Dear OACS family
To my dearest kids at OACS,
Today was the first day of school at SALT School, that's the school where I am helping teach the teachers. The students were all nervous and excited and the teachers busy and tired. It reminded me of all our first days of school together. In fact, it made me think about each and everyone of you. So I decided to write you all a letter to say hello. So here we go, HELLO!!!!
I have now been in Cambodia for over a month! Which means you have all been in school for over a month! I left America the same week you started school! My flight over here was very long. I left San Francisco at a little past midnight on a Tuesday and I arrived in Cambodia on Thursday afternoon! Two very long plane rides!!
I live in the capital city of Cambodia called Phnom Penh (the h's are not really pronounced so it sounds more like Pnom Pen). It is a very busy city! The streets are almost always busy during the day but at night it gets quiet again. I live in an apartment on the second floor and have to take the stairs up because we don't have an elevator! My neighbors are from New Zealand and they also work at RAW Impact with me. We visit each other all the time. I also have friends who live a building over and others who live around the block and even more friends who live just a few blocks away, across Stinky River. . . we call it that because. . . well it's STINKY!!!! Sometimes when it rains a lot the river overflows!! EWWWW!!!!!
On some days I go to an office to work with other RAW Impact staff members. (they still have the handwriting boarder sheets I brought to give them last year during Spring Break! They love them) When I am there I check my email and reply to messages, I have meetings about ideas for Educate, I meet with the director and the principals of the school, I look for information about ideas for helping teachers in Cambodia on the internet and I sit in a chair for a long time. It's very hard for me to sit in a chair all day!! We don't even get recess! But I do get an hour lunch break. Sometimes for lunch I walk to my favorite restaurant where I order veggies and noodles and watch Japanese soap operas dubbed over into Khmer (that's the language they speak in Cambodia). Other days I ride my green bicycle, Gertie the Slug, home to eat lunch.
I get around the city on my green bicycle (or as they call it in Australia, my green push bike). I LOVE my Gertie the Slug! It has a basket and basket cover, a light for when I ride at night and a place to put things on the back of my bike. It's nice to ride here because there are no hills! The traffic goes slow enough that I can get around easily. When I'm not at the office I'm usually out at Tus Kor village where SALT School is. To get there I ride a moped bicycle. I have to drive to the Mekong river and take a ferry across and then ride on a dirt road that sometimes has big holes in it that I must go around!
When I am out in the village at the school my job is to observe and help the principal. Some days I teach English to the teachers so they can speak it better and learn new ways of teaching things by watching me. Sometime we talk about lesson plans and how to make them or we make a craft that they can make in their classroom. Right now there are 5 teachers. The classes are pre Kindergarten, Kindergarten, First grade, English 1 and 2. The students go half a day to our school and half a day to public school. They like our school very much. Just like you like OACS very much!
Something else exciting that I get to do is help when big groups of high school, university, businesses or churches come over to run a mission trip. There was a group of Sophomores from Perth, Australia that were just here. I got to pick them up from the airport and help them get around Cambodia! It was so much fun! We all helped to build bamboo homes people who needed a place to live, dig and fenced in new gardens for people who needed a way to provide their own food and we even got to travel to see the really REALLY old temples called Ankor Wat, Bayon and Ta Promh. They were very cool!!
My days here are very busy! When I am free I like to go to the markets to buy my vegetables, visit my friends who are the cousins of Ra, the owner of Judy's Donuts, ride my bike, watch tv and read. On Saturday I ride my bike 5 miles to go to church on the other side of the city. There I go to a church very similar to the one in Oakhurst! We sing songs in English AND in Khmer. The sermon is even in both languages! I do miss Pastor Daniel's sermons though! I have lots of new friends at church and we visit together on Saturday afternoons. One of my friends even knows Pastor Daniel and Pastor Jenner because he went to Andrews University with them and he is also from California!
I am having a lot of adventures! I am learning so many new things. I am meeting so many wonderful people. But I will always hold each and everyone of you close to my heart. I think and pray for you often. I miss our recess times of playing Bird Alert, I miss our worships in the morning, I miss learning with you and mostly I miss your hugs and smiles. Please give my love to your families, Ms Sommerville, Miss Lizzy and Mrs. Pleitez.
Know that God is so proud of each of you as am I and remember Jesus will always be ready to help when you ask for it. I love you!
Love,
Miss Sonya
PS please feel free to ask me questions and I will write back the answers!
Today was the first day of school at SALT School, that's the school where I am helping teach the teachers. The students were all nervous and excited and the teachers busy and tired. It reminded me of all our first days of school together. In fact, it made me think about each and everyone of you. So I decided to write you all a letter to say hello. So here we go, HELLO!!!!
I have now been in Cambodia for over a month! Which means you have all been in school for over a month! I left America the same week you started school! My flight over here was very long. I left San Francisco at a little past midnight on a Tuesday and I arrived in Cambodia on Thursday afternoon! Two very long plane rides!!
I live in the capital city of Cambodia called Phnom Penh (the h's are not really pronounced so it sounds more like Pnom Pen). It is a very busy city! The streets are almost always busy during the day but at night it gets quiet again. I live in an apartment on the second floor and have to take the stairs up because we don't have an elevator! My neighbors are from New Zealand and they also work at RAW Impact with me. We visit each other all the time. I also have friends who live a building over and others who live around the block and even more friends who live just a few blocks away, across Stinky River. . . we call it that because. . . well it's STINKY!!!! Sometimes when it rains a lot the river overflows!! EWWWW!!!!!
On some days I go to an office to work with other RAW Impact staff members. (they still have the handwriting boarder sheets I brought to give them last year during Spring Break! They love them) When I am there I check my email and reply to messages, I have meetings about ideas for Educate, I meet with the director and the principals of the school, I look for information about ideas for helping teachers in Cambodia on the internet and I sit in a chair for a long time. It's very hard for me to sit in a chair all day!! We don't even get recess! But I do get an hour lunch break. Sometimes for lunch I walk to my favorite restaurant where I order veggies and noodles and watch Japanese soap operas dubbed over into Khmer (that's the language they speak in Cambodia). Other days I ride my green bicycle, Gertie the Slug, home to eat lunch.
I get around the city on my green bicycle (or as they call it in Australia, my green push bike). I LOVE my Gertie the Slug! It has a basket and basket cover, a light for when I ride at night and a place to put things on the back of my bike. It's nice to ride here because there are no hills! The traffic goes slow enough that I can get around easily. When I'm not at the office I'm usually out at Tus Kor village where SALT School is. To get there I ride a moped bicycle. I have to drive to the Mekong river and take a ferry across and then ride on a dirt road that sometimes has big holes in it that I must go around!
When I am out in the village at the school my job is to observe and help the principal. Some days I teach English to the teachers so they can speak it better and learn new ways of teaching things by watching me. Sometime we talk about lesson plans and how to make them or we make a craft that they can make in their classroom. Right now there are 5 teachers. The classes are pre Kindergarten, Kindergarten, First grade, English 1 and 2. The students go half a day to our school and half a day to public school. They like our school very much. Just like you like OACS very much!
Something else exciting that I get to do is help when big groups of high school, university, businesses or churches come over to run a mission trip. There was a group of Sophomores from Perth, Australia that were just here. I got to pick them up from the airport and help them get around Cambodia! It was so much fun! We all helped to build bamboo homes people who needed a place to live, dig and fenced in new gardens for people who needed a way to provide their own food and we even got to travel to see the really REALLY old temples called Ankor Wat, Bayon and Ta Promh. They were very cool!!
My days here are very busy! When I am free I like to go to the markets to buy my vegetables, visit my friends who are the cousins of Ra, the owner of Judy's Donuts, ride my bike, watch tv and read. On Saturday I ride my bike 5 miles to go to church on the other side of the city. There I go to a church very similar to the one in Oakhurst! We sing songs in English AND in Khmer. The sermon is even in both languages! I do miss Pastor Daniel's sermons though! I have lots of new friends at church and we visit together on Saturday afternoons. One of my friends even knows Pastor Daniel and Pastor Jenner because he went to Andrews University with them and he is also from California!
I am having a lot of adventures! I am learning so many new things. I am meeting so many wonderful people. But I will always hold each and everyone of you close to my heart. I think and pray for you often. I miss our recess times of playing Bird Alert, I miss our worships in the morning, I miss learning with you and mostly I miss your hugs and smiles. Please give my love to your families, Ms Sommerville, Miss Lizzy and Mrs. Pleitez.
Know that God is so proud of each of you as am I and remember Jesus will always be ready to help when you ask for it. I love you!
Love,
Miss Sonya
PS please feel free to ask me questions and I will write back the answers!
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| I got to ride back from the village in the rain!! I was very wet. |
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| First day of school assembly! |
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| A donut and my California mug that remind me of you all. |
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| Decorations from the most recent holiday, Pchum Ben. |
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| Me in front of one of the cool trees that is overtaking the very old temples called Ta Promh. |
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| A tree and an old temple wall. |
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| More tree and temple. They were my favorite! |
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| Bayon temple. |
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| Angkor Wat |
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| I helped make food for the groups. It was yummy stir fry! |
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| This is a bathroom out in the village. The toilet doesn't have a seat, you squat over it! |
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| PUPPIES!! They were asleep on someones muddy shoes. |
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| One of my little friends in the village. We play soccer together. |
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| There was a lot of mud on the road when I drove the truck! |
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| There are lots of cows too! |
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| My green bike, named Gertie the Slug :) |
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