This Life is full of Beauty

For the first time since I’m in Cambodia, I have the feeling that everything settles down a bit. Slowly I’m adjusting to all the things that ones seemed stunning and new to me when I was confronted with them for the first time. The work in the learning center is following a rhythm that helps me to plan my schedule beforehand and I know what I’m doing in the evenings and on the weekend when I’m free.

To focus this article on the daily life in the learning center, I want to give an insight on one day at work that can be an example for basically all the others that I wont describe singuarly. Of course this is not exactly true because like every child is individual, every day has a variety of shades that shift day by day.

In the morning I wake up at 6 o’clock. When the rooster is awake, I have to leave the land of dreams. I put on my running clothes and let my first steps lead me into the ricefields. The first rays of sunlight paint the new day, the green of the riceplants tends to be so full of colour, it seems like a trick of the eye. Women are already awake washing their clothes, dogs chase the chickens, children are making mud cakes, life begins and ends so early here. An advantage of being awake at this time is the sunrise that differs every day. No artist has the skill to draw something so utterly unique. Missing it feels wrong, like leaving out a little marvel. It always reminds me of one of the many wisdoms this country can teach you. There is beauty in everything. In the nature, in the culture, in the way people interact with each other. We often forget to open our eyes and see these things that are right infront of us, most significant don’t cost us more than some seconds of our lifetime to perceive. When I get back home I take an icecold shower and leave every bit of dreamy feeling behind.

The breakfast consists of many fruits that look as tasty as they are. Malita, the daughter of Siphens niece is always dancing and singing in the mornings. She wants to help everyone with everything and can make the most delicious pancakes what is quite remarkable for her 5 years of age. Grandma is 86 years old and tends to complain about everything and everyone. The years of the Khmer Rouge left a mark but she is a very strong and determinded women and follows her habits like she probably did 30 years before. Siphen and Mach are my guestparents. They are both teachers at the public school and good people from the bottom of their heart. Eric and Amy (their English names) are 15 and 22 years old. Amy got a scholarship to study in England and the whole family is very proud of her. Then there are Pon and Oun. Pon is Siphens brother and both of them take care of Malita. They themselves have four children but they live elsewhere. You can’t forget to count the dogs to the family. Their names are Tilo, Lucky and Sally. Sally is only one year old and always up to some kind of trouble. You hear his name shouted through the mouth of every family member about a hundred times a day.

At Bookbridge I start the conversation class with Sreydieb at 8 o’clock. Each week we talk about something else. Today we discuss our favourite stories as this week is about fairytales. Everyone has to tell what their story is about and why he or she likes it so much. Then we talk about the characters that usually appear in fairytales. For example giants, mermaids and fairies. I draw their pictures on the board and we write down what their special abilities are and if they are good or bad and appear in any of the stories we just talked about. At ten o’clock the class is over. I go to play „Heaven and Hell“ with some of the younger children, pin some of the pictures we drew the day before on the wall and help to build a brick tower. At 11:30 Kadet and me go to the market. She really knows every single person. I might have said this before but I never met anyone who is as lovely as Kadet. That’s the only way to describe her. She once told me that she simply likes everything about her life. She loves gardening, cooking, washing, sewing, planting, learning English and working at Bookbridge. She seems to care about everyone around her and could never say no when someone needs help. She says things to me like: „I missed you so much!“ when I didn’t see her over the weekend and „I also love you“ when she talks about the important people in her life. I could never ask for a better boss. Over lunchtime I try to learn Khmai and not freak out when there a five words that sound exctly the same to me. At two o’clock I ride back to the learning center. We are making memory cards today. They are extra large and help the children to learn basic vocabulary. There is always someone who tries to peak underneath the card and I have to keep my eyes everywhere to avoid this kind of unacceptable cheating. 😉 At three o’clock the next English class is beginning. We talk about places and build sentences like: „Where is the teacher?“ „He is at school.“/ „Where is the nurse?“ „She is at the hospital.“ At four o’clock I play japanese jump rope with the children in the court. The height wanders higher and higher every round and the movements of the jumps change. The game really is quite tricky. You need seven to count down the days of the week, for every day one jump. From five to six is the last English class. As I want to start an e-mail exchange with a school in Morocco, we are talking about what to write in the first message and how to adress someone in a polite way. After six o’clock I drive back home. Dinner is at 6:30 and it’s always chingai (delicious). Siphen would be a five star cook when she was working in a German restaurant. Then I talk a little bit with the family and plan what I want to do the next day. Everyone goes to bed around nine o’clock. I read some pages and fall asleep quite fast. This is the description of a weekday that is as normal as it can be. Usually you hear the sound of grills and if you are lucky the soft drops of rain on the roof. This is the best possible way to fall asleep.

To add some other things that fall out of line and are worth mentioning, I might want to begin with the fact that I taught an extra class of students four days this week. They go to a different, small school that has only one course from five to six everyday and they are all my own age. Normally there is a women from the USA teaching them. Her name is Stacy and she works for Peace Corps. This week she was in Phnom Penh so I was taking her place. It was an utterly strange feeling to teach a class of people that could have been in my own grade last year. I read „James and the Giant Peach“ with them, we talked about environmental pollution and played Tabu that I made out of little paper cards with easy words. Now I have 20 more Facebook friends and a new teaching experience.

When I went to Takeo this week I made a bycicle trip with Sopeak when we had lunch break. First we went to the market and bought loads of fruits. I might have mentioned that Sopheak is also a vegetarian so it’s great to eat lunch with her. It was a nice ride along the lake and fields of pink blooming lotus flowers. We made a picnic in a little pavillion and talked about things on no end. Sopheak is a person that falls out of every line. She thinks that we have to change the policy in Cambodia, for example she is totally in favour of emancipation. She stands up for free universities, health care insurance and nature conservation, She thinks that she needs no husband to support her and she wants to open up vegetarian restaurants all over the country that serve fresh, organic food. I really admire her for this attitude, the world needs more people like her that leave a mark, leave the world better than it was before by standing up for their believes.

On Saturday Sreydieb, Buntha (a friend of Sreydieb) and me made a trip to a nearby lake. It took us about an hour to get there by motorbike. We drove on the main rode and eventually took a small path to the left. The landscape shifted dramatically and so suddenly that I couldn’t quite believe that we only just left the endless way that is enclosed by rice fields and palm trees and leads us in a never ending way down to the horizon. An old quote says that the best dreams happen when you are awake and I had to think of this when we drove next to deep green mountains. Because of the stones and holes we had to go very slow but it was not a shame as we had more time to enjoy the nature around us. Suddenly Sreydieb stopped the moto and I saw this valley lying infront of us with a blue lake in it’s middle. Not a single person was to be seen anywhere around, I couldn’t believe that after what I experienced in Siem Reap and Kep, there were no crowds of tourists around that took pictures, screamed excitedly and and left their rubbish where they stood. The mountains were mirrored in the surface, watterbuffalos were gathering in the water and dragonflies rested in the little hut that we chose as our pick nick place. We went swimming and the temperature was as warm as you would expect it to be as a child, seeing the sun kissing the water. Everything seemed to be so untouched by human hands, I felt like being invited to a secret. I told myself I had to come back eventually, just to sit there, stare in the wide open space and wonder about the wonders of earth.

I sometimes forget about the beauty around us, but this week reminded me of it, there is some of it everywhere. You just have to open your eyes, your heart, your mind and your soul. It’s not difficult.