Day 2

Bryant’s Blog

Day 2

Today was our first complete day in Battambang, and boy was it a long one.

We had to wake up at 7:30 AM to an interesting Cambodian breakfast sandwich, which was actually wuite good. From there, we discussed the schedule for the day ahead and assigned leadership lectures and English curricula to pairs of team members. Fu Han and I were talking about the “stand-up” game where two people have to sit back to back and help each other stand up. Heng and I were the only ones that could do it! Yay.

After lunch, we arrived at the main PKO office to speak with Mr. Sophia, the head director. There, we met with the directors of the school at which we would be teaching.

Cambodia. Was. So. Hot. Really. I remember sitting in the director’s office watching Shun-Ya sweat like crazy and thinking to myself “wow, these fans are not cutting it.” Afterwards, we got a quick tour of the PKO school assigned to us and met the staff, who seemed to be very receptive to having foreigners help guide them in forming a English curriculum for their students.

At first glance, the school reminded me of a farm in the rural parts of Fresno. There were stray chickens, dogs, and cows (or bulls?) running around, which is something I wasn’t used to.

Afterwards, we went on a Bamboo Train. Olivia and I were worried that it was a Bamboo raft of some sort and that we would get leeches from the river. It was actually a bamboo platform propelled by an engine on abandoned railroad tracks. We even crossed over a river—and we were high up, on thin, unkept tracks. Amazing. It turned out to be quite fun, especially when we tried to push Fu Han off the edge.

For dinner, we headed to a really authentic Cambodian restaurant that Mr. Sophia recommended. The eating places were small huts made of bamboo and hay that rested over the brown-water river/lake. It was picnic style, meaning there weren’t any tables or chairs and we just ate off the floor. I HATED this restaurant. They had this weird unique bird that was really small and that they deep fried whole. You could see it’s neck and head still. People ate the whole thing—head, bones, feet, and all. Yuck. Bugs were flying around everywhere. I think I cried inside.

Tu and her friend Chum arrived. Fun.

When we arrived at the hotel, we showered and split up into our respective teams to plan for tomorrow. We concluded the day with our very first Spotlight On, which focused on Tuan (surprise, surprise…haha). We learned some interesting stuff about our project co-leader, and Bryant asked dirty naughty questions. You go, Bryant.