M Back

M back! Sorry for being away so long...YOu guys must miss me right?
Oh...and Da, sorry I didnt keep my promise.
This post is to make up for my absent
Enjoy
Hope you not get tired of reading it na.

World’s Bank Conference—03/Dec/07

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My last day at Cambokids and VI joint project—27/Dec/07

It was my last day with Veteran International as a volunteer from Cambokids Association, since Cambokids would finish it project at the end of the year. I was some kind of sad to say goodbye to those kids, because they were fun to play with and maybe because they liked me. Well, indeed, though I hadn’t spent time at VI much, those kids remembered me quite well, thanks to my nature of being friendly and outgoing :-)) (Readers, do you believe me?)

Relative Reunion at my mum’s cousin’s house—30/12/2007

It was great to see many of our relatives again, wasn’t it? In fact, at the party, I had a chance to see many of great-granda’s children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, grandnephews/nieces, great-grandchildren…etc. The list was quite long. Especially, I got to see my granduncle and grandaunt, uncles and their wife, and my many cousins from Canada. The whole evening was filled with fun, jokes, laughter’s from all of us. Having joined this reunion party made me realize that, oh preah chi mjas, my now 92-year-old great grandma had nearly a hundred of KON CHAO, which of course means that I had lots and lots of relatives. Oh and one interesting thing you might want to know is that at the table where I sat and had dinner with a bunch of my young uncle, young aunt, and young cousins was the table with the many cans of coke and beer. We, the youngsters, just kept eating and drinking until having every empty can placed completely around the so-called flat glass for moving food around the table (sorry no idea what the English calls this).

A joint party( friend’s reunion and friends’ b’days) at Huong’s flat—01/01/08

Haha…It seemed my life was pretty busy with parties those past few days. Actually, I had been very very busy on the first day of the new year 2008. From morning till evening, my schedule of that day was totally no empty space. In the morning, I helped my friends cooking, though not much help, slipped out with Longdy and Theary to buy cake for the three pretty girls whose birthday were on the SAME month, December. Actually just to make up for not having bought the presents for them as we were quite busy and BROKE. Also, I even had a chance, slipping to meet with lecturer NPD since he promised to take me to the TASK/HALO project’s office at 11. And I was also to say goodbye and gave him a farewell card as well, because he would leave for Australia to pursue his dual master’s degrees. Then bout 20mins later, here I was back at Huong’s beautiful flat and continued the party. The food was delicious since we had roast shrimps, chicks, meats and of course cans of coke—my favourite drinks. At about 4, it was time for surprising, eating or fighting to eat cake. If you had seen the video how we fighted for the cake, I believe you would think that we were some kind of poor street people who hadn’t eaten anything for weeks, geee. I’ll try to get in to youtube and attached it with this post for you, if I can.

Da’s Bro’s Wedding Party—02/01/08

I might not need to report much bout this big event since you will find detail bout the party in both Da’s and Longdy’s blog. Just to show you guys how meaningful my life is! HasHa

Stationary Support to rural Children at Phnom Da, Angkor Borei—12/01/08

Here is another piece of my community activity. With the Initiatives of Change, I and other young and old volunteers went to distribute stationary to 240 students from 4 rural primary schools in Angkor Borei, the place believed to be the start of Cambodian History. There were around of 25 volunteer, 10 of whom were foreigners, joined this trip. The road to the site was heavenly bumpy! We even got lost twice before arriving at Phnom Da in our 25-seat mini bus. Then we took another half-an-hour boat trip to Angkor Borei primary school, if I was not mistaken. In fact, I was unsuccessfully snapped the picture of the school’s gate, sorry guys. Because we got lost twice, we arrived quite late until 11. And guess what? Students had been waiting for us since 9. So we started our coming activities right away. We started with students singing our national anthem. If you were there, you would find it amazing listening to those kids singing, very fast and kind of messy (I dun mean to be negative about them as I found it new, fun and cheerful listening to their singing, believe me. Then came with short welcome speech by the village chief, school principle, Vice-President of ICA, project organizer, and last ME. It was my very first time delivering such a formal speech in front of many people. Though I only had half an hour prepared what I would be saying, I thought I did it quite well, maybe because it was in Khmer, and I was fluent with Khmer language :-)). After speeches, we distributed the stationary package to every one include teachers and villagers.

I think this trip is one of my most memorable trip I have made so far. It was my first time directly interacting with villagers in rural area. Also two things really upset, intrigue, and inspire me. Firstly, I felt both pitiful and inspiring seeing classrooms at the school. Guess what? There were only 4 rooms at that primary school, but students there ranged from grade 1 to grade 6 in both shifts. How come they learn? It was what I call double classes in a single room. Get what I mean? Well, it is operated like this. In one room and at the same time, two classes learn together. Students from one class face, let say, the north, while the others from another class face the south. Students from the two classes, but studying in the sharing room, have to take turn read lessons out loud. You might wonder why I was inspired by this. Actually, I really admire those kids, hard-working and knowledge-grapping kids. In spite of the many obstacles they are facing, they do not give up their hope of getting educated. Many of you, Cambodian, might know that villages at Angkor Borei is half-a-year dry and half-a-year flooded right? This means that schools there last bout 6 months only, whereas the normal one lasts 4 months longer. And students from faraway villages need to take boat as a mean to go to school. What overwhelmed me the most bout it was the sense of helping each other that is rarely found back in the crowded city. It was the older students who propelled and navigated the boat while the younger kids and teachers were passengers. I really like this unique scene (and even drop a small tear of joy!).

One Fabulous Week with My new 8 Mexican Friends

#3 At Veteran International again, but not as a Cambokids Volunteer—31/02/08

I got a very great chance to assist 8 Mexican friends during their stay and volunteer activities in Phnom Penh. On Jan 31, we had an activity at Veteran International to play with the kids. It was fantastic to see kids there again. And even more fantastic when they still remembered me and asked why I no longer showed up on Thursdays as before. Oh, I was very popular, see? After, filling in the colors to the computerized drawings, our Mexican fellows organized games to entertain those little kids. We really had lots and lots of fun playing and taking pictures together.

# 4 At Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum—01/Feb/08

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Note: T0 be continued..........
and Photos will be attached later