Things are looking up!

As hard as this has been for me, I am amazed at my good fortune. I have no doubt that I was blessed to be working at the best school (at least for me) in all of Cambodia. I was the first one in our whole class of 27 to get a job. The other classmates fell off their chairs in shock (well, that is what they get for thinking they are so smart, ha ha). Okay, so American Pacific University was desperate. My contract is up the last week in June. I told Hayley and she asked me - are you coming home to stay? Who knows? I am pretty sure that being in a third-world country for nine months may have cured me, but . . . . one never knows. I am hoping to go to Nepal and Tibet before coming home. Going to Viet Nam for Christmas.

I have about 10 students in the morning and about 8 in the afternoon and a full-time teacher's assistant. They seem to follow the same plan every single day, so I am slowly trying to change things because I can't see that they are learning much. I went out and finally found some crayons (at about the fifth store I went to). She had them coloring with colored pencils, which meant that it took them twice as long to get the page colored. She had been teaching them the alphabet - but in capital letters - so I told the her that I wanted to start over and start with the lower case. I hope I didn't offend her, so to make sure, I asked another teacher who blatantly told me, "Cheryl, you are the teacher. She is the assistant. You make the decisions, not her." She is very good at what she does, and she has control over the students that I am still learning, so I am very grateful to have her. I am always praising her, so I hope she will be okay with the changes. I mean - how many times can a person be forced to sing: "There Was a Farmer Who Had a Dog and Bingo was his Name-o? They sing it in assembly and then after taking attendance and then after recess and then we go through the same thing again in the afternoon. So, I taught them, "I am a Little Teapot." Each week we will work on a new one. And they sing that blankety-blank ABC song more than that.

I move into my new apartment sometime between Nov.22 and December 1st. The guy who lives there now moves out the 21st, but she said she wanted to clean it. She doesn't speak English, so I told the realtor that if she let me move in the 22nd that I would clean it. I haven't heard the verdict yet. Hotel living gets old after awhile. But get this, it has two beds in it and I am paying $10 a night. It is just as nice as the one I stayed in in Ontario, Oregon when I was there in September for $69 a night.

The apartment was a little higher than I wanted to pay. Most everyone here pays $200 to $250 a month for a one-bedroom place, and she wanted $300, so the realtor got her to consent to $280 - but she told me I couldn't use her washing machine (she would have to pay the water). I can have this laundry place do my laundry for that amount and it comes back dry and folded. It was the nicest apartment I saw and it takes about one minute and 30 seconds to walk to work; that alone will save me $2/day on a moto - and with two artificial hips, those things are hard to get on and off of. I could almost walk it, but there is this four lane highway I cannot cross by myself. It is not the distance so much but the heat and humidity would kill me.

And the kitchen is so small - you have to go outside to change your mind - but the only reason I have a kitchen anyway is because it came with the apartment. I mean - who cooks?. Not only that - there is a KFC right around the corner. The best thing is that it has a veranda to die for and you walk through a garden to get to the apartment - most everyone else walks through a cement hallway or two of three flights of stairs that look like the way to a dungeon.

More later - the heat has taken it's toll on me for now.

It's My Birthday!!

Well, it is my birthday today. Wonder what kind of trouble I can get myself into. Fat chance at my age!

I spent two days "observing" at my new school. He only told me I had to be there one day, but talk about "throwing me in the deep end of the pool." I honestly thought that I would only be teaching only English classes - but I am their full-time kindergarten teacher. Now, what in the heck do I know about that?? So, I went back another day to observe again. I would keep going back until I actually start on November 4th but the school is on holiday for their annual water festival (whatever that is), but it is a big deal here. So I will be doing a lot of studying an praying between now and then.

I cannot believe my good fortune to have been hired at American Pacific University. All of the teachers have to be native English speakers to even be interviewed. For some reason the principal hired me right away. I think it had to do with the fact that I have small grandchildren, so he knew I knew something about children,

I think he was also impressed that I raised a handicapped child as long as I did. He told me his brother also had a handicapped child and the brother told his wife that "It must be something on HER side of the family, because there is nothing like this on HIS side." I nearly threw up. Then he tells me the brother held that child once in 13 years before she died. I wanted to cry. So many times I just want to get down on my knees and thank God that I have been so blessed in so many ways.

I am still looking for an apartment and it is quite discouraging, Found one that could have worked, but by the time I made up my mind, they rented it to someone else and it really was too expensive for as small as it was. Looked at another this morning. Would be perfect if I had a roommate, but hate to spend that much money on rent by myself. I can live in the hotel for about the same money, but no kitchen and have to spend at least $2 a day getting to and from work everyday and the moto drivers never know where they are going even though they say they do.

You are not going to believe this!

So there I was the other day feeling sorry for myself and crying in my root beer (okay,my Pepsi) and wishing I could go back to my comfort zone. I am on my way to my interview and I didn't even want to go, and (I think) even hoping that I would not get the job so it would be my "lightening strike" to tell me to go home. I meet the principal. He is probably a few years younger than I am. He is Canadian and he is single. He takes Lorna and me around the school. It is brand new private facility that will only hire women who are native English speakers. (Lorna is from the UK).

I leave the interview and have the tuk-tuk driver let me off at the Russian market so I can walk the rest of the way home (about six blocks) and I cried all the way. By the time I got home, I was over the emotionality of it all. I fell asleep and when I wake up and check my e-mail - I was offered the job. I mean - who'd a thunk? The oldest in the class and the first to get a job. The school is called American Pacific University and I will be a kindergarten teacher.

Cheryl