Sua-sdey, sok sab baay dtee? Hello, how are you doing?
We had a great time on Saturday. Juliet and I took 5 students from each dorm swimming. Hilarious. Two of the girls in my group couldn't swim so we had great fun teaching them. No one drowned thank goodness. We all wore t-shirts and shorts for modesty which doesn't help when you are trying to swim!
Highlights last few days:- I have found a driving range. Picture below. Jon, Chris and Miki will be happy :)
- Pajamas as outer wear. Everyone is doing it. You heard it here first.
- They have a "2,500 rial shop". Everything is 2,500 rials (unsurprisingly). Same as the pound shop. Amazing how far a concept can spread.
- I thought it might be about time to top up my pay as you go Nokia yesterday but I had only used $1.20 over the past TWO WEEKS.
- Being mistaken for Jennifer Lawrence on the red carpet in in Stylist Magazine. Awesome. Hello my new BF.- Handwashing your clothes is surprisingly therapeutic. Benefits include being able to spot which clothes have dye that runs, you are less inclined to spill food down yourself in the first place and it's not nearly as difficult as you think. Some of the girls think it is much better than a washing machine...!
Kimsreang and Sopanhchakpor won a national competition run by the BBC for funding (£2,500) for a project of their choice. They are currently filming in their province.
Satya won a national public speaking competition. The prize is a trip to London this July!
Siekmouy and Mala have been enjoying our individual listening and reading sessions. Listening involves working out and writing down the lyrics to Taylor Swift songs :)
I helped Varony (Manager of TT dorm) interview six potential new English teachers on Saturday. We have one vacancy at TT dorm and two at BT Dorm. It emphasized to me how important sessions on "pre interview preparation" and "ethics in the work place" are for the girls. Some of the candidates for the English teaching position at Harpswell had no idea what The Harpswell Foundation actually did.
Vechou is doing really well on her grammar sessions with me each week. I got stuck at one point because I didn't know why something was the correct answer, I just knew it was correct!
One of the Cambodia Daily discussion groups this week looked at the collaboration between the Thailand and Cambodia to create four new border check points (which is progress following on from the incident last year where 46 Cambodians were shot by Thai military for working in Thailand without visas).
The visit from the US Ambassador, William Todd, was very interesting. He has committed to being involved with Harpswell and visiting the students each month.
Harpswell has just formed an alliance with the Cambodian Womens Entrepreneur Association. It currently has 150 members and will create even more opportunities for the girl to find placements and permanent jobs on leaving Harpswell.
I am taking 8 students to the Graduate Women of Cambodia event on Tuesday morning. It is an opportunity to network with other graduates and businesses and have the opportunity to attend interesting lectures and workshops. It is an affiliate of the International Federation of University Women. http://www.ifuw.org/
Video
If you only watch one video this week, watch this one.
New Video: The Harpswell Story
http://www.harpswellfoundation.org/center/index.html
We are still taking donations via the Donate Page on the blog if you would like to help them at all and haven't already done so.
Ciao for now.
