As part of our lead-up to departing for Cambodia and the Cultural Awareness training we are wanting students to be involved in, our next workshop is on Monday 24th November.

We will kick this off at 4pm at the Carramar campus (exact room details will be sent out later). The workshop will be scheduled to finish at 6pm so it won’t be too long.

During this workshop, we will spend a few minutes going over where we are at as a team and what needs to happen before the end of the year and then Mrs Battersby (Teacher at Carramar) has offered to work with us to introduce you to some simple Khmer words that you will find useful to remember and use when interacting with people in Cambodia at a restaurant, market or on our job sites.

If any Duncraig students would like a lift up to Carramar after school, please have a parent/guardian email Mr Belson (dave.belson@ststephens.wa.edu.au) to give consent for you to ride in either Mr Belson’s or Miss Young’s personal car.

I’m hoping that all students can make this as it will be one of the last formal get-together’s that we have before the end of the year. Our last meeting is still planned to be at a restaurant where parents/guardians are welcome to join. More details on that later…

A reminder for those where the last trip instalment may have slipped through the cracks….

• The second instalment was due on 1st September – $500
• The third and final instalment is due on 1st December – $625

Thank you to those who have already made the payment. For those yet to make the last instalment from 1st Sep, please make this as soon as you can. Please contact Mr Belson if you are anticipating difficulty in meeting the instalment schedule.

Details on how to pay can be found in the Payments tab at the top of this page.

Thank you!!

 

Our flights have been booked and it’s only 15 weeks before we are in the air on our way to Cambodia!!!!

We will be traveling with Jetstar and going via Singapore on our way to and from Phnom Penh. Click on the Flight Itinerary tab at the top of this page for our flight details.

Not long now……:)

Hi Parents & Students,

A reminder for next Monday (18th August) where we will have our international travel workshop for the whole team. Parents are welcome to come and listen to Phil Sparrow from 6pm if they would like. One of the perks of this workshop is that we’re putting on free pizza for students!!!

Date: Monday 18th August
Time: 4:15pm – 7:00pm
Location: Carramar Campus in Charis House (See map below)

This workshop is for all students and will include the following:

• A discussion on overseas travel to a different culture
• Skype call with Troy from RAW Impact – info about the trip and our project, plus a chance to ask him any questions
• Pizza & drink for dinner (FREE)
• @ 6pm – Presentation by Phil Sparrow (an Aid and Development Consultant who spent 10 years in Afghanistan with his family). This will be an opportunity to ask questions, and parents are welcome to come and listen and be involved in this if they wish.

** There are limited seats available in staff vehicles, so if any Duncraig students would like a lift up to Carramar with either Miss Young or Mr Belson (at no expense), you’re welcome – we just need a parent/guardian to send an email to to Mr Belson (dave.belson@ststephens.wa.edu.au) and give consent before Monday.

Looking forward to catching up with you all again!!!

Charis House is outlined in red in the map below. Parking is available directly behind Charis house as indicated by the tan-coloured areas on the map.

As a team, we really want to place a priority on ensuring that you are all prepared as best you can be for not only traveling internationally, but being immersed in culture far different from ours. In support of this, we are conducting a few sessions over the next few months to prepare you and give you an insight into the culture you will be entering into.

Below is an outline of the workshops we will be running for you to get involved in so you know what’s coming up and when. These will be extremely valuable to all of us on the team and will be fun as well!

 

1 – Travelling International

Date: Monday 18th August
Time: 4:15pm – 7:00pm
Location: Carramar Campus

This workshop is for all students and will include the following:

• A discussion with some students who have just returned from Bethany to discuss how they felt going into a different culture, the challenges they faced and the things they wish they had known before they went
• Skype call with Troy from RAW Impact – info about the trip and our project, plus a chance to ask him any questions
• Pizza & drink for dinner (FREE)
• @ 6pm – Presentation by Phil Sparrow (an Aid and Development Consultant who spent 10 years in Afghanistan with his family). This will be an opportunity to ask questions, and parents are welcome to come and listen and be involved in this if they wish.

 

2 – Virtual cultural tour

Date: Monday 10th November
Time: TBA
Location: Duncraig Campus

Details to follow…

 

3 – Language and Culture

Date: Week of 24th November
Time: TBA
Location: Run at both Duncraig & Carramar campuses (on different days)

This workshop is for all students and will include the following:

• Introduction to some basic Khmer words so we can know a few phrases to be courteous and respectful to others when interacting with them.
• An introduction to some key cultural differences which will enhance our interaction with other people so that we are better educated and don’t inadvertently offend someone.

 

4 – Khmer for dinner

Date: Week of 4th December
Time: TBA
Location: Offsite at a restaurant (TBA)

This event is for all students:

• It will be one of the last catch-ups before our trip where we can go through any final preparation leading up to our departure and will chat about it over dinner at a restaurant which serves Cambodian food. This will give you an insite into what you can expect to eat in Cambodia and will be a great opportunity to have dinner as a team like we will in Cambodia every night.

 

 

This Wednesday, I’ll be depositing all the fundraised money from chocolates for those that have handed in money to us so far. By the time you read this, those who have handed money in will have an email briefly indicating how much money we have received and how much of that is the profit from the chocolates. Please check this matches what you believe it should be, and if I don’t hear back from you by Wednesday, I’ll assume all is good.

If you still have chocolates and/or monies, that’s fine as we’ll do this again later.

I’m happy to get more chocolates if people would like to sell them – I just don’t want to get too many in one go if they won’t sell. If you would like some more to sell, please get in touch and let me know how many boxes and what type of chocolates by the end of the week and we’ll get some in.

Well done everyone with your fundraising so far!!!!

We would suggest initiating contact with a doctor as soon as practical if you haven’t done so already in regards to vaccination requirements for Cambodia. Some particular vaccinations are required to be given over a period of time and you may not be able to finish the cycle if you leave it too soon before we leave.

Parents/guardians are responsible for ensuring that students are appropriately vaccinated based on advice from a doctor. As a school, we are not in a position to give such medical advice, however a number of useful links below may provide you with some information that you may wish to consider discussing with your doctor.

A doctor will generally want to know where and when you are travelling, and for our trip, you can advise them that we will be predominantly in Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap; we won’t be staying in rural areas.

The following links may be of use to you….

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) advice on health overseas http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/tips/health.html

World Health Organisation information on Cambodia
http://www.who.int/countries/khm/en/

The Travel Doctor
A guide to vaccinations to consider for Cambodia (they also based in Perth city, and are a great place to get advice and vaccinations as it is their core practice)
http://www.traveldoctor.com.au/Page/Knowledge-Hub/Destination-fact-sheets/cambodia

Thanks to everyone who could make it last night 🙂 Was awesome to catch up with everyone in the same place at the same time and find out a bit about everyone.

As a follow-up or for those who couldn’t make it, below is a quick summary of some of the things we touched on over dinner…

• Passports – Most have provided a scanned copy already; for those who have or will be getting new passports soon, can you please scan and email (or take a photo and email/message) me a copy when you can.
• Vaccinations – If you haven’t got onto finding out about vaccinations, now is a good time. I’ll do a separate post on this shortly.
• Flights – Am waiting on a revised quote but at this stage we are looking at flying Jet Star, departing around midnight on the 6th Jan. We will have a stop-over in Singapore both to and from Australia. More details to come once I’ve confirmed our booking.
• Chocolate money – If you have sold any complete boxes of chocolates, can you please bring the money in over the next few days. By the end of the week, I’ll email anyone who has handed money in, and let you know how much is profit etc and if you’re happy with the figures I’ll look at loading the amounts onto your respective EDH account early next week.
• Fundraising – We didn’t get to chat about this, but if you are still keen to do a group fundraiser, especially if you need some more money in your EDH account, then both Head of Primary School’s (Carramar and Duncraig) are keen to hear from you for a fundraiser idea that we can run at each campus. Only want to do this if enough of you want to do it, but you have the support and approval…just need your ideas and enthusiasm.
• Instalment – Still a few weeks off yet, but just to keep in the back of your mind that the next instalment deposit of $500 is due on 1st September
• DarkLight – For a bit of fun we thought we would organise a couple of games of Laser tag at DarkLight in Joondalup one Saturday night. At this stage we’re looking at around week 9 providing that there aren’t any conflicting school events on then. Will post exact date once we have worked it out and we can then book the place out. Check out their website if you haven’t been there before – http://www.darklight.com.au/
• Cultural Awareness and Travel Preparation – As a team, we really want to place a priority on ensuring that you are all prepared as best you can be for not only traveling internationally, but being immersed in culture far different from ours. In support of this, we are conducting a few sessions over the next few months to prepare you and give you an insight into the culture you will be entering into. Shortly, I will do a separate blog post regarding dates and what we will be covering.
• T-Shirt designs – Last night there were a couple of t-shirt designs floating around, and some more designs which Rowena and Kirby have been working on. These are also on the Facebook group which I believe most people were added to last night. Feel free to give your feedback on them and once there are a couple of possible options, we will decide on which one we will go with and go about getting the t-shirts printed for us…nice work so far!!

That’s about it for the time being. Will post more details soon….

/Mr Belson

 

Hey everyone!!!! Hope you all had a great term break and got a chance to chill out a bit and or do what you enjoy.

We are looking at meeting as a whole team (all 24 of us) down at Hillary’s Boat Harbour after school so all of you can meet everyone else. Thought it would be nice to have dinner altogether and have a bit of a chat about the trip. At this stage we are looking at Grill’d for dinner, however if some people don’t like or can’t eat there, then there are plenty of places to choose around there. So far the plan is….

• Date: Monday 4th August
• Time: 4pm – 6:30pm
• Where: Meet near Grill’d @ Hillary’s Boat Harbour
• Cost: There is no set cost, rather that students will need to bring money to cover the cost of their dinner. The menu can be viewed online (http://www.grilld.com.au/menu/western-australia/) which will give an indication of prices
• Getting there: As Carramar students are a little further away and it might be difficult to get down to Hillary’s by 4pm for some, Mr Kirby & myself are able to give students a lift down there after school in our own cars at no expense to anyone…however, if students wish to do this, we need for your parent or guardian to email Mr Belson (dave.belson@ststephens.wa.edu.au) and indicate that they give consent for you to travel in our private vehicle on this occasion. If any Duncraig students are stuck to get down there, the same process applies, only that Miss Young will be the one providing a lift.
• Getting home: All students will need to organise their own transport home from Hillary’s at around 6:30pm as we are unable to take people home.
• Attire: No need to wear school uniform, so feel free to bring a change of clothes to get into after school

If anyone envisages that they won’t be able to make it then or has any questions or issues, please let me know asap.

Look forward to catching up with everyone soon…

Hey everyone,

Really great to see so many of you engaging with fundraising and donations in such a big way! Absolutely awesome!! 🙂

We would like to have a brief fundraising meeting before the term break and propose having one this week.

Agenda will be:

– More chocolates are coming so if you haven’t grabbed any, here is your chance to get some before the break!
– Discuss some strategies to help those who are finding it hard to get fundraising underway. Remember we are all going as a team and it would be awesome to see people helping other during the journey. I know fundraising isn’t everyone’s strong point, but together we will nail it!
– Is there still interest in running that games evening for the primary school kids next term?
– Ideas for a whole team catch up next term where we can all go do something together as a group?

The meeting will be held in the IT office at each respective campus as that’s where the chocolates are.

Carramar – Thursday 26th @ lunch time
Duncraig – Friday 27th @ lunch time

Bring your lunch and please remind others that may not read this or who may get distracted on the day and miss it.

Thanks everyone for your commitment and work – it’s going to be so worth it in a few months…