Aloha Everyone,

For some reason I haven’t been able to get on-line and check my email for three days. Today I managed to get on-line and access by glob, but I’m still not able to open gmail. It makes me feel a little disconnected . . . so please know that this is why I haven’t responded to your emails.

Mahalo,

sj

Day-to-day Life at FLO

Started Tuesday, August 2, 2011 en route to the beach in Cambodia with FLO Ss and staff and eGlobal volunteers, continued Monday, August 8, 2011 (back from the beach), and finished Monday, August 15th.

Hi Everyone,

My sister Hannah has asked for some specific information about life at FLO. So as I’m sitting on the bus (one of 4) with lots of Ss taking naps (after a rip-roaring time at a stream where we would have gone swimming if the water hadn’t been flowing so quickly!, and where we hung out (some of us in hammocks : ) under raised, covered cabanas and ate lunch—after exploring the large flat rock which abutted the fast-flowing stream), I thought I’d take advantage of this “quiet” time and write. I think we have about one-and-a-half hours before we arrive at Ochheuteal beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

What does she want to know?

I am staying in one of 7 (or 8) rooms in a two-story guesthouse building; I am in room number one on the ground floor.

I have my own room with two double beds (one of which I’m using as my office/desk, remember seeing a picture of it at the top of my last entry?). In the room is a small fridge, which contains four water bottles (they refill it each morning while I’m at breakfast) and some sodas. The water bottles freeze by the end of the day if I don’t take them out of the fridge. It seems to work pretty well with taking one out mid-day and having a nice treat a little later (and the same with taking one out before dinner). I have a private bathroom; it’s a lot like a standard hotel room.

The meals are served in the “canteen.” This is a one-story building immediately across from the guest house. It’s divided by a tile walkway surrounded by beautiful vegetation.

For breakfast (served around 7:30 a.m.) we have anything ranging from a bowl of noodles to fried rice with an egg on top (that’s my fav). The fried rice has vegetables in it including small pieces of white potato. A couple of times we’ve had two fried eggs with part of a baguette; I made an egg sandwich with mine. After every meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) we’re served some type of fruit. The fruit is wonderfully fresh and delicious!

We’ve had: rambutan, lychee, longan, watermelon . . . Had to stop. Picking back up on Monday the 8^th.

 grapefruit, banana.

Lunch is served at noon, and we often have a soup. When it was just me and the two girls, they’d make a veggie version for me. But about a week ago a lot more people came, and they sometimes had one veggie dish or fish; so I just picked out the veggies. Today was taro soup with pork; yep, I just ate the taro with rice. They also served tiny pickles with egg. Yes, they sliced the pickles lengthwise and fried them in the pan with the egg. It was actually good. No, not sweet pickles, which is probably why I liked it.

Dinner starts around 7 p.m. and is essentially the same as lunch: a pot of white rice and some kind of soup and stir-fry. I’m going to miss everyone who’s just left and who’s leaving tomorrow (some of the people from the eGlobal group and the camera crew), it might be that the food improves a bit for me. We’ll see. Regardless, I’m getting plenty of healthy food.

Oh, what about beverages? Mostly, I drink water. They do have sodas and beer in the fridge in the canteen which I’ve been known to access on occasion. For breakfast there’s a hot water dispenser for your beverage of choice. The options? 3-in-one packets which are a mix of powder for coffee, sugar, and milk. There’s also cocoa which I gravitate towards. And, I have a packet of fun surprise things from Marty, thank you very much!

Do I have a set schedule?

Yes and no.

I had a schedule for the first week, and then the second week we were at the beach from Tuesday through Thursday. Friday was declared a day off from school to give the kids a rest. Week 3 I had my same afternoon classes (3 – 4 p.m. Intermediate level Ss & 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. Elementary level Ss) and then the two review classes with the younger kids (8 – 9 a.m. with one student teacher and 1 – 2 p.m. with another student teacher). Next week I’ll continue with the afternoon classes which I design, and I will also have something with the younger Ss . . . the jury’s still out on this one . . . tbd.

According to the “formal” (as if you can use that word in Cambodia, it’s pleasantly laid back and casual most of the time) schedule, which the director gave me upon my arrival, I’m “supposed” to be in the library reading to the kids (or doing something similar) from 9 – 11 a.m. At 11 a.m. I could go help serve their lunch. What I’ve ended up doing most days is using that time to prepare my afternoon classes. Sometimes I’ve been able to do that in the library (with the kids looking on when, for example, I was making my flashcards for learning all my Ss names . . . ) and sometimes I’ve needed to go work in the FLO office area. After I prepared my lesson plan and made up the exercises, etc. for the day’s lesson, I copied the file over onto my little pen-drive. Then one of the many nice office workers would print it/them for me (they tried and tried to set me up with wireless access to their printer, but it never worked). I’m limited in the number of copies I can make, so I try to be as efficient as I can be copying the whatever so that it’s printed on the page several times over. I think just cut it up into little strips to hand-out to the Ss.

I could practically be with the kids 24/7 if I wanted. They’re always hanging out around the classrooms, and I’m welcome to go visit with them in their playground area and living quarters. But if you’ve noticed the timeline of my schedule, you’ll guess that I haven’t done that very often. In fact, I haven’t been in their living quarters yet. Generally, if I find I have a free moment, I prefer to have some down time in my room. But yes, I’ve had some pleasant moments just hanging out with them in the shade. And there’s been no lack of receiving and giving hugs. “We love you auntie/sister/teacher,” I hear several times a day. Yes, I love them too. Who wouldn’t?

And the teachers and other adults?

I see the office workers when I use the office area for preparing my lessons or for doing research (for my lessons). Slowly I’m getting to know their names too. They’re such lovely and friendly people.

The teachers have been polite and say hello, but honestly, it’s hard to communicate with them; their English is difficult to understand.

As I finish week three out of eight, I hope to get to know them all more and more in the following weeks.

And . . . on a tangent, take a look at the little shack to the right of the lady holding the baby in the pictures from Sunday’s bike ride (a few weeks ago). Rob has been working and working raising funds and gathering materials to improve that home’s physical situation. In the picture, I think you can see that there is standing water around it (a person would have to walk through water to get to the house). It was also in the house. Tomorrow we will be lifting . . . yes, l i f t i n g ! the house to put blocks under it. They’re doing more as well . . . I’ll be there doing whatever I can do to assist and hopefully gathering plenty of photos to show the folks back “home.”

May you be well, happy, and content with your life.

With all my love,

sj

*Initially I stayed in the store area. Believe it or not, I had one of the absolute worst nights of my life there. I had come back from class and dinner around 8 p.m. Dripping with sweat, I thought I’d take a shower and then begin to do my lesson prep (I knew I had about 4-hours worth of things to do). Since the power had gone out the day before when I’d taken a shower (in the morning), I knew that it could happen again. So I turned off all the things I could, BUT it went out anyway. That in itself was no big deal; I simply rinsed my hair in the pitch black, found my way to my computer, opened it for some light, found my book light, got dressed, etc. But . . . when it started getting creepy for me was when I realized how locked in I was, my room was locked, the store was locked, there were no windows to open, there was no direct link to the outside. And the air con was off and the shower was quickly forgotten.

“Okay, Susan Jane, stay calm; it’s not like you’re locked in prison and can’t get out.” So I opened the door to the meeting room in the store. Fortunately, that power was still on. There’s no air con in there, but there was light, and I could carry all my materials into that room and do my preparation there. And, there was a fan, which I pointed directly at me : ).

Writing about it now, it doesn’t seem so bad. But for me, a closet claustrophobic (no pun intended), it was tough. Sweating in the dark, feeling trapped, waiting for the light of day (yes, I meditated and that calmed me down greatly) . . . and after reading Phaly’s story and visiting S21, I realize that I’m a “light-weight.” Yes, I’m used to cool air when I sleep and being able to step outside whenever I want. My room in the guesthouse was such a treat when I moved there the following day . . . -sj

Guesthouse as seen from the garden area.