Palmera Projects
The Arrival
Posted on Thursday, Dec 24 2009
So the program begins, after I have been here for three days looking around it was arriving day for the rest of the group.
The meeting place was Blue Pumpkin on Hospital Street in the middle of Siem Reap at 3:30, Dilan my room mate and I arrived first followed by the Palmera Projects organisers Laura, Rhamya, and Narmatha, then the final 4 volunteers arrived, Caroline, Ada, Thomas and Anna.
The excitement was there to finally get everyone in the one spot a chance and for all of us to finally meet. After a quick debrief on the days ahead and plans for dinner that night everyone went for the standard Cambodian afternoon nap followed by a traditional Cambodian massage.
Dinner with the teachers:
At 7:30 we all met on Pub Street to meet the teachers who we were going to work with over the next 14 days. We made our way up to the temple restaurant for a traditional banquette and after a few minutes the conversation started to flow with the teachers, this dinner gave us the opportunity to see how the teachers perceive their job and to hear about the problems that exist in Cambodia.While dinner was being served we were also able to view some traditional Khmer dancing and thanks to the teachers who helped us understand the stories behind each dance.
As we said goodbye to the teachers the group of six volunteers eager to get to know each other, went out for a quiet drink of frozen margaritas at the Mexican restaurant opposite our hotel, La Viva. We went to bed very early for the first night with a mixture of jet lag and excitement about our journey to green gecko, a rural school and finally to VDCA tomorrow.
Karthik