I’ve gone back to school, and a lot has happened since this time last year. Anjali House has had a paint job, a bit of a renovation which includes a library, new bathrooms for the kids, an office for the director. The program has expanded to include the oversight of the kids who have graduated from the Young Adults Program, placing them in their own house, finding them jobs and places in university. And I found that my role has changed a bit as well. Last year, I had two classes, each under two hours long, for a one-week workshop. This year, I have all the Young Adults in one group, and I’ve been meeting with them for a three hour session in the morning — there’s several breaks, and a stretching session. The heat has increased each day, and yet the kids still buckle down and get on with the work. Throughout the year, the kids have participated in three other Writing Workshops, led by their on-site teachers and supervised by me. It’s made a difference. Their English is improving, but more importantly, their confidence is growing, as is their ability to think outside of their lives among the temple villages. So now, we are joining forces with a group of teenagers in a school in Tasmania, and together they are watching and responding to a rather incredible film called Dancing Across Borders. This is a story of a local Siem Reap boy who was noticed as a teenage Apsara (traditional) dancer by an American woman, and who then took the incredible leap to go to America and train to be a ballet dancer. The film is very honest and very moving, and we thought it would be a perfect vehicle for both groups of kids to examine their conceptions of success. The results will be poems, response papers where they articulate their own personal ideas, and interviews done by videotape of each group’s reactions. This is an amazing opportunity for these Cambodian kids to be able to have real interaction with kids their own age living in the privileged environment of a Tasmanian private high school. There is much to be done, so this year my workshop will last two weeks, and culminate in another publication and, of course, another launch party.

So that happens in the morning. In the afternoon after an hour-and-a -half break for lunch, I am also meeting with a group of younger teenagers and leading them through their first attempt at the Workshop, slightly slower and more low-key, but again, culminating in their own English written work within a magazine.  For me, it is making for long, strenuous days, especially in the incredible near 100 degrees (that’s Fahrenheit. I don’t even know how to say that in Celsius). Thankfully, I downloaded a bunch of easy-to-watch tv shows before I came over. After a dinner at one of the zillion restaurants of varying goodness within the area of my guest house, all I can do is lie under the fan and watch silliness….oh, and write to you.

Here are some photos of Anjali House as it looks today. Their child protection rules wouldn’t allow me to include any kids in the photos — and rightly so — but believe me, they were there, running around and laughing despite the heat.

Anjali House from outside

a classroom

a classroom

bicycles by the play area

The “cafeteria”

Inside the front hall