Sunny Spring Hike (and a quest for fridges)

 

Thank you so much to all the ladies (as well as the two honorary boys and three dogs) who came on the Spring Hike this Saturday!  

The weather at The Devil's Punchbowl, Hindhead was glorious and everyone survived the first leg of 2.8 miles around the yellow route.  We stopped for lunch (kindly provided by the National Trust café). Those that were up for it then carried on to complete the second leg, a 3.1m walk along the red route through the forest.

 

We raised over £500 on the day for The Harpswell Foundation and my work there this summer which is an enormous amount and brings the total up to £2,200 (with a few more donations still on the way!). 

 

If you have not yet donated and would like to just click on the DONATE HERE button below (it's really easy and takes no time at all):

 

 

  Donate Here now

 

 

 More pictures of the walk are on the Gallery Page.

 

Fridges - Urgently Needed

 

The current Leadership Resident in the BT Dorm (Kristen) has been in touch today.  

 

Here's what she said:

The two dorms only have "…one small mini fridge which makes it nearly impossible for all the food that we eat to stay fresh, resulting in the girls and LR's getting sick pretty often. I think a second mini fridge for both dorms would be a huge help! This has been a problem at Harpswell for a few years, as I have learned from previous LR's..."

 

Can't believe that no one has thought to mention it already.  One mini fridge for 40 people? Makes being allocated a specific shelf at uni look luxurious (and ours were really grotty).  If transport wasn't an issue I'd seriously consider taking my fridge from home.  It's only really used for coffee and the odd bag of salad (which goes off anyway)...Poor Jon. He's going to come home one day and find I've given everything away. 

 

I've told Kristen we'll fix it AND that we can do better than a couple of extra mini fridges.  Soo the mission for this week is to find out where you buy two large fridges in Phnom Penh (or buy and ship from London).  If anyone has any ideas that would fantastic. I may need to sort it out when I get there next month.  I know Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh must have one (they managed cappuccinos and pancakes without difficulty)...  

 

If anyone would like to donate money specifically towards the cost of a fridge (or two) then please do donate via the DONATE HERE button above or on the main page of the blog.  Write "fridge money" in the description and I'll make sure it goes towards the cost!

The Weekly Programme

I now have a pretty good idea of what my average week will look like which is great.  Here goes...

Monday:

10am to 3pm Class and Mentoring Preparation (for me!).  Lunch at the dormitory with the girls (they come back from university to the dormitory each day for food because the budget is so low that it is more cost effective for them to eat together) 

3pm to 9pm Individual Mentoring (this will involve grammar workshops, CV writing, helping with coursework, assisting with applications for work placements and jobs, teaching basic IT skills (some can't use a computer when they first arrive), helping them with personal issues and concerns (they are all living a very long way away from home without family or friends other than those at The Harpswell Foundation), connecting the girls with mentors in the UK, talking to them about my experiences about working in a city law firm, how to work in a team, helping them with preparation for international English qualifications and talking to them about the concept of working to help others)

9pm to 11pm Intermediate English Lessons (2 classes of 1 hour each)

Tuesday:

10am to 3pm Preparation and Lunch 

3pm to 9pm Individual Mentoring

9pm to 11pm Intermediate English Lessons (2 classes of 1 hour each) 

Wednesday:

10am to 3pm Preparation and Lunch

3pm to 9pm Individual Mentoring

9pm to 10pm Intermediate English Lesson (1 class of 1 hour)

10pm to 11pm Cambodian Daily Discussion (which involves the class of 36 girls reviewing, analysing and discussing issues raised in a minmum of two articles written in The Cambodia Daily newspaper). The aim of these sessions is to develop their critical thinking, team work, analytical skills, develop presentation skills and build confidence with public speaking.  

Thursday:

10am to 3pm Preparation and Lunch
 
3pm to 9pm Individual Mentoring

9pm to 10pm Cambodian Daily Discussion

 Friday:

10am to 3pm Preparation and Lunch

3pm to 9pm Individual Mentoring

9pm to 11pm Movie Night!! I will be making the popcorn.  My aim is to show a film with some sort of positive female role model and allow time for a short discussion afterwards.  Suggestions so far include Erin Brockovich, all the Jane Austins, Matilda, Chocolat, Legally Blonde, Sister Act, The Queen, Coco Before Chanel, The Iron Lady.  Not sure about First Wives Club although it is very funny...

Saturday: Day off or time for excursions with the girls.

Sunday: Day off with a Leadership Seminar for all 80 girls (every other Sunday in the TT Dorm). It's in Khmer so I don't need to go to this.

EXTRA CURRICULAR

As and when I have a moment, I plan to squeeeeeze in the following:

Hosting a networking drinks/lunch with local businesses at Raffles
Organising new work placements
Connecting Harpswell with UK Trade and Investment Office in PP (opened 2013)
Connecting Harpswell with The Cambodia Business Forum
Working with The Cambodian Daily to see if we can arrange for the girls to contribute
Suit shopping (or formal wear) is going to be necessary if the girls are going to have a chance of getting decent jobs. They can't wear school uniform!
Looking at move on accommodation opportunities for once they graduate

JUST FOR FUN

In my view this is important. It looks like the girls work solidly for pretty much the entire week from waking to sleeping (lights out is between 11pm and 6am). It is important to be able to unwind and relax if you are going to be working hard long term.  Something which I have learnt from experience. Current plans as follows:

Picnics along the river - you can hire mats and buy food from street vendors
Cambodian Living Arts - There are shows every other night of Cambodian dancing, singing and other arts
Cambodia Kick Boxing - Bit scary and I'm not sure if it's a boys only event but it's one of the nation's favourite sports and is on every Saturday night
Coffee or Afternoon Tea - There are a couple of places and Costa has just opened up.  the girls won't have any money for these types of things.
Visits to the Countryside to meet the girls families and take them back.

So much to do and so little time. Can't wait to get started.  The trip starts in 5 weeks.

If anyone has any ideas or experiences from Phnom Penh which they would like to share or suggest, do get in contact.

The Handover

Kristen currently works in the South dorm and will be handing over to me in May.  We'll get two weeks to hang out together before she goes back to the USA and I'm left on my own (eek!!) so I will need to make sure she tells me everything she's learnt... 

...important things like the fact that there is a Khmer massage place right next to the dormitory (cheap and not as painful as Chinese massage apparently) and Costa coffee has just opened its first branch in Cambodia, yippee.

Here's a picture of the grand opening...

 

International Women's Day

Kristen recently held a movie night for International Women's Day (she showed a film called Frida) and all the girls enjoyed it. She's also run creative writing classes and and will be starting a politics and geography unit shortly.  Better brush up on geography??! 

Other Leadership Residents have helped the girls put together a Khmer cook book  and even performances of Shakespeare (which helps with public speaking and presentation skills). Not sure I'm any good at any of that.  Might have to read the cook book so I know what to do when I get to the food market though.

One Leadership Resident raised enough money to put together a library in each dormitory, complete with a catalogue system which sounds pretty amazing.

Here's a picture from the rally in Phnom Penh on International Women's Day.

Leadership Seminars
 

Two Sundays a month, there is a Leadership Seminar in the Teuk Thla dorm, where all 80 students from both dorms get together. The purpose of the Leadership Seminar is to talk about profiles of great women leaders of the past, the qualities that make a great leader, the special challenges that women have and the history of Cambodia.  It's in Khmer so the girls can follow it (I think we have Sunday off).
 

Facilities at the dormitory

There is a computer room where I will teach (Kristen says it's nice and big) with about 8 computers, bookshelves, couches, a white board and a pretty big flatscreen TV with a DVD player.  It sounds like a really good base for working individually with the girls and as a group.