We are working in a village that is about a 25 minute “tuk-tuk� ride out of the big city of Siem Reap…
A “tuk-tukâ€� is a three wheeled motor-cycle like transport that has some breed of “carriageâ€� on the back to take four to six people at a less than speedy pace. They are fun but crazy, I often feel like I am going to make them tip over…I digress.
Anyway, we are working in a village called Pouk teaching English five days a week in the afternoons. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings we ride our bikes into other villages, we tell a bible story, sing songs and play with the kids. We also take some time at the end to care for them by washing their hair, clipping their nails and providing a snack. We go to the same villages every Tuesday and every Thursday so I am excited to get to invest in these relationships, as well as with the students we are teaching.
English classes…let me tell you a little about the afternoon class of children five to twelve years old. These kids are SO bright, and SO sweet. There are fifty of them. There are two of us. Myself and B.Cox are partnered to teach English to this group, and two days a week we are to do so without a translator. It is a hoot! Yesterday as the children were raising their hands for no reason and chattering with one another I tried in desperation a method I had seen American Elementary School teachers use, “Put a bubble in your mouth,� I said. They stayed quiet for a hot minute and quickly went back to their chatter…�Do they even know what a bubble is?� asked B.Cox. GOOD POINT! We continued to teach them about day and night and the different words that go along with them, all the while, every five minutes myself or B.Cox would beg them to please, “Put a bubble in your mouth!!�
This is a “tuk-tuk (taken by B.Cox)
Our rides into the village (taken by Jenny Hill)
