My friends and fellow colleagues Jon and Chris brought their translators and 5 members of their DOE (District Office of Education) to visit me and mine. It was a bit like a study tour, an exchange visit in order (well, in theory!) for our DOE colleagues to learn from each other about the work that they do and how they work with their VSO volunteers. I count myself very lucky that I have such a fantastic DOE colleague to work with, and we really do work WITH each other. We meet regularly, share work plans, speak the same language (metaphorically) and have the same goals and ideas for the development of the district. And, my DOE do not seem to be on the ‘take’, trying to sponge every penny they can out of VSO in order to fill their pockets. Ok, I still get frustrated at the communication problems, the last minute changes of plan, the slower than slow progress, days when without warning I am the only living soul who bothers to turn up at the office, and so the list goes on, but I don’t seem to have half the problems that some other volunteers face in more challenging districts.
The ‘Arrival’ (another excellent Abba album by the way) was on Thursday and we swiftly ushered the visitors to Tropieng Tmar reservoir for a very Khmer lunch. It was like a holiday for the visiting DOE and it was fantastic to have some barang company in my little corner of the world. I also think my DOE were very pleased and proud to be hosting. After a relaxed lunch I persuaded Mr Sophan that we had time to show our visitors the traditional silk weaving which is gradually putting Phnom Srok on the map. The Khmer Rouge regime all but destroyed this traditional art during their reign of terror over the country but with a bit of help from Pass (a French NGO) Phnom Srok has become one of the only places in Cambodia to have resurrected the sericulture. The visitors got to see how the silk worms were fed on mulberry leaves, the silk spun and dyed with natural dyes and the silk woven on huge looms. Jon even succumbed to peer pressure from the rest of the men in our group and bought his wife a beautiful scarf at a bargain price thanks to me! Well, I’m practically a local so I expect local prices!
Mr Sophan had prepared a presentation in the afternoon which went down very well and we divided into groups for question and answer sessions in our own languages. It was fantastic to share experiences with Chis and Jon and even better as they got to see all that I was talking about. We have the same job remit but despite the identical placement objectives, our work lives seem quite different in many ways.
I had a house full for the night and on Friday we journeyed out to a school who were conducting a meeting with their community in order to raise money for a wall for the front of their school. I have given up trying to point out that there are more important things to spend money on than a blinking wall. To these folk, a school wall IS very important and I have resigned myself to the very positive fact that at least this school has a really good relationship with their community.
The meeting was really positive and was great to be a part of and also great for the visitors to experience. I had the impression that communities in my district didn’t value education and their local schools that much. Communities seem to pile money they don’t seem to have into their local pagodas which are huge, ornate and well kept buildings, while the local schools still have bullet holes in the roofs which let in rain water, are vandalised by the village teenagers and generally left in a state of disrepair: far from being stimulating learning environments. I am happy to admit that my initial impression of a distinct lack of community involvement was most definitely wrong. Phew! I was very pleased to see such a large turn out of community members, both male and female and all with great ideas of how to raise money for the school and showing great commitment to put dates in the diary and come up with a joint plan. Great stuff! Maybe after the wall they’ll think about raising funds to repair the school buildings themselves, or to kit out the classrooms with resources, materials, teaching aids, learning games and the like. I live in hope!
The visitors left feeling happy and full of ideas, and even gave me a lift into Sisaphon for my weekend retreat! It was a great visit and I’m hoping to reciprocate the gesture and get out visiting other volunteers in their placements rather than a bar! A great learning experience for all. Whenever we volunteers get together, our work dominates conversation topics and we all seem to be doing much the same work. However, until you see someone in action in the context of the work they talk about it’s really difficult to actually know what each other is doing. It was wonderful to have visitors and have a good catch up with Chris and Jon ... check out their blog: http://www.chrisandjonincambodia.blogspot.com/
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