Teaching English, Playing "Football", Kep, Cambodia

Kep, Cambodia today is a sleepy fishing village in the south of the country. At one time, it had been a mini Hamptons to the Phnom Penh Jet-setters, pre-Khmer Rouge. Now dozens of architecturally progressive villas, destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, blanket the waterfront. While several of them have squatters living inside, many can be explored almost like the temples of Siem Reap. It's quite eerie really. The fishing boats here stroll in every morning with the day's catch and the seafood is amazing. I've enjoyed, according to the menu, grilled the squid, fish the soup, and boiled the crab. My favorite dish though features stir-fried squid in a peppercorn sauce. (I visited the plantation where they grow the peppercorn on vines and dry it, pretty neat.) One thing about this town I reeeally don't like though is the rabid monkeys. I stopped to take their photo while they were climbing around on the trees all cute-looking. Apparently, these were the females because soon the males were chasing me, showing their teeth, and letting out this high-pitched scream. Do monkeys bite? I flew out of there, not waiting around to find out!

I decided, as usual, to take a bike and ride into the countryside. It's so great to be away from the touts and all the kids love to shout "Hallo" as I pass and then run away giggling. After a while I decide to stop to watch some kids play "football." As soon as I show up, however, all the football playing come to an immediate halt. All the kids come running over and the teacher, it turns out to be a schoolyard, says, "the kids want you to play with them." No problem. What had been ten kids playing football, now became 35. They are all about 10-12 and run around laughing and giggling, especially when I give them a high 5 when our team scores. Soon the teacher, Manah, asks if I'll teach English. A "Yes, of course" leaped out of my mouth before I realized I didn't have the foggiest clue how to do this. After having 5 seconds to come up with a lesson plan, I look out at the 35 kids, waiting in anticipation like their favorite movie is about to start. I started in with, "What's your name?" "My name is . . . " Yikes, this is difficult. They are all looking at me strangely when Manah says, "they would like you to sing a song." Great. I won't even sing alone in the shower, never mind in front of 35 kids. The only song I could think of for some reason was the Black Eyed Peas, My Humps (it plays all over SE Asia, give me a break). Obviously, I didn't attempt a rendition of this song, but the only more appropriate song I could come up with was Row Row Row Your Boat, maybe because this is a fishing village. I don't know what the kids were thinking, but I was horrified! The kids followed with Happy Birthday in English even though they didn't know the meaning and I taught them How Old Are You Now. Trying to get this going in another direction, away from any more singing, I started drawing pictures of the local seafood on the chalkboard, writing down the English name and working on pronunciation. At last, a hit, the kids loved this. After an hour they invited me back in the evening for more football, the grown-up version.

Football, Cambodian style, means no shoes, not even flip flops and running around dodging bricks and other debris. Meanwhile, I have no idea who is on my team since there are no identifying shirts or anything else. Football is followed up with dinner at the crab market with the teacher and his friends. At first I was a bit concerned they would expect me to pay for everyone because the crab market was expensive on a teacher's salary of $25/month. Dinner split 5 ways was $2.50, and amazingly they wouldn't let me pay for more than my share. So of course when they asked me to come back the next day for more English I agreed, even though I had planned to move on. After going over body parts and the weather with the little kids, a lesson plan done in advance on a secluded island beach, they asked me to teach the high school kids. Fortunately this time they gave me a book with questions to go over. I don't know where they got this book but the questions were absurd! Do you have children? Do you like to play golf? These are 16-year old kids and I don't think there is a golf course in all of Cambodia! Again we went to dinner. This time they wouldn't let me pay at all. They kept saying how glad they were to have me, the kids loved the pictures, would I stay longer? Needless to say, I was reluctant to leave. Of course, first they made me drink my share of beer.

Thoughts about Cambodia:
1.) The current government in Cambodia is very corrupt. I met a couple who rented a motorbike and had to pay a $30 "bribe" - they worked it down from $80 - for doing nothing wrong, they were following Cambodians around a traffic circle. This is a lot of money for a Cambodian. A bigger problem though is that educated kids can't get a job. A "real job" I was told costs $1k - $2k, unless you "know somebody." As a result, many college educated kids in Phnom Penh work as motorbike drivers. Cambodia has a three-party political system. Everybody I talked to mentions how corrupt the government is, but the same party wins every time. Obviously, everybody also assumes the balloting is rigged.

2.) Men here seem to fall very easily in love. I had one tell me he loved me after he know me for about 10 minutes. Disturbingly, he seemed to be serious. When I told him I didn't have the same feelings he wanted to make sure I wasn't upset with him.

3.) The whole country practically seems to be in ruins. There are the ancient ruins in Siem Reap, of course, and I also talked about the state of decay of the villas in Kep. Additionally I took a day-trip, up a dismal 4WD road to the Bokor Hill Station, now a virtual ghost town. Basically another ruin Khmer Rouge related, Bokor was a French retreat from the hot weather built in the 20s. It even had a casino, among luxurious accomodations, a Catholic Church, and several restaurants. While we were there a constant fog moves up and over the mountains creating this really creepy feeling. While I was exploring I found a recently built cell site and I must say it was up to Bechtel standards. That was impressive.

For photos of Kep, Bokor and surrounding areas, click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39463330@N00/sets/72057594100793377/