Classes and culinary adventures! I ate a tarantula!!!

Yet another day today of frustrating classes teaching the kindergarten in Blum and Steven house; some children "get it" straight away, others just refuse to even try or do anything at all. With no translator it's impossible to get them to try - and when we do, the challenge of teaching so many children of so many ages and abilities in one small cramped space is enormous. And I am still getting bitten mercilessly by mosquitos there.

English Class is a different matter entirely. We gave out their test results, with sweets as "well done's" to everyone and three top 3 students got pocket calculators which thrilled them more than i thought possible. Here they all are, hard at work.

Geraldine and I went for a spontaneous "cheer-up" massage at lunchtime, (not to be confused with "happy finish" obv) and i felt considerably better for the afternoon class anyway.

Also, today, new volunteers started , so we were finally able to teach computer classes like I have wanted to from the start - with virtually one-on-one tutoring and teaching typing properly - teaching them to type useful letter combinations with the right fingers so that they can learn to type quickly and properly, which will be a really useful skill for them.

Then this evening a whole load of us went out to happy hour at the FCC (Foreign Correspondents club) where we drank cocktail and watched the sunset over the Mekong and the little lit up boats on the Ton le Sap lake then went on to "Friends" for dinner. This is a Jamie Oliver style endeavour, where street kids are trained as chefs to cook Gourmet dishes - many of which are really unusual... including Tarantula. This is a delicacy here in Cambodia.

As anyone who knows me is probably aware, I really REALLY am afraid of spiders. So there seemed to be some primal instinct in me to eat and vanquish my foe.


My Tarantulas were duly ordered and turned up, three of them, deep fried and arranged around a dish of sauce on the plate. And whilst others round the table actually physically gagged, I ate my spider!

The worst bit was actually picking the thing up, becuase it absolutely was a whole and very large spider (about 3 inches long!) . I broke the legs off first which tasted kind of twiglety and nicely crunchy, then I ate the belly which was a little like dryish liver or black pudding. By far the tastiest bit was the head and the area where all the legs join the body. Meaty tasting and also pleasantly crunchy. After this everyone had to try a bit!






Am a little disappointed that I didn't go earlier in the day, so I could say that I eat Tarantulas for breakfast! RAH!!!!!

(This last picture is of Freya, a fearless Aussie!)