Speaker Project and Other Updates

I think I can safely say I've been back in Cambodia for about two weeks. The weather has been the most difficult readjustment for me so far, although I do miss using the parents' espresso machine in the mornings...

After surviving the 20 odd hours in coach to get back, I ran into my friend Che at one of the hotels we frequent and so had a friend to hang out with less than an hour after getting off the plane. I stayed in Phnom Penh the next couple of days to recover from the jet lag and do some recordings for Emily and Lauren's Harry Potter audiobook project (I am proud to say that I was chosen for the role of Harry). We made friends with a somewhat-feral cat in an undisclosed location and played a little game of cat and mouse:



(Cat shown with mouse and Mira)

Although obnoxiously jetlagged, I was quite content, aided by the fact that Dave lets me use the guitar he keeps in the office, that I had a costco pack of nutella handy, and that I was about a three minute walk from a really good bread shop.


(I swear it's the little things...)

After Phnom Penh, I headed back to Srang in order to try and wrap up a speaker project and finish my well project. There's been lots of back and forth with the well company, but they've finally agreed to come check out the spot on Saturday.

I've had more luck with my speaker project. I mentioned it earlier, but just a quick recap: over the course of the school year I put together a lot of worksheets to go with various pop songs, took a bunch of other ones from past volunteers. printed them all out, put them in a notebook, and bought a speaker for one of my teachers to use in his private classes. I finally was able to meet up with Vanna (the teacher) and give him "the stuff". Also, a few days later, another teacher came by to get me to help him figure out the words to a song. The singer had a super accent and I was stumped so I had to look it up online. I heard "So please don't drink at love's bazaar" it ended up being "So please don't think my love's bizarre." I liked my version, so it goes. Oh, and the point: I gave him a memory card with all of the songs, documents, and videos on it too, so now he's got access to the same stuff that Vanna has and I know that he'll be using them in the classroom as well. Mission Accomplished!



(Special thanks to Uncle Dale and the Jones' for making this happen!)