Fundraising ahoy!

Our current volunteer Michael is fundraising to build a new classroom after we lost our one in Nokor Krao village. Please donate if you have a spare dollar or two.

www.youcaring.com/buildmeup

A classroom that we currently have - this is what we are looking
to replicate in Nokor Krao village

Parents Afternoon

Once a year we invite all the parents to the school for an end of year update.

Last year 40 parents turned up however this year we saw an amazing 117 parents! Fortunately we had planned for this, we hired a marquee, planned for rain (none came thankfully) and even got the students to show off what they have learned this year. It was a great day, the parents are now updated and know how best to support their children at home!

The seats are ready - 100 in all, we ended up needing more!

The dancers were made up, and made up.

A quick pep talk before the parents arrive

The girls braiding their hair for their performance

Kanha making sure the flower arrangement is spot on.

Not bad for an amateur flower arranger!

The meeting begins with the national anthem

The girls then sing some other songs about rain and winter

Following 90 minutes of speaking, we are treated to the fishing dance

 

Finally, the students sing songs that FKC have written and composed
ourselves. All the songs are about the importance of education

www.khmerchild.org

Meet a class! Kindergarten class

Here at FKC we have four different classes - Kindergarten, Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced.
Since students start school at different ages our classes are set depending on ability.

The Kindergarten class is a very laid back affair to some degree! Learning English is difficult at first, because you need to know a new alphabet, with weird shapes that are called letters, and the sounds made in English are very strange to Cambodians, like 'th' and 'ch' and sometimes 's'!

Sometimes this gets a little too much, so we focus on drawing and colouring instead. This is still good for our hand eye co-ordination and gets our learning colours. The rest of the time we play games, learn a bit of maths, sing English songs - our favourites are Twinkle, Twinkle and Old McDonald!

A day in the life of a volunteer

Our volunteers enjoy every day they come to school, mainly because the children make it such a great place to work but also because they see the effect they are having over the time they are here.

For more information on volunteering click here!

Here is a typical day in the life of one our recent volunteers - Thea from Australia!

Cycling to school - most of our volunteers stay in guesthouses
or hotels in town, and the cheapest way to get to school is
on a bike (75c per day)

When you get to school you'll often see the kids already there
playing games and chatting

The boys often play a Cambodian version of dodge
ballbut they use a Vortex style toy instead... ow!

Once the kids have calmed down, they make a line
and then sing the Cambodian national anthem
before going to class.

Next up we get ready for the day, putting on
our school uniform and staff ID!

Finally we go to class, where we study for
two hours. Thea is doing one on one
conversation in this photo

After class, we head to the playground and line-up before leaving.
Sometimes our volunteers have to say goodbye too.
Here is Thea on her last day!

School link-up! Cambodia and Germany

Back in August we were extremely fortunate for a German school teacher - Martina Zieger - to be dropped off at our school! After a brief tour and explanation of the school we decided to set up a cultural exchange between Cambodia and Germany since our students are of a similar language ability.

Here are some photos from Martina of her students learning about Cambodia in English. We will be sending some of our classwork and photos next week.

Students learning about the Temples of Angkor Wat

The students have been making posters with information on

Martina and her students showing off their artwork

Meet a teacher - Chan Bunhak

Me on an average working day!

Hello, my name is Bunhak. I am 22 years old and I am from Siem Reap Province. I am currently

I have been working at FKC for 10 months, and initially I started as the IT Teacher. When the administrator moved to China I was asked to fill this post instead, and I have been doing so for almost two months.
living with my father, two sisters and one brother. I am also studying Law at Mekong University.

In my free time I like playing 6-a-side football with my university friends. I also enjoy cooking, eating and playing games on Facebook.

In the future, I would like to work for the government, perhaps as a politician working in policy making and law.  I feel this could help ensure Cambodia has a strong and fair legal system that puts the people of Cambodia first.

Interested in sponsoring one of teachers? Click here

Keen to learn, rain or shine!

So we seem to talk about the rain a lot, but that's because it rains a lot! Here are our students wading into school last week during some heavy floods, and this was after the water had gone down a few inches. Still we are happy to have such eager students!

Roll up your trousers and wade on through - the water in
some parts are knee deep!

Rain? What rain?! The girls heading home with a smile on their face and
shoes in their hands

Rock, paper, scissors? Hammer, paper, scissors, nail!

It's break time and the children love to play all sorts of games - pick up sticks, flip-flop kick, football, tag, hop chase and skipping.

The current craze involves small trading cards (mostly with Psy and Gangnam Style on), however instead of trading one for one, you battle for your opponents cards.

First, you decide how many cards you wish to gamble and who will go first through a quick game of rock, paper, scissors.

Afterwards, you lay the cards on the floor and with a slap with your hand you have to try to turn them over using the force of the wind generated by your hand.

However many you turn over, you keep, and the rest the opponent gets to try to win with the same method.

Quite often you see one child with a large stack kept proudly in their shirt pocket, you'd think the others would know not to play him or her, but the stack grows by the day!

Pchum Ben Photos

We hope you had a good weekend - we certainly did! Here are some photos from our weekend.

Preparing the Cambodian rice and pork cakes for cooking

It rained a lot obviously!

Preparing the Cambodian rice and banana cakes and then cooking them - the fire must
keep burning otherwise the rice won't cook properly!

We took a trip to the Pagoda to remember
our deceased family and friends

Afterwards we went to relax with our friends and family
by a local lake

Pchum Ben

This weekend sees the climax of Pchum Ben, a Cambodian festival that remembers the dead. The festival lasts for 15 days where families visit Pagodas (place of worship) across Cambodia to make offerings of food to the chanting monks. It comes to a climax in the final 3 days, this year on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of October.

Offering food to the monks in turn feeds the ghosts of the dead and benefits any deceased family member. The ghosts of the dead are the souls that have been sent to hell for how they lived their previous life, they are able to be free for one day when the gates of hell open up. Occasionally families will throw balls of rice around the fields of the Pagoda in hope of feeding these ghosts directly, rather than through the monks.