Merry Christmas, everyone! On Friday, PIO had a Christmas party, and in the middle of all the kids dancing to club music and modern Khmer music, the special-occasion food, and the teachers kicking back during the lunch break, I got a strong sense of belonging. I’m already sad thinking about leaving everyone—students, staff, and teachers—in two months.

This week I’m going to post the second half of my “progress report” describing the classes I’ve taught. The first half talked about my time with Grade 4 and my ongoing semi-formal class with the teachers; this time I’ll talk about my secondary school class and my “real” class, Grade 6.

(Continue reading…)

I think I’m supposed to be posting the rest of my “progress report” on teaching here, but I’m behind on my journal as it is, and really don’t feel like trying to write out a big blog post. So instead, here’s a quick walkthrough of my house…

(Continue reading…)

I’ve had this on my list of topics for a long time now, and ever since my accident it’s actually been salient. On paper, Phnom Penh is like most cities in the world: there’s a lot of traffic, especially around rush hour, and you drive on the right. In real life, I’ve heard it described as “chaos”.

The truth, of course, is somewhere in between. My diplomatic phrase for it is “dynamically negotiated”, but…well, let’s just see how it works.

(Continue reading…)