The Chhean Family

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

This is the beautiful Chhean Family. This family lives in a very small apartment in the building where Kate lived along the river. The mother who Kate name "Nanny" was the women who made me feel safe and welcome my first morning in Cambodia. I had said one year ago, we were never able to communicate in words only gestures and photos. I will never forget how her presence made me feel. She is so kind, gentle, caring, and the meaning of the word mother. Surrounding her are her beautiful children. Her son, Sopahana, next to him in the red is Socheata, and in the purple the oldest daughter Yekty. They lost their father at a very young age in the Civil War. One morning Nanny showed me pictures of their wedding when I was posting about the wedding I had seen on the side of the road the previous day.

This family has become even more special to me in the year since I have been home since we have been communicating through e-mail. Socheata has started classes at the University and is scoring high on her exams. Sopahana is taking art classes and Yekty has finished University classes and has started a new job.

On Sunday of this week, which is a year to the day that I first visited the CCH orphange, Nanny and her two daughters went to CCH. I had asked Socheata if she would do that for me. I wanted her to check on Rak Smey. I asked if she could talk with her, since due to the language difficulties and me knowing only about five or six words I was unable. I asked that they get her what she may need and that I was still thinking about her, as well as the other children. Words can not describe the feeling of elation that I have inside knowing that they are watching out for her. I do not know what it was about this 8 year old girl that warmed my heart. She has a look of kindness and warmth in her eyes that I can not describe. She never attempted to try and speak to me. Each day when I was there, she never left my side and on the last day of my visit, she alone walked me to gate to say good-bye. I know I will return to Cambodia some day and see her again, until then The Chhean Family is looking after her.




Here is "Nanny" with Socheata along with Rak Smey and another little girl living at CCH Orphange. I wonder if the smaller girl is a sibling.








Yekty is here doing Rak Smey's hair. They brought her new barrettes. Additionally they brought her chocolate cake and a "new suit".






Socheata with some of the other children. If you look there are so many of same faces as my pictures taken a year ago.





Sorry I do not know how to rotate.

Thank you Chhean Family!!!

Gifts Recieved

My package took weeks and weeks to arrive but it did! Kate took the presents to CCH Orphange along with one of her students from Northbridge School and his Mom. Inspired by what the parent saw at the Like Me's concert, she is now involved with helping the children at the orphanage.
This is Rak Smey with her new doll. The look on her face brings me such joy. She is so beautiful.

This is Lida with her gifts. I really think she likes her Justin Bieber T-shirts.


























This is Mousti, He is the 4th grade student from the Northbridge School. He is from Australia. His father works at the Cambodia Embassy. He is teaching the children about silly bands. I sent over 200 silly bands because I knew all the children could get one Here Mousti is explaining how kids trade and collect them.








That is Mousti's mom playing jump rope with the kids. From my understanding she has organized clothing drives and is visiting once a month with her son.







Special Thanks to Kate for taking these photos. A part of my heart will forever be at CCH Orphanage. The mail system in Cambodia is so unreliable. Now that Kate is no longer in Cambodia, I plan on still sending small gifts and hopefully they will get delivered from a parent or another teacher at Kate's former school.

Happy Birthday!

With Al's help we are putting together this small birthday box for a few of my special friends from CCH Orphanage. Those girls are Rak Smey and Lida and they both made a mark on my heart. We got the girls each a Justin Bieber T-shirt. Rak Smey is getting the groovy girl and Lida some Uno cards. Knowing that we can not send a large box, we then put in packs of "silly bands" for them to give out to the other children. I also put in all my printed pictures that I took of them doing the crafts. I suspect that it will take 8 to 10 weeks to arrive. I do not know that dates of their actual birthdays. The gifts will either be late or early, depending on how you look at it. In the three weeks since I have been home, a day has not gone by that I do not ponder and smile and think about how wonderful and amazing all the children are.

Happy Birthday Lida and Rak Smey!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Temples

Sorry for such a delay in my posts. When I came home life just continued with work and family, I have not made the time to gather my thoughts. I will cherish those mornings sitting in Kate's apartment in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city with only Nannie.

After a 5 and a half hour bus (van) ride through the Cambodian country side, we arrived in the the beautiful city of Siem Riep. This van drove unbelievably fast through the countryside. I captured this video with my tab. The best part was trying to communicate to our driver that Kate needed to use the rest room. He finally did stop. The other travelers in the van were not happy.

Adam our tuk tuk driver was phoned ahead from his brother in Phnom Penh and greeted us "limo" style at the bus station. Adam is a Cambodian Don Johnson. He made us laugh. He drove us to our hotel and said he would be happy to be our guide for the next day. He picked us up in the Tuk Tuk by 9 a.m. He has placed a white silk cover over the seat of the tuk tuk and filled a bucket with cold bottles of water.

We arrived first at the main gate. These statues line the rode entering into the area where the temples are located. It is like you are entering one of our state parks. There is an area where you pay to enter into the park.

View from inside the temple.



HISTORY

Angkor Wat was conceived and constructed under Suryavarman II (r. 1113—50). Angkor Wat and the complex of temples surrounding it, planned as a sepulcher and a monument to the divinity of the monarch and measuring about 1 sq mi (2.6 sq km), it is probably the largest religious structure in the world. It was built at the height of the Khmer Empire, which at the time controlled Cambodia, Laos, much of Vietnam, and a portion of Thailand.

The temple was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu (the Supreme Being, master of the past, present, and the future), and became the king’s temple and capital. In the 14^th or 15^th centuries, the temple was transformed into a Buddhist temple, the royalty and residents converted to Theravada Buddhism—but Hindu influence can still be seen throughout the temple complex. What we know of the history of Angkor Wat is derived mostly from a written account given by a Chinese ambassador to the Khmer Empire. The Khmer wrote on rendered palm leaves which do not last as does paper, so we can only examine the structure itself for the Khmer perspective.

Paraphrased from:
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9793/9793.ch01.html

We spent the day driving with Adam from temple to temple. One was more beautiful than the next. The images carved into the stonework were amazing. I am so blessed to have seen such a wonder of the world.

View down one of the many "hallways".

Siem Reap

I am back from the weekend at Siem Reap. I will post pictures of all the temples when I get home. I was unable to post from the temples. It was amazing and inspiring. Anyway, I get back on an airplane in about 8 hours. It will be another 24 hours before I am home. I will continue to write when I get home and put up some pictures. See you Soon!

History Of Cambodia

I have spend much of my time here really trying to get to know the people and understand the culture. I am honest when I tell everyone I have met has been kind and wonderful. Theirs lives are centered around family and taking care of each other.

To fully understand, Kate knew it was important to learn a huge part of the history. Mr. Phalley and Kate took me to the Toel Slang Musuem. Here I got a tour guide and went in alone. This was once a public high school which was taken over and used to torture anyone who was perceived in the way of the take over of Cambodia. Each classroom in the school was used to torture men, women and children. I am not going to post pictures, it was pretty intense.

It is estimated that approximately 2 million Cambodian citizens died during this time period.

The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the Communist Oarty of Kampuchea. They are who were the ruling political party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot.

This organization is remembered primarily for its policy of social engineering, which resulted in genocide. It's attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the deaths of thousands from treatable diseases. The Khmer Rouge forced all people to country side to live simple and controlled lives. They were forced to work in the fields and to create irrigation systems. Brutal and arbitrary executions and torture carried out by its cadres against perceived elements (intelligent and educated people) Ultimately from what I understand they tortured and executed the countries most intelligent citizens as a way of taking control. So many people I have met here lives have been changed by this. This include Mr. Phally who's father was an engineer and was killed in 1976 when Mr. Phalley was eight. Nannie's husband was killed is the civil war leading up to the Khmer Rouge. She was left with 3 children under the age of 7. Her son was 2 months old when his father was killed.

This history is a huge part of life now in Cambodia. They continue to rebuild their lives and re-educate the people. Most educated men and women were killed. For years children did not attend school because children needed to work in order for what was left of the family to eat.

Today in Cambodia the Khmer Rouge is the reason why 50% of the population is under 21. Although most children want to attend the public school, children who attend the public school here only attend half day. Older school children attend in the morning and younger children in the afternoon.

Fishing along the river.

Today I am taking the 4 hour bus ride out to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat Temples. I will take tons of pictures. We are staying in a hotel there and will be returning in time for my flight home of Sunday. I am loving this experience but am getting quite homesick. If I can get wifi I will post pictures from Angkor Wat.

Children are Children

Yesterday when I left for "work" Mr. Phalley asked me if I would like to go on a tour before going to Northbridge. I of course said. "yes, akun (thank-you). We rode by all the embassy buildings, the important monuments, the king's palace, his son's school, his neighborhood, and the bridge where the tragedy occured during the rain festival where over 300 people lost lives due to overcrowding the bridge. They were crushed. I only heard/understood less than half of what he said but it sights were beautiful.



When I arrived at school, I went quickly to work. I felt like it was a typical work day at home. I finished up three evaluations, met with one teacher for a consultation, and then my favorite part of the day, I taught a lesson in a second grade classroom. I brought the letters from my class to the second grade classroom at Northbridge. In this room are 16 second grade children from all over the world. Some are from Cambodia, two American, Costa Rica, India, Korea, and the teacher is from South Africa. The teaching assistant is from Cambodia.

When I entered, they were finishing a writing assignment of the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They were very excited to tell me all about it. The teacher introduced me and said that I had letters from USA and I would like to share them and that they would be writing back to the children in America. As you can imagine they were very excited. I told the teacher that if she needed to get something done or could use the time, that I was fine. She took me up on my offer and I had the group to myself. I brought the entire group to the carpet and explained again who I was and what we were going to do. The children then took turns telling me their names. I had eight letters and 16 children so it was perfect. I told the children to break into pairs and decide who was going to be the author and who would be the illustrator. They did this quickly. I then told them to return to the table and begin. It was fun to see them all work together and problem solve. They had many questions for me. One in particular was from a boy Erich. He is one of the children from Cambodia from a wealthy family. He asked me if the boy he was writing to from my class was rich or poor? Stunned a little by the question, because that is not typical at home to ask, I replied, actually by American standards, he is poor. Erich replied, I am wealthy and I will bring things for him tomorrow. Withing 40 minutes all the groups had finished, I had collected the letters and the teacher returned. While the children were cleaning up, I asked her about a boy named Raymond in the class. Raymond was clearly autistic. He spoke very little, only repeated phrases and spent the who time "stimming" with his matchbox car. The sweet little girl that was his partner did the work herself with no complaint. The teacher told me that she has no training in special needs and his parents do not recognize autism and that he will learn in due time. I thanked her for allowing me to teach her class and returned to Kate's office. My class is going to really love reading these letters and seeing the pictures.

A friend ask me about health care here. What I have come to understand that if you have money and have a medical issue or are having a baby you fly to Thailand where they have quality hospitals and doctors. If you do not have money there are these clinic all round. You can walk in and pay to see a doctor. I have been walking all around though and I have not seen anyone in any of them .


There are pharmacies on every corner where without prescription you can go in and buy whatever you want. The have antibiotics, pain medicine, anti-depressants, all that you want for a price. Interesting.