It was yet another early start today, we arrived at the markets at 6.50 am and looked around. We experienced the gruesomeness of the meat section, tried sweet fried donuts of which Harry accidentally bought 10 of instead of 3 as there was some serious miscommunication and I also gave a homeless man half of one and Nat did not approve, but he seemed delighted.
Today was our first day going out to the schools. Group 1: Matt, Connie, India, Hai, Megan and I travelled out to Ben Mau. Group 2: Olivia, Lauren, Stacey, Ciaran, Harry and Claire travelled out to Little Poh. Group 3: James, Clara, Jadviga, Chaz and Hannah travelled out to Ohana.
I'm sure all groups had similar experiences in appreciating the kids' positive attitudes to learning, their smiles and the art of teaching kids across a language barrier. Although levels of English abilities did vary throughout the different schools, all of us were able to teach the kids some useful basic language and everyone had many positive outcomes at the end of the day.
On the way to Ben Mau my group encountered a few problems, firstly a tyre of the tuktuk bursting and then my foot happened to be on an ants nest while we waited for the driver to come back. After our tuktuk battled on through a dirt road(which only sturdy four wheel drives would attempt to conquer), we arrived at the school. Our lesson was difficult but it got better as it went on. Personally, my favorite moment was spending 10 minutes with the kids after the lesson, the way we bonded with them in this short amount of time just showed the power these kid's amazing attitudes have on all of us, to the extent that after that time, we were deeply sad to be leaving.
Overall it was a great day experiencing the schools for the first time and we are all looking forward to teaching more and building more relationships in the up and coming days in Takeo.
Felix
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