March - Birthday month

March! The best month of the year ... why? Because it’s my birthday month! This month has been absolutely crazy packed with new experiences and occurrences.

The first new occurrence was when Paul Clark a new volunteer entered my, now homely, Salesian community. Now we were all rather excited about this new volunteer as he was a boy which meant he was different to us four girls – Maryam, Angela, Ha and me! How exciting! We all felt a little silly about getting excited about someone because of their sex but this is exactly the kind of influence that Cambodian culture has taken on us. Being around boys as a young girl is seen as almost scandalous here. Even walking next to them, by other Khmer people, is seen as flirting. It’s like being back in primary school. Except the school primary ground is the whole of Cambodia and your class mates are the entire population. Any way he arrived and we were introduced and shock horror – he had a northern accent! How was I going to cope for the next 5 months. (Just kidding) Turns out we are going to the same university next year! UP YORK! Luckily for me we also get on very well and he has a motorbike so they amount of money I have been spending on transport has dramatically decreased.

The next occurrence was the monthly birthday party with the boarders, although every party is fun this one was even more fun because it was my birthday month. This meant I had to make a speech about all the things that make me happy, let cake be smeared all over my face and dance like a crazy Khmer person for the rest of the night.

The next occurrence was that I was invited to a wedding engagement, by Pakadey who I work in the office with and is Brother Roberto’s God daughter. I was very excited because I had heard a lot of things about these wedding engagements. So at 5 am Maryam, Paul and I bundled into Brother Roberto’s car and drove at 100mph into the countryside to Pakadey’s home town. Towards the end we were basically driving cross country through rice fields to reach this little house in the middle of no where. It was gorgeous, the sun illuminating the bright green grasses that spread as far as the eye could see and banana trees casting big shadows to keep us cool and create a sort of boarder around the house. It could not get more Khmer. As soon as we arrived we were rushed up these steep wooden stairs to the house which consisted of a larger room and a smaller room. The larger room was packed full of platters of fruit and vegetables - so many bright colours and around feast sat her entire family, or so it seemed. Just as we were about to join the family on the floor Ciat Heng (Pakadey’s aunt) took me into the back room where Pakadey and her finance were being prepared. By prepared I mean layered with beautiful cloths and smothered in makeup. Pakadey looked like a princess! She was very nervous and kept on squeezing my hand, it made me wonder whether I would be as nervous as she was when my time comes. After they had finished their preparations I went to sit down with the family. Speeches were made by the parents and photos taken and then as tradition we all gave the bride and groom money. To do so you have to bow down place the money in both their hands before sprinkling some pure water on top as a blessing. Once everyone had given we all went outside to enjoy a feast of food. I have never been given more food to eat in my life and it was DELICIOUS or Chenang as you say in Khmer.

After our “foodbeings” (as Maryam and I would say) had been looked after, we bundled back into Brother Roberto’s car to get back to Sihanoukville Don Bosco.

The next new experience involves travelling at 70mph on the back of one of the students motor bikes. Dalin, a student in the hotel school had been very keen to take me and Maryam to the waterfalls just outside of Sihanoukville so a group of 6 of us hired some motorbikes and zoomed off. I have never been driven on a motorbike so fast and in all honestly I was bricking it especially as my helmet was way too big so covered my eyes… this meant all I could see was the ground. HELP. Anyway, it was all fine and we arrived safely just covered in dust. From there we explored the waterfalls taking a 101 photos in different Khmer poses before driving back to Otres and swimming in the sea.

It’s not all happy however, sadly the Candian parents who were guests at the hotel and had been looking out for me and Maryam since the day we arrived were leaving. I was particulary sad about it because I am not a huge fan of change. So, to say thank you to them for being so kind to us we went out for a meal near the Golden Lion. Shockingly we all ate fish and Chips – nothing Khmer about us that night.

I also did have a bit of a low point with it coming up to my birthday and not being near my family and the work for the children fund was starting to get very stressful. I was getting quite run down and tired and this unfortunately meant that I got ill for a week which then consisted on lots of bed rest –I hate being inside and feeling as though I am wasting time it makes me feel horrible. Not the best. I was also going to Koh Rong Island for my birthday with all the volunteers in Kep and Sihanoukville so I was worried about being ill there. I was in fact still ill but on the recovery so I was able to join everyone for the day activities. We went on a 6 hour boat journey around the island where we went snorkelling looking at coral reefs, jumping off the top of the boat and sunbathing on the roof. It was amazing. Then we were taken to the longest beach on the island to watch the sun set before swimming with plankton at night. How lucky was I. I get to say that I turned 19 on a Cambodian island surrounded by lovely people.

The fun doesn’t stop there either – as we entered into April two more volunteers arrived Luca and Eduardo from Italy who are here to build a house. They are So European and my my is it funny making them try new things – their most common phrase is “Fucking Cambodia!” A few days after their arrival we were all invited to a wedding and it was a blast. The whole of Don Bosco was invited so it was like a huge school disco expect everyone was drunk.

Work is very hard at the moment because I have uncovered a lot of things which indicate that Don Bosco is losing a lot of money and so are the sponsors that are sponsoring children. It is down to simple lack of communication and organisation with the files and so I have figured out a way to change the whole system so it runs efficiently. However, this means that I am going to need to travel around Phnom Penh again to gather information and teach the teachers in the local provinces how to use the new system and how to use social media. It is a huge job but I think this will be the most worthwhile thing I could do here. If it works I will help make sure that 1,500 children stay in school. If I do that then I can leave Cambodia feeling as though I have really made a difference.

See you at the end of April