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.

Holiday Day 4 (29.10.09)

This day was another early waking up. The luggage was reassembled and our tired bodies hurried towards the bus station.
After waiting another few minutes, we boarded it and thus entered upon one of the most disagreeable bus trips I've made so far.
We were seated in the back row together with three other adults and three children. Unfortunately, all of them seemed to have trouble stomaching the trip. Three of them (a man, a woman and her daughter) frequently emtpied the contents of their interiors into plastic bags, where they were conserved for the rest of the trip. This did not contribute to the olfactory enjoyment of the journey. The most repulsive thing, however, occurred when an unfortunate girl sleeping on the ground was covered by the contents of a breaking plastic bag placed above her head. All this did quite spoil our appetite. Not even the filled turtles offered at a restaurant where we had a break could change tempt us.
Finally in Siem Reap, we were able to evade the attacking tuktuk drivers by having Michael, another ww-volunteer, pick us up on his moto. The result was another test as to how much can actually be transported on a single vehicle. We managed to fit onto it with three persons, two trekking-backpacks, two daypacks and a guitar. The rest of the day was largely uneventful. We relaxed a bit in the hammocks at the boys' house, got to know some more ww-volunteers in Siem Reap, had some ice cream, transferred our luggage to the girls' house, had a look at the bar scene of Siem Reap and finally went to bed.

Note: Siem Reap is the town with the highest ww-volunteer density in Cambodia, with 6 people placed here. There is an equal distribution of
gender which resulted in the boys occupying one house and the girls another. The town is also witness to Cambodia's first ww-internal love relationship.

Holiday Day 1 - 3 (26.-28.10.09)

Long time ago I posted my last blog entry. At least, this lends some truth to its title, as it was partly in expectation of my future preoccupation/laziness that I chose it.
As I promised to give a detailed account of my holidays before and during the water festival (2.-4.11.), I will try to note down at least the most striking points now.

I spent the first day travelling to Phnom Penh, a largely uneventful, long journey (8 instead of 6 hours due to delays at the border of PP - The preparations for the Water Festival were already underway). Luckily, there was not so much karaoke music, however, a Khmer comedy was shown, during which the four somewhat disgusting men behind me continuously erupted into fits of laughter.

Having arrived in Phnom Penh and evaded the TukTuk drivers' ambush - a phenomenon I had quite forgotten during the peaceful months in Battambang - I walked to Moritz's, another weltwaerts-volunteer's place. Here, I was to spent the night in a 'deck chair in the living room in the company of an older Khmer woman, an acquaintance of one of Moritz's  flatmates. Though not the most comfortable lodging avaiable, it was certainly the cheapest and even included free pancakes as breakfast and dinner.

After a somewhat irritating visit to a noble hotel and casino called "Naga World" with Moritz and Matthias from Battambang the first evening, I spent the next day buying an acoustic guitar and sitting in free-wifi caffees, where I completed the last extensive entry on this blog.

The next day I had an early wake-up as my travelling schedule was rather tight. I was due to go to Siem Reap with Saskia on 29th and did not want to miss the opportunity of getting at least a brief impression of Kampong Cham, where she lives.

I therefore took the bus at 7:00 which took me to KC in 5 hours - a journey even less eventful than the first one, which was a good thing with regards to the journeys to follow.

In Kampong Cham, after resolving some confusions at the designated meeting place, I finally managed to arrive at Saskia's and Fabio's abode.
Here, we had a perfectly delicious self-cooked lunch (fortunately I was not involved in the process of its creation) on their idyllic terrace.
Afterwards, I accompanied Saskia to her workplace. We were a bit delayed as the bike we (read "I") were driving, was unwilling to go up a hill with our combined weight on its back and broke its chain.
When we arrived, there was not much work to do. I had a nice encounter with the head-monk of the organization (Buddhism for Society Development Agency: BSDA), whom I knew from a lecture he had given at our preparatory seminary. Saskia showed me around the place, which contained besides the office, a crafts school, a sewing centre, an Apsara school, English classrooms and an old temple beside which a pagoda was established.

In the evening, we had a beer (brand: Angkor) at the river(Mekong)side and tried to play some badminton. We had a phenomenal failure at this but succeed at entertaining the surrounding Khmer profoundly.
We had dinner at the BSDA-run "Smile" restaurant, where I made the acquaintance of a DED-worker in Kampong Cham, who was interesting due to his long experience in the work and his self-critical attitude.