It's been a whole month since the new year started. TukTuk's office is already buzzing with guests and volunteers as international travel becomes more prevalent.
Our first guest was Mr. Mee from Japan, who was interested in TukTuk and stopped by during his trip to Cambodia. He assisted in the production of a data file in Japan from a cassette tape including songs sung at preschools, as requested by an officer from the Provincial Department of Education's Early Childhood Education Office. The officer was blown away by how soon the data arrived! And what was on the cassette tape...? It proved that the songs PhanEy had written and recorded for us remained outstanding!😆
Next to Mr. Mee was Guy, who after being away for four years, returned from Scotland. (Our Volunteer Spotlight gives you the opportunity to learn more about him👇) Additionally, just last week, a group of new voluntukers came all the way from Canada. Because we have more voluntukers than we have had in a very long time, the office is going to be quite busy for a while. It will serve as an excellent inspiration for the TukStaff members who have entirely forgotten their English, as well as for Milly, who has begun using Khmer in addition to her Japanese. 😁
Adrian & Mayu & Milly 🦘👘 👶🏻
FOR THE NEXT WORKSHOP IN FEBRUARY 🤝
The entire Tukstaff is now preparing for the fifth workshop of the CLIP2 project, which is scheduled for the last week of February with the support of voluntukers. We will be training teachers on how to use computers to create teaching materials, and staff member is contributing ideas to make the workshop more useful for the teachers. We have become used to the procedure after doing four sessions last year, so we are all working together to make this one a success!
THE MOBILE LIBRARY PROJECT ALSO RESUMES 🧸
Over the past month, the storybooks and toys that were collected for the lengthy vacation last December have been repaired and replaced with new ones in preparation for the new school year, which began in January. Sarin drove a tuk-tuk and distributed the storybooks and toys to the 12 target schools. As this is the final year (to be) of the mobile library project, we hope that these resources will motivate teachers to produce their own teaching materials in the future.
KHMER OF THE MONTH
Khmer Word: Sangsar February is a month overflowing with love. The question "Mean sangsar at?" means, "Do you have a lover (sangsar)?" and is commonly asked in Cambodia. Even if the average age of a Cambodian bride has increased over the past few years, many Cambodians still appear to start families in their early twenties.
Khmer Food: Nombanhchouk Phak Lau (Braised pork organs with rice noodles) 👇
ONLINE JAPAN-CAMBODIA EXCHANGE 🗾
As we have mentioned before, we have been collaborating with Prof. Kris's class at Seinan Jo Gakuin University in Japan, and we were able to have an online discussion with the students during the last session of the semester. The students gave updates on their progress thus far, and the TukStaff provided their feedback. All of the students in this class were split up into five groups and tasked with completing projects that would benefit TukTuk. The five groups are as follows:
1. Kamishibai Creation: One of the students made drawings of "The Three Little Pigs," which is also used in Cambodian preschools while adapting it to Cambodian culture and scenery.
2. Activities Creation: They recorded a few simple games that may be started and played with minimal tools.
3. Promotion: The students used Instagram as a promotional tool to spread the word about TukTuk. One of their posts received nearly 600 views!
4. Collecting Donations: They set up collection boxes for unwanted items at strategic areas around the campus and sold them to a second-hand store. 960 stamps, 122 postcards, 43 books, and 303 CDs were collected as a result!
5. Storytelling: They visited a children's center and a primary school to read TukTuk's original books, "Happy Khmer New Year!" and "Which Job Would You Like?" After learning the names of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac in Khmer and participating in traditional Khmer New Year's games, the children at the primary school seemed more curious about the country.
After seeing the presentation with photos of the Japanese primary school, some TukStaff members could immediately sense the contrast with their own experiences in Cambodia. We had a fantastic time. We are excited to continue this exchange into the new year and beyond.
VOLUNTUKER SPOTLIGHT | GUY
Guy is a serial voluntuker and has been volunteering and fundraising for TukTuk and other charities for over 5 years. When he is not in Cambodia or Nepal (where he also volunteers regularly), he operates a secondhand bookshop to raise money for the children of Cambodia and Nepal. During his stay, he has been helping fix bicycles and tuk-tuk, preparing resources for our next teachers' workshop and many more.
If you are in Inverness in Scotland through the UK spring and summer period, take a wander into the Lochness open-air charity book shop 'LOCH NESS BOOKS CHARITY BOOK STALL'. Not only will you get a great read, but your money will go directly to charities like TukTuk 🥰
We are currently looking for volunteers with the following skillsets to help TukTuk bring educational resources to Cambodia;
Google Ads
Fundraising
If you want to get involved or know someone with skills that could help us spread positive education in Cambodia, hit that link below and say hi (we're friendly, we promise). 😉
