COFCO

Considering my former volunteer experiences weren't that succesfull, i was a bit scared for this one. But i think its just a matter of finding the right organisation, because I just love it this time. The kids are amazing, the principal although she doesnt speak a world of english is very nice and i really feel like i am making a difference.

So they are three volunteers teaching at the moment. One in the morning, one in the afternoon and i'm supposed to come in the evening. So i normally arrive around two-three oclock, and by then they allready went to school and are in the middle of a lesson of another volunteer. So i try to make my lessons a bit more fun. Playing games, singing songs and offcourse teaching them a bit jazzdance. I always knew it must be a good feeling teaching kids stuff, but now i know for sure. The smile you get when a kid finally gets something..

There are 30 kids, so its a bit tricky sometimes to give them all the attention they need. But so far ive been doing good i think. Cambodian names are a bit like chinese. I figured ill never be able to learn them all, so they all have nicknames now. We have Rudy, Sabrina, Jenna, Nicole, ... And everytime you go its "when you coming back, what time???" So im allready dreading the day ill have to say im leaving.. My cambodian visa expires the 30th of octobre so ill probably stay untill then.
And they are so generous! The principal amost forces me to drink coke (even if i dont drink coke) and the children suddenly dont like me anymore if u dont eat their food. The cook is even making vegetarian food for me. Can you imagine how difficult it is, to eat food in an orphanage? But they just dont take no for an answer... And everyone that visits the orphanage gets the same treatment, even though they dont want it for the same reason i dont want it. But that is accually a very good marketing strategy. No tourist will leave without giving something considering they received food and drinks. And most of the time they will give more than just the price for a coke and some food.

So far i want flyering with the kids twice. I just can't believe how much people ignore them. And i know there are a lot of street children around begging, but since i have been here, i have never ignored a child. I understand though some people do because they just dont want to realise want is happening around them considering the fact they are on a 'holiday'. But 'my' kids are orphans and are just giving out flyers. How hard is it to accept one? They are not taking ur hand and dragging you to a supermarkt to buy them milk! (happened to me several times..) No these kids just want to give the tourists a flyer and invite them to their danceshow. So even if the tourists are not interested in dancing, it is not that difficult to be polite.. Some people even ignore me, or give me a funny look when i try to explane them. Tonight another volunteer joined us, and is was happy to see it bugged him aswell. Im wondering who of us is gonna exploid first. I would love to give my honest opinion to some of the tourists. Because it is just one of the worst feelings ever, to be ignored.

So now i thaught them to say "hello, my name is.... Please read my flyer, tomorow i dance" because we had to make the tourists realise they were not only asking for money, they were inviting them for a show! When i arrived yesterday, the principal (and her translator offcourse) told me a lot of people allready called here about the show, and by the time the show started the orphanage was packed. I expect that didnt happen that often because the kids thanked me the whole night for my help and the principal started to cry by the look of all the people visiting her orphanage. So yeah that was a good feeling. :) However that maybe where twenty-five of the two hunderd people we spoke too. The rest ignored us.. So we still have a lot of work to do.