First Day Teaching In Thien

Despite sleeping in hamocs last night, through the worlds biggest thunder and rain storm, we managed to get a decent night sleep and woke up at the late hour of 7!

Kicking off with the first class at 7:30, we had a great morning teaching. The kids here seem to be a bit more westernised than at the other two villages; some were wearing make-up, horrifically applied, but still, shows a touch of modern society. Not sure about it when some of the boys were wearing it too though!

The teaching went well and the kids had a good time, even if they seemed a little less eager than some of the other villages, probably because they have had a school here for some time and as a result be a little less enchanted by it when they have to go every day (much like British kids).

The morning went quickly and soon we had to head off to lunch, as we didn't bring cooks with us to this village so have to go to a local restaurant. Jessie piped up that she would move the 4x4 round from the back of the school where I had parked it last night. She started it up and said "driving an automatic is so much easier than a manual", then slam, went reversing into a huge treestump, causing a large dent and dislodging the bumper! There followed a huge amount of jokes about female drivers - we're not going to forget that one in a while!

For lunch we had "swamp" the strange and rather tasteless stew of greens and meat - none of us enjoyed it much, so chris bought us ice coffees to make up for it - that sweetened the deal a bit.

After lunch we had a huge sing along in one of the classrooms, as it was pouring with rain outside. Then outside when the rain had eased we did the story telling and then handed over to the translators for their concert prep, while we went for a bit of lounging around in the sun.

We went and had a wander around the village, but apart from that, just had a chilled out afternoon, taking a bit of time out and enjoying the weather.

This evening it's back to the restaurant; apparently it's curry tonight, which should be interesting.
Another great day of teaching; strange to think that we only have one more day left before we head back to Phnom Penh and civilisation. It's been an awesome experience, and certainly one that I won't forget in a hurry.