Cambodia: Day 2
Start at the beginning.Good Morning Cambodia!
It's funny. When you sleep in a room with no windows, it's hard to tell what time it is. We were supposed to get a call at 6 AM, but we didn't and ended up waking at 7. Not much time for Devos or breakfast.
We stopped by this little shop and got some pork and rice. Simple breakfast but tasty. Two for $3 USD. Hard to beat that.
We made our way to the church to do some Bible study. Before we got started, we played a small game. It was the one where you one person had to guess who the leader was while everyone else copied the leader.
The Bible study was about worship and music. Specifically, how music can be used for worship, but music, by itself, wasn't worship. As I looked around at the kids, it seemed like they were kind of disinterested in the Bible study. It was probably because it had to be translated, so it broke up the flow of the study.Learning Things for the First Time
Afterwards, Jeff showed me his Khmer book and I started learning some basic Khmer. I learned how to say I, My name is, and I'm from. Khmer is an interesting language. I haven't really gotten in to the grammer of it yet, but it's hard to pronounce.
I got the chance to learn how to ride the motor-scooters. It was pretty scary. As you try and maintain control, you pull on the throttle which just makes you go more out of control. After a few minutes, it became less unwieldy. Jeff got on the backseat and I tried to drive around, but it was infinitely more difficult.Light for Living
We headed back to Light for Living to just hang out a bit. I was introduced to a new fruit that left my mouth sort of dry and catspawy. I got to meet a whole mess of people. Chaan, Cherr, Vinna, and a few others. Chaan is crazy. She has this psycho laugh that's just hilarious. Cherr has really good english.Flat
On the way back from dropping of Soekna, Jeff got a flat. We watched as the guy scraped the inner tube, set fire to the inner tube, and generally performed his dark arts to repair the tube. As he was filling it with air, the thing popped! We ended up having to buy another tire sans inner tube.
While we were waiting, Chaan bought me this weird fruit. It was a little sour, which didn't really bother me. But the texture was really stringy. It made the whole thing taste funny.Beef Noodle Soup
For lunch, we went to the beef noodle soup shop. It was pretty good. The soup reminded me a lot of pho, except for the noodles. Chaan tried to trick me and suck on a lime straight, but I showed her my sour skills and did it without flinching. I tried to take a picture of one of the girls working, but she was shy and ran off. It was already a hot blistering day. The hot soup didn't make things any better. I also had the opportunity to try fresh guava.
One of the things I noticed, is how all the fruit tastes kind of gritty.Enemy Territory
Then, it was off to the temple. We met up with Mr. Soak, one of the monks, who was kind enough to open up the temple for us. We went in with his class to see the paintings. The entire place was painted with these stories. Each painting is worth around 100$. There was this one mural that was worth over 1500$. We hung out outside the temple a bit. A few of the girls taught me Khmer.
One of the girls named Gentoo is really cute. She has these pretty pretty eyes when she smiles.
As we were taking Mr. Soak to his class, we got another flat. This time, we got two holes. Luckily, we were right next to some guys who fixed tires. This time, the bike still felt a little wobbly.
We got a chance to stop by the hotel and take a quick shower and sit in the AC for a few minutes. Then, it was off to teach guitar and music.Guitar Club
Teaching music was so painful. We had to go through notes, beats in a measure, counting, all in broken english. Even in the advanced class, we had to teach how to read music.
Jeff had asked me to bring some intermediate and advanced guitar books from the states. I stopped by a local music shop and the guy suggested this series. I brought the beginner, intermediate, and advanced and was glad I did. We barely got through the first few pages of the beginner's book.
When we tried to teach them the staff, they kept associating it with the guitar strings. It was so hard to try and explain to them that they were two different things. The problem was compounded by the language barrier. At least we were able to teach them how to count beats and clap a few simple bars.Substitute
After dinner, we went to Grace School. They threw me in to one of the classes. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I just started going through the book that they had. I had to slow down my english a lot in order for them to understand me.
Teaching was really hard because I was already tired. I wasn't used to speaking slowly yet, so I don't know how much got across to them.
After a long hard day, it's time to rest. Lee-a seun hai-ee!
posted by w3y at
8/11/2006 11:31:00 PM
