Roving report from Ariane

Hey everyone

Here is your roving reporter from Cambodia.  I am appalled at what I have just seen here this evening in Phnom Penh.  We were walking along the riverbank looking for bats flying round the tall trees (like last week) when Dad spotted a little stall selling snacks.  The stallholder had a little girl and I was playing with her when 2 tuk-tuk drivers (motorbikes towing carriages) came over and joked kindly about how my parents were old enough to be my grandparents!  We were all having fun when we noticed about 8 police were getting ready to take away the tuk-tuks, probably because they were parked opposite the Royal Palace and not supposed to leave them unattended.  They talked to the police in a friendly way and we tried to help by talking in our broken Khmer language but it was no use.  The police drove them away in their tuk-tuks to the police station no doubt to get a large fine from them.

Police here don't get paid a lot so it is sort of accepted that they keep traffic fines and bribes for themselves.  This happened when we were in the car that a friend was driving and she wasn't wearing a seat belt properly.  She says it is not fair because they pick on the poor people and leave the rich ones alone.  Another reason why we are lucky to live in New Zealand.

We have come back on the bus from a lovely time swimming at the Kep beach for the last 3 days and enjoying fresh fish meals.  We also had a fantastic time exploring some underground caves with bats in them.  It was hard when lots of kids wanted to be our guides so they could get a bit of extra money to help their families.

We visited a school called Hope for Happiness where teenage children pay a little extra to practice English with visiting foreigners.  Everyone wants to learn English so they can get better jobs.  We enjoyed chatting with them and it was nice to learn more about a girl's life in the country in Cambodia.  We saw everywhere how hard people work to grow rice.

I am REALLY disappointed that I have not found a decent bookshop for children's books so I am having to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone over and over and over again.

Have a good holiday all of you and I miss you.

 xxx Ariane

From Ariane

We're in Kep now.  It has lots of burnt out villas from the victims of the Khmer Rouge.  We are going swimming every day and eating fresh fish every night.  We went to the Kampot Zoo yesterday. It was terrible. The orang-utans were locked up in a small cage with nothing to play with but empty beer cans, plastic bottles and 3 broken tyres.  They had no food and no water.  I think it’s especially bad because they are such intelligent and beautiful creatures and they deserve to have enrichment in their cages. I played Tug-of-war with one of them.  Some of the animals had died because they were starved.

Lia suhn hao-y

From Ariane in Cambodia

Nathan and the "Big Nate" books

Big Nate is my favourite series, I have read three. I got the first one for my birthday but I didn’t want to read it at first. Then I came around to it and ended up really enjoying it. I thought they were so good that I said we should buy them for the school. So far we have four at school and I've been in charge of giving them out to Room 4 people.

By Nathan with help from Max and Kaine

Grace's story

Hi. My name is Grace I love horses. Recently I did a horse show called the Winter Woollies at Rough Island at the equestrian park. We were allowed to ride outside the usual boundaries and we had to walk, trot and do a little cantering.

At school we wrote stories from an animal’s point of view. My story is written from a pony’s point of view.

I’m being taken out of the horse float. I see other horses and ponies. After I get all dressed up I get taken out into the ring. JUMPS.

I start crab stepping, crab stepping. “Come on, boy.” I hear the soothing voice of Grace. I start cantering over to the first jump.

My feet leave the ground, skim the jump that’s painted in freaky colours, and stumble. I see Grace fly over my head. I stand, paralysed to the ground. I hear sobs. Oh no. I feel guilty.

On hops Grace again. I don’t buck. I think canter only.

Yay! First place.

By Grace

Getting started

We're sitting in our classroom looking at our new blog and we are keen to get contributing. Watch this space.

Ariane's market

Our family had a garage sale on Saturday 28 May. More than 30 boxes of stuff came out of my bedroom - books, clothes, toys, ornaments and much more. Mum borrowed some trestle tables from the Hira Kindergarten and we set up in front of the Wakapuaka hall. We advertised in the local newspaper and put signs up around Hira. We made $250. My mum was disappointed because we had sold less than a quarter of our original bulk.

The next day we loaded our van and drove to the Sunday market and………..Success!!! We made $681.80. We are giving $281 to the Brook Sanctuary and $400 to the Books for Cambodia Foundation.

By Ariane

Ariane has now left to go to Cambodia with her parents and when we receive emails from her, we will post them here.