Tuk Talk – Dala leaves the family but new staff arrive (Issue 13)

PHOTO OF THE MONTH: Yoga Time!!!

Tuk Talk – 13th Issue

October 2018

Hi to all the TT4C supporters. How are you all? In Cambodia, we are in middle of Puchum Ban, a festival dedicated to the ancestors. During Pchum ban,  Cambodian people are supposed to go to more than 7 different temples to pay respect to their ancestors where you can also enjoy lunch. From the 8th of October, there is a holiday for the last 3 days of Pchum Ban where families come together, meaning the cities will be empty. We are hearing rumors that after Pchum Ban we will have our first boat race in Pursat for Water Festival which starts in November.  Every one is already excited for this event so hopefully the rumors are true! Don’t worry, we will let you know in the next issue what happened!

THANK YOU

Thanks to our supporters. We appreciate all your help including the monthly cash donations, books & toys, sharing our posts etc… Every action of yours allows us to continue our work. Thank you very much and once again, we appreciate & look forward to your future support.  

Latest News① Let us introduce “Rermork for Children”
As you know, we are Tuk Tuk for Children which is an Australian registered charity and we we operated through a partnership with a local NGO in Pursat. Now we have created our own locally registered charity called “Rermork for Children”.  Bong Srey, Sokha and Dala are the three directors. You are probably wondering what is “Rermork”… we were too. Apparently “rermork” is  the official Khmer word for “tuk tuk” based on the French word “remorque” which means trailer. Because we are now registered locally, we can apply for more grants and we can expand our projects easier. From now on, we are Tuk Tuk for Children + Rermork for Children but nothing will change with our work or projects.

Latest News② Dala’s graduation and Welcoming new staff

Dala, who has been a part of our TT4C family since the very beginning, graduated from us at the end of September. She has conducted all possible roles from translator, kindergarten assistant, TTT assistant, admin assistant, accountant, volunteer helper and so on.  She has been through all the TT4C history with us and she was like our daughter, looking after everyone (volunteers). She also made sure our office always had laughter, so without her the office seems a bit empty but we are very happy to see her face a new opportunity. It will be a really big step for her and we are looking forward to seeing how it helps her grow!
And we have a new family member! His name is Fy and our very first male staff member. He started mid September and has settled in very naturally! He speaks very good English and has the greatest smile that Cambodians are famous for! We are very excited to have, Sokha and Fy supporting TT4C. Sokha will be in charge of the library and Fy will be in charge of TTT and volunteers. 

Dala’s farewell and Sokha’s birthday
Everyone was in tears saying goodbye to Dala, but it’s not goodbye! See you soon!
New TT4C family member, Fy. 
Fy wil start Khmer lessons for new volunteers 🙂

Latest News③ Donations from Japan arrived!
We have received 4 big boxes of donations from Samejima Bonding Clinic from Japan! Mayu’s JICA volunteer friend asked her co-workers in the hospital to get donations and sent them all the way to Cambodia. It just so happened that the boxes had arrived in Phnom Penh but we were never notified so they were just sitting there for 2 months! But after many calls and visits, we finally get the boxes to Pursat. There are many books, musical instruments, stationary etc, which all are needed for the new school year. We are planning to use some of it this month before the kindergartens starts for Niamh’s art workshop and JICA voluntter, Keiko’s, Japanese calligraphy workshop in TTT. 
Thank you again to the Samejima Bonding Clinic from Japan!

TAKE ACTION TODAY
There are many ways you can help to support us. Of course you can donate here… for as little as $2 per month but money is not the only way to help. Did you know that just by forwarding this newsletter to your friends or by liking and sharing our facebook posts or instagram posts, you can get the message out there and help to power our “Education Tukalution”.

Report for September

Tuk Tuk Theatre(TTT)

【Visits】 
10 times, 328 children

【Movie for the month】  
Up (Part 3)
Story Telling “Colours of Cambodia”

【Highlights】

In September we did many new things. A presentation about skiing by Liza, a Yoga workshop by Niamh, a presentation about New Zealand by our new volunteer Melissa, and ukulele lessons from our special guest (we will let you know more details in next months newsletter!), and of course lots of new games!

Also we read the story titled “Colours of Cambodia” which was written and illustrated by Pil Tesdorpf, a friend who also volunteered in another organisation in Pursat. As you already know, in Cambodia reading books is not very common, especially in villages, so the children have been loving it. It has inspired us to do this more often!

Tuk Tuk Mobile Library

We only have one month left until the new school year starts! We have been very busy in September repairing all the toys and books, and translating, translating and even more translating as our number of libraries will double in November! We don’t have enough toys yet  so we are hoping to get more during our visit to Japan this month.
Also this month, we were able to find cabinets for the new classes we will be attending. We tried to find them everywhere in Cambodia but it seemed impossible, but thanks to Facebook we connected with the person who we bought the cabinets from last year! The cabinets came all the way from Thailand, we hope they enjoy their new home!

Transformation from an office to a repair shop
translation translation and more translation
New cabinets arrived from Thailand!
Miyu created a system to translate Japanese books to English from anywhere in the world!

Voluntukers in August

In September, we had 7 volunteers and they were all young ladies! It was more noisy (what’s the nice word for this?) than usual and we had a lot of fun together!

Ami’s farewell which doubled as a birthday party from her and Maly
Liza’s farewell party at Sokha’s house where she was doing a home-stay.

Miyu

Miyu took a year off from university and went to Australia for a working holiday. Just before going back to Japan, she came to volunteer with us. She was a very independent woman and everyone felt so comfortable working with her both at TT4C and DDSP! She showed great initiative and she even made a system for people in Japan to help us translate books into English! She only stayed for 3 weeks but she promised us to come back in a couple of years and she will still be a virtual volunteer 🙂 

Niamh

Niamh has come back and is staying here for 2 months this time. Because she knows everything about TT4C, she has been able to support us with a lot of admin and volunteer program stuff. Also she has come back from India and she is now a yoga instructor. She has been sharing her yoga at TTT with children and they just love it! She is also teaching Yoga and English to Cambodian staff and volunteers. She will be doing art projects with DDSP and TTT!

Melissa
Melissa is from New Zealand. She is traveling through South East Asia and she is stopping in Pursat for 5 weeks. She is very adaptable, shopping around the market without needing us to show her around! She loves teaching at DDSP and she is teaching English to our staffs’ family who are all beginner level. They love her so much! She is an outdoor instructor so she brings a lot of new games to TTT as well!
Bong Srey & Nimol
We now have 2 new Cambodian volunteers! One is our new director as well as our Mum in Pursat, Bong Srey. She comes and helps us in the afternoons. Another is Nimol, she just graduated from high school and is preparing to take an exam for teacher training school so she will be helping us for 2 months. We are busy making teaching materials for the new school year so we really appreciate their help!

Khmer for This Month

When you are in Cambodia, people will probably tell you this a lot! “ស្អាត (Saat)” means “beautiful”. Because you are not Cambodian (especially if your skin is very light), everyone will tell you that you are “Saat”. If someone says it you can say “Orkun (Thank you)” and people will fall in love with you 😉

Food for This Month
“Pumpkin Custard”

Famous Cambodian Dessert, Pumpkin Custard (Lapau Sankucha). It’s famous but somehow you don’t see it often in shops or restaurants. People often make them at home 🙂 The most important thing is the pumpkin you choose. The custard inside tastes of coconut and once you have it, it’s more than likely that you will want it again!

Things we need

We will be back in Australia in December. If you have some books or toys which are sleeping in your garage or if you know any schools or a child care centre which is renewing their toys please let us know! We are still looking for more books and toys to add to our mobile library. Please contact us for more information!
Example of the things we need (All for 3-5 years olds)

  • Picture books, Kamishibai, Big books
  • Durable Toys (blocks, wooden puzzles etc…)
  • Coloured pencils, crayons, paints etc…
We look forward to hearing from you!

【Contact】*English, Japanese and Khmer languages are available
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://tuktuk4children.org/
(You can be a monthly donater from here!)

 

Adrian Paschkow

Love everything tuk tuk related and my life in Cambodia. Not an author but don't mind spinning a yarn for the benefit of this project.
Adrian Paschkow
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About the Author

Love everything tuk tuk related and my life in Cambodia. Not an author but don’t mind spinning a yarn for the benefit of this project.

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