Question: How many Cambodian children can fit into a fourteen passenger
van?
Answer: Thirty-nine, plus two APCA employees and one carsick American
(me).
Question: How many Cambodian children can crowd around a ten-inch
laptop screen to watch a Khmer movie?
Answer: Thirteen, plus one confused American (me).
Last weekend the trek to Phnom Penh went as smoothly as possible. The
kids were incredibly well behaved, and the entire day you could just see their
big round eyes soaking up as much city as they could. We visited the Royal
Palace and Silver Pagoda before eating lunch on a boat ride down the Mekong
River. It was hot, the kids were falling
asleep right and left, and the Lil’ John, Kanye, and Mariah were blaring the
entire two hour trip.
Once we disembarked, we found our way to Wat Phnom and the playground
area nearby. The kids went crazy on the jungle gym and enjoyed watching the
monkeys (which would approach a little too closely for my comfort) and
elephant. On the hour trip back to APCA,
I had one girl on each leg, a boy hanging onto my back, and another boy’s head
jammed into my left kidney. We sang "Jingle Bells" and some Akon (the only
English songs they know) until someone pressed play on the cd player and it was
Khmer Pop the rest of the journey. The kids all loved singing to me and trying
to interpret the lyrics.
The main topic of this week’s lessons was oral health. Supriya and I
discovered that about half of the kids have toothbrushes, and only half of the
girls have toothpaste. Once again, thanks for all the toothpaste and toothbrush
donations! I had just enough to distribute them in class and we did our best to
explain the importance of brushing daily. So many of the kids would remove
their brushes from their mouths after fifteen seconds of brushing and discover
that their brand new, formerly white brush bristles were now covered and
dripping with blood. No wonder they don’t like brushing. I can’t even imagine
trying to teach them how to floss; we are doing our best to make brushing a fun
event, and some of the kids have caught on. Every day in each class, we spend
the first few minutes brushing.
We were hesitant to teach the big kid class about the importance of
brushing; we thought that these 16-20 year olds might be offended that we were teaching
them such a basic skill. However, after one of the best students explained to
us that he was told if you brush too much, your teeth will grow smaller and
smaller until they disappear, we were glad we didn’t overlook this class. We
reassured him that by NOT brushing, your teeth will surely rot, break, and
disappear (which has already happened to a number of the smaller kids).
On Saturday I broke out the cds I brought with me and taught a few kids some line dances. They picked them up super quickly (because they're used to the intricate Khmer dancing which is about a thousand times harder to learn). The kids decided that instead of the normal country music, they would rather line dance to Shakira and Zumba music. I'm glad I brought a wide array of music with me.
On Saturday I broke out the cds I brought with me and taught a few kids some line dances. They picked them up super quickly (because they're used to the intricate Khmer dancing which is about a thousand times harder to learn). The kids decided that instead of the normal country music, they would rather line dance to Shakira and Zumba music. I'm glad I brought a wide array of music with me.
Yesterday was Sunday, so the two other volunteers and I decided to take a bike
ride to Baset Mountain. It was the most relaxing, beautiful bike ride I have
ever taken, and once we got to the top, we were welcomed by the monks and walked
around the pagodas. We stopped twice for noodles and Sprite. What I miss:
cheese, orange juice, Yoplait, and chocolate Riesens.
Today I didn’t teach any classes because I woke up feeling ill. I won’t
go into the details of my symptoms, but I slept the entire day and I think the
kids enjoyed the day off, too. My
stomachache could be from about a hundred different things, but I’m sure it’s
because yesterday I mentioned that my stomach was taking the orphanage meals pretty well. Let’s just say there is a reason why you’ve never flipped on the Travel Channel just in time to see Anthony
Bourdain test out the cuisine at a Cambodian orphanage!
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