I heart Cambodia

Hey everyone.


Time for another installment from Jim Chambeaux. My new nicname since my name is unprouncable to most of the asians we have met. Apparently, Jim Chambeaux is way easier. Anyway, things are going quite well in Siem Reap. We are staying at a clean and cheap guesthouse right down the street from the Catholic Church that we are volunteering at. Yesterday, as sarah told you, we helped bathe and feed the small children of Phnom Krom, a small village outside of Siem Reap city. It was absolute chaos and the children were so cute they even won me over. It was so fun and rewarding to do something so simple yet so important for the children living in such poverty. Cambodia is strange because 40% of the population is under the age of 18. That means a shit load of babies. They are everywhere, and Cambodian kids are somehow superhumanly cuter than any baby I have seen before. I understand why Angelina took one home. Today, we woke early again and went to another village to conduct an english lesson. i may be a damn good tutor, but put me in front of a bunch of kids who dont speak english and I have no iidea what to do. Luckily, both molly and sarah are experienced teachers of children so things went quite well. We sang old macdonald for about 31 centuries, then sarah started in on the ballet. It was so fun and the children loved it. it was interesting too because there were kids from the ages of 8 to 12 and they were not selfconcious or trying to act cool like American kids. it made the experience a lot more fun, spotaneous, and easy. Sarah taught them all how to bow and courtsey which they loved. Then it was my turn with art. We told the kids to draw a picture of something they loved and then tell us 3 or 4 sentences about it. I drew a picture of some palm trees, a guitar, a tiger, and a ca phe sua da (the iced coffee i love from vietnam). THe kids were actually great little artists and we had a lot of fun drawing and talking to them about their pictures.

Then the real fun started. A massive game of Duck, duck, goose, which we all, including Sister Louise, joined in on. It was hilarious and action packed. Lots of near misses, deaf defying elusive maneuvers, and victorious taggings, and that was only sister louise!! Seriously the woman is so limber and energetic! Hopefully I am as cool as she is when I am in my 60's. SHe has been extremely inspiring to work with and her life is incredibly interesting. She is taking us out to dinner to night to a traditional Khmer place with Khmer dancing. SHould be spectacular. Gotta go though, we leave soon and this shitty computer is driving me crazy.

LOve and peace
J

ps. i will post pics of the kids soon gotta put em on cd first.

pps. Mom, i bnought you something really cool today. Be excited!

ppps. postcards are being mailed tomorrow sorry for delay. Asia happened.