Tourists

Yesterday was maybe the lowest day I've had so far (though things have been pretty great so it's easy to say that). Partly because nothing interesting happened, and the sessions were tough, and partly because we got to the point in the week where emotions started to run high. So when we went out in the evening for food and we got a bit lost, and ending up having to visit the same (more expensive) restaurant as on Thursday, it was enough for everyone to get a bit strung out. So the day ended with a bit more tension than previously. I don't want to leave out negatives, so I'm including this, but I didn't want to make a whole blog post about yesterday either.



Anyway... today has been far better!
Yesterday and today we had Khmer lessons with a man called Yin Dara, who makes YouTube videos about Khmer, which I only realised today I had already seen a few of! We didn't really learn much grammar but we learned many important phrases and he is a good teacher. Also Khmer grammar is much simpler than English. They have very few extra words in their sentences, and they don't bother with plurals, so if you know the pronouns, a few verbs and adjectives and nouns, you're on your way to conversational Khmer. Which is very helpful, as a lot of the Khmer do not have as good English as Channa and some of our other team members. My Samsung note of Khmer included Yes, No and My name is before I arrived, and now it is divided into 12 subheadings.


We also played one of the games I brought today, and these were some action shots I got:


Left to right, facing the camera is Votey(Tai), Zaynab, Alex and Tim, and with their backs to the camera is a girl from another community, Channa and Heng.

We still don't know for sure who our counterparts are, but we're all only getting more attached to the ones we have now.


This afternoon we also went and got our health insurance sorted, which involved my first terrifying tuk tuk ride, and a lot of fingerprints:
Zaynab, Channa and Chealy

Sokmeng, Alex and me





Besides all this... I'll finally get to why this blog is titled this way.

We were told as VSO volunteers we wouldn't be doing any sightseeing, which I was completely fine with. That wasn't why I joined the program. Today, however, we somehow got the whole afternoon off from around 2pm, so after some chilling by the hotel pool...
... Zaynab, Alex and I were upstairs when Alex's roommate, Chealy, asked if we were coming with them. We had no idea where that was, but we said yes, and after a bit of confusion discovered that our Khmer TL (team leader) and all of our female Khmer teammates were going to see an island, or a bridge, or something (we were still pretty in the dark at this point). 
We got in some more tuk tuks and on the way there we realised that one of the local sights, a handmade bamboo bridge that gets remade every year, was our destination. It cost only 50 cents (2000 riel) to visit it - very far from National Trust prices, as Alex commented.
Here are some photos from the visit:


Moch is in the foreground here

Chealy, Alex and Tai

Sokmeng in the foreground

Tai and me

Zaynab, Tai and Alex



Tai

Alex

It was so lovely! Nice to have a chilled walk around in the light when it wasn't too hot. Still at least 30 degrees, but not as intense with the sun.

We also were glad to make it back in time for another team dinner, for about a dollar each in the night market. The selfies I took are not very good, but here's one anyway as it's the best team photo I've taken so far (3 Khmer are missing as are our TLs, mainly due to tiredness):


And here's lunch and dinner today:
Yes, that's a whole fish

Suspect gray meatballs, but otherwise very good!


Congrats if you made it to the end!
Tomorrow will be tough - my first Sunday here and we have more training which I can't miss. I am going to take all the free time I have to read and listen, but it's going to be difficult. Thanks everyone for your support and prayer. I am very grateful.

Retrei susdei! Khnom keng ei-law-nee. (I sleep now)

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