My days in da Penh is numbered. 12 more days to be exact, before I join MOH over in YG (together with about 50 million other people who are rushing into the "Golden Land" right now).
Most of my farewells have been done and my handovers are all completed efficiently - or as efficiently as I see fit. I have in fact stopped making any decisions for my business here, leaving my boys to make them. They need to learn and like an ex-boss of mine told me before, they have to swim, or they will drown. I have 2 more long sessions with my team before I leave and thereafter, they'll be almost on their own (I say almost, because I will still be in constant touch with them via email, FB, skype - whatever that works for me in YG!!).
Meanwhile, the packing is not quite finished. Ok, it actually is - for all the items that we intend to bring with us to YG. These are in fact making its way to YG as I write. A total of 4 boxes of our lives in Cambodia are now moved to YG. The thing about packing, I swear to you - you really don't realize just how much shite you have until you have to decide which ones you want, which ones you actually don't need - and why the hell do I have that??? I know, I am a known hoarder. And now that MOH had left me with the remainder of the packing, it is so tempting to pack another box for bringing over to YG. But I promised not to hoard. And I think all those electronic items and kitchen utensils could help the kids at Happy Tree with their cooking lessons :) But no way in hell I will leave Stinky behind !! That's obvious :P
I'm spending my final weeks here upping my time at Happy Tree - I'm there daily now and on the weekends, I spend two sessions with them. Mostly to spend time with them before I go, but also to achieve something out of all the teaching that I was supposed to do there. Knowing my days are numbered isn't exactly helping as I put the pressure on myself to see some results and inevitably, this pressure shifts to the poor children instead. And oh-boy, oh-boy,... why would it be at times like these that I discover that one or two of the children may have colour blindness, that they can get 1-10 in the order itself, but they cannot mix-up the numbers, so if you showed them the number '3' first, they'll say it's '1'..... and just this morning, I thought of yet another "breakthrough" idea as to how I could reach out and teach these kids using another method so that it sticks. But, I need a longer time to experiment with all the learning methods simply because aside from language difficulties, these kids also have learning disabilities due to their meds. And it seems, 12 days will fly by.
I've seen some progress in the area of the piano lessons (once again, I made one of the kids cry during lessons this morning! *slaps forehead*), the cooking classes and the English lessons and I tell myself, I should be proud of having brought them to this point. But unlike my boxes of belongings, I'm not ready to pack it up with them yet. As such, part of my handovers includes handing over my methods and my lesson plans to one of my staff who also volunteers at Happy Tree. Hopefully, he will helm this with as much heart as I have. (And give me Skype access to the children whenever he's at Happy Tree!!!). My "breakthrough" ideas will now take place via him :)
Come the 18th May, where I will be spending my last day with the kids, it would be awfully difficult for me to say bye-bye to the kids. I know I will come back to see them. I don't know when and I cannot promise them a time. They grow up so fast, the kids. Really. Their questions these days have left me dumbfounded and unable to respond, leaving an ache in my heart - "When will you leave?" | "When will you come back?" | "Will you come back this month?" | "Will you remember me?" | "Will you remember my face?" | "Will you remember my name?" |
My dear children, in all honesty, it is I who is so afraid that all of you would forget me, my name and my face.
Most of my farewells have been done and my handovers are all completed efficiently - or as efficiently as I see fit. I have in fact stopped making any decisions for my business here, leaving my boys to make them. They need to learn and like an ex-boss of mine told me before, they have to swim, or they will drown. I have 2 more long sessions with my team before I leave and thereafter, they'll be almost on their own (I say almost, because I will still be in constant touch with them via email, FB, skype - whatever that works for me in YG!!).
Meanwhile, the packing is not quite finished. Ok, it actually is - for all the items that we intend to bring with us to YG. These are in fact making its way to YG as I write. A total of 4 boxes of our lives in Cambodia are now moved to YG. The thing about packing, I swear to you - you really don't realize just how much shite you have until you have to decide which ones you want, which ones you actually don't need - and why the hell do I have that??? I know, I am a known hoarder. And now that MOH had left me with the remainder of the packing, it is so tempting to pack another box for bringing over to YG. But I promised not to hoard. And I think all those electronic items and kitchen utensils could help the kids at Happy Tree with their cooking lessons :) But no way in hell I will leave Stinky behind !! That's obvious :P
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| My bike - all prepped up for the journey to YG :) |
I'm spending my final weeks here upping my time at Happy Tree - I'm there daily now and on the weekends, I spend two sessions with them. Mostly to spend time with them before I go, but also to achieve something out of all the teaching that I was supposed to do there. Knowing my days are numbered isn't exactly helping as I put the pressure on myself to see some results and inevitably, this pressure shifts to the poor children instead. And oh-boy, oh-boy,... why would it be at times like these that I discover that one or two of the children may have colour blindness, that they can get 1-10 in the order itself, but they cannot mix-up the numbers, so if you showed them the number '3' first, they'll say it's '1'..... and just this morning, I thought of yet another "breakthrough" idea as to how I could reach out and teach these kids using another method so that it sticks. But, I need a longer time to experiment with all the learning methods simply because aside from language difficulties, these kids also have learning disabilities due to their meds. And it seems, 12 days will fly by.
I've seen some progress in the area of the piano lessons (once again, I made one of the kids cry during lessons this morning! *slaps forehead*), the cooking classes and the English lessons and I tell myself, I should be proud of having brought them to this point. But unlike my boxes of belongings, I'm not ready to pack it up with them yet. As such, part of my handovers includes handing over my methods and my lesson plans to one of my staff who also volunteers at Happy Tree. Hopefully, he will helm this with as much heart as I have. (And give me Skype access to the children whenever he's at Happy Tree!!!). My "breakthrough" ideas will now take place via him :)
Come the 18th May, where I will be spending my last day with the kids, it would be awfully difficult for me to say bye-bye to the kids. I know I will come back to see them. I don't know when and I cannot promise them a time. They grow up so fast, the kids. Really. Their questions these days have left me dumbfounded and unable to respond, leaving an ache in my heart - "When will you leave?" | "When will you come back?" | "Will you come back this month?" | "Will you remember me?" | "Will you remember my face?" | "Will you remember my name?" |
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| Srey Peuv, Yuth & Samnang |
My dear children, in all honesty, it is I who is so afraid that all of you would forget me, my name and my face.
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