cont...

On friday night we ate at a Khmer noodle place and I decided that I do not like duck egg. It tastes funny... kinda meaty tasting. I was eating the noddles and thought something tasted strange so I had Orng ask the cook, and sure enough duck egg! After eating I called the missionaries in Siem Reap, Weasley and Evoynne and they offered to take us to church on Sabbath morning.

ANGKOR WAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have now been to Angkor Wat!!!!!!!

Thursday: Sharon let us out of school early so we left school at one got to the bus station and left on the bus at 3:30 we got to Siem Reap at 11:00. loooong bus ride. But Orng has the coolest family ever. His mom called his uncle in Siem Reap and his uncle hooked us up with a hotel for the Khmer price of get this.... $12 a night with air conditioning, fridge, warm water, and two beds. Yep. Amazing. He also got his tuk tuk friend to take us all over the place on Friday for 20 dollars for the whole day. We ended up taking two tuk tuks sine there is five of us. (BJ, WHitaker, Kristie, and Orng).

Friday: We woke up bright and early and left to go to Angkor Wat at 5 in the morning so that we could see the sunrise. So beautiful! My words can not do it justice and the pictures will not be able to as well. Angkor wat is just one temple in the whole park. We spent the whole day temple hopping and we only saw the major major ones. There are hundreds of temples all over the place. Bayon temple was my favorite and it is easily recognisable in pictures because it is the one with all the head carvings everywhere. It got so hot out!!! I was sweating up a storm and climbing all those stairs to the top of the temples... goodness, it was worth it but I definatly sweated in places I have never sweated before. It is amazing the languages that the people can speak here. There are so many tourist here that the kids are able to learn a lot of languages. You can hear kids switching from language to language depending on the tourist they are trying to sell their wares too. The kids will just follow you ever where and will say... I remember you, you come back when done. For breakfast we at at stall number four right out side of angkor wat which was a great view :D I had a mango pancake. yum. it was threee bucks which is a rip off here, but we're tourists, what can i say. For lunch we stoped at a random restuarant outside of a temple. I had Amok which is daring on my part. Won't do that again. Amok is a traditional fish dish and I had to try it, just to say that I have had it. Tasted good. By three oçlock we were wiped so we came back into Siem reap and went shopping for food for Sabbath. I don't care for the market here. It was crowded and a pain to go around because i'm not use to it. Plus it is Pchum Ben which is the holiday for the dead. It is a fifteen day holiday and the last day today so the market was really busy. To celebrate the people buy food for their ancestors and go to the wat to pray to them. It's a big deal here.

Well.. it's getting late, so I will tell more tomorrow about today :D

Yeah! Tomorrow we leave to Siem Reap to go to Angkor Wat! That is what I am super excited for!

I love my students and there are the coolest. :D Classes went well today and after school I hung out with dorm kids that in around 4th grade. They made me oragami shapes, and I let them use my colors. I can win any kids heart just by letting them use my markers. :D

I'm going to try to put some pictures up, so hopefully this works...

never mind. it fails. I will try again another night :(

so

so i'll go by day again...

Friday: We had school in the morning and then in the afternoon Kristie and I had a wall of postit notes of things that we had to do. Not one postit note got crossed off at the end of the day. We ended up going to Orngs house with BJ and then it stormed so we stayed longer than planned and then we ended up eating over. His mom made us rice and some kind of fish dish. It was good :D Then at 4 I had an appointment to practice piano for church. When I got there I found out only one of the songs had sheet music to it, and everything else just had chord written in for like the guitar. You would think that during all those years of piano lesson, I would have learned my chords... NOT! so I was quickly taught them so I could play on Sabbath... I wanted to cray cause I was so terrible and we had to keep on playing the songs over and over and over again. Specially the Khmer song.

Sabbath: I lead out for Sabbath school in the morning. I like leading out for the kids. They ask more questions and participate a lot more thant the adults. You wouldn't think that now, would you. It is also fun to see students in another setting besides school. In school I have to be teacher, in church I can be friend. It makes a difference, I am closer to the kids that go to church and I need to remember to reach out to those who do not go to church.

Playing the piano was not too terrible. I worked out the chord and was able to play them. It was just nothing fancy. Watch out! by the end of this year I will be all over that keyboard and I will be a pro and those Khmer songs all in minor keys. :D

Augusta and Lim invited us over for Sabbath Dinner. It was yummy and after wards Lim showed us a map of Cambodia and pointed out all the places we should go. Because of that we are now going to Angkor Wat this weekend! yeah! please look up Angkor wat! Amazing place!

Sunday: We worked hard int he morning on school, but then at 4:00 BJ, Whitaker, Kristy, Orng and I all headed out to show Kristy the town. We drove past Phnom Wat, the palace, and the river front, since she has not seen any of it. Then we ate noodles at a Khmer place and it was truley Khmer because there was napkins all over the ground. When Khmers are done with garbage they toss it on the ground at a restuarant. Whitaker was having way too much fun with it. I wouldn't be surprised if on his kitchen floor at home there are some napkins on the ground. Next we went and visited Orngs sister and then his uncle cause he is one of the best painters in town. He use to be the art professor at the university here, but now just does private lessons. We then went to the night market and hung out. :D

Monday: School, work, oh... but now I have a student helper!!! yeah! he takes a load off my shoulders. His name is mesa and he is in 7th grade. He is so good! he graded Algebra II yesterday and I was worried it was too difficult for him to do, but he has a good brain his shoulders. I am glad I got him. I origionally met him cause he is the one who opens the doors to the chapel when I practice the piano. Poor soul, he has heard me practice.

Tuesday (Today!): School... but after school I played volleyball! It was a lot of fun. At first we weren't sure if we (kristy and I) could play because there are never girls playing, but we asked and so we played. Fun times! My team always one. That may be because the PE teacher and his brother were on our team as well as the very good Sopea at 11th grader guy that is super tall and on the other team there was a group of students that were not too great... but I like to think that the teams were even since i am sorta like a handicap to my team... lol... My feet are so sore and red because we played on textured red tile barefoot. and my right arm is full of black dots of broken blood vessels. I have a feeling I will sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow will be a good day I can feel it.

This week is going 10 times better and smoother than last week. I am started to get into the grove of things much better than before.

Have a great day and thanks for all your prayers!

Well today I was about worn through and the kids could tell. They behaved so well. For my 12th grade Algebra I gave them assigned setting today. I was getting too many suspicious papers with possible cheating. Also, I have an inside source in the classroom that there might be serious clicks forming where one person doesn't talk to another, so I mixed them up so that they have to work together. I don't know if that is asking for trouble or creating more, but I thought I would give it a chance.

I love the ESL class. I'm learning their names finally and they are warming up to me. It is very difficult to explain to a child that does not understand English what it means to sound out a word. To say in Khmer "say with me" I say in Khmer " an chear mouy knom" :D

Still don't know what I am doing for drama for sure tomorrow. Something will come in my sleep :D. I have two hours to fill and right now I only have a hour and some worth of activities. Charades is always the back up.

This afternoon after school BJ, Kristie, and I went downtown to get some stuff. We spent most of our time in IBC buying school supplies. I feel like I am in a makebelieve world where I am pretending to be a grown up teacher. It feels weird to think that I am responsible for what the students learn in high school. We then ran into Dean and Ruth at the grocery store and so they offered to drive us home and on the way we stopped for pizza. Yum... I have been craving that so much lately. The salad bar is funny. They give you a tiny bowl, but it is possible to get alot of salad, because the people put carrot sticks sticking out to make the bowl bigger, line it with lettus and then fill it up. Amazing!!! I got a picture so I will try to show that sometime.

Well off to bed.

work. work. work

I have a feeling that you will be reading a lot of blogs on how much work there is to do and how little time there is. :D

This week the normal schedule is wake up at sometime between 4 and 5 work on classes, go to school, work till 9-10 o'clock and then go to bed. It's getting a little frustrating that no matter what I plan, I get behind or I have to change the lesson last minutes. Teaching is all about being on one's toes. I'm learning from a lot of my mistakes and this week is going much smoother. I am getting more familiar with names and students, and the students are becoming comfortable with me so I feel like I belong to the school now. I am even having students confide in me already about things.

Today was prayer meeting with the dorm kids where all the teachers are suppose to come. Only three of the volunteers and two teachers came. A little sad, but we had a good time. I learned more about a lot of the students. There is one family staying at the dorm of four boys and a girl. Three of the guys names are Sopea, Sopa, Sopan. Now can you imagine being the parent calling for one of your children? And they all look alike too. I though Sopa was Sopea and was so confused when I saw the other one. Also there is this adorable dorm student named Henry, who I call Sir Henry who is in pre-k and living in the dorm. So young! He was scared of ghosts today. Ghosts are very common in Cambodia because animistic beliefs are very common. Another example of animistic believes are spirit strings. The kids will where string with pieces of metal wire in it to keep away the bad spirits. They are banned from the school, but often times the children will wear them under their shirts.

BJ and I gave ourself another responsibility. During chapel last Friday all the students were dead looking during worship and so we wondered what we could do. Then we were talking to a student named Pen David about how kids get baptised and then leave and how we can keep them in the church and he said one thing was to improve worship. So now we are the praise team leaders of chapel on Friday! We hope to get students involved in leading out worship, so that they feel some ownership for what is happening. :D

Let me explain Pen David's name. His name he goes by is David, however in Cambodia the surname goes first. So I would be Hahn Amy. Also when one gets married, the women does not change her name. It get's really confusing trying to figure out husbands and wives because of that.

Please pray for me! I already feel stressed more than I have ever felt in my life and prayers of support are needed.

Thanks!

Busy

Sorry I have not written in ages. There is too much to do and no time.

Kristy came last week on Thursday. It is nice to have her here and we will get a long great.

I'll work my way through the highlights last week.

Monday: First day of school. It went well. I didn't plan enough for Health and Music so I was scrambling for stuff to do. I had some music for the kids to listen to in Music to see what they know. I played stuff by Mozart, Bethoven, etc. and mentioned them. None of them heard of any of the composers I brought up. When I played one Bethoveen piece they knew it and I got all excited they recognised at least one! and then I found out the reason they knew it was because it is the theme song to Tom and Jerry. lol :D I also found out all of them except one had no music in the past, so I am starting at the start and teaching them basic notes and rhythm.

Tuesday: First day of Algebra. I gave them a placement exam. I have alot of work ahead of me, that is if I keep my head on straight and get organized. Kristie came! yeah! Her plane got in late so we went and picked her up at the airport at around 6:00. We went to go pick up the boys and they were not coming out, so I went up to their room to get them. When I got there, Whitaker was terribly sick. He had a high fever, couldn't move his legs, and had a bad headache. We though he would have to be taken to the hospital, cause he could have Dengue. however the next morning, he was at teacher worship saying he could work. He is one tough cookie.


Wednesday: Algebra was a mess. The boys left for a while, and then when they got back I made a mistake in the lecture and was caught by students, so then I was flusterd. and then the girls were called down to the office. So I was talking to one of the students cause he was showing me that for the fun of it he is learning calculus (he's the one catching all my mistakes) and also was showing me another mistake I made. I went to sit down and then dest slipped out under me and I went down in a heap skirt flying everywhere. I had a bunch of 12th grader boyers scrambling towards me pulling me up saying "teacha, teacha, get up are you alright". Yeah... good times.

Thursday: I don't remember

Friday: First day of drama. Good thing I have the talkative 10th grade for only this class. I can channel their energy for something good. I'll have no trouble getting them to particpate. We also had chapel. Something needs to be done. you would think that everyone is dying the way everyone's eyes are blank during worship. After school we went to Sharon's house for the end of official orientation and then I went to practice piano. The pastor found out i can play :/ So I played at vespers last minute. I'm learnig to play last minute.

Sabbath. Busy day. We had English Sabbath school where Teacher Sam taught. Poor soul, he talks a mile a minute and wants people to discuss, but he askes a question and before anyone can even take a breath he is answering the question himself. Then church! Where I played the piano for the service. i'm a little rusty, but I don't think anyone minded. Then Second Sabbath School, where I was the teacher. I dislike the adult quarterly. It confuses me. I would just rather read through the chapter and lead in a discussion about what we read. Plus it is so hard to get people to talk, and it is intimitating when all the older missionaries are the ones that one is teacher. Nerve racking. Then at 5 we had anouther worship, where again I played the piano. I think I have found my calling. Then game night as usual at Tim and Fayes house.

Today. Well... I'm still not finished with geting stuff ready but I thought that I would write something, because I will always be busy.

Still loving it here. :D The kids are the best and i am already loving them and making plans of activities I can do with them. I have a feeling that it will be a great school year. I know most of the names of the 12th graders cause they are with me for three classes during the week. I have them Monday-Thursday. So they are the ones seeing the good and the bad, and still putting up with me.

Love you all!