Goodbye and Thank You Meester Willem

The kids have been taking Dutch lessons after their regular school hours at the international school for the last 4 years. It is a fantastic program and the kids love going. Meester Willem was their teacher for the last 3 years and he is leaving the program to work for a local NGO in Cambodia. I made this photo slide show and shared it with parents at the final General Parent Meeting of the school year. It shows how great the program is, both in and outside the classroom!

10K at Angkor Wat

My friends talked me into running with them at 5:00 in the morning three days a week. Next thing I knew I was doing "long runs" on the weekend and signing up for my first 10K.
Pretty awesome feeling to cross that finish line with people cheering you on all around.
Of course the location of the run added to the magic. S&E ran the 3K Family Fun Run and are proud of their accomplishment!
C is the one who got me here. Knowing she and the rest of our running buddies are waiting for me at 5 AM helps me get up and tie those laces.
Six kids (ages 2 to 9) in a van for a five hour drive to Siem Reap? No problem, we've got movies! Did I mention that we left Phnom Penh on Saturday at noon, after the Sinterklaas celebration, drove to Siem Reap, slept, got up at 5:00, ran, ate, showered, and drove back to Phnom Penh to be home by 5:00 pm on Sunday? Impressive!

Sinterklaas in Cambodja 2010

It's all in the anticipation..... E can't wait for Sinterklaas & his Zwarte Pieten to arrive at Gasolina where the event is held.

There he is! Quite the sight for the local Cambodians too.

All the classes perform for Sinterklaas. S's class wrote a play, made puppets, recorded the voices and acted out the scenes above a screen. They are taking in the applause here.

E's class wrote a story together, illustrated it and read aloud one page each.

After all the singing, performing, and eating of speculaas, pepernoten and chocolade letter, each family is called to Sinterklaas. He had nice things to say about S&E and gave them each a gift. Dank je Sinterklaasje!

Birthday Circus

Our little girl turned six! After counting down the days for weeks, the big day arrived. Complete with streamers, gifts and those silly glasses with candles!
Treating cupcakes in the classroom. Baking by our dear cook, frosting and additional decorating by S & E. Thanks for the cool cupcake stand mama!
The Welcome to the Circus Birthday Party! Complete with tent and fanfare music.
The Ring Master (who took of his cape to cool off a little) convinced all cord dancers to walk the tightrope with a parasol in one hand, and later with a hat in the other.
Who is the strongest (wo)man? Everyone in the group stuffs one girls' shirt with balloons to create big muscles!
E had her cake and ate it too. This one was special ordered from the ngo Bloom's. It was a big hit and it took us days to finish! All in all, a pretty good birthday for a six year old!

Thanksgiving Feast 2010

Thanksgiving is such a special holiday for Americans abroad. It brings together friends and includes all nationalities and all faiths. This year we celebrated with a very dear French family and their 4 kids who also brought a Malaysian friend's daughter, and another dear American family and their daughter. They are actually responsible for this yummy turkey.
Always a teacher at heart I provided art materials and books on Thanksgiving for the small army of kids. I had hoped to see a play performed with Indians and Pilgrims after dinner but had to settle for kids who happily and loudly ran around the house together. Beauty in its own form!

Cambodian Water Festival Beach Trip

While J was is Nice, France for the ECIS conference, E and the kids traveled to the beach with another Dutch family during Water Festival. The kids are 11, 9, 8 and almost 6 and they are one happy gang. The new boogie boards added to the fun big time.
The view from the beach at the sixties style Independence Hotel in Sihanoukville. Mrs Jackie Kennedy stayed here in 1967. There is still a suite named after her.

Swim, water games and sculpture building after a rainstorm.

The gang expands as we run into other expat families from Phnom Penh!

Our friend P has the custom of building crazy sculptures on the beach at sunset. Everybody found things on the beach to add to them. After we returned home from this trip we were pretty tired. J arrived home the same evening and we all slept well that night. As I met my running group the next morning at 6 am I learned there had been a terrible stampede on the bridge to Diamond Island just a 10 minute walk from from our home. Many many people died and the country was in shock and mourning for weeks.

Gecko & Garden Pre-School Staff Field Trip to Kampot

Every year the staff from G&G goes on a field trip. Everyone brings her husband or fiancee, kids come along too. It's only one night away but months of planning, thought and discussion go into this. Last year it was the beach, this year I convinced the staff to go to Kampot and have the whole weekend planned ahead of time and contained to one simple resort on the river. It turned out to be a hugh success. They loved the kayak relay races, the buffet style lunches and dinner, and the night time boat ride to see phosphorous fish and fireflies by moonlight. S&E know the staff well by now and I think their favorite part was jumping from the porches overhanging the river. My favorite part? That a group of teachers insisted on going to the market to buy dried fish to bring home to their families. That and my one hour run through the rice fields in complete solitude. Well, me, the stray dogs and a couple of Cambodian kids on bikes.
The kayak relay races were so refreshing. These women and men love to laugh and be silly, reminding me of my parents and how they would laugh with tears streaming down their faces with friends when I was a little girl.

E jumping into the river. Over and over and over.

Fearless five year old!

S gets along well with the owners daughter M.

They are taking a plunge together here.

The staff took the bus there and back. I opted for the bus on the way there and joined my family in our car on the way home. I can only take so muck Khmer karaoke!

Our trustworthy little Rav4. Right outside Les Manguires Resort.

Cambodian countryside towards the end of the rainy season. The rice fields are a beautiful color green and stretch on for miles. Water buffalo are everywhere.

Clinton's visit to Cambodia

In early November of 2010 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Cambodia as part of a short tour through Asia. She was scheduled to address Cambodian students at a "town hall" type forum where approximately 600 students were part of a question and answer session. Jim was asked if ISPP had any high school students who would want to attend this and of course he quickly formed a group of interested students. He then asked his counselor to help him out and I insisted I could be helpful too... Well of course I just wanted to see Clinton speak. Students and chaperones had to show up at the event venue on the Mekong River about 3 hours before the start of the event. There were lots of security lines and everyone complied. Inside the room we noticed many female secret service agents / body guards which I thought was good to see. After a long wait Hillary Clinton did arrive and was all smiles and stories. She called on many female students and the occasional male. None of the ISPP students were called on unfortunately. Clinton was very inspiring to the hope full students who are part of that future of Cambodia. I thought she had some great advice to many of the female students who are still expected to be very traditional in their ways.
It is hard to see in this picture but here you can see Sophea who is one of the Cambodian teachers at my pre-school. She also attends classes at night and was asked to ask her question. She still talks about how exciting that was! She asked Clinton what inspired her.
Here are the cars outside the building ready to whisk Clinton away to meetings with the King and the prime minister of Cambodia.

The ISPP students who attended the event.

Halloween 2010

Our little friend LM came over to borrow a dress up outfit for Halloween. S&E have quite the collection to choose from and in the end LM settled on the Chick outfit that Auntie C once gave to E.

Gecko & Garden Pre-School held another Halloween Festival and this year was another hit. The teachers all dressed up to the delight of the kids. I dusted off my ladybug outfit but could not find the wings. I did find them back a few months later when I opened the Christmas storage boxes....

S&E at the giant spider web at G&G.

Getting ready for trick or treat by tuk tuk night. E is an adorable panda (made by our talented cleaner at G&G who makes costumes on the side.) The girls developed a love for panda bears after our visit to China a few months back.

And S is a cat with a kitten in her arms!

E's friend M joined us for trick or treating. Even papa dressed up!

S and her friend Y who is looking awesome!

A&S were the organizers of Trick-or Treat-By-Tuk-Tuk 2010.

It almost felt like Fall in the USA or the Netherlands with a bit of rain. E was perfectly dressed for "cool" weather.

People have gotten very creative for trick or treat crowd.

This one's a little scary!

Some people had the kids do games. E swinging over a bucket after digging through a bowl of pasta. There is always candy for everyone in the end though, even for the tuk tuk drivers!

Visit to Singapore

We traveled to Singapore during the Phum Ben Holiday in October 2010 to meet up with our friends JE and C & their kids whom we know from Cairo. We had a great time catching up with them and many other old CAC friends whom JE & C had invited for brunch. Singapore is a great city with endless things to do for everyone. We ate at great restaurants, shopped a little at some bookstores, saw several performances, went to the Singapore zoo, the Botanical Gardens, an Imax theatre, and some museums. Thank you JE & C for a fabulous time!

Checking out JE's new ipad. The kids are loving it as much as the dads.

At the apartment complex where JE & C live. The girls are dressed up and ready to go to the Esplanade Theatre downtown for the performance of Xi Gua Watermelon Girl & the Legend of the Lion by Players Theatre.

Lanterns on display at the Esplanade Theatre.

Crazy casino in the shape of a boat on top of three skyscrapers.

Singapore skyline.

Kids running around in a city park in down town while the moms are having a coffee at Starbucks! A real treat for me.

E on the Ben & Jerry's cow. Every western chain restaurant is available in Singapore.

"Scary" Halloween advertisement for an evening Halloween event at the zoo.

Water show at the Singapore Zoo complete with music and frisbee tossing.

My sweet girls and my favorite animals: the giraffes.

After lunch we spend about an hour playing in the water park at the zoo. The bucket would fill with water every 5 minutes and get dumped out. S & E loved standing under it to get drenched.

The zoo playground is incredible. S is flying down on the zip line.

Zip line high! Woohoo!

Zebras! S and E loved figuring out where we would go next on the zoo map.

The elephant show was spectacular but ended early because it started raining hard.

Merry-go-round at the zoo.

Still fun for everyone!

Flowers at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Giant mushrooms at the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden.

Awesome draw bridge in the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden.

Every park or attraction in Singapore has a water element to cool off. We just carried swimsuits and a towel everywhere we went!

Visit to the Peranakan Museum down town with C who is a real expert on the museums in Singapore.

Waiting for a taxi down town.