# 16 : “ Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought. ” - Robert Browning

Ok, I know, it's been 10 days since my last post but I have been rather busy, so here's a rundown on my last 2 weeks.

The ethics/philosophy classes are running pretty smoothly now, although kindergarten's still a bit of a challenge.
We covered a topic on "How we Treat Animals", from grade 5 through to the staff, last week and it went gangbusters!
I showed the staff a video on Bullfighting since most of them were unfamiliar with it. WOW! What a response. They were fascinated, horrified and appalled that it continues to be considered a national 'sport' - I think they were all secretly routing for the bull..

The Teens all agreed that hunting elephants for their tusks is TOTALLY unacceptable. I had asked them to score each case from 1-10, with '1' being unacceptable and '10' being totally acceptable. 
When I taught this topic back in Oz last year, my dear Alex pointed out that the pictures provided in the course were actually slanted to elicit a particular response, so this time I had two pictures for each case, one pro and one anti.
For the 'elephant tusks' case, everyone, in all the classes, initially gave it ZERO - off the scale UNACCEPTABLE. 
My 2nd picture was a starving African child. I asked them: "What if the poachers are people whose children are starving to death because of drought & famine? What if poaching the elephant for meat is the only way to provide food for your family and what if the foreign markets will pay you more than you could earn in a year for a tusk?"
They discussed this for a while and eventually decided to change their score to 10. but ONLY for people in this situation. Only they should be allowed to hunt the elephant.
Sayon said: "This could still wipe out the elephant and that is not good. The countries that buy the tusks must be stopped from doing this. The world needs to help these people to feed their families and maybe they should move to a place that gets more rain, so they can grow their own food.." This child is such a THINKER!!
I then moved on to Whale hunting with Sayon's class and received a grinning "Do you have any video of these giant animals jumping out of the water? Has anyone else seen this amazing thing?"
...Thank you Youtube!!


We discovered that the International school our kids are going to, Dewey, has an Ethics course for all the students. Wonderful, we thought, maybe I could go and check out, talk to the teacher, maybe even collaborate. So Erin asked them to send her a copy of their Ethics Curriculum... 
It's a Christian scripture class pure and simple, sneaking in under the radar in a supposedly secular, expensive, international school. NOT COOL!!
Since Tara's in Oz for another 2 weeks, we're just biding our time in anticipation of the expected fireworks when she returns


I haven't had a chance to investigate the country around Battambang yet and I'm itching to do that...although that could just be the mosquitoes...
Incidentally, I believe we're witnessing Darwinism in action here; 
Battambang's mosquitoes are absolutely silent ! You don't know they're around until you you discover ginormous bites on every centimetre of exposed skin that hasn't been liberally doused in Aerogard. It's a little bit eerie...
Have they really worked out that making irritating mozzie buzzing noises just gives us a chance to squish 'em before they can carry out their evil mission?
Is this a case of selective breeding through survival of the quietest?
I'd love to know what an etymologist would have to say.

Chhaiya, one of the guys from Kinyei, the-best-coffee-in-Cambodia-Cafe, who make my regular morning lattes, offered to take me out on his moto, to visit his village and check out the countryside, in exchange for more discussions about history, English & geography.
Chhaiya:" What's all that white on the map under Australia?"
Me: "That's called Antarctica.."
C: "Why is it white?"
Me: "Because it's all ice & snow. It's very cold.."

 So that's the plan for next weekend - riding out around the countryside. I can't wait.
 He sent me a friend request on FB and when my dear Chantha saw his picture she became just a little bit hysterical - turns out she grew up in the same village, went to the same school, knows him well and had no idea he was in Battambang.

Our beloved Pommies, Louise & Phil left us yesterday morning. After 8 weeks of sorting out our accounting systems and doing some training with our own Khmer accountant, they're heading back home, via Nepal & India, to get married.

Louise

Phil

 They are really going to be missed. No more sounds of pommy Football or World Cup Rugby floating through the open windows...









I got to experience Cambodian red tape first hand on Friday - I had to laugh:
While you don't actually need a licence at all to drive or ride around BB & very few Khmae bother with them, you do have to have a Cambodian licence (US$45) if you want to be covered by your insurance. Which seems like a good idea after witnessing the total absence of anything remotely like adherence to road rules here, and Cambodia doesn't accept an International licence that says "accepted in Cambodia". So off I went with Lavi to get my licence...

Lavi

Official: "No problem, we just need your passport and a colour copy of your passport and visa." 
Me: ok, I have those..
Official: "Oh, and your address in Battambang. Name of the village, street name & house number."
Me: ummm I live in a village? Silly me, I thought I lived in Battambang...and my house doesn't have a number, none of the houses on my street have numbers and while the street is marked as 'Street 153' on the maps, the locals actually call it River Road..
Official: "Oh, and you'll also need a signed letter from the Headman of your commune saying you actually do live there."
Me: I live in a commune??
Official: "When you have those documents, just bring them to me and I will give them to my Manager's secretary so she can give them to him to take to Phnom Penh next time he goes."
Me: when will that be?
Official: "I don't know, but after he takes them to Phnom Penh it should only be about 3 or 4 weeks until you have your licence."

Me: sweeeet....

Considering it took 6 weeks to open a local ANZ bank account, I should be riding my moto, legally, by next year...

 CCT had WiFi installed at our house on Thursday. The signal covers the volunteers house and my little bungalow, so no more depending on dodgy dongles. Very happy about that.

And last but not least, I finally remembered to get a shot of CCT's Main House:

Main House

It's a great house. We have our classes on that balcony on the first floor:

Chantha teaching a grade 5/6 class on the balcony

Time to get back to work... Chatcha soon :)

# 15: “ Every great dream begins with a dreamer. We all have within us the passion to reach for the stars and change the world. ” - Harriet Tubman

Well, the wet season is officially over, now maybe the humidity will finally start dropping - 87% at the moment and forecast for 91% overnight....

Sambaht and my 'Company Car'

 I can usually get by with only 2 cold showers a day now that I have my 'company tuk-tuk' to chauffeur me around instead of cycling everywhere - still riding around town after work, just for the exercise.

Off to work again...

 Never thought I'd actually welcome cold showers! We had a hot shower installed in the 'volunteers house' last week, which I dived into immediately, then decided that, in this climate, cold is definitely the way to go. It's certainly easier to rinse the conditioner out of your hair with hot water, but that's all it's got going for it here. You don't actually get dry after a hot shower. By the time you've toweled down you're immediately coated in a sheen of sweat again..

The ethics & philosophy classes are going amazingly well - we now have a philosophy club on Saturday evenings for all these enthusiastic thinkers who need more than one lesson a week...

I am finding myself in a bit of an ethical quandary though. Last week I asked the kids what they like to do in their free time.
 From a group of  'street kids', who do have families but are so poor they're often out begging late in the evening and/or early in the morning and often fall asleep in their classes, I got:
 "help my mother with the housework", "help with the cooking", "look after my nephew/ brother/ sister" and "give my grandmother massages"- and that was a group of adolescent boys!
 From the CCT kids in Residential Care: "play football", "read books", "watch TV" and "play computer games"...

When you're homeless, a sheet of plastic on the footpath becomes home &
that really doesn't cut it during monsoon season... 

I'm not sure what this is telling me, except to say that the kids who are living in the more comfortable and stable environment no longer seem to see the need to contribute to their 'foster' families..They've had such a hard start to life that I suspect their House Parents are over-compensating and being a little too indulgent. I've included a topic on the importance of discipline, responsibility, consequences and community in some of my classes, especially for the staff & House Parents. I hope they'll take it on board.

Yesterday I was giving my most enthusiastic class - 5th & 6th graders, including dear "S", a lesson on 'Ethical Dilemmas'. I first asked them if it was ever acceptable to kill another person. Of course they all immediately said NO. Then I gave them the following scenario:
"We're all sitting here one day looking at how guns work, so there's a loaded gun right here in the middle of the floor. Suddenly, a man bursts into the room, carrying his own gun, and says he's going to kill me then go find Tara & Daisy & Erin & Nat and kill them too because he hates ALL white women. What are you going to do?"
Now, when I put this question to the adults, they all said: "Well in that case, I would have to kill him." Except my dear friend and avid philosophy student Jedtha, who was a Buddhist monk for 17 years and still holds his Buddhist beliefs unquestioningly - he said : "It would be very sad to lose you and the other ladies but killing is ALWAYS wrong. I'd try to talk him out of it but the decision is his - it's on his Karma. If I kill him, that would be bad Karma for me." Harsh but fair enough - and primarily about 'what's good for ME'...
 So, back to the 'street kids'. They all suggested a 3rd alternative that would disarm, but not kill him...and the response from "S"?
"I would have to stop him from hurting you, but I must also try to stop him from hurting himself. I would grab our gun, shoot him in the arm so he drops his gun, then pick up both guns and tell him he can't do this terrible thing. He's going down a bad path and I would not want him to go to gaol." 
With these kids, the answers are always in terms of responsibility to family and community. What's best for Srok Khmae is ultimately what's best for all of us.....

As is so often the case here, I find myself thinking what a bright future the Khmae could have if only we can succeed in giving it's children a decent education. They are so ready to reach for the stars...

And I'm so ready to give them a lift up....

# 14: “ Set your goals high and don't stop until you get there..”

Now it's not just the formatting of photos that's a problem, something weird is happening with the text...HELP Jassie girl!!!

 So Tara sends me a msg asking if I'd like to do a bit of a bike ride out to see

Phnom Sampeau... Sure says I, full of confidence  in  my  riding stamina after

a month of riding 5 - 10kms a day around good ole, FLAT ole Battambang for a

month... 

 THEN I looked it up on Wiki and Trip Adviser - the phrase: " look BEFORE you 

leap came to mind at this point.."

Only about 25kms there and back: OK, a challenge perhaps, but not a problem

thinks I... and then you reach Phnom Sampeau.

Now 'Phnom' means mountain. That should have been a clue right there...

 It's a beautiful place, famous for the nightly flight of millions of bats from thei

cave - and that should have been the 2nd clue; cave=rocks=MOUNTAIN...

The flight begins..

This is a truly staggering spectacle. The bats start leaving their cave just as the

sun  begins to set. They undulate across the sky in a silent, orchestrated  and

seemingly endless wave for an  hour or more, which did make us wonder what

the floor of that cave must look, and smell, like...

 Along  the  entire route up this solitary, limestone lump-in-the-otherwise-flat-

countryside, there are grottoes, temples, shrines, golden statues of monks,

as well as the obligatory temple monkeys, and a large Reclining Buddha. 

Nat, Claire, Phil & Louise - the people, not the monks,
although the monk in the middle looks like a Phil..

 There are  2  rusty old artillery emplacements that the Khmae & their erstwhile

allies the Vietnamese, used in their long fight against the guerrilla forces of the

Khmer Rouge through the 1970s & '80s. One of them has markings in Russian,

the other in  German, and there's clue #3 right there; artillery emplacements

generally require a comprehensive view of the enemy=HIGH PLACE...)

Russian artillery emplacement on Phnom Sampeau

 Armed  with  all this information, it apparently STILL didn't occur to the logical

and, as it turns out masochistic, part of my brain, that this might be just a tad

difficult...

 As it turned out, Nat, Phil, Louise and  Claire had already been on a  day-long

cycle to another Wat and were pretty shagged, so Tara suggested we all drive out

there instead of riding. A decision, I'm not ashamed to say, that I could have

kissed her for after we reached the summit.

There are two choices for the climb. Either braving the very long, very steep &

very uneven flights of steps or taking the 'easier' (by which I mean slightly  less

grueling), wide, paved road which winds round and round the mountain. 

So, puffing like Thomas the Tank  Engine, with sweat pouring from my entire body

like my own, personal waterfall & eliciting concerned looks from Nat & Claire who

are  both nurses, I  was  thinking about every one  of  those  occasions I'd chosen

to drive somewhere instead  of  walking and every cigarette I'd ever had by the

time we were halfway to the top! What on  earth possessed me to think this totally

unfit old body could scale a mountain - yes mountain! Believe me, it may as well

have been Everest, except for the steaming temperature...

Nat- Medical Coordinator Extraordinaire

But I did make it, and it was well worth
the effort, even if walking was just a
wee bit painful today...
What a spectacular view of the land
around Battambang.

Tara, Claire & Nat at the Top

We rested at the top for a while, just

admiring the view, before heading back

down in time to catch the great Bat Show

from the road far, far below...

Sadly, as in so many places throughout

the Khmae countryside, it also houses

yet another monument to the countless

victims of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge who

were brought here to be slaughtered - 

The Killing Caves... A tragic history for

such a beautiful place.

Monument in The Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau

The Khmae people have suffered so

much and they have such a long way to 

go to rebuild their amazing and ancient 

culture, it's a privilege to have even a

small role to play.

# 13: “ ..Teachers get to touch the Future..”

A bit of a slow week for classes this week with public holidays falling on 2 of my 3 teaching days - I actually got a request to do one of my classes on Saturday instead but, since Annie would be coming over first thing in the morning, I couldn't do it. So how many teachers have students that are so disappointed at the prospect of missing their class, because of damned holidays, that they ask you to reschedule for the weekend !!

It did mean that Chantha and I had lots of time to spend on writing, refining and translating the ethics program that I've compiled so far. We're also constantly working on vocab. lists - Khmae for me and English for Chantha, although you can guess who's ahead on that score..

Chantha learned the meaning of the phrases: 'appropriate criteria', 'habits of mind' & 'appeal to principles' and the Khmae words for scrutiny, intervene, infringements & gene - among others.   

I learned a long list of animals, a longer list of food, family members & my favourite:

 soht dae ondūng binh dook hah yeung - my hovercraft is full of eels...

 I am totally going to go burn around the Sangkae River in a hovercraft just so I can use that one....

As far as the course goes, there has been a great deal of rewriting required as I've slowly come to realise just how insulated the Khmae have been from the

world at large.

As a rule, their knowledge of the world outside Asia is almost non-existent.
Very few of my kids have ever seen a map of the world - I bought one yesterday, still searching for a globe... 
I've begun to make references, about various historical people and events, to my students, both the older kids and adults, so that I can find out what they're familiar with and refine the references made within the ethics course to suit that knowledge.

Their knowledge of their own history is limited to a few disjointed scraps about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge (a subject that has been taboo for 30yrs) & the great Khmer Empire, that existed for over 600 years and was responsible for building the enormous city of Angkor Wat. 
They know nothing about the Egyptians, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, or the Persian Empire (or their philosophers...)
They've never heard of Eskimos, or Vikings, or the Aztecs, or the Inca.
They are astounded when I tell them that Australia and the US have both been settled by white people for less than 300 yrs.

I haven't yet found a student, child or adult, who's heard of Darwin, Einstein, Newton or Mozart or Beethoven and Chantha is one of the few people I've met, so far, who has even heard the names Shakespeare or Da Vinci (she's now doing a course in Humanities and was shown a print of the Mona Lisa). She was absolutely enthralled when we checked him out on Wikipedia.

They are unaware of WWI & WWII, or the Holocaust, or Hitler, or Jews. 
They don't know about seasonal variations in other countries, or that the seasons are reversed in the northern & southern hemispheres -
 "Excuse me Dai, is Summer the cold month?"

We were discussing the subjects of cultural diversity and multiculturalism as part of a topic on 'Sameness and Difference' in a group of 12 to 16 yr olds last week. When I told them that, next week, we'd be looking at the Eskimo, or Inuit as they prefer to be called, not only did all the kids look totally confused, my translator for that day (an intelligent,charming young man who's one of CCT's teachers) said he had also never heard either of these words before and didn't know what the Khmae translation would be. Thanks to the Wiki-gods, I was able to show them pictures and finally, when they saw igloos, my translator said: " Ooh, I've seen them in a Hollywood movie! Did people really used to live in such little, round houses?"  When I told them that these houses were made of ice because there is nothing else to build with - no trees, no plants, just ice and snow and that there are still some tribes of Inuit who live in these traditional homes, they were stunned. "But Dai, how do they grow their rice?"

They are familiar with only a handful of animals from other parts of the world.

I wasn't really surprised that the kids had never heard of a platypus..
I have a beautiful boy called Sayon who comes to the Youth Centre. At 14 & in Grade 5, he's one of the brightest and most enthusiastic students I have there. Last Tuesday we were talking about the importance of thinking for yourself and asking for evidence whenever you are told something new. I stopped, mid-sentence, and said:
"Oh, did I tell you I saw a mermaid when I was crossing the bridge to go home last night.." I then went on to describe this vision of loveliness to a rapt audience and then proceeded with the lesson.
 After a while I asked the class if they had believed my story about the mermaid. Most of them just looked at each other, uncertainly, but "S" said "yes, of course." When I asked him why he believed me he replied: "because you are very smart and your face looked very honest when you were talking."
To say he was a little disappointed when I told him it wasn't true would be an understatement - he was crushed!
I pointed out that you can't believe something just because you like or respect the person who's telling you. Even if they believe the story they're telling you, it could still be wrong. You must always look for evidence to support their claims; Did anyone else see it? Did you take a picture? etc
Then we came to the platypus. No said Chantha, I don't know this animal. So I described it. "S" immediately said: "Did anyone else see this strange animal, do you have a picture?" back to Wikipedia....

" S "

I am beginning to believe that these kids really are going to change the future of their beloved Srok Khmae !!

It's such a privilege to be able to play even such a minuscule role as I am.

And to the corrupt politicians who are running this country, take heed, "S" is on his way....