For those who missed it, I wrote a blogpost for an online magazine called Boundless and they published it last month! It was really exciting for me to get published on the site and I even got a few comments and messages from people I've never met who said that it had encouraged them. I love that It blows my mind that God could use my experiences to encourage others. I'm so thankful for the ways He uses each of us, even when we feel we don't have much to give.
Here's my post :) https://community.focusonthefamily.com/b/boundless/archive/2014/09/26/your-turn-even-if-i-never-see-the-fruit.aspx
Things have been so busy here ever since school started. We taught for 7 straight weeks and then had the opportunity to go to Koh Rong on a wonderful, refreshing, and rejuvenating 3-day trip. Koh Rong is an island off the coast of Cambodia, and it was paradise.
After vacation, it was a struggle to adjust back to the routine of school, as I guess it always is. My students provide little moments of joy for me each day though, and it is those moments that make this job worthwhile. To keep things realistic here, they also provide for me little moments of challenge or frustration each day... Sometimes they just decide they are in the mood to talk and not to listen, and I frequently have to stop and wait for them to settle down so I can communicate the instructions to them. I guess it means they are engaged and excited though, so I'll take what I can get :)
In topic (which is basically social studies/science/miscellaneous), we are currently studying "Materials" and last week we did an interesting activity about what clothing is made of and where it comes from. Each student brought in a piece of clothing and we did a tally chart to track which continent their piece came from. They were surprised to see that out of 21 pieces of clothing, 18 came from somewhere in Asia! When I asked them why they thought that was the case, most of them said it was because they live in Asia so of course that's where their clothes came from! They didn't fully understand as I tried to explain that the results would probably be similar if I did the same activity with a Canadian class. It led into an interesting discussion about factory workers, and different salaries in different countries. One of the reasons I love teaching is to be able to help open my students' perspectives on the world, so it was a neat conversation to have with them. They are only in grade 4, but they are old enough to be challenged to think critically. It's really cool to watch their eyes widen as they consider something they've never thought about before :)
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| Please excuse the messy writing... and the dirty board! |
Two of my friends (Karen and Tash) and I are taking Khmer lessons together each Saturday for an hour an a half. Our instructor is a precious man (thanks for the recommendation, Rachel!), probably about 50 years old, who has lived in Cambodia his whole life. This past week, we heard some of his life story. He lived through the Khmer Rouge, a very dark time in Cambodia's history, and at a very young age, he was forced out of his city and separated from his family. We felt really honoured that he would share those times with us - we could tell that even now it's hard for him to talk about.
As for our lessons, let me just say, Khmer is NOT an easy language to learn, and even the basics are a huge challenge to grasp. It's a pretty hilarious sight to see as we stumble through our simple sentences, saying things like "I drink coffee with sugar" and "Can I please have the bill", but we're hoping that by the end of 2 years here, we will at least be conversationally fluent. It makes SUCH a difference to be able to speak the language and will do wonders at helping us get out of the "western tourist stereotype." One amusing thing from this past week is that we learned that the Khmer word for "map" is "panties" (pronounced "pawn-tease")! Also, the word you use when speaking to an older man is "Puu" (which means Uncle). So if we need to direct a tuktuk driver who doesn't know where he is going, we will attempt not to laugh as we say, "Puu mien panties te?" (Do you have a map?)
To close, here are a few funny things I found when reading my students' writing books this weekend (I give them writing prompts every day, so I'll start with those)...
- "If I could hangout with two famous people, I want to hangout with Selena Gomez and Helen Keller because they are both girls and are kind, also good." (haha, most random combination ever!)
- "If I was a principal for a day, I would fire all the teachers and make the children my slaves. For the teachers, they will buy me food and coffee. The job that the children will have is to bring me all their work and they will start doing science when they are two years old."
- "If I could go to the moon for a day, I will die because in moon there is no air. In moon, it's so so cold. If we splash water, it will freeze in the sky."
Some of their similes (comparing two things using "like" or "as", just as a refresher, haha!):
- "A rat is as dirty as a trash left out of the sun for a month."
- "If you have a rat at your house you are fancy like the king." (really?!) - "My class is so noisy, like an annoying orange. (Didn't quite get the point... What's an annoying orange?!) But my teacher is as nice as a humble person." (yay! points for me!)
- "Jesus is as real as my parents." (Amen, girl!) - "Money is as rare as an orca."
- "My brother is as strong as a sumo wrestler."
- "Miss Alyssa is as beautiful as a peacock, standing like a status, walking around the pond, and get back home for food." LOL
- "My mother is like a sea. If she is angry, she is like a big wave sea. If she smiles, she is like the quiet sea."
- "A puppy is as cute as a cute eye" (huh?)
Thanks for reading, friends!
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