End of the rains, end of my placement

 The rainy season has finally come to an end so we no longer need to travel around like this....

 

And with the end of the rains, comes the re-opening of the schools for the new academic year.  Sadly I only had a few weeks with the schools before I finished my placement

My last school opening ceremony with two of the Korean volunteers

As of last Friday, I am now an accompanying partner, having officially finished my two years with VSO.  It suddenly seems to have gone incredibly fast and I'm feeling pretty sad about leaving Cambodia.  My last few weeks at work were mainly spent visiting the schools and tying up a few loose ends.

In July, we did a story competition with the target schools to highlight gender issues faced by many of the children in the province when accessing school.  As the schools closed early in July due to the hand and mouth disease which affected children, I didn't get a chance to hand out the prizes to the winners until this month.

The winning students (grades 2-6) of the gender story competition from Toulmonorom School.  Each winner received a small prize and a copy of the collection of stories in a colour booklet.

The children loved seeing their stories in print

I visited one of my target schools on the island opposite the town to say goodbye and was greeted by this rather muddy road.

After dragging our bikes through the mud and ending up with shoes like this, we arrived at the school to find it closed due to the Phcum Ben festival.  We then had to go all the way back along same muddy road.  It was not one of my better last days!

I modeled an English lesson for one of the teachers who had attended the Primary English for Cambodia training supported by VSO.  It was a grade 4 class (about 9 years old) and they were unbelievably lovely.  As always it has made me super excited about being back in the classroom properly next year.

The children practiced their new words using actions in groups

 One of my last trips to a school loaded down with resources.  I'm so Cambodian nowadays that I can ride my moto with extra things at the front and back!

 

Despite seeing the river every morning when we go skipping, I felt like we hadn't spent enough time next to our beautiful Mekong River.  Last week we went for a walk and caught this lovely sunset which will always be the one of the things I remember most about Kratie.