Phnom Penh, Cambodia - a Day in the Life...
I really haven't settled down to a routine yet. I don't know if I ever will in this crazy country. In the morning I went over the NFC and spent some time with the kids working on the computers.
Later in the day Omry, a part time volunteer at NFC who is leaving Cambodia after living here for three years, had a going away party at his place. It was a fun event with good food, music and an ecclectic group of guests.
Sunday I was at NFC in the morning working on my computer lessons for the next week. The other volunteers, the director and I had a meeting with a couple of members of the NFC board of directors at noon, we had a short meeting of volunteers after that meeting to talk about coordinating our efforts in teaching. I spent the rest of the day working on computer stuff, teaching some of the kids one-on-one and practicing shooting hoops (basketball).
Monday I arrived at NFC and taught the first computer class for the week until the power went out. I then spendf the remaining class time showing and explaining the components of a computer to the kids. I had to skip the second class since the power was still out. I shot some more hoops. I definitely can use the practice!
A little later on a group of Cambodian student volunteers arrived. They are planning on helping out teaching the younger kids subjects that would be hard for them to understand from foreigners, such as science, mathematics and the like.
Then Gabe, a NFC volunteer from New Hampshire arrived with his friend Michael. Michael had been very successful raising funds in the USA for an medical organization he is working with in Cambodia. He toured the place with Gabe and I showed him the computer lab and asked himn questions about fund raising.
A short while later the heavans opened up and it rained cats and dogs! The concrete recreation/eating area became a large pond with about 6-7 inches of water. The younger kids go nuts playing in the water and having a good time. A few of the older kids and I moved all the computers onto the desks, as the room was in danger of being flooded. When it rains that hard everything is affected and there's not a lot you can do but wait it out.
We had lunch sitting in plastic chairs in 7"of water. I was not able to teach a computer class until 3:00 p.m. After class I made a trip to get a hammer, nails and a 8-foot by 4-foot board to act as a screen for projecting computer screens, images and videos on a large scale using the DLP projector I donated. We took a motorbike to do the shopping. I ended up carrying the 8' x 4' panel while riding on the back of the motorbike. Amazingly we made it back to NFC intact.
Sovanlay took to nailing and painting the panel while I worked with some of the kids on disassembling one staffs laptop PCs that had sustained water damage and was no longer working. Without a manual we managed to successfully disassemble the laptop and we think we discovered that the power switch had gone bad. I had a multimeter that I bought for $3.50 to check it out. We'll see if we're able to put it back together again, but not a big loss. It was very old and underpowered and undersized. If we couldn't get it working for next to nothing it wouldn't be worth investing in trying to fix it.
The kids helped me get a motorcycle taxi back to my place by the lakeside and here I am at the Internet cafe writing up a day in the life...
I really haven't settled down to a routine yet. I don't know if I ever will in this crazy country. In the morning I went over the NFC and spent some time with the kids working on the computers.
Later in the day Omry, a part time volunteer at NFC who is leaving Cambodia after living here for three years, had a going away party at his place. It was a fun event with good food, music and an ecclectic group of guests.
Sunday I was at NFC in the morning working on my computer lessons for the next week. The other volunteers, the director and I had a meeting with a couple of members of the NFC board of directors at noon, we had a short meeting of volunteers after that meeting to talk about coordinating our efforts in teaching. I spent the rest of the day working on computer stuff, teaching some of the kids one-on-one and practicing shooting hoops (basketball).
Monday I arrived at NFC and taught the first computer class for the week until the power went out. I then spendf the remaining class time showing and explaining the components of a computer to the kids. I had to skip the second class since the power was still out. I shot some more hoops. I definitely can use the practice!
A little later on a group of Cambodian student volunteers arrived. They are planning on helping out teaching the younger kids subjects that would be hard for them to understand from foreigners, such as science, mathematics and the like.
Then Gabe, a NFC volunteer from New Hampshire arrived with his friend Michael. Michael had been very successful raising funds in the USA for an medical organization he is working with in Cambodia. He toured the place with Gabe and I showed him the computer lab and asked himn questions about fund raising.
A short while later the heavans opened up and it rained cats and dogs! The concrete recreation/eating area became a large pond with about 6-7 inches of water. The younger kids go nuts playing in the water and having a good time. A few of the older kids and I moved all the computers onto the desks, as the room was in danger of being flooded. When it rains that hard everything is affected and there's not a lot you can do but wait it out.
We had lunch sitting in plastic chairs in 7"of water. I was not able to teach a computer class until 3:00 p.m. After class I made a trip to get a hammer, nails and a 8-foot by 4-foot board to act as a screen for projecting computer screens, images and videos on a large scale using the DLP projector I donated. We took a motorbike to do the shopping. I ended up carrying the 8' x 4' panel while riding on the back of the motorbike. Amazingly we made it back to NFC intact.
Sovanlay took to nailing and painting the panel while I worked with some of the kids on disassembling one staffs laptop PCs that had sustained water damage and was no longer working. Without a manual we managed to successfully disassemble the laptop and we think we discovered that the power switch had gone bad. I had a multimeter that I bought for $3.50 to check it out. We'll see if we're able to put it back together again, but not a big loss. It was very old and underpowered and undersized. If we couldn't get it working for next to nothing it wouldn't be worth investing in trying to fix it.
The kids helped me get a motorcycle taxi back to my place by the lakeside and here I am at the Internet cafe writing up a day in the life...
posted by Chris at 9:44 AM
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