Day 87 - Kids are tiring, fact!

Siem Reap by night.

Day 87 - 18th September

I over slept from a heavy night's sleep and to my surprise, it was not raining.

I picked up a banana pancake to go and shot off for the office, meeting DK and Vibol, our Tuk Tuk driver. Mr Muk (Globalteer team member) was trying to buy my phone off me. I wouldn't want to take his money plus it locks itself all the time from the heat and half the screen is cracked. Definitely not worth it.

We arrived at our school for the day. We had four morning sessions with the first two classes getting a really good grasp of the five box game and the social message it give with regards to family. It was pretty easy going and they did as they were told - their push ups were hilarious, as most have been all week.

By the time the second two sets of classes come out, I was feeling energetic, ready to put them through a good warm up before DK took the lesson. But sadly, it wasn't to be . . .

The kids are great, of course. Every one of them has a great personality and enthusiasm for sport but keeping them under control was more of a challenge then trying to keep 12 balls in three boxes (3x4 with them rolling everywhere. Yeah, I have to do that).

In the end we just had them free play and everyone had great fun. Some of the school volunteers involved themselves, including a mother and daughter combo from Australia. It's great to see everyone getting involved.

After a brief spot of lunch and script editing at Bou Savy, we went back to the same school for our afternoon sessions.

Our sessions were more tiring in the afternoon, for both us and the kids. It was hotter than it had been in the morning so every one was wearing out much quicker. But we still had fun! 

I had sand all over my shirt from the push up instruction, a wet back from the sweat and kids jumping all over me. One kids tapped me after getting off my back and pointed to his shirt. It was wet. 'This is from you,' he said before laughin with the others. I couldn't help but join him.

After the lessons ended, DK and I were glad to be resting in the back of the Tuk Tuk. An 8 lesson Friday is definitely a killer!

Love a good Ham and Cheese toastie.

I headed downtown for dinner at the Red Piano and edged ever closer to completing my second draft. 

By the ten o'clock rolled around, I was out. Maybe I am getting old?

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Day 86 - Wet lessons and cup games

After a huge run around. But I scored again!

Day 86 - 17th September

The rain came again, waking me up at 5:30am. So I put the early wake up to good use, working on the  admin tasks set for me and doing a little editing on my script.

I set off with DK for our project at 7:30am. My buddy gave me another one of those coconut cakes to enjoy along the way.

The kids are getting to know me now, which is good. They come up, yelling my name and high five me. What's not to love about this volunteering malarky?

Our first lesson was uninterrupted and faultless, with DK leading on the main part of the lesson and me focusing on the warm up. Having the kids jump from cone to cone and laughing as they do so makes me laugh and feel happy about this opportunity in my life. Things seem so much simpler as a kid, which I know for some of these children is not the case, but they make it look so effortless and carefree.

Our second session brought rain, so we only managed my brief warm up before we were back in the classroom, teaching them about the importance of family. DK is really flourishing with his English and is vocabulary is building fast. I am a proud teacher!

After our morning sessions were complete, I headed back to Bou Savy for lunch.

Once digested, I went to the office for our weekly social impact lesson with Charlie, recapping on the week's progress and analysing the results. We had some different answers from one school and one orphanage for obvious reasons.

My awesome student, DK.

Following this lesson, I took DK for his English lesson. Again, his reading of English is developing well and I'll genuinely be sad when I have to leave. It's been great fun. But I still have five weeks left so I'm ecstatic about that!

I had to cancel my Khmer lesson that I'd been looking forward to all day to go to a local travel agent to sort out my visa. It expires Sunday so I've renewed, in the hope that a. They don't lose my passport and b. I don't get arrested in the next six days which is when they return it to me.

The evening rolled around quickly and I was soon at Samakee Market and the AstroTurf for Big Willy F.C.'s cup game. The team we faced up against was the team we had lost to on my debut so I had a personal score to settle. I'd scored in that game but it had only been a consolation at 4-1.

We went down 1-0 fairly early on, but they were lucky to get away with a handball in the build up. We were knocking on the door constantly, hitting the post and the keeper at any opportunity. Finally, we had a break through in the last couple of minutes remaining. I drove a low shot through a crowd of players to equalise. I was pretty pleased, displaying this to my team mates with a pump of the fist and some choice words.

Then the game went to penalties. We lost in sudden death. Always a cruel way to go out but we played really well so there are lots of positives to take away (and that's not code for we were shite!)

Back at Bou Savy, I did my laundry and Skype'd my brother, Lee and his wife, Siobhan.

What a day! 

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Day 85 - More rain, but no rain, no gain, right? RIGHT!

The dining area where I do most of my writing these days!

Day 85 - 16th September

So a quick noodle breakfast this morning and I was out the door.

We shot off to our project across town and were setting up in the rain. I am truly a believer in wet season now having witness so much rain. I thought it was just to signify when the rains came but boy have I been wrong.

The kids were full of energy and enjoyed the game of hopping between cones, as I gradually took more  away. Eventually, I had an army of kids behind me and just two in front. They both played a great game but as always there has to be just one winner.

We the taught them the lesson of the week and some kids grasped it quickly, others more slowly. Some not at all. One thing I'll always remember is from box four (Push Ups). The kids this thrusting their pelvis' into the floor is the way to do a push up and it just has me and DK in stitches.

After a slightly dryer end to the lesson, we headed off to our other project, over by the airport. This place has a big playing field so it's always fun. 

DK had to talk to the director about future sports arrangements so I took the lesson. The kids loved the warm ups, running up and down and jumping around. I then had them lined up in team A and B and they would run out in turns trying to catch the other team. DK suggested it as a good burner of energy. He wasn't wrong.

The lesson was cut short by . . . yep, more rain but we had most it anyway.

When I returned to Bou Savy, I had my Cup O Noodles and finished my admin tasks for Globalteer.

Afterwards, I headed over to teach DK more English. I tried him out reading for ten minutes so I could see what words he struggled with in some Grimm Fairy Tale books. I knew Gretel would get him!

We returned to the same NGO and DK coached the lesson of the week for them. Again the kids struggled with the push ups, all except the smallest kid. He is a foot shorter than the rest, about two years younger too but damn, can he nail a push up! Impressive stuff from a kid who normally comes to class dressed as Batman (Cape and Cowl included!) He's obviously serious about life as a crime fighter, and good on him.

By the time we were five minutes from Bou Savy, the rain was pouring again.

Please, let this be the one!

I made a quick stop at my favourite $1 noodle cart outside the hostel and then pitched up at. Table in the lobby / dining area to finish my script for the BBC drama submission.

And it's finished. All the hard work has paid off and now a quick edit and off it goes. 

So exciting times here in Siem Reap. Loving it more every day!

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Day 84 - Rain, rain, go away!

Wet season indeed.

Day 84 - 15th September

After dreaming about Ghost Face from Scream last night (I'd just figured out who had started the fire when I woke up), I was awoken to hear what sounded like a mini waterfall outside my window. Getting up to investigate, I saw rain lashing down outside.

It's not really a problem when you're indoors looking at it - in fact I find it relaxing when writing but I was going to be outside, all day. It was going to be an interesting day.

And my wish came true. All my lessons were rained off. It literally didn't stop all day.

So I put it to good use and script wrote my butt off. And I'm pretty much done. It's about 62 pages. With a little editing and tidying up, it will go off to the BBC. Then it'll get accepted, I get paid and I become a script writer and author . . . it's good to dream! I've been doing it 11 years.

Fruit, anyone.

I took a break and cycled out for more cup of noodles at the local supermarket. I managed to restraint buying Oreos or Creamo. I've been eating a lot of crap recently so I headed out to find a fruit seller and I came away with 2 kilos of Dragon Fruit, 1 kilo of apples and a kilo of bananas. The price came in a $5! Ludicrous. Just look at the picture!

After a long day of script writing, I headed to bed, hopeful we'd have no rain tomorrow.

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Day 83 - Week 3 of Volleyball and saying goodbye again!

Listening to Khmer music on the Tuk Tuk journey to work.

Day 83 - 14th September

After a last breakfast with Abigail, we both headed around to the Globalteer Office so that Abigail could say goodbye to DK. It was about as emotional as the day when Gordon Brown finished his term as Prime Minster. I suppose somethings are just not able to be expressed.

Our weekly Monday morning meeting to discuss the week ahead focused on 'Family'. Skip, aka Charlie explained to the coaches and I the importance of teaching the kids about this child right and we struck up a couple of debates about different types of families.

Our new game for the week was to set up five small boxes with cones on the field, each with a task inside for the children to complete e.g. Box one the child would have to do 25 dokks, Box two 25 push ups etc. Each child would have to complete all five boxes individually within 3 minutes, which is virtually impossible. We then let them go in a pair, which could be a possibility before finally putting them in a small team of four or five.

The idea of the exercise was to teach them that on your own, these 'tasks' are so much harder than it is with support from others, or with the theme in mind, in life things are harder alone than it is with a family, who give support, guidance and love. It's subliminal in the games we play but the kids go away with something to think about.

I had a meeting with Charlie to discuss my experience so far. As expected, I gave him nothing bad - this project is amazing and every day is more fun. I also took on some basic admin tasks to help out - keep the skills varying I say.

When I finished the meetings, I came back to Bou Savy to go for lunch with Abigail. We went to a Khmer BBQ place and I took on fried rice with river fish. I'm glad I did, it was belting.

The trip to work.

Then my afternoon began at one of the projects, an hour away from us in the centre of Siem Reap. The kids here are incredible, with such a great attitude to sport and learning. It's always good fun to visit them. 

I had a game of volleyball with some of the kids, a teacher and DK. Normally, I managed to spike the ball backwards but I had my A game on and hit a few shots like a pro.

The first lesson progressed well but we found the kids were finishing the drills alone too quickly. We managed to get the social message across which was good but in our second session, we whittled the time down to a minute and a half and found the kids struggled a lot more on their own, which of course was our intended plan.

Srey Mom's daughter provided the entertainment on the way back. After a milk snack, she nestled between me and DK and started playing on her mom's phone and singing whilst music played. She is adorable and a very strong, little lady. She doesn't mind pulling the hairs out of your leg so you scream just like her - I tell you, it's painful.

Abigail and I went to a restaurant for a final meal. I had a Khmer speciality, Bok Choi which was really good - it's a bit like a herby, fried chicken with morning glory and rice. It could be a new favourite!

Then the tears flowed again. No, not from me, but from Abigail. She didn't want to leave and I couldn't really blame her. It's awesome here. But I did tell her she had been an awesome adversary for me in her three weeks here and that she and Dan would see me again, somewhere, somehow.

Best of luck with the masters and be good to Paul, Abigail.

I settled in for the night, writing a little more. I need to get this TV script finished by the24th so every minute is crucial.

So alone again, a new adventure begins . . . Bring it on Cambodia!

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