There is a lot of information on The Cambodia Daily newspaper website if you want to know more:
The Cambodia Daily
The dorm was pretty quiet. The vast majority of the girls went home for the weekend to vote (the dormitory shut and there was limited security available). Some were observers at voting stations.
They have a black finger from the indelible ink, the evidence that they have voted. None of them want it to wash off. For most, this is the first time they have been able to (try to) exercise the right to say who runs the country.
I took the opportunity to visit Hong Kong to see my sister and her husband. It was glorious playing golf, eating afternoon tea and sunbathing at the beach, a real break but also quite difficult to get your head around.
Mala and Sampours
I got back this morning and the girls are all raring to go again! It's 930pm and I've just finished a session with Sampours on her pronunciation and a session with Mala on her CV and cover letter.
Mala is applying for a voluntary work experience type position in Acleda Bank.
She was initially looking at a cleaning role at the bank and not in the customer service team on the basis that she did not have anything to wear and was nervous that her skin was too dark. In spite of the fact that she's studying accounting at the university of management and has been awarded the scholarship to live at Harpswell.
With a little encouragement she's now going for a customer service role which is fantastic! She's so sweet. We've spent some time looking at the application form and requirements in terms of CV and cover letter so we will do some more work on it this week.
Cooking classes
I've started cooking classes with the girls on an adhoc basis. They are going nuts for it.
So far we've made two lots of smoked salmon blinis, spaghetti carbonara (Steve Osborne Style), pancakes (they hate lemon and sugar and much prefer golden syrup), marshmallow rice crispy squares (I know. Not really cooking. More mixing), a rocket and parmesan salad, spaghetti amatriciana and we are due to have a go at bruschetta this week.
Culture Show
The Culture Show last Sunday was great.
This is a video of one part with the girls performing a traditional Khmer fashion show...
Activities last week included...
...a group dance class at the Olympic Stadium for $.25 each. Beats gym membership in London.
...a cinema trip. This time to see Man of Steel. Very good if you haven't been. It's the final trip. Everyone has had the chance to go once.
...Juliet and I took a bike ride into the countryside to see what we could find. Its really cheap and easy to do. Might be a good group activity, save that we have to avoid the land mines.
...a trip to watch live Khmer Boxing at CTN Studios. It's pretty rough, but free. Mostly the guys fighting are helped out by two mates who sponge them down with water mid fight and offer support and physio.
You're right in there and we had to move a bit further back to avoid the blood. Salin actually knew one of the boys from her province so we even got to say hello. So cool. The guys just hop on their moto afterwards and carry on with life as usual. No idea how they do it.
University Tour
Last week, Koeurn and Sampours kindly offered to show me and a group of about 20 children from an NGO called CCC around the campus of The Royal University of Phnom Penh.
The children come from families where either one or both parents suffer from drug abuse, prostitution and/or are in prison. It was a great experience for the children, they saw the library and heard about what life is like to study. One 13 year old boy tole me he wanted to be the president one day. I told him to go for it.
It was great for Koeurn and Sampours to build experience presenting information. The kids loved them, of course.
This is Sodalin, Rachana, Cheata, Kimleang, Vouththou, Soriya, Roith and Reaksa enjoying the culture show. Rach
