Before I leave

I've been helping the kids prepare for the big Christmas Concert that Elder and Sister James (pictured below) are facilitating. The wonderful thing about this concert, being the very first of its kind, is that it is centered on the reason for Christmas.  Preparing the kids for this concert has been absolutely delightful because we get to talk and tell stories and sing familiar songs.  It's a more interesting subject matter for my classes, and it's just fun.

Christmas is a huge part of our culture as Church members but it isn't the hubbub here that it is in the US and other parts of the world.
Pattica tells me that about 3% of Cambodia is Christian.   The Central Market does some Christmas decorating, and there are some Christmas candies at that supermarket, but it isn't widely celebrated here.  Yaya wanted me to teach the kids The Christmas Story in English.  My mother had emailed me a Christmas book: This is the Star by Joyce Dunbar and Gary Blythe.  It was great to read with the kids.  It is very similar to The Napping House-- you know-- the one that repeats the same phrases and only adds a new line every other page.  It was simple and repetitive, which gave the kids time to familiarize themselves with the words.  After we read the story, we set off to making a little nativity.  At the service project I'd found a lot of little bits of broken clay and oyster shells and sticks and well I figured we could make something.  So we did.
I know that I've come to know Christ infinitely better in working with ICHope and the kids at CICFO, and with that, I tried to make our games and class time geared toward the CHRIST part of Christmas rather than the Holly Jolly, Santa is coming, stockings and presents part of it.  It is easy to do that here in Cambodia; nobody celebrates it, so the culture of Christmas isn't squeezing you into Santa suits.
And you look at the kids here and they are beautiful, and they are smart, and they are kind, and they are important and I hope that they feel their Savior's love for them as well as my own.  And that's how we become ready for Christmas, we allow ourselves to feel His love regardless of our station and situation in life.  And that's all I wanted to do before I left, to sing and read and play and love them all I could.

Working hard

On Saturday the Vietnamese branch came to CICFO for a service project.  Most of the kids were still at government school during the service project, but a few of them made it back by the end.  We don't hold English classes on Saturdays, so I was there to help with the project: cleaning out the grassy area.
It was hot, and the missionaries were in their missionary attire, but we all worked quickly and happily.  Pulling weeds, throwing away trash, cutting grass, and moving logs.  Two of the younger kids came back and charmed the volunteers, and when all was said and done it looked very nice.

We're so blessed to be surrounded by people who are so willing to serve each other.  The Vietnamese members took time out of their day to do something that the kids, with their busy school schedules, can't easily do. 

Decorating

Sister James suggested that we make paper snowflakes with some of the paper that her son donated to CICFO.

So we did, and now the classroom is much more festive.

Stepping stones

Recently I discussed our challenge to create here in CICFO.  To work on it we’ve been re-telling familiar stories, the most recent of which is Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Since ‘Goldilocks’ was doomed to cause unnecessary confusion, we just called her ‘the girl’.  Those words are much more widely applicable.  I have a set of storyboard punch-outs; the kids took turns two at a time, one telling part of the story and the other writing it on the whiteboard.  Some of the kids need to see and copy it, but everyone got to write down at least a short part of the story themselves.  I had my doubts, but the reason I’ve continued this is because the kids like it.  They think it’s fun and it gets them up in front of the class writing which allows the other kids to see that everyone forgets their periods, or capitalizes random letters, or forgets to add an ‘s’ when something is plural.  It lets the kids know that it’s okay when they make mistakes while reinforcing the corrections; at least, I think that’s what it is doing.  As usual, some kids are very good at this and some kids just really enjoy writing on the board.  It takes a couple classes to finish a story and on the last day of The Three Bears, Sarong came in and sat right in front of me and told me a ‘Once Upon a Time’ story featuring her friend Channy.  It was short and simple and a little bit ridiculous, but the most important part is that it was unprovoked.  I didn’t have to hold up cards and have her use one of them in a sentence, I didn’t ask her to tell me a story, I didn’t lead her by the hand and tell her how—none of that—she just did it.  

I asked her to write it down later.  It goes like this:

“Once upon a time the girl named Channy she like to play with the cat.  The cats named mickey mouse.  Channy goes to school by walking. “

It’s no epic, but she did it by herself.  I helped her a little bit on the spelling, but for the most part I exaggerated the phonemes and made her figure out the spelling on her own.  The other kids followed her lead and started making up bits about eachother.  I paired kids who had already done it with those who were struggling, absolutely thrilled with what they were doing

Christmas concert

 The author of the beginning of this post is Jet:

"Elder and Sister James teach Christmas Bells song.  They are missionaries.  And they are old. The first they come power is out.  And Christmas song is easy to sing, hard to sing without power.  The second they brought their son.  And they brought ice cream.  We all sing together.  Their son brings pens, color paper.  While we waited we sang the song and sister Aria played the ukulele.  Sister James brought the chimes.  The third sister James brings piano and we sing with chimes and piano.  She gave us the piano and the song hard to start."

This year is the debut of the annual Christmas Concert for all of Phnom Penh.  Elder and Sister James are organizing all of the music to be performed.  Elder and Sister James visit CICFO every week to work with the kids on 'Christmas Bells'.  It has opened the door for me to work more with the kids on rhythm, timing and conducting.  I had tried before, but without a purpose the information went through them like water.   Sister James brought pipe chimes for the kids to play while they sing.  This has been a challenge as well, but the kids are getting better at singing with the chimes in time. 

This week the electricity was on, so Sister James brought out her piano which she later left with us.  With all the additions to the song it can be hard to tell when Sister James wants us to start singing, but it will get easier as we practice it.
This is such a great opportunity for members of The Church to come together for Christmas like they never have before.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to help CICFO to prepare for it.

Bon Om Touk

One of the big holidays here in Cambodia is the Water Festival.   It comes at the end of November.  The Water Festival celebrates the reversal of the Tonle Sap River.  The country comes together and holds boat races in the big river with boats from every province.  The celebration lasts for 3 days and several million people come from all over the world for the festivities.
But not this year. 
The grand festivities were canceled, though it was still a legal holiday, because the country is still in mourning for the old King's passing. 

However, The Church held a big party for members and their guests and our kids were a big part of it.  We spent all morning preparing for the dancing and when we finally got to the Church we were busily making sure all the dancers were traditionally costumed.

 We folded skirts and wound plumerias into the girls' thick hair.  All of the kids were lovely.  Between the traditional performances by CICFO, there were other acts by the missionaries and other Church members.  They performed on the stage in the Chruch's cultural hall and the floor was filled with people who had come for the celebration.
Outside of CICFO, not many kids in Cambodia know the traditional dances.  The kids in CICFO learn them from Pattica who has a Khmer dance teacher.   It is such a great opportunity for these kids to take part in their culture and share it with others. 

Thankful

At 6:30am on Thanksgiving, Sunny and I boarded a bus for Thailand.  The passport office was unable to renew my visa more than once while I was in the country, so we had to leave to get a new one.  One always meets the most interesting people on a bus.  On our way home that night we were seated next to 2 Caucasian men.  We chatted for a large portion of the journey back to Phnom Penh.  This trip was an interesting  one for many reasons, but the most useful thing I learned came from the older, Swedish gentleman.  The government schools here use a memorize - repeat curriculum.  There are multiple reasons why this is not the most effective teaching method but the most crippling is that it inhibits one's ability to create.

It was as if the skies parted.  I've been trying to assign words to the resistance I was finding as I  worked with cicfo on storytelling.  This gave it a name.  Create.

This is why it's hard for kids to tell me about something they've done -- they have most of the vocabulary, but it's difficult to talk or write about.  This is why it takes a lot of guiding the students taking classes online.  This is why the little kids have a hard time retelling The Three Little Pigs.  They know the story, but have a hard time re-wording it into simple sentences.

Well, now I know.  And it may not be the best method, strictly speaking I'm not particularly qualified in this respect, but the only way I know to improve is to practice.

Thanks Mr President

United States President, Barack Obama, is in Cambodia this week.  I thought that was cool, but even cooler (sorry Mr President) is that almost everybody in Cambodia gets at least part of this week off of school.  Why? Because the US President is here and they want to keep him safe, so they need to lessen passing traffic.

Today I went over to cicfo early.  It was great.

I got to work with Kanah on the piano, but she wanted to start working on the penny-whistle.  I have a little penny-whistle that I used to play when McKae was here.  She would lead the songs and I'd play along for pitch.  That was the seed that sprouted in the incessant requests for My Heart Will Go On.  I know all of the lyrics now and could probably play it in my sleep, the girls love it.  The penny-whistle is tricky for a few reasons and Kanah and I have never had a chunk of time to sit and actually work on it until today.

I got to write with group 2.  Yesterday we wrote about Sister King.  She was a missionary here that they became really close to; I've heard a lot about her.  It was good for us to discuss why she was special to them, what she looked like, and what she did.  After we talked about it for a while the kids were willing to write a lot more.  Today's prompt was not as well developed, but I'm learning.  I went over what they wrote when I got home this evening and we'll talk about ways to improve their sentences tomorrow.

We practiced our Christmas Song for the big Christmas concert in December.  Elder and Sister James, another senior missionary couple, came to CICFO last week to teach us the song Christmas Bells.  There is going to be a concert for all of Phnom Penh and the kids are going to sing this song in it.  They're learning to play the pipe chimes with it, but first I'm making sure they know all of the words.  It's too bad I won't be here to see it.

I worked on writing with group 1.  I brought them my storyboard last week and had them tell me the story of The 3 Little Pigs.  They've seen the old Disney short about it and asked if I knew the 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf' song.  This week we are writing the story down.  I seems to be helping us with possession and sentence structure; getting rid of the 'he' when we write 'The wolf he asked the pig to let him in.'

And that is not all-  we even watched Finding Nemo.  Sweet!

Totally.

Exciting

This week I decided that I need to get the older kids writing more than just “I set the books on the table.  I will set the books on the table.  The books are on the table.”  (That’s not a real example.) I want them to write something meaningful, especially in light of a recent event which I’ll let Theary tell you.  

Writing prompts are a good idea, right?  I remember my elementary school teachers making me write in a journal every day, so this should be good. 
It is a very difficult concept. 
On Monday, the most I could get the kids to say about Sunday was ‘I go to the church.’  It took a lot of prodding and poking and encouragement to get them to verbally expound, forget writing about it. 
I remember working with the oldest group of kids when we first got here.  McKae and I had them write down questions to help them think about what they were going to write.  We provided 6 question words and had them write down 2 questions about their topic.  When they were done, they were able to write an impressive amount by answering the questions they’d written down. 

It’s not that easy for this group.  On Monday we ended up just coming up with questions that would help us talk about the prompt.  On Tuesday we answered those questions.  Finally, today we turned those questions and answers into a paragraph....well we tried.  A few of the kids wrote all the answers in succession and that doesn’t make very much sense because the question wasn’t stated in their answer.  I’ll have to go over that again; we’ll practice it.

 
Theary:

I go to church to study about God. I went to the church with my mom.  I ride a bicycle by myself.  I went to the church because I want to see a baptism.  Sreymove, Panith, and Nana got baptized.  The people wearing yellow orange read…but who got a baptized they were wearing a white clothes.  I went to the church because I’m a child of God.  I went to the church at 1:00pm.  All the people they went to the church to study of God and to follow him.  Panith, Sreymove, and Nana they want choose the right way and all the people they got to see a baptized.  I went I go to church, I am very happy and I feel good.  I’m strong.

Theary is 14 years old.  She has two sisters in CICFO: Theara and Channy.  I adore her.  She is sweet and almost always understands what I’m trying to have the class do, which is so great.  When she grows up, she wants to be a teacher.
  

Yes, we had a baptism!  It was rather exciting (understatement of the year).   I’m going to fill in some gaps in the story.  Pattica got to baptize his sister, Nana.  This was his first baptism and it took a few times, but he got it.  It was incredible for him to have that opportunity since, he informs me, he has decided to serve a mission.  He wasn’t as sure before. Panith and Sreymove were baptized by one of the Khmer Elders that they’ve been studying with.  Chanthy and Chakrya gave talks on the Baptism and the Holy Ghost before the ordinances were performed.  Actually I’m assuming on that one because I don’t understand Khmer, but these are typically the talks before an LDS baptism. 

In the in-between time before the baptized come back all dry, Kanah played We Thank Thee oh God for a Prophet and High on a Mountain Top.  She and I have worked on that with the piano at cicfo, which is broken; so I sing whatever she is playing and she…plays it.  I’m always impressed.  It’s like learning to play the piano when you’re deaf.  By listening to her play, you wouldn’t know that she can’t hear when she practices.  When Nana, Panith, and Sreymove came back the Young Women of the branch got up and sang We Thank thee oh God for a Prophet while Kanah played.  I almost felt bad because Kanna asked me to play instead, but she did so well and it was so cute.  I think she was glad afterwards.  After the musical number, all three of them got up and bore their testimonies. 

I love being LDS.  It’s so cool.

I’ve decided to do writing prompts from now on.  It’s painstaking, but I think it’s a good thing.  Next time we’ll write on something easier.  It may also help to write about something that I wasn’t there for so they feel like they have to actually explain it to me.  Only time will tell.

I will tell you about Elder Spencer’s party.

Hello, my name is San Pattica. I am 18 years old. I am living in CICFO orphanage* in Cambodia. 

On 01 November 2012 at the evening we went to Elder Spencer’s party. Elder and Sister Spencer are missionaries of the LDS church. They serve the mission in Cambodia. I met him in the church. He is a good Elder he always came to welcome every person that comes to church. I had meet Sister Spencer in the orphanage. She is very nice, beautiful and kind. Elder Spencer usually came to my home. He taught me about the gospel, tell the story of the books, draw the picture, and he is special because he baptized my sister Chakrya. He is my best grandpa because he is very kind. He always does the duck sound, gave me the candies and gave me a lot of things.

The day of the party he invited my orphanage came to his birth day party. The party starts at 7 o’clock but I and my dancing group prepare things like 3 o’clock.  We went to a hotel by tuktuk. I prepare the clothes for the dancing group. I was very happy in the room that I was staying because it is very beautiful and everything looked nice like the millionaire house. After we prepare the clothes we wait dancing for 4 hours when they finished the food. We were very hungry but we were still happy because grandpa came very often. Many people visit us when we perform, everything was good. After that we eat the food. The food has many kinds I was very excited to eat. While I had eaten they play the games and sing the song it makes me feel happy so much.

This is the first meeting that makes me feel happy so much. I am very lucky that I have a grandpa who cares for me and loves me. After the party I came back home by tuktuk.

*CICFO is not, strictly speaking, an 'orphanage' but that is the simplest thing to call it.  It is a Children Friend Organization.

stories

Our school schedule has changed again.  On the first day of the new schedule, we made the alphabet cards.  On the second day we didn't have class because kids were practicing a dance for a dinner party in honor of a leaving senior missionary couple.  I'll post on that later.
I try to play a lot of games.  All of the kids go to school early in the morning, and many go again for part-time study after I leave.  Learning English (if it is anything like teaching) can be hard.  If it is filled with drudgery, I'm afraid of loosing their attention.

Today, in group two, we continued working on our vowel sounds.  Short/long a, e, i, o, and u.  I have some phonics flash cards that help, but for some age groups that only works for about a day.  I can't pull out new or different cards every day, so I try to get good mileage out of them by coming up with random games to play with them.

We are on a stories run.  I have each kid choose 3 cards from the vowel set and they have to tell a story with them.  By 'story' I'm referring to something that goes somewhat (or exactly) like this:  "Rabbit uses the shovel to dig in the dirt so she can plant flowers."   It helps us fill in the in-between words.  I do things like this for every age group.  One card for the younger kids, more cards for the older kids.  Sometimes the stories are really funny, because we don't always end up with words that usually play together.  My favorite story like this was from Roth:  "The girl writes in her book and then a ball bounces in and breaks a vase because it falls off the chair."

a post in pictures

We do have alphabet cards,

but they all have pictures on them.



It makes me wonder if they know the letter,

 or if they just have gotten used to the

picture of a violin for the letter V.



 I decided that it would be wise to have cards

 that separate the upper-case

from the lower-case.



This is the catalog of how we made them.



In hind-sight,

spray-paint would have worked better.

Then again,

if I had used spray-paint

the kids could not have been as involved.

They're not perfect,

but they are ours.

I still have paint left over,

I'll keep it in case we loose one of the cards,

it's bound to happen someday.

That's why we used face-cards,

they're easy to find.



*They're actually not easy to find here, it took a while.

Chakrya

Due to circumstances beyond our control, in spite of all prayers and blessings on our behalf (for which we are very grateful), McKae was very sick while she was here.  She is now home in the USA and doing her best to recover from the mystery illness that has caused her so much pain
.
As promised, I have a few of our writing exercises to share.  These are from Chakrya.  I've missed her for the past few days because she was visiting her home province.  Chakrya has a momentum when she works.  I've learned not to check up on her work as often as some of the others because if I interrupt too often she doesn't write as much.

This is one of our first assignments, when we asked the students to introduce themselves.

Hello my name is Sim Chakrya. I am 16 years old. I was born 05/ July/ 1996.  I have one brother and one sister. I come from Svay Reang province. I come to live in the orphanage 5 years ago. The children come to live in the orphanage because some children don’t have parents, some children have only mother and father is dead, and some children are poor. My feeling when I stay at home I can’t go to school because my house is far away from school. I don’t have food for eat enough. My parents they don’t have ability to take care of me and they sent me to the orphanage. But when I came to live here I am very happy because I have good mother, good brother and sister in here. I can go to school, I can study English, study how to type and I have a lot of food to eat enough. I have opportunity to study a lot. Every day I study khmer at school, I study English at the orphanage.  I think the orphanage help me and take care of me a lot. Mom here always give good advice for me and all the children. I’m very thank mom to take care me and I love you. 

 

Everyone here has nicknamed CICFO 'the orphanage'.  It isn't an orphanage in the traditional sense.  A few of these kids are social orphans, where their parents are unable to be present in their lives due to their own choices. Other kids have quite a different background.  Some kids, like Chakrya, have wonderful, loving parents.  But because the family is so poor they are unable to care for all of their family.  I like how the organization title puts it: This is a Children Friend Organization.  That is where Botevy has come in and given at least some of their kids a place to stay, enough food, access to education, friends, and love. 

Chakrya types 25 wpm now, with 96% accuracy.  I don't have a good example of her writing as it has been improving, forgive me.  For now this will do.  I'm so grateful to be working with such intelligent, motivated, and loving kids.