy being here, meeting people, being confrontated by so many things, learning…
I hope you are good there too… thanks for all the emails or reactions or what so ever, it is nice to hear from you too!!!
kiss,
Jo
Filed under: my life in cambodia
hello you,
I know I am writing a lot but be happy because it will be less in a few days because i will get it a lot busier (woooh) so I will not bother you so much. but I wanted to write today because this weekend was,.. i dont know how to say it… but it was good.
how will I start telling you what is going on in my busy head (mmm). well, to be honest, I had a very bad day on friday. one of the worst. altough it had maybe something to do with hormones (those women! always looking for an excuse!) but it was not a funny day.
But after friday there was saturday. I decided I would go for a walk in the neighboorhoud, so I did. First I went to have a look in the ‘western world’here: the international school. it was nice, big sportfields, people from everywhere, a swimmingpool, a bar…. so maybe something to do when you need it ( so i will go there a few times to enjoy!!).
than i went further into the streets here and walked into a complete different world. it was very confronting for me and i sometimes wished i wasnt walking there. but i wanted to. i am not here to spend all my days at a swimming pool between fat white people who are drinking coctails (although that can be very nice too). maybe it was the first time in cambodia that I realised where I was. i passed factories, and people had build their little houses around it. i just read in the newspaper that they maybe earn 40 dollars a month in a factory. 40 dollars! maybe you are thinking now ‘but the living cost is lower there’ okay, it is lower, but not so low, really. anyway, so i was walking there, thinking, watching, feeling… it was also difficult because everyone was sooo looking at me. but it got me thinking about my motivation to come here. as I said, I know I will not change it here, but maybe i can teach a few girls so that they find a nice job and then their children will be able to have education too and so on. I believe in education. that is good because I studied it, it would be bad if I didn’t believe in it, not? I am also here to be conscious about it, about the differences there are in the world, in culture, in poverty, …
anyway, people are very nice. they tried talking to me but it is still difficult. it will get better once i know a bit more cambodian and about the culture.
then i went to town. walked around. oh, went into irish pub (because I just had to! It is like a tradition to drink something in a irish pub in every town. i drink for you, pierre, ivo, greetje, anne, laure… ) had a chocolate brownie (being a belgian woman with monthly hormons it is also necessary to do that), phoned David (:) ) …
when I got back home, I stayed talking with the guard at the gate. it is a really nice boy, my age, who wants to teach me Khmer. so we talked and I tried to repeat what he said and then most of the time he laughed. haha. he is a good guy, I went today again to the gate to learn a bit.
children who are intern arrived today, tomorrow primary school and kindergarden will be open. i will be helping a bit, and try to cheer up the sad ones (because the sisters think they will stop crying if they see me because they are so suprised seeing such a giant). the children who are here now also came to me. they gave me a bracelet and talked Khmer to me (no, i didnt understand) and stood next to me to see how tall i am. one gave me a kiss and runned away laughing. they are funny. or they think i am funny. a funny giant.
but back to yesterday in town> i went into a bookshop and thought about buying a book because i wanted something really nice to read. looking around to all these books… didnt know what to buy. than i saw The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) and I remember that david and laure were talking about it all the time on holidays. so I took it. I read it today and i have to say: perfect book on the perfect timing. some quotes I find now quickly: ‘he never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of ‘ “people are afraid to purseu their most important dreams, because they feel that they dont deserve them, or that they will be unable to achieve them>”tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. and that no heart has ever suffered whenit goes in search of its dreams/”most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place” ‘there is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve:the fear of failure’”
the combination of all these things:t he book, the children who come to me and gave me the bracelet, the poverty I have seen, the staff who wants to get to know me and learn me Khmer, some music i was listening to (your cd david!)… it all just felt right this weekend and made me thinking again about my motivation… I know I made a decision coming here because I really wanted to, it felt really right deciding it. yes, it just felt right. and it is not easy to make this kind of decisions because you have absolutely no idea what will happen. will i be able to do it? will i like it? what about the people I like and love in belgium? I think it is true that it scares some people. it scares me too, but on the other hand, I am a funny giant! So I decided I am happy that I am here. I know I didnt want to work already in belgium. I know also that there will be things here I probably dont like, and that I also have to give a lot of things: my time, for a part my freedom and independence, …. But I think there are no real limitations about what you can do. probably you make these limitations yourselves, so you can also change them. I have no idea if someone understands what I am trying to say, I have even no idea why I am writing this. but i said i would be honest. and you are reading this because you are interested what nine months in cambodia will do with me eh? if you just wanted touristic information you would have bought a book.
so i decided to start doing a bit more in my day because i didnt do a lot even if i had a lot of work (i am still not finished with preparing classes and stuff because last week it was difficult to concentrate all the time). but now the children are here, and tomorrow the chinese volunteer will arrive and i still have to prepare things… so it will be busy.
but euhm, so, I am happy that i decided to come here and i will try to make the best of it. maybe it will not work, maybe it will. we will see. but it felt as the right decision and i still think about it that way.
ofcourse i still miss david and some other people, but even here, had our Coelho an answer ready (although i dont know if it is the right one. I dont say that i am believing all what coelho is writing. I am just trying to say that the book made me think why i am here):
”If I am really a part of your dream, you’ll come back one day… ”
XXX
