Day 42: Saturday 28 November 2009 – Cooking Up a Storm.

Dad will be thrilled that my culinary repertoire now includes a range of the Sugar Palm’s specialties including their to die for Fish Amok. 

The Sugar Palm is my favourite restaurant in Siem Reap with consistently good food. Kethana Dunnet is a self titled ‘true blue Cambodian chef and guru of traditional Khmer cuisine”.  She grew up in various provinces in Cambodia before moving to New Zealand before war broke out in the 1970’s.  Settling in New Zealand, she met and married Bruce.  Meanwhile, Kethana lost her entire family, without a trace.  Victims of the Khmer Rouge. 

Kethana and Bruce returned to Phnom Penh in 2002 and in October 2003, opened the first Sugar Palm Restaurant.  Three years ago they opened the second restaurant in Siem Reap.  It’s an absolute must for anyone visiting either city.

So, with Julia and Chuck from California, I followed Kethana’s delightfully relaxed tutorage and collectively we produced this banquet. 

Fish Amok back is the new stir fry!

Day 41: Friday 27 November 2009 – Creative Geniuses.

After two days of being bedridden with a shocking flu, and a reaction to the super-strength medication I’d brought across the counter, I returned to New Hope for Fun Friday.  But before I go on, please be assured that I didn’t do a Britney and shave my head, nor the Stillnox bingeing in the night as Sam feared in a hysterical email!  I’m fine, now.

Today was a brilliant day of creativity with all of the classes.  I’m continually surprised at how creative these kids are and am thrilled to see the satisfaction and pride on their faces.  The only sad thing is that they rarely take home their works of art, rather leaving it for me as a gift or to hang in the classroom.  But then again, they don’t have any fridges or dedicated walls to display their genius.  It’s so sad. 

Day 37: Tuesday 24 November 2009 – Angels and Skeletons.

As if out to please Janet on her last day, our little monkeys behaved like absolute angels today. I’m pleased to report that after five weeks, they now no longer jump us for pencils, crayons or whatever. Rather, they sit with their hands on their heads (I know, it’s probably not ideal – but it works!) until we quietly hand them their craft accessories.

Their repertoire of songs is growing, though I have to be honest, I’m not sure if this “Wiggle” can keep up the enthusiasm of “Wheels on the Car” once Janet is gone … I should have recorded more songs with Polly and Charlie on our pre-Cambodian road trips to Inverloch.

At least today, there were no shouts for ‘Cha’ (teacher) or “moy, moy” (me or one, I can’t work it out!). Let’s hope it lasts.

Adding excitement to our Group 1 class today was our very own skeleton – Sherry, the Administration Manager, decked out in her Halloween costume. It was hysterical – but not as hysterical as one little child was when Sherry went visiting the other classes post ours!

Day 36: Monday 23 November 2009 – A Visit to the National Museum.

Today Janet and I took our class of older kids (sixteen plus year olds) together with three Khmer Teaching Assistants and the Admin Assistant (!) to the National Museum.  Piling them into the back of Kemsour’s truck, it was somewhat more manageable than my experience with the 40 girls from Gill’s class weeks ago.  

It was an incredible to watch their enthusiasm and interest, some took pages and pages of notes.  One girl, Srey Meas, was physically intimidated by the scale of Museum and for the first ten minutes, clung to Janet.  Later, another girl, Sita, took my hand and happily dragged me around from one exhibit to another.  They were so well behaved, we couldn’t help but compare them to teenagers back home.  

Day 35: Sunday 22 November 2009 – Nit neurosis.

With the passing of each day, I thank my lucky stars that another day has gone without my contracting nits, but that doesn’t stop me from obsessing.  The slightest itch on my head sends me into a frenzy, followed by five minutes of fixation, and thrice daily manic brushing of my ridiculously fast-sprouting head of dry, out-of-condition hair.   Volunteers share nit combs, tips to condition (the harsh chemical treatment is apparently a thing of the past), and sighs of relief each time we come up empty handed.   

Please, please let it stay that way! 

Day 34: Saturday 21 November 2009 – It’s all about food.

You may wonder how this clean living wholefood-obsessed vegetarian is coping in Cambodia.  Very well.  Actually, too well.  With volunteers coming and going on practically a weekly basis, there is always an occasion to celebrate and to cement new friendships .  As such, we’re out most night experimenting with the huge amount of restaurants in town, working our way through a huge menu of Khmer dishes – and $2.00 cocktails.  

Everyone’s all time favourite is Fish Amok, of which there are a number of varieties however the most outstanding is the soufflé-style version from Sugar Palm which I’ll be learning all about next weekend when I do my cooking course.  (My extremely ungrateful father is pretty excited that I may actually learn to cook something other than stir fries!). 

Way, way too often we wrap our nights with a scoop or two of Svenssons icecream – the most deliciously creamy and ultra-fattening – which we scoff as we bump and slide all over the back of our tuk tuks on the way back to Globalteer House.

The quality of the produce is however extremely poor and we’re all beginning to feel the effects of vitamin and mineral depletion.  Matched with sleep deprivation caused by coffin-style mattresses, barking dogs and hot, mosquito-infested nights, we’re sporting black bags under our eyes, head colds, and chest infections.   The topic of conversation this morning was how we’ve noticed that our multivitamins no longer give us yellow pee – they’re working overtime instead!

Can I tempt anyone? 

In case you’re wondering, I’m still very much the vegetarian, even more so after confronting on a daily basis the smells and sights of slaughtered or death row animals.