My fans are screaming for an update so here it is for the world to see. 2 weeks until I need to be out of the country according to my visa. My contract officially runs out on June 30 and it is fast approaching. I plan on leaving my home of the jungle in 12 days. My time is almost up. Although I do not yet have a flight booked out of here...
Anyway, the end brings questions to my mind like have I done enough? Will I leave an impact? Will my students forget all their English after I leave?
In about a week we have a group coming from Australia to help us build a couple new buildings in JBH. The past couple weeks we have been preparing for their arrival by getting as much of the building preparations done as we can. What that means to me is finding trees that have fallen around or area, watching someone else cut them into posts and planks and boards, hauling them closer to the new building sites and digging post holes to put those posts in. That wood is heavy! It is not easy to move the wood around the jungle. We're talking about wood posts about 20ft in length here. The jungle trails are not made for such things.
The process goes something like this:
1. Roll the small cart we have off into the jungle to one of the locations where the house posts have been left after being carved into a cylinder by a local. This is easier said than done, new trails have to be cut, going up and down hills.
2. Somehow get this post up on the cart in a balanced position. This is also easier said than done, actually all of these are so I'll stop saying it. Usually 2 of us can pick up one end of the post and the third man shoves the two-wheeled cart underneath it as far as it goes. Than that man pushes down on his end lifting the post up on the other side. Then we hold it there and the cart gets pushed further underneath. This continues in the same fashion or a slight variant until the cart is relatively balanced so the wood is easy to lift on either end. When the posts are extremely heavy it takes some creative thinking by my two fellow wood haulers Cheat and Sem. These guys are pros. Sometimes I feel like their ideas are what some adventurous teenagers would of thought of. But it works.
3. Once the wood is on the cart we need to push and pull it to the building site. Or at least close. Fortunately this is usually downhill. Once we get going with that amount of weight momentum really takes over. Our system involves two men in the back holding a rope to slow it down and one man in front to steer and keep the log level. Cheat usually goes in front because he is the quick agile one, Sem is in back with me because he is really strong. I'm also in the back, not because of my strength but because I am not quick or agile. This part is the most fun. We get going pretty fast, we dont want to slow down because there are some big bumps and small hills that we have to go up and we dont want to lose the momentum. Sometimes Cheat will hop on the wood on the front and go for a ride. The whole scene is really hilarious, Cheat and Sem are laughing non-stop.
Throughout the whole process I'm teaching English. Or they're teaching me some new khmer words. Whenever we use the new words during the day it's more laughing. I think it's a great learning process.
Yesterday we encountered a big problem. 3 of the posts had to travel down a steep hill and up the other side. The cart could not be used. I asked what the plan was. I was then told that they have an idea that they could set up a cable from one tree on this side to a tree on the other side and uses two pulleys to fly the posts across the ravine, much like one of our zip lines. Another example of the creative fun exciting solutions to the problems that these guys come up with. I was unsure about it, I think they were too but thats part of the fun, to see if it would work. We set it up and as soon as the log was airborne it took off down the ravine we watched as it came to a stop half way up the other side. I said a new khmer word I learned the day before that you say when something doesn't go as planned (I think haha) everyone laughed. Then we used everyone to help us drag it up the rest of the hill, and i mean everyone. The other two full time staff, the cook, the assistant cook, the cleaner, the leader's babysitter, everyone. It worked out, and we had a great time even though it was hard work.
I've learned a lot this year, I've made new friends. I dont know what impact I've made on the people I work with, I dont know if they'll remember all the words I've taught them. I do know that they've had an amazing impact on me, I will remember what they've done for me. I'll remember what they taught me, I'll remember their smiles as we worked together, their jokes I didn't understand but laughed anyway. I hope I'll remember it all. I know I'll remember these people.
