Cambodia: Work at CFC Orphanage starts

Monday the 5th of April I was introduced to my new placement, Charity Fund for the Children Orphanage. I had never felt so lost since I got here. Accompanied by Pises, the PA director, I sat in a very nicely furnished room (compared to the rest) with the two nannies and Pises. A whole discussion was going on in Khmer and I had absolutely no idea what it was about. The only hint I got from watching body language and tone of voices were that there was some sort of disagreement or misunderstanding. Sure enough, Pises later told me that the orphanage workers weren't happy with how the other PA volunteers reported to the director and just did their own thing. Basically they weren't getting along. Now I had been briefed about the director...but wow, can one be anymore annoying?

I hadn't been there an hour when he already asked me to buy stuff for the kids. Sure I had some sort of idea that I would be buying them stuff for their learning process and stuff they can have fun with, but when someone tells you to buy something for them when you're already PAYING to work there is just absurd. It takes the joy of giving away as if: Well I am giving this because I want to but since it was asked of me before I got to it, there is no surprise or element of generosity left in the act. Oh well, I just get a bit heated up whenever he is near me...because if he ever speaks it is to ask about something or for you to do this, or do that. And it is hard because you know he means well, but it just comes out as an obligation. I am not here out of obligation but out of goodwill. I want it to remain the same throughout the month.

The classroom for the older kids

My first contact with the kids was quite scary, standing in front of a class of about 30 students aged 2-16 and having to teach them English before I was even prepared to do so. (That was 30 minutes after the conversation I could not understand). I felt helpless and had no idea what level they were at or what they had been learning, I left feeling unsuccessful and dreading the afternoon. But after lunch the nicest thing happened. A kid came over to me and hugged me, burying his tiny face in my over-sized PA t-shirt. Then a hand grabbed me and a little girl's head leaned against my side and smiled at me. They showed me their home, their favorite books, the animals (chickens, fish, ducks and a dog), they led me through the afternoon and were fighting for my attention. They adopted me. Since it was Eastern Monday, I thought it would be nice to teach them some of my culture with so I got them paper and pens so they could draw Easter eggs...well besides the failure that was, most of the drawings I got in return were drawings with "I love you Cat" written all over them. Truly heartwarming.

Day two I felt useless as I was teaching the younger ones English. The ABC...was known by heart by all the kids. However they have no idea which letter is which, you can show them A and they will say it is X. So my goal right now has been to teach them the letters, at least to recognize them and such. I tried showing them body parts and when it came to hands and I was holding it up and moving it around, the cutest one, 5-year old Komsan cried out in triumph: "Twinkle Twinkle!!!". They had been learning the song Twinkle Twinkle little star and associated hands with the twinkle part of the dance...I thought it was the cutest thing but definitely saw the challenge...the danger of learning by heart is that you cannot associate words or images with anything, they all hang together.

The kids we have to teach are aged 2-9 years old...quite hard keeping their attention for more than 15 minutes

The other volunteer, Ben, is really helpful though and hopefully between the 2 of us we'll manage to teach them something.

Ben and the kids

Thursday I brought balloons so that they could play with them and they ended up being turned into water balloons, which made a mess everywhere but seeing the joy on the kid's faces was enough to feel happy, even after hearing the director telling us to clean up. In the afternoon I stayed home because I had been feeling dizzy in the morning after running around the orphanage playing "monster". The kids love it and get a real kick out of seeing "Teacha" as they call me, getting red and sweaty. It is incredibly hot there, it is insane. I don't think I've ever been this wet in my entire life.

The orphanage has 47 kids in total, a lot of them aged between 10-14, but they all look very young because they are so small in size. They are so thin, and sometimes I feel like I could break them if I play with them too roughly. But they are rougher than any kids I've seen. Also a lot more daring and they won't cry easily if they hurt themselves. They learn from their mistakes because there is no real paranoia that they would hurt themselves. they are skilled acrobats for sure, this 2-year old, Vireak climbs everywhere and I sometimes wonder how his mother (one of the nannies: Channa) does not pay more attention to him. But he never falls, he knows exactly how to do things and how to get down from the places he's climbed to. Mostly he just runs around or sits in corners, sometimes crying out for water or food, sometimes he runs around and plays "monster"with the rest of us.

Vireak and I

The kids are really funny too, just give them the accessories and they'll parade around with sunglasses, moto helmets and what not.

Vireak with my glasses

They loved playing with our helmets!

The things I do at the orphanage depend on the day. Most of the time I teach and play but every now and again I help the kids get washed and wash some of their clothes. It was tough washing this one screaming kid who had got soap in his eyes...I felt so bad and helpless.

It is funny though this thing with the language barrier, it is tough but at the same time a new language appears, body language. You learn through instinct and through expressions to understand each other. I used to feel like such a stranger not understanding when both the staff and the kids spoke to me (the staff's English is really bad...and they teach English...ahhh), but it is getting easier with time.

Lunch at CFC

Well I guess this will have to do for now. There are plenty more picture, since I am largely overdue with this blog post. But more will be coming...but to sum up this post:

I try to give them as much love and affection as I can, and even when I sometimes feel lost and don't really know what to do with myself, there is always a hand that grabs me from behind and turning around I discover a smiling kid with his arms open and ready for mine.