Tuk Tuks and Fancy Drinks

It has been a very good few days. 

A couple of days ago, Kyle and I scouted out some general supplies at the Old Market (or Psar Chaa) to get a general feel for what things like metal trays, plastic bins and so on would cost us.  We knew that Chanda would be able to negotiate a better price than we could but it was still cool to look around and try to get a feel for what you can buy around there (answer:  almost everything)

That afternoon by the pool, I met a couple of Dutch girls, Lotte and Marajn who had just arrived from Indonesia.  We made plans to head out for dinner and so Kate and I took then to a nice place in Pub Street Alley.  They were so exhausted from travelling and from lack of sleep that they barely touched their food and made it an early night.  Kate and I chatted with our server and told her that we were here in Cambodia teaching.  She must have passed that information along to the entire staff because when I went upstairs looking for the bathroom, I saw seven of them sitting and having a break perched along the balcony rail.  They were all dressed in their uniforms with little orange chef hats.  When they spotted me they were sort of deer-in-headlights at first and then one of them was brave enough to use his English and invite me up the stairs (`please ...yes...toilet...upstairs...).  I showed them the schools on my cell phone (that Galaxy Note II with the Siem Reap sim card is the smartest thing I`ve done in a while.  Anyway, there were so sweet and shy, and kept giggling and falling over each other to ask simple questions and look at the map on my phone.  It is a really nice memory.

The next morning Chanda met us outside of my hotel and we drove downtown. We bought over $200 worth of equipment from one of the vendors, and then went across the street and purchased 30 stopwatches. The little family that owned the watches store sat on the floor and painstakingly opened up every little box to make sure that the device was working, and then they included some spare batteries for us for free. 

 

We then tried the Angkor Market to look for measuring cups because we did not have any success at the Old Market.  Kyle's son Lucas spotted some 250 mL baby bottles with graduated lines every 10 mL.  They were $1.95 each and we thought we could do better at the Upper Market (or Psar Leu).  The Upper Market is worth visiting even if you don't need anything because it is huge...it's like the IKEA of Siem Reap.  There are vendors sellings nails and fruit outside, and inside, under the tents, are vendors selling everything from gold jewelery to housewares.  We bought 9 dozen glasses (of three different sizes), and then walked through the maze looking for baby bottles.  The cheapest ones we found were $1.60 but we still thought we could do better or maybe find the actual measuring cups.  In the end, I went back to the Angkor Market this morning and bought the baby bottles there because we are going into the school tomorrow with all of the supplies we have and it is our hope to have everything ready and done with. 

In the afternoon, Kyle and his wife Jennifer, and their son Lucas came over to the Frangipani and we all hung out at the poor for a couple of hours.  It took Kyle and Jennifer about 20 minutes to cut out the last strips of paper they had with them while I played a water game with Lucas in the pool.  After a while, the two Dutch girls I had met the day before joined us, we enjoyed a fruit drink, and then made plans to head out for dinner together.  Unfortunately, Kate wasn`t feeling to well and so decided to stay home and rest for the evening.  And so I met the others in the lobby, and suddenly, I was in charge.  `Where are we going Leslie` Ha ha.  ... I guess that is what happens when you stay in  a place for a while. Anyway, we went to the FCC again, and had some very nice cocktails.  The kids ordered passionfruit milkshakes and when they arrived, their eyes grew to the size of saucers because they were HUGE.  If I was a kid I`d be so happy.  The rest of us ordered mango daquiries and they were so good I think we have to go back again today. 

For dinner we tried the Cambodia BBQ.  It`s not something I would want to do every day but was a perfect thing to do with such a large group.  We had crocodile, chicken, beef, pork, and squid, as well as all of the vegetables we could manage.   After that, the little family went home because they had a skype date with friends, and the Dutch girls and I went out for a foot massage at my favorite corner.  The corner of Pub Street and Street 11 has got to be one of the busiest and oldest corners in town.  Kevin tells me that when he was younger, those old French colonial buildings, and a couple of bars, were the only things going on in town.  Today, that corner has some fancy restaurants at ground level, flanked by a very chessy open-air Karaoke bar.

The next morning, Kyle, kids, and I set off bright and early to the market to pick up our supplies, and then went via tuk tuk out to the high school.

Even though it was Saturday, there were still students there just hanging out and staff working.  We spent a good couple of hours assembling what we could of the bins.  It was pretty great to finally see all of the planning and work from all of these different people begin to take actual shape.  Kyle spent quite a bit of time assembling the electromagnet kit ... fussing with the thickness and length of the copper wire etc...the size of the paperclip it could pick up...all to see what would be the most reliable and reproducible.  I believe the word is optimizing.

 Anyway, while he was doing that, his kids were unpackaging all of the baby bottles I bought and getting more candles and glasses into those white bins than I ever thought possible.  While they were doing that, I was spending some time testing out the steel wool and magnesium in the vinegar and toilet bowl cleaner they had.  I was a little concerned because the toilet cleaner they were using was 12% HCl and 23% H3PO4!  So I thought....well...maybe I should test a small piece of Mg in the strong acid just to see how vigorous the reaction would be.  So we put it outside in a beaker on the concrete steps and used only 4mm of Mg ribbon.  The reaction was pretty foamy and fast but fortunately didn`t generate the violent and overly hot reaction I was afraid of.  Anyway just to be safe, I bought three bottles of toilet cleaner today with only 12% HCl and will put that one in the bins.

In the afternoon, we got massages from blind people at Seeing Hands 4 (the Siem Reap location).  It was a little tricky to find and we had our tuk tuk driver talk to the proprieters so we could find the right place without too much walking.  It is very very hot these days.  The place is tiny and down a dusty alley.  There were 8 massage tables set up in a dark front room and you really got the impression that you were in the front room of their home. 

The masseuses were definitely blind and did everything by feel.  It was a very good massage, and sometimes, I would peek and see the little kids running around, looking at themselves in the mirror, playing hide and seek, and just basically pushing the limits of what they could get away with.  What an experience.  This was not the air-conditioned, aromatic, and swish Thai spa that we had used last week but it was so genuine and interesting.

That evening, we all went to the FCC (yes again) for Happy Hour.  I had invited a group of nursing students and their professors along and Kyle had invited a couple and another single traveller who had been eating at their hotel.  It turns out that this professor or nursing gives lectures at various conferences all over the world and has been involved in developing countries for years.  It had been a coincidence that brought her to Cambodia for the first time and she has been back every year with some students ever since.  I hope I get to have at least one more conversation with her before we head our separate ways.

For dinner we went to the lovely restaurant down the road that Kate has been wanting to go to for days.  Just like everything else here it was wonderful and we were all pleasantly surprised when Diane appeared with all of the visiting Singapore teachers.  I guess we picked the right place.

As always, thanks for reading.

Leslie

Nuts, Bolts, Scalpels, and Test tubes

It is hard to believe that I've been here in Siem Reap for almost a week.  Last night I was sitting by the pool watching a large group of French tourists paddle around as I wait for my friend Kate to come downstairs.  Most tourists stay here for only long enough to tour the temples.  I've been at this hotel long enough for all of the staff to know me on sight, know my name, room number, and profession, and even keep track of my, and Kate's, comings and goings.  Even the girl who silently plays the xylophone here every night noticed that I was looking for Kate, and pointed to the front veranda without missing a note.

We went to the Foreign Correspondants Club (FCC) for Happy Hour and I paid $1 for a fresh coconut lime smoothie made with house-made yogourt.  Granted, the club was not operational during the War like its Phnom Penh counterpart, but all the same, it is a very swish place to sit and watch people go by.  We then walked down the street and crossed the river to eat dinner at the Bopha Hotel restaurant.  For the longest time we were the only people there and the sweet little xylophone player played for us for at least two hours.  It's very easy to have a very good holiday here.  The food and drink is delicious, fresh, and affordable, and there are always dozens of tuk tuk drivers asking you if they can drive you to your destination for a dollar or two. 

They honestly have nothing else to do.  The median age in Cambodia is around 21 or 22 years old, and they have what is effectively a nation of gentle, sweet, and generous unskilled labourers. If they are not washing dishes or driving you around, they are shooting the breeze and waiting for their chance to do so.

A couple of days ago, I spent quite some time with the science teacher mentor here trying to get our lemon battery to work.  I was so sad when I could not get it up and running.  I want to blame the lemons...or maybe the thin zinc strip....or maybe the poor connections were were making with the teeny little copper wires weren't good enough to overcome to kinetics of the system.  I'm not sure.  But Chanda did tell me that she spent quite some time last night watching lemon videos on Youtube.  I felt like a bit of an idiot because I don't usually have so many problems with the stupid lemons.  A big thank you to Russell at the Ontario Science Centre for suggesting that I cut the lemon into quarters and create four mini cells.  Now if only I could find galvanized screws ...

During my visit to the Aranh school, I had to wait out a serious torrential downpour.  I guess this is what they mean by rainy season.  My tuk tuk driver Mr. Ouhok was patiently waiting in the shelter of his tuk tuk and took me home once it was finished with no less enthusiasm and smiles than usual.  The rain was so heavy that there were puddles of water almost four inches deep and the kids were happy to take off their shoes and trudge though them, completely soaked.

Yesterday, the other Canadian teacher Kyle and I went into the high school, took all of the science supplies out of the cabinets, and laid then out on the tables.  We went through the experiments that were developed by the Singapore teachers, and made lists of the equipment we needed to buy in order to create a classroom kit for each elementary school. 

This morning, we met and walked to the Old Market area to scout out supplies like bins for the kits, stopwatches, trays for the dissection, and so on.  Diane is going to see if Chanda is available to go back with us tomorrow and pick up what we need.  She will probably be able to negotiate a better deal than we can.  Many of the supplies we need for dissection will be supplied by a local hospital.  The people at Caring for Cambodia have worked very hard to establish a strong and positive relationship with other NGOs (and there are many here) and it shows. 

Thanks for reading!

Leslie

Volunteering 101

It is really raining hard right now because there is a tropical cyclone hitting Bangladesh and Myanmar and a band is making its way through Siem Reap.  I had been planning to head to the grocery superstore (and looking forward to seeing this superstore in this dusty town) but after walking outside for a couple of minutes, I recognized that combination of high winds and dark skies, turned around, and came back.  This is not something I want to get caught in.  So I have taken advantage of the downtime to download an English Khmer app on my mobile phone.

On Thursday morning, I was picked up at my hotel and driven out to the high school which is situated outside of the range of my GPS along the highway towards Phnom Penh.

The schools are simple buildings and the rooms are swept out by the students every day.  Kids here only attend school either the first half of the day or the second half of the day and during the hottest times of the day, they break for what I guess I can call a siesta.  Diane, the volunteer coordinator here, and Savy, the indispensible Cambodian superintendent coordinator and problem-solver, introduced me to Chanda who is the science coordinator for their schools.  I was then brought to the lab which is really just like all of the other large rooms in the school with high tables by which the students can stand to perform their experiments.  They have a couple of cabinets with an hodge podge of lab equipment and chemicals.  I snapped some photos of the cabinets as well as some close-ups of the kits that have already been assembled to some degree.  Some of the material was brought over by the Singapore team of teachers not that long ago and those teachers had demonstrated some experiments to the local teachers.  The local teachers are now keen to try to use what they have learned but the actual kits are not assembled, the handouts are not made, some of the experiments didn't work, and none of the local staff, including Chanda, Diane, and Savy, have the expertise to do it.  The inventory seems almost arbitrary.  We spent quite a bit of time talking about retort stands; they have thirty  stands, but only five bases for the stands.  Savy is confident that the local people can create stands made out of cement and fix they rods in.  He is also confident that they can create things like ring clamps, of which they only have one.  They have several air thermometers but the liquid thermometers are stored somewhere else and frankly those would be much more useful.

After sizing up the situation, I suggested that we can first complete the kits that are almost ready to go, and create them in triplicate since there are three schools.  As we do that, we can make a list of materials we need to find or make in order to make kits for the other experiments that were shown to the local teachers.  Another science teacher arrives Monday and he and I can design other experiments that are small modifications on the ones they already have but more appropriate for older grades, and we can make a list of supplies for those as well.  And then, we can hire a car or tuk tuk for the day and go to one of the sprawling, cluttered, and daunting local markets where we can find all kinds of household items and hardware. 

After seeing what they have to work with, how remote and small the schools are, and how old and dry the textbooks are, I now understand how much help they need.  If this was Canada, the government would provide some science coordinator expert to fly out to these remote schools and the teachers would probably be university graduates still wet behind the ears but would have the knowledge and lab experience to pull off the lessons.  Here, I found myself trying to answer all sorts of questions because Chandra, in anticipation of my arrival, had folded down the corners of pages in her textbooks so that she could ask me to help her understand something.  I couldn't read the Khmer language but the diagrams were enough for me to at least try to help.  I explained the right-hand rule, and tried to get at the root of why her home-made foil electroscopes and electrochemical cells weren't working,  I suggested that she spray the insects that she captures with hairspray to help preserve them longer, and when I got stuck on a circuit question, I photographed it and send it to Mark back at home asking for help.  Mark got back to me and sent me one of the little video tutorials he has made.  Apparently the lesson is about tranformers.  At the end of the little meeting I promised to show them how to make ice cream using the salt and ice method. 

Yesterday, I was picked up by the tuk tuk driver Mr. Ouhok and he drove me out to the first of the three elementary schools along the river just south of Siem Reap.  I was met at the first school by Susopia and he toured me around all the schools.  We walked through the corridors and poked our heads into the various classrooms.  He introduced me to all the teachers and I mostly just smiled and nodded enthusiastically.  Even the principals barely speak English.  The children are so cute and in the kindergarten classes where there can be over 40 little kids in uniforms, they all sit around and recite the alphabet and sing little songs.

Caring for Cambodia has done an excellent job transforming the schools and making them look very much like classrooms back at home with decorations and work stations.  One significant difference is the hygiene station where there are toothbrushes for all of the little kids because it is part of their daily school routine.  In the cafeteria area there is a giant cauldron full of fish porridge because many of the kids are from poor families and don't always get good food. 

Despite this the schoolyard at playtime is full of happy screaming little kids making the most of their precious free time.

In the afternoon I returned to one of the schools to join up with Diane and laminated 120 pages of actvitity cards designed to teach the water cycle, and then I managed to cut about half of them.  There was a little girl hanging around the staff lounge (and I am not sure what class she was supposed to be in but nobody seemed too concerned) and she decided that she was going to be my helper.   She looked around 5 years old to me but was probably a bit older because the people here are so small and it is difficult for me to make good judgements of age here.  I chopped up the first of the set of cards and she watched me stack them and attach them with a paper clip before dropping them into a plastic ziploc bag.  From then I handed her the cards and the paper clip and she dutifully collated them for me and dropped then into the bag.  We did this on and off for a couple of hours.  There was one point where she decided to categorize the cards differently and it took me a few minutes to figure out what she did and fix all the ones she did wrong.  It was funny though because she would stick a couple of them together, show them to me, and ask me for confirmation in Khmer, and I would answer her in English.  I learned that she can count to 8.

In the evening Kate (an Australian nurse here teaching English) and I walked into town for dinner and one of those wonderful cheap streetside foot massages.  We shared a Khmer tasting plattern which had some delicious fresh spring rolls, the classic fish amok, a chicken curry, some spare ribs, and fried morning glory.  It was all so delicious but there was so much food that we couldn't finish it.  We asked the staff if they would make use of the food and they said yes they would.  I think that for a people who have been to hell and back within a generation, they are not wasteful of anything.

It is now Saturday morning and the sky is cloudy and it was so windy at breakfast that one of the trees by the pool blew over!  We watched the staff assess the situation, hack it up, and carry it off.  It is not a good day to be out exploring distant temples or villages, so perhaps we will spend a quiet day getting a massage and reading.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading.

Leslie

Back to Siem Reap

Right now I am sitting by the poolside of my hotel in Siem Reap enjoying this day off and getting my bearrings before I head to the high school tomorrow with the volunteer coordinator for Caring for Cambodia.  I find it strange that I am back here after only a few months and this time for such a different reason.

After coming home, I started searching for ways to help the education system here and it did not take me long to find this organization.  They support local teachers by giving them extra money and bonuses when they perform certain student-centered lessons.  I am here to try to develop as many science resources as I can in just 16 days.  I do not have high expectations but I do hope that  can do at least one useful thing while I'm here.  I will get picked up tomorrow and I expect to do a certain amount of watching at first before I branch off on my own and try to get something done.

The flight here was epic and definitely the longest trip I have ever taken.  It is low season here and it shows because the flight to Hong Kong was half empty as was the final leg of the journey from Ho Chi Minh city to Siem Reap.  As soon as I stepped off the plane I smelled that familiar smell of burning wood and charcoal that reminds you that you are in a country that does not have a developped energy sector the way we do back at home.  In fact, once the plane flew over the border in between Vietnam and Cambodia, there is a sudden and dramatic change of scenery.  Outside my window was darkness and only once we got near the town of Siem Reap did I begin to see lights.  But these were not the bright whites and yellows of electrical lighting but rather the warm flickering red of open flames. 

I had ordered an airport pick-up from my hotel and the man was there waiting for me holding a sign with my name on it.  My luggage showed up much to my delight, and I had my visa processed and was through immigration in record time.  It was great.  I got my simcard this morning and then suddenly found myself with no plan for the afternoon.  Hence the hanging out by the pool.  There is an international group here of young people teaching English in local schools and they have warned me to expect things to take a long time to get things done here.  I guess we will just have to wait and see.  I will have a better idea of the state of affairs once I get my tour tomorrow.  Plus, the other volunteer will be here at some point and we will probably be more effective working as a team.

I have looked over many of the documents created by other teachers in the dropbox folder, and I feel a little more ready to get started tomorrow.  I guess we shall see.