Working hard, playing hard

Noah

December 4th, lunchtime.  

Early this morning, we returned to the Aranh School. As soon as we arrived we got right to work. Our coordinator, Ya, showed us our duties for the day. Half the group continued to create bulletin boards for the classrooms, which they eventually spray-painted green and red. The other group continued to paint the newly built upper school.  While contractors have done the painting of the upper levels on ladders, in two days we were able to paint the lower part of the school on all four sides.  It felt good to know that we were serving the school in a meaningful way. After a few hours of hard work, we turned to sports.  Some Bullis students challenged the local players in volleyball, and other Bullis athletes took on some of the Aranh School’s finest soccer players in a game. The field was in very poor condition with divots and ruts scattering the field. The kids seemed to have a home field advantage because they were used to it. Each student was filled with jubilation as the game became more and more competitive and a large crowd gathered to cheer each play or shot on goal.  Surprisingly, the game ended in a tie of one-to-one, but the fun and friendship was more important than the score.

[Sara notes: We painted at Aranh school much of the day on Jan 3rd and 4th--pictures represent both days.  We took a lunch and shower break, and we are now headed back to the school for more work this afternoon]

Now We're Cooking!

By Dana Martin

Written January 3rd

Last night, D-Ro took us to a Cambodia Barbecue restaurant in Siem Reap.  It is very popular with the locals and we were the only Westerners in the place.  No one spoke English so a friend from the hotel came along to translate and explain how to select and eat our food. We took a Tuk Tuk, which is a cart you sit in pulled by a motorcycle, to dinner. Once we arrived, we were directed to a table with three dome shaped grills surrounded by moats of boiling water. After ordering drinks, we headed to a long buffet of raw food. You picked up a tray and several bowls and selected as much as you wanted.  On this table, there were many unidentified foods that none of us had ever seen or tried before. There were various dried noodles, chicken, beef, pork, crab, shrimp, fish balls, beef balls, squid, eel, prawns, lots of green vegetables, and many more items. We took turns using the cookers, and put the dried noodles and vegetables in the boiling water. Some at our table struggled to balance the food on the dome and use the chopsticks, but overall it was good. The buffet was unlimited so you could go back again to refill your dish and get as much out of six dollars possible.   After our very adventurous meal, we enjoyed something more familiar:  ice cream at Blue Pumpkin, a western-style ice cream parlor.  

[Dr. Romeyn/D-Ro says "apologies for the fuzzy pictures--the flash on the camera wasn't working.  Just glad our stomachs emerged from the adventure unscathed"] 

Raiding Tombs and Bridging Barriers

Tuesday, January 2nd

CeMaia Wise

Throughout the day we have been paired up with a student from CFC.  My partner was Ratha, an 18 year old in 9th grade who will attend the newly-built high school next year.  We learned that many students are "old" for their grade as they sometimes have to leave school when their families can't afford tuition or need them to work, and then return a year or more later.  While some of the students spoke English fluently, at first I struggled to communicate with Ratha as her English was still a little basic.  We went out on a scavenger hunt in the village where we had to write down answers to various questions (for example, what year was the town water pump built?) in both English and Khmer.  We had trouble working as a team and as a result got two questions wrong.  However, later in the afternoon, she gave me a personal tour of the famous temple Ta Prohn where Tomb Raider was filmed.  Here, we warmed up to each other and through hand gestures and smiles she led me through all of the secret passageways.  By the end of the day, I had learned some Khmer phrases.  I can count to five and I know how to say several words. Ratha was a patient teacher.  I learned that cultural and language barriers can be broken if people are patient and open-minded.  We gave each other friendship bracelets and I am looking forward to seeing her again at the school.
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Soup's On!

Brad Kosegarten 

The rooster crowed at the break of dawn, the wake up calls came, and a groggy Bullis crew piled into two vans to serve breakfast at two different Caring for Cambodia schools, the Aranh School and the Amelio School. Both groups served steaming bowls of chicken and rice porridge to very respectful and hungry students. Some students brought along their parents and younger siblings who also needed a meal to start the day. The CFC coordinator, Megan, said that the "Food for Thought" program began four years ago and was meant to give students a good source of protein and vegetables to begin the day. Many of the students have poor dietary habits as they are malnourished at home and there's a small candy store just outside the school. The Bullis students then paired up with CFC students from the Aranh School to participate in a village scavenger hunt. At the end of the scavenger hunt, the CFC students purchased some school supplies for the week. From 8:30 to 10:30, students continued work on their projects (building a garden and a brick wall) and had a chance to observe Dr. Romeyn help teach an English lesson to first graders. Later in the day, Bullis students and their CFC friends joined together for a temple tour (CeMaia's post to follow soon).