Exam Celebration

On Sunday I went to Sihanoukville with my friends to celebrate the end of the Grade 12 examination, which is the Final Examination for high school. If we pass this we can go to University. That is our dream.

There were 29 people, boys and girls. Not all of them were studying Grade 12, a lot of them were just friends, but we made a big party to go to Sihanoukville, and we rented a bus. At Sihanoukville we stayed at Sunday Guesthouse. There were eight people sharing in my room, all boys, and all the girls in their own room. After we put our stuff in the room, we went to have some lunch at Psar Leur market, and then came back to the guesthouse to get our clothes for swimming.

We went to Ochheuteal beach for swimming and playing football, and some of us playing cards at a table beside the sand. In the evening we came back there again and we had some drinks and food like crab and fish and baby squid, and playing with fireworks and making a bonfire out of driftwood on the sand and sitting talking and relaxing --- but no playing music, because no one in our group can play guitar. I have a guitar but I don’t know how to play it.

And we were sitting and talking about how we feel after the exam and what subject we’re going to study at University. Some of my friends said they won’t study any more, but they’ll stop and find a job because University is very expensive. My friend Riya said he’s not sure yet what he’ll do, maybe he’ll keep working for his boss at the computer shop. It was very nice to talk on the beach, under the stars, and listening to the waves.

In the morning we went to Kbal Chay, which is a waterfall. We went swimming there, taking photos, buying souvenirs, and then we went to have lunch at Ream National Park. There is a very nice view there, with the mountains and the beach close to each other. It’s very beautiful, but the food is expensive. Then we went back to the guesthouse to rest then in the evening we went back to Ocheuteal Beach to have some beer and some food again and we got very drunk that night. The boys all got very drunk anyway, but the girls they had their own circle, and the boys they had their own circle, so we are all friends together.

Next morning got up extra early and drove to a different beach to see the sunrise, because this is the day we have to go back to Phnom Penh and we want to have as much time as possible at Sihanoukville. We didn’t go swimming, just taking photos and buying some souvenirs. On the bus on the way back to Phnom Penh my friends were all talking about how if we pass we’ll go back to Sihanoukville again, and next time we’ll make a really big party, stay longer, and have more fun.

The results of the exam will come out this week!.

06:02 PM ICT Permalink |

Raining Football

Last Sunday I went to my mom’s house close to Phnom Penh Airport . Most of the time I go there only with my friend Riya, but this time I went with a lot of friends, because we planned to go to the countryside together. First we were going to go to Oudong, but we couldn’t because of the money problem, and also I think it’s not good if we have to drive back far, so we decided to go and to play football with my other friends at my mom’s home in my village.

We paid 10,000 riel each, which is just $2.50, and from all of them I got 120,000 riel. So I got $30. I spent $15 for the beer and ice, and with the money left I tried to buy a duck for lunch, but it was too expensive and I’m not very good at bargaining, so I give the rest of the money and another $5 to mom to get the food.

She got a big fish and three 3kg of oysters, and some pork. We were really sorry because none of us know how to cook at all, so it took my mom about one hour to do the cooking. While she was doing the cooking my friends and I were sitting and talking. I looked at my mom I really felt pity for her because I just come to visit her one time per week but I let her do a lot of stuff for me and my friends.

After our party we all were going to play football, but we saw the volleyball court there so we started to play volleyball first and then the rain started to come down. We played under the rain for almost half an hour. Then some foreign teenagers came to ask us to play also. They looked the same age as us. But we hadn’t finished our game so we asked them to wait and they waited for us until we finished. I was really wondering where they come from, but in my mind I already thought that they were from the church near my village.

I talked to one guy who is those foreigners’ friend to find where they come from and to invite them for the football competition. He told me they all come from Australia and they come to my village with an organization from their school.

The football field was completely wet from the rain so it was a bit hard to play but it was really fun and also good to play with a foreign team like that. It was really an exiting and new experience for us. The score was 2-all and we hadn’t finished the game yet when one older guy in their team (maybe their teacher) told them to stop, because there was lightning. They seemed like they would still liked to play with us again and we feel like that too.

Finally we just made a new competition between my friends and some friends in my village who aren’t scared of the lightning. At about 5 o’clock we rode back home and we all talked. I think it was really a nice day today.

12:06 PM ICT Permalink |

Crazy Driver

On Wednesday at about 8 p.m., after my English class, three friends and I rode two motorbikes along Norodom Boulevard. There was Fou with Hok on one bike, and me with Pearom on the other one. We were on the way to Sovanna Super Market just to pick up Pearom’s older sister from her work.

There was a red light on the corner of Norodom Blvd. and Monivong Blvd., so we stopped for it. There was one guy there, he was riding a Honda Cup motorbike, but he was riding badly and acting strange. He tried to go even though the light was still red, and he hit an old lady’s bike in front of him. When the lady looked at him, he just made a loud noise and looked back to the lady, and he also looked at me and Pearom too. I was a bit angry because I think he is very rude. Pearom asked me, “What’s wrong with that guy?” I told him I don’t know! I think he just wanted to scare that lady and everyone around us. But we both thought by the way he did it, he is not like a drunken man. I think he looked like he was more stoned by drugs.

After the red light went off, he rode forward but kept looking back at us. It really made me and Pearom angry. Then he turned left, I turned left too, Hok and Fou were still in the traffic. The crazy guy was still looking at me and Pearom. Then I turned right to get close to the sidewalk, and then that guy rode straight to us then shouted, “Why you look at me?” I hadn’t said anything yet, but Pearom just jumped off the bike and punched him and tried to knock him down. I got off the bike too and going to help Pearom but that guy just dropped his bike and ran into a restaurant near there. Pearom shouted to me: “Sochiet get on the bike, hurry up!” We knew that guy was going to get some weapon.

Hok and Fou were there looking at us, Pearom jumped on their bike and we left. First we thought that the stranger was not going to come, but unbelievable, he was just about 2 or 3 meters behind us, and he shouted very loud “Don’t run! Thief! Thief” and pointing something at me. We all really felt scared because if the crowd helped him to catch us, it might be very dangerous. We weren’t scared of him but we were scared of the crowd. We knew that we weren’t thieves, but that situation is not the place to tell the truth. So the best idea for us is: Run! Run! Run!

I had nobody with me on my bike so was not hard for me to escape, but I was worried for my friends a lot, because I really don’t know exactly what this guy has in his hand. And I thought, if I hear a shot, some of my friends will be injured. But it’s really lucky, the guy’s bike was slower than our bikes and there was no shooting and we all get away. I feel so happy that all my friends are okay!

06:06 PM ICT Permalink |

Birthday at KFC

Two days ago my god-sister Parath called me and invited me to her younger brother’s birthday. His name is Dom, and it was his 12th birthday. We call him A-Dom, because in Cambodian language we call children names like that. I know him very well, like his sister too. I didn’t have money to buy a present for him, but his sister said I can buy the present later; she just needed me to go to the party.

The party was at KFC: Kentucky Fried Chicken. When I got there, there were about ten people already, and all of them I knew. The party wasn’t that happy, because it’s like we were going for lunch; there was no cake, and no presents for the little boy (except from his sister) because we all didn’t have money. Parath even paid for all our food.

This was my first time at KFC, so it was all new to me. We all had fried chicken, with Pepsi-Twist. I didn’t really like the fried chicken much because it was really dry, and I don’t like fast food anyway. After KFC, Parath took us to a karaoke place to try our voices. I sang one song, and then all my friends sang different songs. It was fun there. We stayed there almost two hours, and Parath paid for that also. Parath came to me and asked me; “Brother, why are you very quiet?” And I told her I was ok, it was a lot of fun. But actually I was embarrassed because I didn’t have anything for her younger brother for his birthday. And then she whispered; “Brother, I’m getting poor today, because I spent almost all my money.” And I just smiled at her, because I knew she understood. Then she just tapped my shoulder.

10:10 AM ICT Permalink |

Big Bikes … and chick magnets

Sometimes when me and my friends are driving around town we always imagine that we a big bike for each of us we will drive all around Cambodia . Especially we would go to Sihanoukville and Siem Reap, because these two provinces are our favorite places to have a holiday; even though to drive from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville would be very far. But if we have a BIG bike for each of us we might DO this!

Me and my friends are really envious of one group who has six people and they drive six big bikes every evening at Hun Sen Park. And their bikes are all different. One is a Honda SL, one is XR, one is AX, and the rest are maybe Baja, but I’m not sure. Every time they drive past it makes a loud powerful noise and we feel very envious.

To have the big bike like we need to have good salaries too, because it needs a lot of petrol, and to fix one is very expensive. It’s really hopeless for my wish to come true. Just imagination. But when we talk about this, we have fun.

So, my friend Pearom has a godfather who has a big bike he bought for $2,800. We always try to borrow his bike to drive around, and sometimes we have luck and he says yes, and sometimes we have no luck and he says no.

It’s very strange that most of the girls in Cambodia don’t like big bikes. They like automatic gear bikes, like the Honda Icon. That’s a real chick-magnet here in Phnom Penh, specially the 2008 model. And other ones are the Honda Air Black, Honda Click, and Suzuki Step. These are the automatic gears that the girls like.

These are pictures I took of Pearom’s godfather’s bike one time when we were lucky and he said yes. These are pictures of Sochiet, Fou, and Chiroth, on the bike, the one and same bike, in front of Chiroth’s house. And no chicks, because this bike is NOT a chick-magnet. Boys like it, we like it, but not chicks.

10:00 AM ICT Permalink |

Khmer New Year Memories

On the second day our Khmer New Year holiday, at about 7 a.m., we went to the beach again to see the view with the sunrise in Sihanoukville. Everything there looked really beautiful and fresh. After walking along for almost one hour we tried to get some vehicles for riding around. First, we thought we had to hire a tuk-tuk or a motorbike taxi to go around, but one of my friends has relatives there so he borrowed two bikes from them. Also we found out that one of our friends in Phnom Penh came to work in Sihanoukville. His name is Soy. So, we called Soy to find out if he would like to join our party. And the answer was; yes; he also missed us. Everything seemed going very well because Soy came with his bike too, then we had three motorbikes for seven people, so we were really happy.

We went to have breakfast at a place close to Psar Lue (High Market). They had many different types of food, so my friends and I had many choices too. Two of my friends don’t like to eat vegetables. And also we bought some stuff cheap like soap, shampoo, and toothpaste.

Soy took us around town and to his place, and then we went to Ream National Park. The beach in Ream National Park has a very beautiful view because the mountains and the sea are close to each other. Also, along the beach there are many huts where we can get some food and soft drinks. My friends Hok and Pea like to take photos with different styles and different views. My other friends and I had some food and drink, lying and resting.

In the evening we went to Ochertual Beach again because there was a concert there, called Randonal Party. It was made by a wine company, and to join that concert or party you had to pay money. But my friends and I did not have enough money so we just went to drink at the old place. That night we were very happy because there a lot of people.

11:26 AM ICT Permalink |

Kompong Cham

My friend Peah invited five of us to Kompong Cham for the birthday ceremony of his grandmother. She is about 74, and he wanted some company at the ceremony because otherwise everyone there is like 74 years old. So we went on our motorbikes.

On the first night I was drinking with Peah's relatives and I got very drunk and I wanted to sleep. But his brother said; “I have to show you what my homeland has.” So he took everybody to the bridge over the Mekong. This is a really big bridge and long, maybe one and a half kilometers long, I'm not sure. But it goes up up up, like a hill, and then down down down on the other side. We just drove over and came right back because this was nighttime and very dark, and most of my friends and I don't like the ghosts and the robbers. So we went back to where there were many people selling fruit-shakes and soft drinks and bread with pate, and we had fruit-shakes and rode around Kompong Cham and came back to drink again until I was very very drunk. And I don't know what time I went to sleep.

In the morning the Cambodian music for the birthday ceremony started. It was four o'clock in the morning and still dark, and me and my friends we still wanted to sleep, so we just tried to sleep. But the music kept going and at six o'clock we all went to the ceremony to see what they were doing. I saw three monks praying for Peah's grandmother and some old people sitting. I didn’t want to go in there because it's not like a teenager’s birthday and it looked very different to me and my friends. So we just took our motorbikes and drove around to find some place for breakfast.

We had breakfast and we sat by the river and watched the people and after a while Peah took us to see Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei, which are two hills that are famous throughout all Cambodia. We got lost because Peah hadn't been there for six years, but we found some pretty girls and asked them the way. When we got there we drank Red Bull and looked for monkeys and took some photos and fed the monkeys. There's a temple on top of Phnom Srei and you can see all over Kompong Cham almost. At about 2 o'clock we went back to Preah's house and had a shower and about 5 o'clock we went to the party, because the ceremony with the monks was finished by now. I drank again, and by this time I knew all Peah's relatives, and they all liked to drink with me and my friends. And there was a lot of food and we all had a good time. I like Kompong Cham but not as much as Phnom Penh.

11:38 AM ICT Permalink |

Khmer New Year in Sihanoukville

On Khmer New Year in mid-April, my friends and I took a bus to Sihanoukville. We stayed at the Sunday Guesthouse, very close to Ocheteul Beach. It's a good place to stay because we don't have our motorbikes with us and we could walk to the beach.

On the first day we walked to the beach and took photos. We walked along and watched all the people, especially all the girls, and bought BBQ prawns from the vendors. That evening we went looking for a place where we could relax and drink beer. But God, Cambodian places are more expensive than Western places now! So, we decided to go to a Western place on the beach. We were the only Cambodians there, I think other Cambodians think Western places are very expensive, but I could read the sign in English out the front and I could see that it was cheaper than the Cambodian place. At the Western place one glass of beer costs only 50 cents, and the table costs nothing (in the Cambodian place you have to pay for the table also), and the food is very cheap. The Western customers were very happy to see us there; some of them came to shake my hand and to wish us Happy New Year. They said they were very surprised that I could speak good English, and I was very surprised too because they were very friendly, so we all had a good time.

My friend and I had about four glasses of beer each and got a bit drunk, and then decided to buy some fireworks. The fireworks-seller is Chinese, so I took one of us who speaks Chinese (his name is Hay) to the fireworks place and then we saw a girl. I said so'sday (“hello”), and she said so'sday back to me, and we were very happy because she is very beautiful. Hay and I didn't want to leave that place. But we had to go back because our friends were waiting for the fireworks. We played fireworks until 11 o'clock and there were still a lot of people on the beach. We would have liked to stay longer but we were tired. So we decided to go back to the guesthouse. And we played cards with the manager and the cashier and the security guard. I lost 1,000 riel, which is 25 cents. We went to sleep after midnight. I'll tell more about our Sihanoukville New Year trip in my next post.

11:38 AM ICT Permalink |

Drunken Foreigner

Yesterday afternoon, at about 5 pm, I was riding around just like everyday, but that day I rode past one of my friend’s mother’s shop. She sells things like soft drinks, candy, cookies, different fruits, cards for cell phones, and many more things.

This time while I riding past, there were a lot of people around so I came in and asked “What’s happening?” My friend’s mother told me that a foreigner wanted to buy a cell phone card from her (a card that is prepaid credit for your mobile phone), but he didn’t have enough money to pay for it. So she wanted me to do the translating for her to get the rest of the money.

That guy looked really drunk. It seemed to be hard for me to do the translation, because I don’t speak drunk. Anyway, that guy just had to pay 5,000 riel more (which is $1.25), but he didn’t want to pa. He just wanted to take the card and go. I told him: “You can’t go if you not pay the rest of the money.”

It was really hard to talk with this guy, especially because he was really drunk. I’d been talking with him almost 20 minutes and I started to lose my patience, so I said some words to scare him (even though he was very big). I said: “If you do not give the rest of the money you might have trouble.” Also my friend, who is the seller’s son, was there too. His name is Frog (that’s his nickname). At the same time that guy asked me: “Why is everyone looking at me.” I said: “Because you want to buy this lady’s stuff, but you not give her enough money.”

About 1 or 2 minutes later this guy started to change his mind. He took out his $20 note and gave it to me and he went back out to a tuk-tuk. Then I told him: “Wait! You have to get back your change.” But he said: “NO! I WANT TO GO NOW!!!”

I said “Okay then!” and I told Frog’s mother to keep the change. So after the drunken guy left without his change, Frog’s mother was very happy. Because the money that she received from the drunken guy was about 8 day’s profit for her.

At the end I felt happy for Frog’s mother. But the same time I also felt so sorry for the drunken guy too, that he didn’t understand the situation.

09:29 PM ICT Permalink |

My Friend Por’s Love Story

Por is one of my friends in Phnom Penh. His house is close to Orrusey Market. He is 21 years old and studies English with me at ACE (Australian Centre of Education) but has a different class than me. He also studies at an university called CU (Cambodia University).

Almost every morning Por calls to wake me up just to have breakfast and coffee with him. Usually at the café we like to sit down and rest, talking, and listening to some good pop music there. But almost all the time when we are there with a couple of our friends, Por always talks about girls, especially about the beautiful ones.

Before, Por used to be in touch with one girl. Her name is Chak. He told me she is too rich, so he thinks it’s very hard for him to get her. But right now she is in Canada for studying. At the time after Chak left, Por always looked unhappy. He loved Chak but he thinks he has no luck. Also, he thinks this girl may not come back.

And just a few months later, after Chak left for Canada, Por told me that he just met another girl who is studying at ACE too, and is in the same class as him. Her name is Cheata (a girl with this name might seem very beautiful for Khmer people). I already felt that he might fall in love with that girl, because he always tells me about this girl all the time when I meet him.

I do want Por to have a girlfriend because he sometimes seems to be very lonely. So usually I tell him: “You should do something while you still have a chance.” But he told me, “I’m not sure what Cheata is thinking about me.” And he also says, “I’m always sending SMS to her all the time. Also sometimes she says some sweet words to me like ‘dear,’ or ‘my dear.’

So I think that’s really the best time, and the best chance, for him to confess about his love if he has the true love for that girl. I know my friend Por seems very embarrassed and shy a lot. Anyway, I always tell him, “If you still do like this and not say anything to her, one day you will lose her.” For example, she might fall in love with someone else.

09:56 AM ICT Permalink |

Man U Snooker Club

Everyday after class my friends and I like to do something together. Sometime we play football, snooker, or drive around in town flirting with the girls. But most of time we play snooker for one or two hours before we go home. The place we would like to go to is called “Man U Snooker Club” on street 63, very close to Central and Sorya Supermarkets in Phnom Penh. Also this place just opened recently, so they have everything new; like new cues, new pool tables, and especially a lot of new and pretty girls! At Man U Snooker club they have 12 pool tables; nine the normal room and three in the VIP room.

For the average person it will cost only $1.50 per hour, and the VIP one cost $3.00 per hour. Most of my friends sometimes like to play by betting some money. We don’t bet much, but we also play just for fun, like if someone loses they have to pay for the bill.

This snooker club’s location is really interesting; it attracts many men because it’s on one of the main roads and many prostitutes shop around the area. Every time after playing, we come out and see many people who driving past there looking at us. I think maybe those people wonder what are these guys wearing school uniforms doing here? … until they see the sign that says: “Man U Snooker Club” on the top.

Almost all of my friends like to go to this place because it’s close to our school and our homes. One of my friends said that one day, if he has a lot of money, he will do this kind of business too. He wants to open it especially next to this other snooker place and name it Liverpool or Arsenal. I know he is not going to do that … or if he is just kidding.

11:14 AM ICT Permalink |

Around Phnom Penh
Since the new governor started his job, Phnom Penh has changed a lot. The new governor’s name is Kep Chuk Tema. He used to be a governor of Takeo province, but when he became the new governor in Phnom Penh he started many projects like fixing the parks around Phnom Penh, and upgrading the storm water drainage. So now, in the rainy season, Phnom Penh won’t flood as much as before.

Along the riverside they are fixing he banks of the river and improving the park along the river in front of many restaurants, bars and hotels. This area is very important and popular for tourists and local people.

Before, when I was riding around town with some of my friends, it was darker and quieter than now. It was also very scary for us too, so we wouldn’t like to stay out late. Before, it really looked like an old city, but now everything seem to be changing a lot, especially around Hun Sen Park, Independence Monument, and Wat Phnom. They also made a replica of an old bridge that was in the city 100 years ago. Next to the replica bridge there is a new park. I do like going for a walk sometime in that park, because it’s clean and the park looks really very beautiful.

Every evening there are many teenagers, including myself and my friends, that really like riding around some new parks looking for some beautiful girls along there. Also it’s really nice when they turn on all the lights and fountains around the Independence Monument.

11:21 AM ICT Permalink |

Killing Fields Trip

Last week I went to the riverside to work as a motorbike driver. When I was there I saw three foreign girls having lunch. I walked up to them and started to talk with them and I found out they want to go to the Killing Fields. But the problem was, they wanted to go by tuk-tuk, and I don't have a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk for three of them would cost $15, so I asked if they didn't mind taking three motor bikes with my friends for $10 each. But they did not agree, and they asked for $5 each. We keep asking them for $7 each, but the girls still said no, until we said, okay, $5 each.

One girl's name was Kelly and she rode on my bike. She was so beautiful. One of her friend's was Emma and she rode on Sokkhim's bike. The one named Claudia rode on my younger brother Yak's bike. Before we left we looked at the map trying to find a short-cut to get to the Killing Fields, which is located south of Phnom Penh in Choung Ek. The three girls saw us looking at the map and they thought we don't know the way to go, and they looked scared. So Kelly asked me, Are you sure you know where it is? And I said, Yes. I said that we were just trying to find a short-cut. After we told them like that they looked relaxed.

On the way to the Killing Fields I began talking a lot to Kelly. I had a very nice talk with her. She told me that she's an artist in London, England. Sokkhim’s English was okay for talking to Emma. But I'm really sorry for Claudia because Yak's English is not that good for a conversation with her.

At the Killing Fields we had to wait for the girls outside for a half-hour till they saw everything. And then they came back out and we had to take them to Tuol Sleng, the old S-21 Prison which is now the Cambodian Genocide museum. On the way back to town Sokkhim got arrested. The police stopped him and Emma because he has no license plates on his bike. The police said to Sokkhim, "Hey, your god-mum is a foreigner! So you pay just small money, only 25,000 riel!" But of course 25,000 is not small money, that’s more than $6, and Sokkhim didn’t have that much money. I understand those policeman’s minds, they are always like that, so I decided to tell Emma to get on my bike with Kelly so it's easy for Sokkhim to fix the problem with the police, and I told him we will wait for him at Tuol Sleng. So Sokkhim met us again at Tuol Sleng, and he told me those police took 5,000 riel ($1.25) and let him go. Emma and Claudia and Kelly, they never knew this was what was happening. I told them later the police are leeches, sucking the poor people's blood.

Then, when they came out of Tuol Sleng Museum, the girls wanted to go to the Russian Market. Three of them went in but only two came out; one of them came back because she wanted to have a smoke. She told me she likes this country because she can smoke anywhere. And then we took them all back to the riverside. They gave us $40 for the three of us, even though we agreed only $15 each when we started. I do like those three girls a lot!

04:17 PM ICT Permalink |

Kampot Caves

After our visit to Kompong Orussei we went to visit the caves at Kompong Traach, a town that is close to Kampot. There at the caves are lots of small kids, wanting to be guides to the caves, and each of them has a flashlight.

Riya and I, and some of Sophea's friends, had one kid to go with us. He was very friendly and seemed to like me a lot. He was always tapping me on the shoulder and pointing out stones and telling me what they look like. He pointed at the stone and said, "You know what that looks like?" And we said, no. And he said, "It's an elephant!" or, "It's a crocodile!" or, "A dragon!" One time he said, "It's the leg of a general coming through a hole!" Sometimes I pointed to a stone and asked the kid, "What's that?", but he always answered, "That's a stone!"

Inside the cave it looked scary to go with a few people, because it was so dark inside. But in fact there were almost a hundred people inside the cave, so it was fun and very noisy. When we arrived in the middle of the cave there was a hole in the roof where we could see the sky and a statue of the Buddha. We relaxed and took photos and some people had incense and prayed to the statues of the Buddha. The kid who was our guide wanted to show us lots of other things but we were tired and hungry, so after an hour I give him 2,000 riel and he looked very happy.

I think it's very good to go to this cave with a lot of people. But it's too dark inside and I don't want to go with just one or two other people.

10:14 AM ICT Permalink |

School Trip to Bamboo Village

My friends Sophea and Bros are studying law and economics at University. Today they went on a trip to Kampot with their University for their University activity; helping poor people. My friend Riya and I went with them, even though we are still in high school.

There were a lot of students that went. There were five vans and in each van more than 20 people, and most of them I don't know. At first we didn't know where we're going, we just knew the plan was to bring some rice and noodles and a lot more things, but we didn't know where until we get to the village. Its name is Kompong Orussei, which means Bamboo Village.

Kompong Orussei looks very poor. People there just grow rice to support their family, and the road is very bad and a long way to go from the National Road. But people in the village were very friendly to us, especially when they knew we are students and we are helping them. And they tried to talk to us even though we never know each other. So it was not a bad time at Kompong Orussei.

There were four families that we gave the food and money to. So we arranged the food and the money and then we asked them to come. And when they came we gave them a sort of interview to ask them about their life. One of them was an old man who lives alone and has no wife and no kids to help him get money or food. Another was two old women who live together the same way; with no family to help. And another one was a man who has a withered leg and no one to help. And the last is a woman with kids and no husband.

The village headman came and said these are genuine poor people, not someone pretending to be poor, and he described about how they have nobody and no land and only small house, and they get their food by working for other people's farms to get some rice. But usually they cannot get enough rice for the whole year, they can get like for 8 or 10 months, and for another 4 months they have to borrow from the neighbors to fill their stomachs.

He talked so much, but finally he said he's surprised this is the first time this happened in his village; that they have a group of students come to study about the poor people and to help them. And he said he hopes they will have other universities to do the same thing. After we gave the things to the poor people we had a very good lunch in the village; fried fish and chicken soup and rice, and a coconut each; all of which could cost about $1.50 in Phnom Penh.

07:36 PM ICT Permalink |