Vay-cay

I'm off tomorrow for Vietnam with some friends from PEPY for a little fun & sun. Greatly looking forward to returning to Mui Ne, a laid-back little beach town east of Ho Chi Minh that I visited in December '06. Eagerly awaiting the chance to kite-surf, which I've yet to try but looks possibly like the funnest sport ever (the photo is from my trip to Boracay in the Phillipines, where I first witnessed kite-surfing)

Also planning to visit idyllic Phu Quoc Island, which appears to belong to Cambodia but is in fact controlled by Vietnam due to their strong military presence on the island.I

I'll be back the second week in March, should have plenty of photos and stories to post...

As fast as they can.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the PEPY Ride School again—what a treat! While our beloved English teacher Tolors was busy helping PEPY Ride country director Aline with a participatory rural analysis in Chanleas Dai commune, I was lucky enough to fill in and teach his English classes for several days.

I have never met a group of students so eager to learn as the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at PRS. The 4th and 5th graders have had English for less than 6 months and yet already know more than many of my 2nd and 3rd year students knew while I was teaching in Japan. The 6th graders are simply amazing, absorbing the material faster than I could teach. They are so quick to understand instructions and to respond to questions, it truly makes teaching easy.

For those uninitiated with the Cambodian school system, school days are divided in two sessions, with half the students attending in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon. PEPY offers optional English and computer classes to students who wish augment their education. While teaching, there always seem to be several students lingering in the doorway of the English classroom or peering in through the windows. These students I assume are either enrolled in the other session, or as often is the case, have come to school to find their teacher absent (Cambodian teachers are paid abysmally, and sometimes simply just don’t come to school). Such was the case for three 6th grade girls, and yet instead of returning home or running off to play with their friends, they attended all 6 of my lessons one day. Incredible.

While I quite enjoy working in the PEPY office, it was refreshing to return to the countryside and the classroom and to remember again one of my reasons for coming Cambodia—improving education. Certainly I got as much out of the lessons as the kids—its impossible not to feel inspired after spending several days with such keen and delightful students.

Downtown Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is an increasingly cosmopolitan city, but its not rare to see the following while cruising through the streets...

On two wheels...

Last weekend six PEPY folks and myself did a great bike trip from Phnom Penh down to the coastal town of Kep. We cycled about 220km over two days, both on paved highways and red-dirt backroads, the latter being far more pleasant. Biking is such an incredible way to travel here, everything goes by at just the right speed. Even in the countryside, the roadside is quite a lively place, there seems to be an endless stream of children and adults on bikes, motos, and foot, all offering wide smiles, "hello goodbyes", and "whatyournames?". Plus there are plenty of places to stop for a fresh coconut, made-on-the-spot sugarcane juice (my fav) and bottled water. Fantastic trip, capped off by a quick dip in the ocean and then an afternoon of eating and hammocking on a veranda overlooking the Gulf of Thailand.


The coconut bike.


Peppi (not PEPY) greets some oxcart drivers.


They don't have too many kids' bikes here, so they just learn to ride big ones!


Newly painted wat in the countryside.


Daniela and a great lady who chatted with us briefly when we stopped to check directions.