Packing our bags!

Okay so we got lost somewhere in Cambodia but somehow life has carried on with its ups and downs with an Asian flavour.   But we are headed back to the UK this summer.  Yep we are packing up and moving.  Some of you reading this will know already but it is about time I caught up these blog pages.

It is the end of a season, which comes with the sadness of saying goodbye, trepidation for the unknowns and some excitement as to what might be next. So maybe this is a good time and place to record some of the high and low lights of living overseas in a third world country.

1. Power cuts:   I guess I took having electricity for granted. This dry season the whole country is not making enough power so the government decided to manage it by cutting the power each day for 6 hour blocks on alternate days.  This means Monday you might get power in the morning but not the afternoon and Tuesday it is the opposite.  And if you have never been to Asia I just have to show you the beautiful state of the wires that carry the electricity.  Sometimes they just ignite spontaneously.

2.  Driving a motorbike.  So this is the most scary thing I have had to do and ironically I think it will be what I miss the most. I have the oldest kind of beaten up bike (which I love)  – but this also means that there are always parts available to fix it and its very cheap to fix. I have learned something about fear.  My light bulb moment when learning to drive was when I realised I was driving with so much fear and tension in my body I was way more likely to crash or fall over.  I needed to relax so I could actually respond to the road (and the many potholes). I am sure this has application in other areas of life.

3. Rats rats rats.  We got rid of about 15 rats from our house last year. I tried to think positively about them.  But I really don’t like sharing my space with them. Here I confess my admiration for Cambodian people.  We had one get caught in a sticky trap (yeah not nice) but was over a wire still wriggly. Rothmony who works with us put a plastic bag over her hand and just picked it up!  She is my heroine.

4. Swimming pools on the roof.  I love go up to the top of the tall buildings in the city and looking down. It makes me feel like I can really breath and makes anything I am battling with seem more insignificant. There is one particular hotel here that has a beautiful swimming pool on the roof. I have been known to disappear there for a day or two! Okay here it is – I wanted to share it with you…

5.  Living a multicultural life.  There are people working here from everywhere.  This means we could now go on a world tour and probably find a place to stay with someone we know….

6.  Different perspective on life. Living in a completely alien culture has meant having to see life from a completely different perspective.  Things that matter to us like having a schedule and keeping appointments are just not a thing here.  They live life to a different dance.

7. Learning that needing others builds community. Living in a different culture and language means having to rely a lot on others. But having to ask for help builds relationship and that is a good thing.  Maybe I have skills and abilities that are not available here that I can offer but the local people have so much to offer me and so much to learn from.

 

 

 

 

January to June in Cambodia

This year we are not visiting the UK and I am missing the chance to catch up on friends and eat strawberries!  It has been a full 6 months so it is hard to know what to share.  But so that you know that we are alive and well I am going to post some of the moments that made it to my phone.  It may look from the pictures that we are totally settled here.  The truth is that we still miss home and would prefer to live away from the heat, dust and dirt but with the challenges have been many blessings.

The girls with their friends at the annual homeschool conference in Chiang Mai.  The picture behind them is a group piece of art – everyone made a feather and then they were put together to create one joint picture.  The theme was

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

Psalm 91 v 4

An overnight trip with the homeschool group in Phnom Penh.  The beach is on the river!

The girls both had birthdays.  Stormie made Kira a purple and orange cake!

Backstage with all the kids in our latest homeschool production.

We successfully made a crocodile and a giant that the younger kids loved using.

 

The older students did a remake of The Sneetches by Dr Seuss with their own twist!

Going to the graduation ceremony of one of the oldest homeschool students who is leaving to go to university in the US.  The young people in their church threw a party for her, which was a hilarious mix of English and Khmer song, drama and speech.

The youngest homeschool children showing off their new skills in sign language at our end of year homeschool celebration.

We had a break at a retreat center in Thailand where we met up with another family.  Here we are practicing our fire making skills with other families who were staying there.

Whilst on holiday Jon found a boat building buddy!

On wheels out and about in Thailand.

Stormie and Kira with their friends in Thailand.

 

The Sparrow

Just before we came to Thailand we finished our latest drama production with the homeschool community.   All of the homeschool children we are working with see poverty around them as part of their everyday lives.  I wanted to find a vehicle for them to be able to begin to understand what poverty is, how it happens and what it is like for those lives in its inescapable cycle.  So this time we created a story loosely based on Robin Hood but set in modern times in a city like Phnom Penh rather than the forest.  The biggest reward for me has been that the project has enabled the families to have many conversation with their children about the issues we were exploring and my hope is that it is one way for them to process much of what they are seeing, hearing and experiencing in the world around them.

The production involved 30 children ages 4 – 16 and their parents who helped with costume, set and backstage.  For many of the children this year it was their first time to be involved in anything like this and it was a pleasure to watch them grow in confidence and ability.  It was also a great community event and 100 people came to watch – our biggest audience yet.

Here are a few photos…

Final prep talk backstage.

The story unfolds

All ages on stage together!

Factory workers

Stormie and Kira in action!

Dancing at the end!

It’s Christmas ….

…and we are in a place called Loei in Thailand.  This is definitely not what we would have predicted last Christmas!  We travelled here on Thursday via Bangkok and now find ourselves a world away form the dust and dirt of Phnom Penh.  We can see mountains and green out of the windows and it is surprisingly cool.  It is not cold exactly but we don’t need a fan and we are all wearing at least one extra layer!  We are staying with a family that we met at the homeschool conference in Chiang Mai Last year.  They have two girls nearly the same ages as Stormie and Kira.  Here are the girls just after we landed at one of the smallest airports I have ever seen.

So we wanted to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas time.  We hope that you will have at least some quiet time to reflect on the meaning of Christmas and why we take time out of the busyness of life to celebrate it.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9 v 6

Dance Made in Cambodia (DMIC)

I wanted to share some of what has contributed to the craziness of the last few months i.e. the latest dance project.  We have been working towards a performance that happened just over a week ago that included Beatrix Potter and The story of a fish called Ogden – this was created and danced by all our Khmer (Cambodian) students.

The last few weeks were particularly crazy as there were so many props and costumes to make.  Stormie and Kira were not dancing but both stepped in to help me sew, stick and glue.  I have discovered that spray glue is superior when you need to quickly cover bamboo structures with paper.  AND I have a whole new relationship with spray paint.  Unfortunately both are challenging to wipe of hands, clothing and furniture.

As ever the performance was an amazing community event with parents and children working together in so many different ways.  It has also been an amazing exploration into ways to integrate our Khmer students with the expat students and I have loved watching them learn together, support each other and build relationships.

Finally just to give you a bit more of an idea of what we are doing with our work with the Khmer students below is an article written by the Phnom Penh Post.  They came to interview some of our students a week before the performance.

For students, dance mirrors life

All of the dancers studying with DMIC live in residential care institutions. Hong Menea

4 Nov, 2016 Sarah Jane Bell

When I’m dancing, I feel like everything is gone for a moment,” says Chenda*, a student at Dance Made in Cambodia (DMIC), a youth organisation set to perform a piece of ballet theatre this weekend. She’s not alone: For the dancers taking part – all of whom live in residential care institutions – the performance offers a form of powerful expression, and a taste of freedom.

DMIC works with children from orphanages to develop skills that transfer to their lives outside the studio.

Chenda and Pisey* both study ballet with DMIC, which runs out of the Central School of Ballet Phnom Penh, and say they felt an immediate connection with the story. Ogden, The Fish Who Couldn’t Swim Straight by Gabrielle Yetter follows a fish that falls out of a carnival bag and into his natural habitat, and has to learn to swim outside of the only small world he’s known.

Chenda, 16, who plays the lead character, has lived in a children’s home for six years, and says the concerns she has of leaving residential care resemble those of Ogden.

“Ogden just wants to stay inside his small world, his only safe place,” she says. “I feel a bit like Ogden. I hope that I could stay at the home forever – but I know I can’t.”

A March mapping survey by the Ministry of Social Affairs found more than 18,000 children living in institutions in five target provinces. Following unprecedented growth, the past few years have seen organisations and the government moving slowly to reduce the number of kids in institutional care, many of whom have at least one living parent.

But Chenda, whose parents have passed away, mentions that her experience has provided the opportunities that so many seek: for education and, in this case, art. “My parents are gone, which is very sad. But I feel like it’s good for me, too, because I can study and I can dance ballet,” Chenda says. “If this hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t know what ballet is like.”

Pisey, 17, lives in the same orphanage as Chenda. She points out that if she had stayed with her parents in Kampong Cham, she wouldn’t be at school, and her aim to study law would be unrealistic. Ballet, she adds, “would have been impossible”.

Melissa Gmuer de Mora, DMIC’s liaison at the ballet school, says that reintegration is a complex process – something reflected thematically in the performance, and addressed by the initiative.

“What research has found is when these children leave [residential care], they often become at risk again, and there is a very specific set of skills that they sometimes lack: critical thinking, resilience and perseverance,” de Mora says.

“We find that if they dance, we can build these skills and then transfer these skills into their everyday life,” she says.

Chenda and Pisey both attribute their determination to their dance practice. “If you’re really struggling to do something, you still need to try, because you can find something good out of it,” says Chenda. “It’s connected to ballet: you practise until you can finally do it.”

*Names changed to protect identities.