It was such a fun week at the orphanage that I am sorry that I will be going to a completely different school on Monday - this has children with little knowledge of English at Palonka Wat - I really don't know too much about where it is, whether the monks get involved with lessons etc but ... I'm happy to give it a go.
As it was Jane's last day today (she flies back to UK tomorrow) we set off early in our Tuk Tuk and went first to a fruit stall and brought Rambutan, Clementine oranges and bananas. We then went to the most amazing bakery - think of a factory unit on a building site. There was a display cabinet at the front which was looked after by a couple of ladies with their baby and toddler - behind you walked into the bakery where everything was happening - at the back a young man was having a shower, in the centre were people kneading and preparing the dough while a young woman crouched over a big basket of moulds oiling them for the next batch. All round the sides of the building were ovens with a number of people of all ages working to put the bread in and take the bread (French and very tasty) out of them once cooked. People like us were queueing to get their bread and carrying it off on bikes, by foot and in huge baskets balanced on their motorbikes. At the front by the door were some sleeping platforms and a hut which was obviously someone's home. Cross legged on a platform by the door sat a very tiny fierce old lady in her traditional dress who looked as if she was the matriarch of all this activity. No one got past her. She made Mr J stop and count out every half baguette we had brought before she let us leave although she did give us an extra bag. This food was $4 for about 30 loaves which was half the price in the shops.
Mr J said he thought we should take milk with us too so we stopped and he negotiated with a stallholder who sold water and coca cola for four tins of condensed milk - this quantity we found puzzling but at lunch time all the children took their bread and dipped it in their milk with great enjoyment. They had rice and chicken curry of some sort, bread, the fruit we brought and their milk while we had rice, stir-fried vegetables and three kinds of Tonle Sap fish. The first was about palm size and fried in batter so it looked just like a fossil, then there was curry and finally something that looked like smoked salmon which tasted delicious and was quite salty. This was not just for us - one of the representatives from the French NGO who fund the orphanage was also there. We tried speaking each other's language but settled on talking in our own as we found we could comprehend better than speak!
We had a full morning of working on phonics (quite hard when, like me you say B-AR-TH instead of BATH. Jane's group is getting on very well, mine are at the early stages but were starting to get the idea and enjoyed having a go at pronunciation etc. It was a shame to leave them - even after a week you can start to see the personalities, how enthused they are and how they remember what you have been saying. They gave me all sorts of pictures and notes while one of the older young men who wants to be a teacher and who helped us a lot gave Jane a basket he had woven himself and me a really lovely placemat - again not only had he woven it himself but he had gathered the reeds from the forest.
What does the weekend bring? Tomorrow Saturday Jane & I are meeting up with a Belgian couple and their daughter who are doing a similar project and we are all going to have posh breakfast at one of the French cafes. After Jane leaves I am going to the Angkor museum and then, on Sunday will be going to the Floating Village. It has now stopped raining and it is amazing how quickly the ground is drying up ... although I expect the houses still to be floating when I get there!
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