Day 2..
We arrived at 3pm and took a very hot walk with 'Sambeth' (one of the Khmer student teachers) to visit the existing Khmer school that houses about 600 pupils and only about 4 teachers. The classes were pretty disorganised, some being in doors and others under a makeshift roof made of bamboo leaves. The resources are scarce and they are running out of rice to feed the kids. Having said that the kids are really happy and inquisitive. Always asking how we are and what our names are. Very cute and very polite they really make you feel welcome. After the trip we head back to start lessons. The Khmer teachers are not too hot on their English and do not get paid to teach, however together we try and muddle through and provide some kind of lesson plan working from books they are using at the moment. To be honest the school could do with proper Khmer and English teachers, in order to provide accurate, consistent and organised English tuition that the pupils can enjoy and carry on at home...however at the moment all they have is some pretty shitty lesson plan books that send me to sleep, one marker pen and unco-operative parents. Anyway, another day of organised chaos almost over with when the heavens open on que and we are plunged into darkness, right in the middle of class. Screaming kids, flashes of lightening, roaring thunder and my arse and feet getting absolutely soaked in rain and mud whilst still holding my pen aloft and trying to retain what little control i still had. Needless to say the last class of the evening was eventually abandoned.