After spending Monday night in PP catching up on some much-needed sleep at the BAB office, we hopped in a tuk-tuk to the airport before breakfast to pick up Tom’s mum, Hilary, who would be spending a week with us in Kep. Although she has visited us once already, in November, we were particularly looking forward to having her again to show her the real Red House experience as we had arranged for her to stay there with us for 2 nights.
The three of us and Hilary’s bag full of basketballs, books and baking supplies tuk-tuked back into town for breakfast at the Boddhi Tree guesthouse followed by a visit to Lucky Supermarket for some special cooking ingredients, the office to meet Vy, the Russian Market for anything and everything and finally the FCC (!!!) for a delicious end to a well-filled day.
After filling Wednesday morning with odd jobs we caught the 1pm bus to Chamcar Bei. An uneventful 3 and a half hours later we were standing at the entrance to the village on the main road waiting for Sara and co to pick us up by moto as unseasonal clouds began to cluster and loom. Fortunately, the rain never came (although we have been having an unusual number of downpours recently) and we spent a nice evening letting Tom win Monopoly again.
By Thursday morning Hilary had already shown herself to be an accomplished Red Housian, much proven by her excellent standard of flashlight and ability to sleep through the sound of laboriously nibbling rats.
The morning at CLC wasn’t incredibly exciting although Hilary gave out some pens and pencils to the students. During my teacher training class I taught the teachers a few new teaching games and activities and after our classes Hilary, who is herself a teacher trainer, gave us some useful tips, especially on CLC classroom control. However, in the afternoon we bought balloons at the market and had a massive water balloon game which when down with a cacophony of shrieks and laughter.
But the day’s excitement wasn’t over yet! When Tom and I had finished teaching I ferried Tom and Hilary to David’s guesthouse, about 10 minutes away by moto, where we were met by Saran. When the guest house eventually opens she’ll be in charge of the kitchen so she’s been begging us to teach her how to cook Western food. As it happens, Hilary is an excellent cook and so we arranged a pizza-cooking lesson at the guest house which has the only oven in the village. While Saran and Hilary got started in the kitchen Tom and I worked up an appetite by going back to the Red House to get the forgotten cheese. When we returned, Sok and Sara, the rest of the Tasting Committee, had arrived and soon enough the kitchen had churned out 6 delicious pizzas of various textures and tastes. Yummmmm.
Friday was another full day as we visited the Kampong Trach Caves again in the morning before showing Hilary the sleepy town of Kampot where we had lunch and dropped by the Epic Arts café for carrot cake. With full stomachs we headed to Kep where we’d booked 2 nights at Botanica. We spent our Saturday in Kep playing boules at Botanica and chilling out by the poolside at Kep Lodge before going to the Crab Market for dinner followed by a visit to the Riel Bar. The weekend felt like a nice break from teaching but I remember what a strange feeling it was when, while at Kep Lodge, my mind wandered to our time at CLC and I realized that even though we were only about 45 minutes away from Chamcar Bei, it felt like we were in a completely different world. Tom agreed and we both started thinking about how it would be when we leave in a month’s time. Will it all feel like a dream again?
The three of us and Hilary’s bag full of basketballs, books and baking supplies tuk-tuked back into town for breakfast at the Boddhi Tree guesthouse followed by a visit to Lucky Supermarket for some special cooking ingredients, the office to meet Vy, the Russian Market for anything and everything and finally the FCC (!!!) for a delicious end to a well-filled day.
After filling Wednesday morning with odd jobs we caught the 1pm bus to Chamcar Bei. An uneventful 3 and a half hours later we were standing at the entrance to the village on the main road waiting for Sara and co to pick us up by moto as unseasonal clouds began to cluster and loom. Fortunately, the rain never came (although we have been having an unusual number of downpours recently) and we spent a nice evening letting Tom win Monopoly again.
By Thursday morning Hilary had already shown herself to be an accomplished Red Housian, much proven by her excellent standard of flashlight and ability to sleep through the sound of laboriously nibbling rats.
The morning at CLC wasn’t incredibly exciting although Hilary gave out some pens and pencils to the students. During my teacher training class I taught the teachers a few new teaching games and activities and after our classes Hilary, who is herself a teacher trainer, gave us some useful tips, especially on CLC classroom control. However, in the afternoon we bought balloons at the market and had a massive water balloon game which when down with a cacophony of shrieks and laughter.
But the day’s excitement wasn’t over yet! When Tom and I had finished teaching I ferried Tom and Hilary to David’s guesthouse, about 10 minutes away by moto, where we were met by Saran. When the guest house eventually opens she’ll be in charge of the kitchen so she’s been begging us to teach her how to cook Western food. As it happens, Hilary is an excellent cook and so we arranged a pizza-cooking lesson at the guest house which has the only oven in the village. While Saran and Hilary got started in the kitchen Tom and I worked up an appetite by going back to the Red House to get the forgotten cheese. When we returned, Sok and Sara, the rest of the Tasting Committee, had arrived and soon enough the kitchen had churned out 6 delicious pizzas of various textures and tastes. Yummmmm.Friday was another full day as we visited the Kampong Trach Caves again in the morning before showing Hilary the sleepy town of Kampot where we had lunch and dropped by the Epic Arts café for carrot cake. With full stomachs we headed to Kep where we’d booked 2 nights at Botanica. We spent our Saturday in Kep playing boules at Botanica and chilling out by the poolside at Kep Lodge before going to the Crab Market for dinner followed by a visit to the Riel Bar. The weekend felt like a nice break from teaching but I remember what a strange feeling it was when, while at Kep Lodge, my mind wandered to our time at CLC and I realized that even though we were only about 45 minutes away from Chamcar Bei, it felt like we were in a completely different world. Tom agreed and we both started thinking about how it would be when we leave in a month’s time. Will it all feel like a dream again?
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