Friday, January 26, 2024
Update 7
Ah, back to the weekday routines! I have to note how open & inviting this place is. It's officially called Bakong Development Center. Unofficially, I'd call it Whatever You Need. Kids come all times of day, come into the house, ask for food & she gives them something. The next door 3 year old is nicknamed Tornado—justly earned. He seems to have no boundaries & plays with everything. Currently the toilet plunger is his favorite. Sue will stop him from a few things-like drinking from the spout of the clean water dispenser-but only in a loving voice…and then chuckle. The kids come in & out of the library, play with the badminton set or volleyball and whatever else they find. Some kids come just to crawl up on Sue's lap. In the evening, the boys who live here & a few others play an intense game of volleyball. Though they obviously don't follow all the rules, they have a great time. There's a warm feeling of love and trust that permeates the compound.
Most days, I usually hang out in the library which is filled before & after classes with about 20 kids, ages 4-12 or so, doing puzzles, playing with legos, drawing and a few even look at books! There are three English classes a day. Rog & I alternate being in the day classes with the young kids. We both help out in the evening class of about 25 kids between the ages of 18-28. The teacher, Mr. Chin has quit teaching from the book & has asked us to teach grammar and conversational English instead. So we have had the kids pair up & learn something about their partner and then they took turns introducing their partner. After Day 3, they were getting pretty good at it! Tonight we'll ask them to tell 2 or 3 things about themselves. We have also worked on nouns, contractions, verb tenses, adjectives & adverbs. They laugh often and are eager to learn. The class is free for them and totally voluntary. Bakong Dev. Center, Monk Hun's non profit picks up the bill. Learning English will be a major advantage to them when they look for a job. Early morning & later evening, we work in the garden which is looking pretty good!
My birthday! As my friend Elsi said, "Another Year, Another Country!" After a normal morning, Sue, Monk Hun, Rog & I went to a nice place to eat lunch. We sat by a river…chocolate brown & hardly flowing…and I again ordered egg rolls & D Coke. Hey, if I love them, why not?? I spoiled myself by not going to work in the garden today and reading instead. At 7, we went to our class & soon after, the kids turned the lights off and carried in 2 birthday cakes, each lit with a candle. They sang Happy Birthday to the top of their lungs and covered me with silly string. Sue had bought one of the cakes & the students the other. $5 is a lot of money for them! We manage to teach our lesson, then cut the cakes into 30 tiny pieces. Everyone loved it…especially me!!
Most days, I usually hang out in the library which is filled before & after classes with about 20 kids, ages 4-12 or so, doing puzzles, playing with legos, drawing and a few even look at books! There are three English classes a day. Rog & I alternate being in the day classes with the young kids. We both help out in the evening class of about 25 kids between the ages of 18-28. The teacher, Mr. Chin has quit teaching from the book & has asked us to teach grammar and conversational English instead. So we have had the kids pair up & learn something about their partner and then they took turns introducing their partner. After Day 3, they were getting pretty good at it! Tonight we'll ask them to tell 2 or 3 things about themselves. We have also worked on nouns, contractions, verb tenses, adjectives & adverbs. They laugh often and are eager to learn. The class is free for them and totally voluntary. Bakong Dev. Center, Monk Hun's non profit picks up the bill. Learning English will be a major advantage to them when they look for a job. Early morning & later evening, we work in the garden which is looking pretty good!
My birthday! As my friend Elsi said, "Another Year, Another Country!" After a normal morning, Sue, Monk Hun, Rog & I went to a nice place to eat lunch. We sat by a river…chocolate brown & hardly flowing…and I again ordered egg rolls & D Coke. Hey, if I love them, why not?? I spoiled myself by not going to work in the garden today and reading instead. At 7, we went to our class & soon after, the kids turned the lights off and carried in 2 birthday cakes, each lit with a candle. They sang Happy Birthday to the top of their lungs and covered me with silly string. Sue had bought one of the cakes & the students the other. $5 is a lot of money for them! We manage to teach our lesson, then cut the cakes into 30 tiny pieces. Everyone loved it…especially me!!
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