Aug 18, 2012 - Phnom Penh city tour

Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and in the relative cool of the morning we visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. There are 5329 silver tiles covering the floor of the pagoda and Grae did warn me not to wear a skirt but I needn't have worried as the years had dulled them somewhat and my modesty remained intact. The architectural style is very similar to palaces and pagodas we'd seen in Thailand. We also visited the National Museum but as the weather was warming up it is all a little vague. Our focus certainly returned when we...

Aug 17, 2012 - Siem Reap - Phnom Penh

After a leisurely breakfast and one last dip in the hotel pool it was a short drive to the airport for the 45 min flight to Phnom Penh. The plane was a twin turbo prop and we were served a muffin and a water during the flight. Once we landed our new guide Lim and driver were waiting to escort us to the Cardamom Hotel. We are on level five which has glorious views of the construction site next door. We opened our windows and gave the workers (many of which looked young enough to be in their early teens)a big wave hello, which seemed to...

Jun 20, 2012 - Phnom Penh, the Genocide

‘My first years in Paris felt exhilarated, as if I was living on a cloud and floating along the streets, enjoying every minute of it. It also curiously gave me a new and lofty perspective on who I was and where I came from’, that is how I described how it felt to go and live in Paris. Imagine what effect it must have had on a young Khmer, entering a new world and discovering entirely new and revolutionary ways to interpret that world, of which one, Marxism, carried the tantalising promise to cure the ills of the colonial and feudal society...

Jun 13, 2012 - Phnom Penh, the Gentle Side

Prelude A small but distinct applause clatters from the people waiting seated at the Roissy departure gate 03 and from others, standing, who, almost involuntarily, had interrupted their hasty journeys to their own departure gates. The girl shyly half-turns in acknowledgement, straightens her back again and, with her fingers poised over the keyboard for a second, starts her next number. My plane descends and touches down at Phnom Penh airport and then slowly rolls up to the main building. The impression I already had from the air, seeing all...

Jun 11, 2012 - Adieu to PSE

After 12 weeks together I bid the students and staff of PSE farewell. I will miss them all but they made my final days very pleasant. It was a wonderful feeling to be approached again and again by students and teachers wishing me the best. The staff even held a small going away party for me on the terrace of the school restaurant on Friday evening. As I exchanged email addresses with the students I thought about the efforts both they and PSE have made to put their lives on track. Most of these kids, all from very tough backgrounds, are now...

Jun 7, 2012 - Cheech and Chong teach English

The plan from Siem Reap was to take a boat ride down to Phnom Penh- how exotic….romantic….cool, right?! As we began to look into details for the trip we stumbled upon someone’s description of their experience, and as we began to look further into other’s experiences we found out it did not seem like the way to go. Words used to describe peoples experience….the worst 10 hours of my life…baking in the sun for hours on end…precarious…ridiculously overcrowded boat…horribly delayed…held desperately onto our luggage the whole time to prevent it...

May 27, 2012 - Nearing the End

Earlier this week I went out on the balcony to get some fresh air before dinner and I encountered an amazingly spectacular sunset. I pulled up a chair to admire the evening sky and the setting prompted me to ponder the fast approaching end of my stay. I now have less than two weeks remaining before my final day of work on June 9th. Despite the challenging start at PSE I have settled in quite nicely. The students, staff and I have spent 50 hours per week together and we have formed a bond that I'm truly going to miss. The students have gone...

May 27, 2012 - Cambodian capital and it is

Please check out Angela's or Rays facebook page for all the photos. We can only put a few on here. The hotel in Siem Reap was really good especially the building itself and the rooms although the location was right by a big smelly market although to be honest the market was for locals and actually was great inside with all the fruit and veg and the distant hacking off of some poor chickens head or a fish being gutted, reality. We hired our tuk-tuk driver for a day and a half and he took us to a restaurant at night which was totally average...

May 9, 2012 - Continuing Plans

My assignment at PSE ends on June 10th so I have started to work on my continuing plans in earnest---something that has distracted me from making the usual blog posts over the previous 10 days. I have started to apply for English teaching positions in Korea and China and at this point have had one skype interview for a placement in Daegu, Korea. All of the positions I've applied for are paid positions with a one year contract. I have also applied for the US Peace Corps which has a very competitive selection process and which would be a...

May 9, 2012 - My Sports Fix

The Cambodians are sports crazy and it is especially easy to find pick-up soccer and volleyball games. In the case of volleyball there are nets in even the remotest of villages. A truly amazing sight is the Olympic Stadium between 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm. The Olympics were never held in Phnom Penh but, in one of those crazy things that rulers of Third World countries sometimes do, the King built a single stadium in 1960 hoping that it might prompt the Games to come here. Each evening the grounds surrounding the stadium are filled with people...

Apr 29, 2012 - The Old-Fashioned Way

As I reach the half way point of my stay in Cambodia I've pretty much settled into a routine. I continue to work six days per week, to play volleyball or ride my bike in the evenings and to read or go online after dinner. All pretty routine stuff. While spending a typical Sunday morning on the balcony outside my room I watched the construction workers across the way toil in the increasingly hot sun. Each day they attack the hard ground with their picks and shovels as they lay the foundation for a future building. Seeing them work with...

Apr 21, 2012 - The Volunteer Experience

It has always been my goal to accurately convey my thoughts and experiences in my blog. I want it to be a true record of all that I experienced along the way, and that means sharing the good and the bad. In recent weeks I've privately relayed to some of my family and friends the difficulties I'm encountering in Cambodia. My assignment at PSE is particularly tough and has rattled my self-confidence. I sometimes feel like I'm out of my league and at those times even the minor annoyances of everyday life, like power outages and the oppressive...