So, anyone interested in knowing what is my typical week out here in Kien Svay, a district in Cambodia? Incidentally, Michelle also wrote about her typical week. Not that I'm trying to copy her, but... well, I thought it'd be fun to tell my stories.. and bore you at the same time! It helps me to remember what I'm doing.. Sometimes I lose track of time.

Typical day
Typical morning will start with breakfast at the coffee shop near RDI. Usually that's the place where the activities of the day are planned, for volunteers or groups. Most of the volunteers and groups eat breakfast at THE coffee shop starting from around 7:30a. That's the place where the RDI staff discuss what's going to happen or for everyone to find out what and who and how, etc...

I guess I should dedicate another post about the food at THE coffee shop. My favourite is rice with pork and soup and pickles.

After breakfast I'd normally head to the lab, which is where I usually work and check some e-mail. Sometimes when I'm free, I'd check the progress of the project with the lab staff who're working on the Arsenic project and see if there're any problems. They're Leak, Sukorn and Konkhea. 9a is when my Khmer lesson starts and ends around 10a. I'm using a book called "Modern Spoken Cambodian" by Franklin E. Huffman. I have 2 tutors, Vanthoen (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and Sophak (Tues & Thurs) and both are RDI staff. Sophak is an accountant but also doubles as secretary for administrative work at the moment since the previous secretary just left to go to the US to get married last month. Sometimes they swap if one is busy on that day. Sometimes I don't get any lesson when they're busy.

Lunch is usually at Mickey's house, for most volunteers, except those who have families and eat at home. After lunch, I'd head to the lab for the TOEFL class. There're about 4-6 students. Class is supposed to start at 12:45 and end at 1:30, but very often we'd start late and end slightly late. I try to avoid ending late so it doesn't cut into their work time.

Work ends officially at 4:30p.m., but of course, for people like us, long term volunteers, RDI team, work and play and personal time kind of overlap.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I'll try to spend about 1/2 hour with the kids from neighbours' and teach them simple English from about 5p. Some days I skip, some weeks I'll do more days depending on my work.

Dinner's usually around 6 plus at Mickey's and can last anywhere till 8 plus, if people are free . Sometimes teams will stay back after dinner to chat or play games or just hang out.

After dinner, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I teach English to village teenagers at Min Sooka's house. Both Min Sooka and her husband Sarreun are part of the Khmer church members and also two of the four leaders in training. On a typical week, I teach English on Mondays and Wednesday, whereas Caleb teaches Tuesdays and Thursdays. But these 2 weeks I've been covering all 4 nights because I'm covering for Caleb, since he's gone on vacation covering Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand... We all call him Junior. Because he acts like one sometimes... :)

Lately I've been sleeping later and later, which is probably not a good sign. When I first started out here, I'd go to bed like 9 plus or 10p and wake up before 7a. Nowadays I'm sleeping at close to midnight and wake up at 7 plus. I used to have the false impression that life at the village is very free... But that's not the case here. Life is bustling with activities here. Plenty to do, if you want to.

Wednesdays

For the past 2 weeks I've been joining the bible story telling night on Wednesdays. Mickey teaches the villagers bible story, sometimes with actions and it helps them to remember the bible teachings, and there's usually a time for discussion on the things they learned or any questions they may have. Most are Christians from the Khmer church, but sometimes non-believers join in too, out of curiosity or interests. Some of the point or things they learned they brought up are pretty cool. Things that I never thought about, and it makes me think that I don't think hard enough about the things I learned from the bible.

Fridays

Fridays are normally movie nights... along with some other nights if there's enough time and people are keen. For the past little while, we've (volunteers) been watching the Planet Earth series by BBC, which I absolutely love. Documentaries about all parts of the earth.