The last week
Friday evening and once again it's weekend, funny how you dont really notice how the week pass you by. Sitting up on the roof listening to Pink Floyd and watching the sky, (mamma nar du kommer hit sa skall jag visa dig moln som du kan fa studera, HAR ar himlen vacker ma du tro!) Listening to Pink Floyd makes me reminisce Nat, Nicholas and Karl Oskar playing at the college, so beautiful... good times eh?
Besides studying the sky, reminiscing to Pink Floyd and thinking of the fact that I need to take a shower since I ACTUALLY can smell my self (you KNOW you smell bad if you can smell yourself) I also realised I haven't written all week long. This means that I'll probably end up writing way too much about something which probably isn't that interesting, so appologize in advance :P.
It's Friday today and I really feel like going out dancing but Im guessing that won't happen, judging from the mood of the rest of the lot I might just end up up here on the roof all night but we'll see. It's been an interesting week I must say a lot of small stuff and I'm just imaginating how fantastic everything is that I see every day it's just that I can not take in how fantastic it all is and how amazed I am over it since I'm actually living in it. If I were to realise how amazing it is I would probably strike flat out and tip over on the spot, or walk around in a maze unable to correspond with anyone or anything. So I guess it's just as well that humans have the defence mecanism of making things smaller or larger than they are.
Oh and when I come home I am going for a complete fysical check up and I'll tell the doctor to check me for every single skin disease there is cause I would not be suprised if I have caught it. Especially scabies (how do you spell scabies?) almost all the kids there have/ has had/ has something equally weird and unpleasant and it's hard to avoid when they are hugging you.
Or it might just be mosquito bites...
In any case I am starting to get accustomed to a life as a grown up and I must admit to it being HARD and TOUGH! Working is really exhausting and it requires quite alot of energy. Not just from thsi summer but mainly from just this past week. I guess I'm lucky though considering the fact that I don't need to get up before eight in the morning and the van leaves the compound at eight thirty and I dont actually start to teach before nine. (Wasn't that my goal? to have a job which didnt require me to start working before nine?)
Working is even harder when you not only need to respect and be patient with your co-workers (which so far isn't that difficult- Horray for nice people like Jen and Gerbrant!) but also respecting, having patience and first and foremost be able to offer support and smiles to small children, who at times you are convinced are being lazy just to piss you off! It's tough when you get frustrated with the children since it isn't really their fault that they don't understand what you want them to do. But hey, sometimes I just really feel like telling them, come on you know you can if you just try. Some of the children just seems to refuse to even wanting to try. Sometime I dont even have time to open my mouth to give them instructions before they call their teacher (there's always a Khmer teacher to supervise, assist and help- although, sometimes all three of us just wish they wouldnt be there since it would force the children to try to understand)
A few examples of toughness:
Monday morning, we arrive and the class we are supposed to teach (the class we have prepared a lesson plan for) are not present, or rather half of them are present and half of them are at an outside class. This means that when the assisting teacher tries to gather up a class for us to teach we end up with a mixed bunch of kids who are all at different levels and some who aren't really in the modd to learn since they (probably) was looking forward to some play time. So that was basically just painful. After lunch though it got better and we had a nice and structured class but that afternoon I came home extremly tired, exhausted and hungry which just resulted in an ugly crankiness.
Tuesday was just a bad day in general, (not teaching wisw though) started off with the toilet getting clogged and then at the center I really needed to go # 2 but no there was only squatting toilet and after a small discussion with jen we concluded hat you probably weren't allowed to put paper in them so I decided no, let's not. Teaching however was fine and well I really like theaching the advnced class and the beginners, it's the intermidiate I have some problems with because it is so difficult judging their level. However, this does not mean that it is easy to teach the so called advanced or the beginners no sir! But more about this when I come to describe today. But the beginners class is well it's really interesting thats all I can say.
Oh and rain season has started which means that it isn't excrusiatingly hot and humid any more which is a bit of a relief.
Then on Wednesday I realised the fact that it actually is a childrens home I am at and that although these kids come from a diffcult background this isn't heaven fro them but that they still do have problems and worries just like everyone else. Poor little thing, I walked in after lunch on a little girl crying. And there was no mother to comfort her. That was heart ripping.
(thne on a lighter note I went for a bike ride in the rain in the afternoon which was a lot of fun. It is a true experience and adventure to go on a bike ride in Phnom Penh! ) Thursday classes were okay and after lunch during our two hour break Jen went to take a nap with one of the children guarding her (apparently it was a quit traumatizing experience :) and I went for my first Khmer lesson! Let's just say I understand why cambodians have such a hard time pronoucing english words. there language is totally different from ours and I almost broke my tounge and jaws trying to pronounce their alfaphet. but it was fun. then today wow, we only had one class today and that was with the advanced class and well some of them got everything straight away while soem just did not understand at all.... you have no idea...
anyways I think I've been going on for too long now and I should stop now + apparently we are going out, yay! this means I need to go take a shower and put on decent clothes....
Oh just one more thing, a friend just ask me online how are things with you... what a question ey? I have no idea what to answer to it... It's much easier with the kids were you ask them are you happy or sad? I'm happy. If you want a more developt answer you might need to clear your schedule for some time to come.
Besides studying the sky, reminiscing to Pink Floyd and thinking of the fact that I need to take a shower since I ACTUALLY can smell my self (you KNOW you smell bad if you can smell yourself) I also realised I haven't written all week long. This means that I'll probably end up writing way too much about something which probably isn't that interesting, so appologize in advance :P.
It's Friday today and I really feel like going out dancing but Im guessing that won't happen, judging from the mood of the rest of the lot I might just end up up here on the roof all night but we'll see. It's been an interesting week I must say a lot of small stuff and I'm just imaginating how fantastic everything is that I see every day it's just that I can not take in how fantastic it all is and how amazed I am over it since I'm actually living in it. If I were to realise how amazing it is I would probably strike flat out and tip over on the spot, or walk around in a maze unable to correspond with anyone or anything. So I guess it's just as well that humans have the defence mecanism of making things smaller or larger than they are.
Oh and when I come home I am going for a complete fysical check up and I'll tell the doctor to check me for every single skin disease there is cause I would not be suprised if I have caught it. Especially scabies (how do you spell scabies?) almost all the kids there have/ has had/ has something equally weird and unpleasant and it's hard to avoid when they are hugging you.
Or it might just be mosquito bites...
In any case I am starting to get accustomed to a life as a grown up and I must admit to it being HARD and TOUGH! Working is really exhausting and it requires quite alot of energy. Not just from thsi summer but mainly from just this past week. I guess I'm lucky though considering the fact that I don't need to get up before eight in the morning and the van leaves the compound at eight thirty and I dont actually start to teach before nine. (Wasn't that my goal? to have a job which didnt require me to start working before nine?)
Working is even harder when you not only need to respect and be patient with your co-workers (which so far isn't that difficult- Horray for nice people like Jen and Gerbrant!) but also respecting, having patience and first and foremost be able to offer support and smiles to small children, who at times you are convinced are being lazy just to piss you off! It's tough when you get frustrated with the children since it isn't really their fault that they don't understand what you want them to do. But hey, sometimes I just really feel like telling them, come on you know you can if you just try. Some of the children just seems to refuse to even wanting to try. Sometime I dont even have time to open my mouth to give them instructions before they call their teacher (there's always a Khmer teacher to supervise, assist and help- although, sometimes all three of us just wish they wouldnt be there since it would force the children to try to understand)
A few examples of toughness:
Monday morning, we arrive and the class we are supposed to teach (the class we have prepared a lesson plan for) are not present, or rather half of them are present and half of them are at an outside class. This means that when the assisting teacher tries to gather up a class for us to teach we end up with a mixed bunch of kids who are all at different levels and some who aren't really in the modd to learn since they (probably) was looking forward to some play time. So that was basically just painful. After lunch though it got better and we had a nice and structured class but that afternoon I came home extremly tired, exhausted and hungry which just resulted in an ugly crankiness.
Tuesday was just a bad day in general, (not teaching wisw though) started off with the toilet getting clogged and then at the center I really needed to go # 2 but no there was only squatting toilet and after a small discussion with jen we concluded hat you probably weren't allowed to put paper in them so I decided no, let's not. Teaching however was fine and well I really like theaching the advnced class and the beginners, it's the intermidiate I have some problems with because it is so difficult judging their level. However, this does not mean that it is easy to teach the so called advanced or the beginners no sir! But more about this when I come to describe today. But the beginners class is well it's really interesting thats all I can say.
Oh and rain season has started which means that it isn't excrusiatingly hot and humid any more which is a bit of a relief.
Then on Wednesday I realised the fact that it actually is a childrens home I am at and that although these kids come from a diffcult background this isn't heaven fro them but that they still do have problems and worries just like everyone else. Poor little thing, I walked in after lunch on a little girl crying. And there was no mother to comfort her. That was heart ripping.
(thne on a lighter note I went for a bike ride in the rain in the afternoon which was a lot of fun. It is a true experience and adventure to go on a bike ride in Phnom Penh! ) Thursday classes were okay and after lunch during our two hour break Jen went to take a nap with one of the children guarding her (apparently it was a quit traumatizing experience :) and I went for my first Khmer lesson! Let's just say I understand why cambodians have such a hard time pronoucing english words. there language is totally different from ours and I almost broke my tounge and jaws trying to pronounce their alfaphet. but it was fun. then today wow, we only had one class today and that was with the advanced class and well some of them got everything straight away while soem just did not understand at all.... you have no idea...
anyways I think I've been going on for too long now and I should stop now + apparently we are going out, yay! this means I need to go take a shower and put on decent clothes....
Oh just one more thing, a friend just ask me online how are things with you... what a question ey? I have no idea what to answer to it... It's much easier with the kids were you ask them are you happy or sad? I'm happy. If you want a more developt answer you might need to clear your schedule for some time to come.
posted by Ulrikals | 9:35 PM
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