It is so amazing to finally be a little bit settled. Though I do highly recommend living out of a backpack for a couple months. It's a great way to figure out what you actually 'need' and what you just 'enjoy' or 'want'!
Phnom Penh is an amazing city. Not necessarily the city itself (it's not the buildings or the location of the rivers), but the people. Khmer people are impossible to describe, they are so kind and giving and loving and helpful and sweet. I want to be like all of them :)
We have been doing orientation with the school (conversations with foreigners-CWF) for about a week and we have another week of orientation and then start teaching Monday June 6. The school is amazing, because all of the teachers are volunteers it is an (somewhat) affordable program for Cambodians. We get to have middle class students who might be working in a salon or in the market at a stall or they might be high school or university students, etc. They are all ages and it will be great to begin building relationships with them. For the students it costs $40 for one semester (3 months) and they have class for one hour every day (because most of them are doing this in between school and jobs and don't have much time). Other schools cost hundreds of dollars for similar programs. All of the volunteers are foreigners (there are 20 total) and they are from EVERYWHERE, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Texas, Florida, California, New York, England, Wales, etc. It has been great getting to know them all during orientation. They are all wonderful people with various backgrounds, education, and experience. I will tell more about the students and classroom experience after I begin teaching. We have a book as a general guideline but the actual lesson planning and assessing is entirely up to us. I cannot wait to get started. I have 3 different classes every day (they are all at different levels so are placed in classes accordingly). Each class will have between 10 and 14 students. Everyone in class already has had English classes but has not had much experience practicing speaking and listening. They have been taught to read and write but need to be able to understand the language conversationally. It is a HUGE asset here to speak English for almost any job. They usually have had Khmer teachers so need to practice with foreigners so they can hear how the language sounds and be able to understand many different accents. I am so excited to be able to help with this and also have had a lot of fun starting to learn Khmer. It's a really interesting language!
The other organization we will be working with is Daughters of Cambodia. Unfortunately we have not been able to start yet because we have been busy all day every day with orientation (CWF). I will be able to start as soon as orientation is finished so hopefully June 6 also. I cannot wait to get started (check out the website: daughtersofcambodia.org).
Every day here is simply amazing. I cannot imagine being anywhere else. Everywhere you go you cannot but help but smile and be happy because the people are so happy and friendly and funny. If you are upset about something you can just walk outside and everyone smiles and says hello and you cannot help but smile back. Their smiles light up their whole faces. I don't know if I am ever going to be able to leave :) Apparently it is very easy to get a job here so I might look into that after finishing with CWF (the end of August). They need people everywhere who are fluent in English. I met a lady today that was a previous volunteer and she is working now at a school making $11 an hour and you don't even have to have previous teaching experience lol. So I could teach part time and volunteer with Daughters part time :) I will keep you all posted.
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