Susan's Script
Last time I wrote in the newsletter I was hopeful of starting ‘normal life’ and responsibilities after Christmas. Well, recovery from Dengue is taking a lot longer than I had hoped. One of the best things about being ill and unable to go further than the local market was getting to know my neighbour really well. Up until then I had found it really hard to make a Khmer friend.
Recently I have been helping a little in the school – revision before exams and IGCSE invigilation (there were 10 subjects on offer this year, only the second year of offering IGCSEs….) and after the school holidays I hope to get back into formal language study, which I’ve missed for over 9 months.
Over the past 3 years Elspeth has had 2 Kiwi teachers here and both have got engaged. You may remember Elspeth’s very very smiley teacher who got engaged shortly after we arrived here in Cambodia. He and his wife are now back in New Zealand with one wee boy and another on the way. Elspeth’s teacher this year (see photo) is also very smiley – she is engaged to David, the Welsh school administrator. There’s a law against foreigners getting married here because many Khmer girls are ‘sold’ to foreigners in arranged marriages or for exploitation abroad. They can’t get married in England, where David’s grown up daughter lives, because of a ‘6 week’ rule. So they hope to go to Gretna Green in Scotland! (for those of you who have never heard of it, it’s a small town on the Scottish side of the border where young couples used to elope to).