Our Journey thus far

2nd December 2010

Four days have passed since we first step foot on Cambodia. It has definitely not been a very easy journey but we all persevered and will continue to persevere for the rest of the eleven days.
It is quite a typical day except for a few interesting changes and some new things that we learnt about. Today is the first day we try cooking raw meat (chicken) for dinner. It worked really well and all of us really enjoyed the chicken. In the afternoon, we also managed to prepare some popcorn (both sweet and salty) and we reached a conclusion that they are addictive!
The English group taught grade 8 and 9 students today. According to one of the members, it is the “funnest” activity till now. They had a lot of fun teaching the students and interacting with them.
The hygiene group helped to do some documentation for the school today. They interviewed the principal, an English teacher, a Science teacher, 5 students and our translator. The school teachers and principal were especially eager and willing to share their personal experience and life story. However, the students were rather shy but we still managed to get to know them better. One of the most memorable interviews was done with the science teacher. It really amazes us how he was able to improvise and use rather creative and very ingenious ways to do science experiments. For example, he extracted phenolphthalein from flowers and he used pig liver to replace manganese as the catalyst for use in a chemical reaction.
For the construction team, it is the first time they are seeing the jumbo jar built from scratch. The sun’s heat was sweltering and it was really not easy for the team.
As team ICs, we feel that the most important lesson learnt is the importance of planning. We need to not only take care of the day we are in charge, but also the day after that. It’s a fulfilling experience and we feel that the “daily IC” idea is a very good one because it gives everyone a chance to lead the team and in the process learn and discover new things and skills.
On a side note, here is an update on the “insect” problem. The girls managed put up some mosquito net and they turned out to be really effective. In the evening, lots of flies will always gather around bright sources of light. In order to avoid the flies, we lighted some candles and move them out of the house, thus attracting them out.
By Qianru and Jiahuang