This week in the Bode...

So this last week has been a long, exhausting blur! We had teaching practicum, which was a chance for us to be thrown into a High School classroom and practice teaching....I had a class of over 50 students...many of them without books. This made it difficult to do the 'reading exercises' that I was supposed to assign but I made due...

What took me most by the surprise was the amount of respect the teachers are given here. When the teacher walks into the room, all the students stand....and they continue to stand until the teacher tells them to sit down. This is something that took a while for me to catch on to....I would walk into the class and the the students would stand. Then I would start to prep the whiteboard...when I would turn around 2o seconds later...they were still standing! haha. Also, when the students come in late, they stand by the door and beg for forgiveness "Please Teacher, I am sorry I am late, may I come into the classroom?" also....they don't seem to challenge the teacher...I would give directions...much to quickly so they wouldn't understand, I would ask if they understood, the students said yes, but then they would just sit there because they had no idea what I just said. Hm....something to learn from....speak slower, and check for understanding.

so this week marked my one month in country date. very exciting! in a sense, i feel like i've just gotten here, and in another sense, i feel like i've been here forever! hard to explain...


so this week is suuuuper busy but very very exciting! this tuesday we have site announcement! which is when they tell us our permanent site....we are all very excited and nervous...


After site announcement we go straight to phnom pehn for 2 days to have a conference with our new co-teacher who we will be working with for two years, then a 2 day visit at our permanent site to meet the new family and check out the town. it's an opportunity to look around and see if it's right for us. if we hate it, we can request a new site which is nice.

Then 3 more days in PP....we are sitting in on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal at the UN building on our last day in PP. I don't think excited is the right word, but we feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to sit in. Peace Corps got special permission for seating for all 45 us of. It's crazy, my last paper I wrote in college for my International Humanitarian Law class was on the KR Tribunal...and now I'll be sitting in on it! I'll let you know how it goes. We will be sitting on Doik's testimony, who was one of the main prison guards who ran the Tuel Sleng prison where he tortured and executed countless victims. He was discovered after he changed his name and became a born again Christian while working for World Vision relief fund. Talk about a change of heart.

The training village i am in now was heavily carpet bombed by the US in the 70's...it's all very timely. I think that people in the community are more open that we think about sharing their experiences during the KR regime and the period of rebuilding afterwards....but I am lacking in my language skills. The best I can do is bargain for fruit, talk about my daily activities, and ask for directions...so I guess I'll hold off for now.