Saturday 15 June 2013

Swimming


Sua-sdey, sok sab baay dtee? Hello, how are you doing?

We had a great time on Saturday.  Juliet and I took 5 students from each dorm swimming. Hilarious.  Two of the girls in my group couldn't swim so we had great fun teaching them.  No one drowned thank goodness.  We all wore t-shirts and shorts for modesty which doesn't help when you are trying to swim!

Highlights last few days:

- I have found a driving range.  Picture below. Jon, Chris and Miki will be happy :)

- Pajamas as outer wear. Everyone is doing it. You heard it here first.

- They have a "2,500 rial shop". Everything is 2,500 rials (unsurprisingly). Same as the pound shop. Amazing how far a concept can spread.

- I thought it might be about time to top up my pay as you go Nokia yesterday but I had only used $1.20 over the past TWO WEEKS.  

- Being mistaken for Jennifer Lawrence on the red carpet in in Stylist Magazine. Awesome.  Hello my new BF.

- Handwashing your clothes is surprisingly therapeutic. Benefits include being able to spot which clothes have dye that runs, you are less inclined to spill food down yourself in the first place and it's not nearly as difficult as you think.  Some of the girls think it is much better than a washing machine...!

Leadership update:

Kimsreang and Sopanhchakpor won a national competition run by the BBC for funding (£2,500) for a project of their choice. They are currently filming in their province.

Satya won a national public speaking competition. The prize is a trip to London this July!

Siekmouy and Mala have been enjoying our individual listening and reading sessions.  Listening involves working out and writing down the lyrics to Taylor Swift songs :)

I helped Varony (Manager of TT dorm) interview six potential new English teachers on Saturday.  We have one vacancy at TT dorm and two at BT Dorm.  It emphasized to me how important sessions on "pre interview preparation" and "ethics in the work place" are for the girls.  Some of the candidates for the English teaching position at Harpswell had no idea what The Harpswell Foundation actually did.

Vechou is doing really well on her grammar sessions with me each week. I got stuck at one point because I didn't know why something was the correct answer, I just knew it was correct!

One of the Cambodia Daily discussion groups this week looked at the collaboration between the Thailand and Cambodia to create four new border check points (which is progress following on from the incident last year where 46 Cambodians were shot by Thai military for working in Thailand without visas).

The visit from the US Ambassador, William Todd, was very interesting. He has committed to  being involved with Harpswell and visiting the students each month.

Harpswell has just formed an alliance with the Cambodian Womens Entrepreneur Association. It currently has 150 members and will create even more opportunities for the girl to find placements and permanent jobs on leaving Harpswell.

I am taking 8 students to the Graduate Women of Cambodia event on Tuesday morning.  It is an opportunity to network with other graduates and businesses and have the opportunity to attend interesting lectures and workshops. It is an affiliate of the International Federation of University Women. http://www.ifuw.org/

Video

If you only watch one video this week, watch this one.

New Video: The Harpswell Story

http://www.harpswellfoundation.org/center/index.html
  


Bopha (whose aunty very kindly made my nails look amazing) is the niece of Vesna who is the inspiration for The Harpswell Foundation.

We are still taking donations via the Donate Page on the blog if you would like to help them at all and haven't already done so.  

Ciao for now.


Wednesday 12 June 2013

Tomb Raiders

We're just back from the Harpswell annual weekend away to Siam Riep.  

All 80 girls on two buses, with 5 staff (which includes me somehow), 7 hours each way (with numerous toilet/snack stops), lots of karaoke, crisps, coca cola, insect snacks (comprising crickets, cockroaches, beetles and SPIDERS - no I didn't eat them) and moving about to adjust fans and aircon. Everyone was so excited. Lots of them had never been before.

It was a fantastic trip, one of the services stops was here. Utterly beautiful.


We visited three temples, Angor Wat, Ta Prom (which is famous for Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider) and a third temple which I think was called Bayon....sure someone will correct me.

Shoes

Before we left Phnom Penh, the director of Harpswell, Alan, asked me to make sure that all the girls had sturdy shoes for walking and climbing around the temples.  I sent a group email to tell everyone and said to come find me if there were problems. 

23 out of the 46 students came to find me to say that they didn't have any form of walking shoe, trainers or plimsoles. One of the girl's only pair of shoes were the plastic flip flops she was wearing.  It totally floored me.  I subsequently spent the majority of Friday at the market with a small group of the students (and a long list of shoe sizes) and spent $206 on 23 pairs of trainers and socks.  Works out at $8.90 per student.  

When we got back, we dished out the new shoes to those that needed them. They were ever so grateful.  You could really see it in the faces and by what they said in thanks. Two of the girls were overwhelmed.  I completely lost it at that point and shooed them out of my room and sobbed.



Highlights of the last week include:

1  A misunderstanding about "fish cheese" (a Cambodian delicacy which they all eat).  It is not cheese. It is dried, salted fish which is yummy but definitely not cheese and more like salted anchovies.

2  Boyfriend/girlfriend "play play" means pretend boyfriend and girlfriend.  Alternative example being "I really like eating insects play play".

3   Numkong are wonderful doughnuts with palm sugar melted over the top with sesame seeds. Served at the markets in the morning (from 5am).

4  "Free Steam" - a term used a lot at the temples and means feeling very hot. So hot that you might be mistaken for being in a sauna. But you are outside. Which is free.

5  Fixing the electricity switchboard when my adaptor flew out of the plug socket.

6  Leaving the window open when it rains (we are in monsoon season so it soaked the mattress). Well done Rach.

7  Riding SIDESADDLE on the back of a moto while holding two bags, a coffee (they have a very cool place called Browns) and a large bunch of flowers for the dormitory. I am amazing.


Thank you

To all those who gave so generously to the fundraising pot.  In addition to the new trainers and socks, we have been able to help the girls and Harpswell with the following:

1  A much needed film projector and tablet.  

Varony (Senior Manager at The Harpswell Foundation) is responsible for traveling to and interviewing approximately 200 applicants from provinces all across Cambodia to fill 19 places next year. As well as trying to identify the brightest students, she has to ensure that the students are ready and capable of living and thriving at one of the two Harpswell dormitories.  There are between 34 and 46 girls in each dorm and they live in close quarters with each other.  Whilst luxurious by Cambodian standards, a lot of them are still very far from home and do not have family nearby or much financial support to help them integrate into their new environment in Phnom Penh. 

Varony also has to communicate to the families of the girls that this is a real and legitimate opportunity for them.  There are numerous horror stories of intelligent girls being convinced to leave home and move to Phnom Penh for the promise of education and a job, only to find that they are sold into a brothel or other forms of degrading treatment. 

The tablet enables Varony to show the families and the potential students a video about The Harpswell Foundation and their incredible work.

2  Two shiny new fridges in the TT Dorm which the girls are all using and really appreciate.  They love milk! 

3  A large number of educational books.

Whilst there is a small library, the girl are studying serious topics at university including  economics, pharmacology, agriculture, chemistry, midwifery, Khmer literature, mathematics, media management, food technology and chemical engineering, engineering, architecture and banking and finance.   The universities are not well resourced and the internet will only tell you so much. I put up a notice asking if they needed any books for pleasure or work and within a few days had a full list of 21 books, all of which related directly to their studies. They couldn't believe we were willing to get them the resources they needed and we're so pleased.  

4  Plae Pakaa - Cambodian Living Arts

We are also taking all 80 girls to their choice of theatre production at The National Museum as part of their Cambodian cultural education.  It is all very well having incredibly bright students but they need to understand about their culture.  I negotiated a price of $260 for all 80 students and 4 staff to attend the performance (it is usually $10 for tourists).

5 Epic in 3D

More just about having some fun.  Vast majority do not have any money to do activities outside of the dormitory which can be tough when you work eat and sleep there all day and night every day of the week.  Again some of them explained that they had never even been to the cinema, let alone one in 3D!!! Epic was a wonderful story of adventure.  Well done Disney.


As you can imagine, I receive numerous emails, texts and facebook messages telling me how grateful they all are for our generosity and support.

Work 

Just to give you an idea.  In addition to the job skills unit (including CV cover letters, interviews and ethics in the workplace) and leading Cambodia Daily discussions, I have helped:

Nat and Soriya with English reading (thank you BBC News website) and preparing for job interviews and applications

Sreypov reviewing her Cambodia Life Blog

Sodalin with English listening (Jane Austen Persuasion)..I had to stop after an hour so she could finish her exam prep but she didn't want to stop!

Vatey with her application to become an eco-leader as part of a short internship in Malaysia with an NGO

Vechou with English grammar exercises downloaded from IELTS/TOEFL




I had to hold this little puppy dog at Angkor Wat.  The soft fuzzy ball far outweighed any risk of rabies.


Tomorrow...

...is a big day.  I am meeting the US ambassador at 9.30am,  He is visiting the TT Dormitory and intends to speak to some of the students about their lives before Harpswell and what they intend to afterwards.  

Salin (chemistry undergraduate at Royal University of Phnom Penh) has booked me in for a session from 730am to 8am to go through the short speech which she plans to give to the ambassador.  

I am helping Lina (food tech and chemical engineering) between 8am and 9am with her online visa application for post graduate study in the USA next year.  

After the ambassador's visit I will be helping the students prepare 6 short videos in response to questions posed by students at Missouri University about the Harpswell daily life and experience of studying in a  developing country.  It is part of a programme called The Cambodia Connection which aims to educate students about (and for them to share) their very different expectations and experiences of life and education. 

From 8.45pm to 9.45pm I will be running a Cambodia Daily Newspaper discussion group. Last week's topics included the Phnom Penh land grabbing and associated protests (occurring in three central zones within Phnom Penh) and the reasons for Japan's recent financial support of Burma.  The girls get points for contributing towards the discussion and debate...so I basically "encourage" (i.e. make) them all say something and then back up their reason for saying something.  Two of the girls have, independently of each other, said how much they enjoy the way I run this class and that it pushes people to think about why they might ay something or have a point of view.

Have a really good week everyone.  Next update in a few days.