The after-class snack

As part of the work I'm doing for the NGO, today I taught my very first English lesson at one of the local Primary schools. At first it felt a bit intimidating, especially for someone like me without teaching experience. But in general the students behave well and pay attention, so showing some confidence and having a smile on your face is usually enough. The Cambodian education programme already includes English, but Coconut Water offers after-class lessons as additional support. Normally, we have twenty students, between seven and nine years old. They know quite a lot of vocabulary, but usually have trouble forming sentences, even simple ones. Maybe they are still too young, or maybe it's the methodology teacher's use here.

Students complete a handout. Vanna, on the background, is a social educator at Coconut Water

Two visitors joined us for a day during an English class -a couple from the Basque country travelling around South-East Asia who bumped into Coconut Water headquarters while walking around Battambang. They were taking photos and videos of the class and interviewed us for the website they have set up to tell the world about their adventures. It's really encouraging to meet such nice people with such an interest in projects like ours... and they help us spread the word, of course.

On the way back to town, we stopped at the side of the road to sample one of the most curious staples of the Cambodian cuisine: grilled country rat. It is not uncommon to find improvised barbecues displaying rats and mice for bike drivers to take quick bite along the way. It was actually really good -tastes a bit like rabbit (they are all rodents at the end of the day, right?).  These little beasts scout the rice paddies feasting on the grain, so it's no wonder that eating them has become a local tradition. Yummy!

And now the anecdote of the day -apart from somehow having lost my debit card, with is actually not that funny: one of the inconveniences of wanting to live Cambodian style is that we don't have hot water at home. So, unfortunately, cold showers have become part of our day to day. Now, talking about how washing my hair with cold water was for me the worst torture ever, I was told that in Cambodia it is common to go to the hairdresser just to wash your hair. So I thought it would be worth a dollar to give it a go and have my hair washed with hot water. Well, I didn't get any hot water, but I did get a thirty minute head and neck massage as part of the washing ritual -highly recommended! Well, it somewhat made up for the lack of hot water.