Australia Day with a Difference

Australia Day this year was not "just another school day" this year for me. This year it coincided with the beginning of Chinese New Year holidays here in Cambodia, and it was scheduled as a Professional Development Day for staff, while students got to start their holidays a day early.

I had offered to run a session on Positive Behaviour Support and Classroom Management for our Elementary staff, and so decided that a good way to get everyone there on time would be to offer some snacks about 20 minutes before the scheduled start time. In honour of Australia Day I went to one of the local grocery stores and stocked up for a highly unhealthy morning tea, consisting of Anzac Biscuits (freshly made last night), a fruit cake (Black & Gold brand - pretty good), three varieties of Arnott's Shapes, a tub of cream cheese drizzled with sweet chilli sauce, and a wide selection of lollies (Minties, Fantales, Jaffas, Freckles, jelly snakes, Life Savers (musk and peppermint), bananas, false teeth, black cats, Chickos, milk bottles, spearmint leaves and a few "party pack" lollies.

It worked, and a number of people enjoyed lollies they had enjoyed as children in the UK. I think the most popular item was cream cheese "dip". Others really enjoyed the fruitcake, evidenced by the fact that I didn't have a lot to bring home. A couple of people took some goodies home to share with their family after it was all over, and I'm stocked for lollies for a while.

With tummies and/or sweet teeth satisfied, I started the session by displaying the statement "Prevention is better than cure" and asked if that statement could apply to school. We had some discussion and then I presented the session that I developed as part of my uni studies last semester. One of the goals of the session was to come up with four or five positive statements or rules for the elementary school. The photos below show staff discussing their points.

First they all wrote their own four "Be ... " statements, then they paired up, then groups of four, then four groups of about 8 each. Finally I wrote all the words from all the groups on the board and we narrowed them down to five.

We still need to do some work on this, unpacking each of the statements and getting some specific statements about what they look like in different areas of the school, but we've got a starting point, and teachers can think about unpacking them at least in terms of what they look like in the classroom. From there we moved into looking at creating caring classrooms and some specific classroom management strategies, finishing off by watching a brief video where a teacher shares some simple and practical strategies.

Next on the agenda was relaunching Scholastic Book Clubs in the elementary school. I'm hoping there will be lots of excitement among the children when they get their forms after the holidays.

After that it was lunch time, which ended up being fruit and a baguette, then I did a few more jobs around school, making sure the guy dealing with work permits has all the information he needs from me, and meeting some people from one of our "sister schools" within the bigger organisation that East-West is part of.

About 4pm I decided to call it a day, and go for a walk. I'm waiting on some snail mail at the moment, so I took a walk up to the post office. Unfortunately when I arrived there at 5pm it was already closed (usually it doesn't close until 6pm). That was unexpected, since Chinese New Year isn't an official holiday here, but I guess it shouldn't have been, since already I'm noticing other businesses closing early or not open at all. Cambodians love their holidays!

By the time I got home I'd walked about 14,000 steps and climbed 50 flights of stairs today. Yes, I'd say it was definitely a different Australia Day.

Getting some exercise

Anyone who has lived in Cambodia, and more specifically, Phnom Penh, for any length of time will tell you that it's not an easy place to exercise, although there are some creative ways to do it.

For me, my preferred forms of exercise would be riding a bicycle, walking or swimming. All are doable here, but the first two are hazardous! The roads were not designed for the volume of motos, cars, SUVs, and trucks that now use them. The footpaths are also the only place to park the above mentioned motos, cars, etc, as well as being places of business. Yes, many businesses extend right across the footpaths to the street. There are now a few parks around, and one popular form of exercise I mentioned is aerobics (I wrote about it here) or Khmer dancing. It is now possible to walk quite a distance along the river front in reasonable comfort, but you've got to get there first. There are also some exercise machines there if you feel like exercising in full view of the passing population (I got caught in the act of testing one out by one of my students).Bikeways are non-existent, and cyclists are not exactly high on the totem pole when it comes to traffic.

Swimming I do a little of, but I'm not consistent with it. The other alternative is to join a gym. I've done that a couple of times, both in Australia and here in Phnom Penh, and it's OK, but you have to be really committed to going, and the decent ones are not cheap either! So what do I do? Almost two years ago I had to pay a 20% loading on my international health insurance because my BMI was over 30. Last year I managed to get it down just below that, and was determined to get it even lower, but didn't really succeed, and alas, my love of chocolate and good food has not been helpful. With just 3 months to go before the said insurance premium has to be calculated again, it was time to get serious about doing some exercise and losing those excess kilos that had crept back on.

A while ago I bought a relatively cheap exercise machine (elliptical/bicycle/stepper/twister), but I hadn't been consistent about using it. Now, with the deadline looming, I put out a plea to my Facebook friends for some help and encouragement, and determined to build a new habit. Last week I managed to average 22 minutes each day, and I did do some every day, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. This week I set a new goal of 25 minutes every day. I'm hopeful that I can do it.

The other thing that's important is that I don't just want to lose the weight for the sake of some dollars. I know the exercise is good for me in many other ways, and exercising and eating well are part of taking care of the amazing body that God has given me. Already I'm feeling some benefits, and hopefully the scales will start to show some benefits as well.

What about you? Do you find exercising a struggle? Please tell me about your exercise challenges. What helps you stay motivated? I'd love to read your comments.