And so it begins

My head is so full of things to sort out that I have no idea where to begin. So, I suppose I’ll start at the beginning of yesterday, Monday, February 1.

I woke up at 7 am by myself instead of 8 am with my alarm, and realized that I was too excited and anxious to sleep-even on 4 ½ hours from the night before. I started trying to quietly pack some of my things.

Did some last minute things and went with Kristian to an Indian restaurant for breakfast where we got rice, naan bread, 2 dishes, water, and delicious fruit all for 2 dollars each. We went here the previous morning as well. On this day we had ants in our rice that had come from the bowl in the restaurant. New bowl, new rice, new plates and we were good to go. Still a delicious meal.

Finished packing my little bag, said goodbye to Kristian and took a tuk-tuk to the waterpark to meet Molly, the girl from America who has been at APCA (Assistance for Poor Children’s Association) for the past month who I am helping teach English. I was on time and I got in the van with Dara, the director of APCA, Molly, Dara’s wife, and another staff member. It took an hour to get from Phnom Penh to the village where APCA is located.

We got there around 11:30 and I was greeted by all the kids and took a look around. It was overwhelming but luckily Molly has prepared me a lot for what it’s like here. I don’t know what I would do without her. We ate a lunch of rice, some green beans and little fish. I gave my fish to the dog, Kiki. I don’t think I can do it. I must look into alternative sources of protein.

Later Molly and I went to the market down the street. It is about a 5 or 10 minute bike ride and it is much larger than I was expecting. I got a few necessities such as a towel, shampoo, hot sauce, a mosquito net, and a couple other things.

After we had been back for a while we taught an afternoon English class. Monks from a wat nearby attend one of the classes, and today they were the only ones present. We did introductions and things.

Our next class was a younger one where we focused on body parts, followed by a class for the staff of APCA, followed by dinner. Dinner was rice with green beans. The garlic chili sauce I bought earlier was a good call. So were the snacks I brought from Phnom Penh.
After dinner the kids usually have Khmer dancing but today they didn’t, so we did line dancing to popular R&B and rap songs. They especially love Akon!

I also brought out the super shitty guitar that I bought in Saigon for $18 including the case. The tuning is still horrible on it and I could hardly even remember any songs and I still got cheered by the kids. This will be good for my guitar skills, I think. And also my ego. I am leaving the guitar with them when I leave in 2 (or more) months. I think I will have to establish guitar rules for the kids in hopes that they don’t completely break it right away. Good thing it was 18 dollars.

At around 8 the kids started getting ready for bed and I went upstairs to use the internet and try to figure out what’s going on. I succeeded at uploading some photos on facebook (only a few of them from the last couple weeks), but failed at figuring out what’s going on.
When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.