Feb 07

Well, with a little touch of Scottish and a huge helping of clapping hands

Keith and I are just back from our first lessons at Preychrouk. We had the secondary (high-school) kids for 2 lessons today and we have the same tomorrow.

It is amazing. The children are so very receptive to learning and, whilst the school is very basic, they spent an hour cleaning their classroom for us yesterday. We were told that the kids have been waiting a whole week for our lessons and, of course, their excitement drove me to great things. We even got to singing!

We took in a world map and showed the kids where Cambodia was as many of them have never seen a map before. We also showed them where the UK was. They thought it was a long, long way!

We also covered colours today - red, yellow and blue. I wrote the letters on appropriately coloured paper, Keith cut them out (until 11:30 last night - yep, I am so excited about this, there's nae sleep!!) and then we both muddled them up. Today, when we had gone through the colours on the blackboard with the kids, we gave them the letters and asked them to spell the colour words. Their responses were wonderful. After only 2 or 3 attempts, they were doing it without the words on the blackboard and without looking at their jotters. More and more colours were (and repeated x 3!), then countries, then numbers, then ages (yes, I did confess to being 22). From then, the only way was up so we sang the alphabet song! Fabulous positive energy!!!

The village elder came and sat in on our second class and kept saying the Khmer (Cambodian) word 'sabai' which is the same as 'sabai, sabai' in Thai. it means 'happy'. You can imagine how darned thrilled we were with this response. The school is very much influenced and actions take on what the village elder says. Great!

When the kids left the lesson, they were very happy and excited and kept reciting Pamela, Keith, red, blue, yellow (the colour that makes Pamela sabai). The best bit was the huge cheesy grins on their faces!

Roll on tomorrow...

Love and light

Pamela x

Best to load these and clear our camera before starting at the school tomorrow - yippee!

Hope you are doing fantastic.

Take great care

Pamela x

P.S. Can't get our white-water rafting on the PC but have managed to upload a video from our camera...

We've arrived in Siem Reap (Cambodia).

Keith and I both have an amazing intuition about Cambodia and, since arriving, we have been overwhelmed at the generosity of spirit around us.

No matter where you go in the world, it is the people who make it.

Cambodians are wonderful people and we already have such a fantastic vibe.

We're meeting Pip (the volunteer co-ordinator for the school in Preychrouk) tomorrow morning and heading out to the school afterwards. Wow!!!!

There will be many, many photos so keep your eyes on this blog!

Slater - ok, Sandra might be the only one to get this salutation, so - tarra for now.

Now in Laos, heading our way to Cambodia to do our volunteer experience - as a true Scots woman says "I Cannae Wait"!!!. Need to get the Irish equivalent from Keith

Took an amazing bus and long boat ride today, so proud of myself for now being able to go across a river without fearing the sound or fin of Jaws - go on, chuckle out loud.

Had wonderful news about our volunteer stuff and Keith and I are very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very excited. Hey, you guys know me - always up for amazing contribution! Fantastic that Keith is of the same spirit.

Had a local beer tonight and am humming "It's My Life' by Bon Jovi. Marvellous (although somewhat intoxicated, hee, hee).

Must head for sleep now, we've got a 6 hour boat trip tomorrow to take us to our next destination.

Gosh, I love life...