The school grounds

As the school is adjacent to the Wat where services are held and where the monks live, there is always something going on ... some activity is generated by the school, of course. There has been a big movement to clean up with the children weeding, picking rubbish and cutting down small bushes and shrubs. These have been piled under the trees where there has been at least three aborted attempts set fire to it. The first time, as the children had left all the plastic within the pile, filled the classroom with dense acrid smoke. Eventually one of the teachers sent some boys to put it out by pouring water on it. The second time it puffed away a bit as you can see and then went out. The bigger boys were sent out to reorganise the pile. This morning's attempt sent clouds of white smoke, not quite as acrid but equally nasty, into the classroom so I shut all the windows again and we carried on again in the murk. But when we went out for break, it had gone out again, so I will hold my breath (literally) for tomorrow's effort.

 

These are some of the afternoon children. They have been to school in the morning from 7 am until 11 am when they have their lunch. School is then finished for them for the day unless they decide (themselves) to return at 2 pm in their own clothes for my lesson. You can see why I've a much smaller group in the afternoon of about five advanced and ten starters. This does mean we can do things like True or False where one of the readers will hold up a flash card and say the word. The children will jump to the True or False side of a chalk line on the floor according to what they think to great laughter from all.

Some of the children wear their normal clothes under their school ones, just taking them off when their school session is finished and, like most kids, screwing them up and stuffing them into their backpacks.

Behind the golden stupa is the open area for cremations which happen now and again. I think I'm the only one who notices them.

There have been a number of different celebrations while I have been here - the funerals, Ancestors' remembrances which are obviously very important, New Moon And Water Festival. This is one of the lovely banners which hung for a few days at the edge of the school grounds.

 

 

 

People use the school grounds as a short cut so you get them strolling past or standing at the open door for a while watching what you are doing. They are joined there by a gathering of small children, some of whom end up leaning against the nearest bench and participating so the population of the class fluctuates during the lesson.

And, of course there is the custom that the fruits of the jungle belong to all. So, today I looked up into one of the palm trees next to the school to see a man collecting palm sap. This is boiled down to make palm sugar which is rather nice in very small amounts. I was watching him with Pisey discussing what he was doing when she asked if there would be "safety for this in your country"? I explained our expression Health and Safety gone Mad, while the man shinned down the very tall palm in his T Shirt and shorts with his full bucket of sap tied to his waist. No shoes, no safety equipment, no cherry picker, no one standing by just in case. There must be a middle way for our countries! I didn't have my camera today but here's another example of the free food gathering.

 

This man and his son were harvesting some of the edible water plants at Angkor Thom when I was there last week. I suppose an equivalent for us would be people going into the Serpentine and cutting the water weed to sell on the side of the road for people to feed to their cows.

Back to school. We also had a very tiny kitten with us for the afternoon class - it had got in the way of the football that I hand out at each break time. One of the girls picked it up quite roughly (not a surprise really they aren't at all sentimental about animals), checked it swiftly for injuries and plonked it back amongst the game. I protested and the children took absolutely no notice so Pisey carried it to safety under a tree some way away. It made its way back across the playground, up our steps, past me at the front and under the desks to Pisey to sit on her foot (in safety) before falling asleep. Certainly is the survival of the fittest round here.

 

 

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