Back in Battambang

So, I'm finally back in Battambang, again staying at the same beautiful house as before:

There's still the meditation hut,

And still the little dirt-road behind the school that leads to the house.

The streets of the city are still lined with small shops

some new pagodas are getting constructed

On first sight not much has changed.

However there are the many small things that make a change.

Most of these, I obviously came across at CFI.

Well, the road leading there still looks pretty much the same (it's still beautiful, though):

The first thing to notice is, there are many bicycles at the center nowadays (this picture shows only half and it was taken on a Sunday when there was no classes to speak of).

There are many small changes, like the handily hanging toothbrushes

or the ornamental flowers, here in front of the CFI Restaurant (where the children who visit the school and those who live at the center take their meals)

Overall, vegetation makes a huge aesthetic difference, also at the school:

But most importantly in the garden:

Needless to say, the children have also made some great developments, but more about that in a later post.

Joy & Sadness

There is an uncertain number of last days in Cambodia ahead of me.
I'm still waiting to get confirmation on my flight, so I cannot be sure whether it will be 10th or 14th August that I leave this wonderful country.

That complicates things:
Firstly, I often don't know whether or not to say goodbye to people. Will I see them again? Should I just say them an elaborate goodbye only to have to do it a second time, because I take the later flight?
This state of uncertainty makes it extremely difficult to get a real, genuine feel about departure.
Somehow, the days go on and I have no idea, whether the work I start one day will be completed another, because I don't know if I'll be there to complete it.
Secondly, it makes it impossible to plan the last small travels which I would love to make through Cambodia.

Enough of those complaints. I am greatly enjoying every day, every second left in this country. I'm happy about almost everything: When I go to the center, I look forward to seeing the kids. At the center, I play with them and get some last work done. Going home, my stomach is already craving the food that awaits him on the kitchen table and at home, my wonderful house-mates are always enjoyable to be around.
Our house, by the way, is greatly enhanced by the new meditation hut in our garden. Used for breakfast, work meetings, exercise, yoga, art, music and sometimes even meditation, it opens up a new type of living space and proves to be serious competition for our lounging space (which up to this point was the most commonly used common space besides the kitchen).


As much as I am looking forward to the new challenges and experiences that I'm sure are lying in store for me back in Europe, it is mostly with sadness that I think of my coming departure.
Cambodia, and everything in it, is simply to great!

I'll be back!

Visitors from above

The last 3 days at CFI were one tremendous cleaning-, filing- and making-things-look-pretty -upheaval.
Thanks to that, our office has now again enough space to move without hitting over a guitar or set of publications, our storeroom can actually be used for storing and, importantly, finding stuff and our medical drawers are again arranged in a way that allowed me to treat a student's knee-wound in an efficient way (without first pulling out three drawers and spreading their contents across the table).
As an extra, all the bathrooms and other rooms are cleaned neatly, the outside areas are swiped and the walls are all plastered with charts teaching children alternatively about human rights, numbers, animal names and the alphabet.
Now, reader, you may inquire: why? what for? or you may not, thinking order being a high principle in itself.
There is, however, a reason to all this: In the afternoon hours of Wednesday, an envoy from the department of social affairs, responsible for all orphanages in the area, came for his first check-up visit to CFI.

So in the end of the day, there were three things to rejoice about:
The cleanliness of the center (somewhat marred by flower petals scattered around after the envoy's departure); The little number of complaints from the envoy; And, most importantly, many happy, smiling children, trying to fit out the staff members with flowers :)

I’m Singing in the Rain

A couple of days ago, Fong (a Cambodian Staff at CFI) and I were driving to the center through one of the heaviest downpours this rainy season has seen as yet. We were soaked and had lots of fun. That evening, I taught Fong how to play "Singing in the Rain".

Today, there was another downpour. This time, it crossed times with my English class. My students still came, wet as they were, but oral teaching was rendered almost impossible by the noise of water hitting the school's tin roof. Thus, the lesson was reduced to writing exercises, the instructions written on the blackboard. The guitar lesson which preceded this was more delightful, as it was less disturbed by outside noises. The student, Mady, was amazing in learning how to read tablatures and he mastered the intro of "Romance d'Amour" in a matter of minutes – the greatest advancement I have seen in a student up to date!

Another highlight of the day was the opening or our "Activity Room". We furnished a vacant classroom with mats, drawers, shelves and tables. Over the time, CFI has amassed quite a number of boardgames, blocks, small musical instrument, drawing materials, animal miniatures, puzzles and other creative stuff. Some of this got lost in a forsaken drawer in the storeroom. Now, it is all available again and during lunch break, the Activity Room was camped with kids playing all kinds of game, visibly enjoying themselves and creating their own little worlds. It was a delight to be present on the occasion and be it just to teach two boys to play chess – a game at which both showed a great deal of aptitude.

When the break was over, all children were extremely helpful cleaning everything away, leaving me almost a little ashamed not help them in doing so, as I went to prepare my guitar lesson.

Swing

When CFI's co-director Andrew came back from his latest fundraising-trip to America, his luggage not only contained children's clothing, schoolbooks, puzzles and boardgames, but also a assortment of hooks, screws and carabineers reminiscent of his mountain-climbing pastime.

Cambodia being a very flat country this did seem rather strange at first sight. However, this perception was soon corrected by what Andrew, Seang and Thomas were soon to constructed with the help of those simple tools, some chains and an old tire.

In our yet-to-be-beautiful garden, the tireswing is by far the greatest attraction. Its capacity to carry and swing large amounts of children at once is continually tested and not even virulent swingsickness can prevent both boys and girls from swinging to and fro, again and again.

After class, children would flock into the garden, playing with skipping ropes, hoolahoop, footballs, badminton rackets and, obviously, the tireswing – making the garden the most important meet-play-and-have-fun area for all children.

Yesterday, Sarah, who had been living in our house for the last three months, had her farewell party. On this occasion Justin, another housemate, taught us all a different way of swinging - without a tire, but following the rhythm of music. As sad as the occasion might have been, it was a nice little party and certainly a valuable lesson.  

A beautiful day

Yesterday, it was only hunger that made me leave the CFI center in the evening.
It had been a perfect day. Happy children playing all over the muddy garden, active participation in the English lesson. Enthusiastic staff.
The whole place was permeated by an incredibly positive energy. And even those children who otherwise might tend to cause trouble were sweet, helpful and playful.
Almost every time visitors come to the center, they say that there is a unique feeling to it, something even residents of Cambodia have not experienced in other places. It is hard to put your finger on it, but it is this feeling which makes CFI special. Yesterday, it was particularly strong. It is days like this, which make me believe in what I do here and motivate me even further.

An Appeal

A little P.S. to the last post:
I'm trying to support CFI in whatever ways I can, so I set up a fundraiser on razoo (an online platform that allows people to promote NGOs they support and handles transactions free of charge).
If you are somehow affected by my enthusiasm (which I hope) and feel, after checking out CFI's website and blog that they are indeed worthwhile supporting, you might just want to take a look at the fundraiser ;)


http://www.razoo.com/story/Giving-Vulnerable-Children-In-Cambodia-Access-To-Education

Even if you don't feel like donating yourself, please share the link and get the word out there!

Back up again

Hi everyone,

It has been nearly 6 months now that you haven't heard from me and if some of you have abandoned this blog for that very reason, I'm not going to blame. After all, I abandoned it myself.
Needless to say, A LOT has happened in the meantime. The most important in short:
I nowadays work only part-time for Youth for Peace, where we still do some great activities with youths in the communities (we just had a really cool event on Child Rights Day - 1st June), but we struggle with getting permissions from authorities etc.
Most of my working hours are now spend on Children's Future International (CFI). A really young NGO founded by an American teacher and a Swiss woman who both started out teaching in Cambodia, but soon realized that there is more to providing children with an education than just teaching, so the two started their own NGO.
CFI's Children's Center just opened in January and serves children in a variety of ways. Firstly, we (I'm really involved with CFI so I use the 1st person plural) make sure children's basic needs are covered - providing rice, school uniforms, school materials, basic health-care etc. to actually allow them to go to school instead of having to work and earn money for their families.
Secondly, the school at the center provides reintegration courses to get children prepared for going to public school, as many have never had the chance to go to school before CFI started supporting them and have to catch up. For those who are already in public school, there are informal education programs: English (I have an English-in-English class with 15 students), football, music (I teach guitar), drawing etc.
While we want children to stay in their families, sometimes that's not possible, be it because of abuse, neglect, alcoholism, danger of trafficking or any other reason. These children have the chance to live at the center, or, in case of older girls who have to access education facilities in town, in the newly founded Girls' Home in Battambang City. Generally, CFI is a lot about simply providing a safe, respectful, trustful environment for all children who come to the Center - an environment many children never experience at home.
Alright, that's it for now on CFI. As you might have noticed, I'm really excited about what CFI does. Within the last 8 months I have seen many, many negative emanations of charity work - ineffectiveness, corruption, wasted or ill-spend donor-money - but this is really an exceptionally positive case, where great work is being done (it's not only me saying this, but other insiders of Cambodia's charity-world who have visited share this opinion).

Besides teaching English and Guitar, I'm involved in all kinds of administrative work around the center, which is great, as I feel that I have found something worthwhile putting effort into. Thanks to CFI, I'm having a great time in Cambodia and I hardly want to leave the country and those wonderful children!

In the picture, you can see me with Tiengy and Chong, two of the 15 children currently living at the Children's Center. The picture was taken on my birthday, hence the nice hats. It was a great day, with about 100 children singing "Happy Birthday".

I will do my best to keep you updated from now on for the remaining time I have in Cambodia. If I don't, I give you every right to pour shame on my head.

Climate shame

The non-result of the climate conference at Copenhagen which I got to know on Saturday evening was a disaster – is a disaster as climate change remains a threat.
Being, as I am, in Cambodia and having little direct access to media, except for this blog, I have little means of protest. I very much appreciate the protest so many people expressed via media or in Copenhagen directly.
In the despair politics at Copenhagen have thrown me into, I decided to set at least some sign of protest and solidarity with protesters all over the world by shaving my hair.
I know it is not much and I am conscious of that fact that many of you might object to it, either because of aesthetical reasons or because you consider the action senseless and having now effect, especially here in Cambodia. But be assured, even by objecting you make yourself part of the small effect I am trying to achieve.

Another (un)fortunate interruption of information flow

When I started giving an account of my holiday experiences, I was strongly determined to publish a post at least every second day. As some of you might have observed, this commitment has ended pretty quickly. The reason is that after a long search a finally found a field and a corresponding place of study increasingly appealing to my interest. Therefore, I am currently busy writing my application and find little time for other preoccupations, as the first submission deadline I am intent on meeting is the first of January.