My first class of the day is with 4th and 5th graders. They are so smart, but I quickly learn that everyone here has trouble with pronunciation. So with some fun songs and games I teach them how to say different English words correctly. They especially love the Hokey Pokey, but I am afraid that after 3 weeks here I am going to run out of material! Afterwards, I go downstairs and meet up with the rest of my team.
Together we teach a conversation class with a wide range of ages and skill. The other day I walked in to Leize teaching them American dance moves! You never know what to expect in this class. One time I ended up talking with a monk and annunciating numbers and months of the year into his cell phone to record my American accent. I really like this class a lot and it always goes by so quickly.
Then we head back to House of Love for lunch and the hottest part of the day. Seriously. All we can do in the afternoon is try to move as little as possible. We usually sprawl out on top of the tables and benches with fans in hand, trying to ignore the beads of sweat dripping down our bodies. Occasionally one of us will talk but even that takes too much energy in the heat. The only highlight to our afternoons is the ice cream man who comes around 3pm every day. He rides on a motorcycle with umbrella and metal cooler attached; carrying homemade popsicles in flavors like taro, bean, and rice for 5 cents a pop. We all wait in eager anticipation and when we hear his bell, Kristin and I run down to meet him just like we were little kids. Here you cannot savor the cold treat, but eat it quickly before the popsicle melts and sticky liquid runs down your hand. So we usually get two each because they don’t last long!
Some of my teammates teach in the afternoons at House of Love, the children’s center we are living above, but I do not teach again until my evening classes. Gathering my lesson plan, book, and marker I walk to my 5 o’clock class. This is a fun class I teach with Kristin, and we usually end up laughing a lot during this time. We are trying to remember our students’ names, but speaking Khmer is not easy so it is taking us a lot longer to learn their names than I would have thought. My next class is with older students ranging in ages from 16 to early 20s. I absolutely love this class! On Friday I made up a review game for them, so we could go over everything I had taught them that week. Soon everyone was yelling and laughing and it was so much fun! Although they still struggle with saying “Think” instead of “Sink” they are making a lot of progress. This class always goes by the fastest, and every day they seem to want me to stay later and later. They are so eager to hear my American accent, and they love to tease me when I try to speak Khmer. As I look around at my students’ smiling faces, I think, I could totally do this. I have never wanted to teach before, but I truly love our “ministry” here. As I walk back to House of Love in the dark with two of my teammates, we share how our classes went.
After dinner, we all take turns taking bucket showers and getting ready for bed, which includes lathering ourselves in bug spray. Then comes our nightly ritual of watching ER together; 9pm sharp. Although we don’t have running water, beds, or fans, we do have electricity! So we gather on the hard wooden floor and watch one episode every night on a laptop. After fighting the heat and the bugs all day we are pretty tired so we all head to our tents afterwards.
As I lay down on my sheet, my mind wanders to the day’s events and then to the usual thoughts of going home. I can’t believe this is our last month on the Race, but I am so thankful that this is how we are spending it. Although we are not in the lap of luxury, the community here is amazing and we all are loving our jobs. As I try to get comfortable and ignore the nagging heat, I fall asleep. 10:30pm. My dreams are filled with thoughts of tomorrow’s lesson plan, cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, and wearing my favorite pair of jeans again…
