Before I get on to reporting on the trip, could I please pass on my thanks to all of you in Melbourne who attended the dinners. In addition I would like to thank those who helped on October 15th and 21st. They were a great success again and we ended up raising just over $12,000 for the Imagine kids. I showed those of them living in the house in Siem Reap the video of them singing Imagine and they loved it, they just started to sing it again when they were watching it which they did at least 20 times.
I went to Phnom Penh on the way to Siem Reap this time. Phnom Penh has many of the worst attributes of large chaotic 3rd world cities. Horrendous traffic, it’s very dirty and smelly in parts and it seems that it has more than its fair share of shady characters walking around. Whilst I was there a suspected Australian paedophile was arrested in Phnom Penh. I was there to see Da, Channa and Proek and also to pay my respects to Theary Leng Ryder’s mother who is looking after them for us. I spent two days in Phnom Penh with the kids and Theary’s family but also got to see the incredible Royal Palace again. We had a dinner together with the 3 kids, Theary’s mother, brother, niece and 2 nephews with the young people acting as translators. I gave them the opportunity to eat anywhere they liked and they picked Pizza Company where we ate pizza, French fries and chicken wings washed down with Coca cola. The 3 kids are doing really well. Channa is doing her placement at the Ministry of Tourism (her comment was that they don’t work very hard), Proek is doing her foundation program where she decides what she will concentrate on and Da has been accepted to do a 6 month internship in Malaysia as part of his training. We don’t know too many details yet but we are busily getting him a passport. We are all so proud of him and the girls as well.
Back in Siem Reap I also saw Va who is now 3 months into his chef apprenticeship at Haven. He is very happy and likes it very much although he did say that he has to work very hard. On the last night I was in Siem Reap we had a barbeque dinner and I was sitting at the table with Va along with Pisey, Srey Mien and Vandy who are all in year 9 but have been studying English for 5-7 years. I was sitting talking to them but after a little while I said to them that it was amazing that they could all sit with me and converse in English. The smiles on their faces said it all, they think it is great as well.
Savoun and I also met with Da and Channa’s sister Srey Vern who, despite only just turning 18 years old, has just been released from 15 months in an adult prison. Srey Vern is very quiet and reserved and it is really very hard to know what role she had in the drugs issue that led to her arrest. She maintains she was just there with her friends and that may be true but we can’t really know. We have told Srey Vern that she cannot come to the centre and that if we are to help her she will have to prove her reliability over the next 6-7 months. We have arranged for her to have daily English lessons, we have given her a bicycle so she can get there and she is working at night in a carnival. Let’s hope she can make the most of these opportunities and then move forward with her life. Whether she was at fault or not we should remember she was 16 at the time and that for a young girl to spend 15 months in an adult prison with 14 to a cell is horrendous. Imagine has committed to help her as long as she proves she wants to help herself as well.
This trip was a lot about helping the older Year 9 kids with their schooling. We have been very concerned about the standard of their maths so I was turning the clock back and working with them mainly on algebraic equations. I was also concerned at the lack of their knowledge of the times tables and I had them on the white board every day when I was there. We have now employed a Maths tutor for 90 minutes a day, 6 days a week for the grade 9 students (there are 10 of them) and he started while I was there. We already had a little dispute because I told him that the kids were telling me he was going too fast, which he didn’t like very much! It will be interesting to see where they are at with their maths when I get there the next time, hopefully much improved.
The grade 9 kids are now getting to the stage where we may have to start thinking about their futures. We want all the kids to finish school but realistically there are a few of them who may be better learning a trade. Vandy wants to work with computers, networks and mobile phones and Chenn is very interested in building and we should encourage this in the future as well. I had a conversation with Pisey (aged 16) about what she thinks her future may be and her answer was very mature. “I don’t know but I just want to go to school and I can think about my future when I am in Grade 11, but I want to be like Proek (who is studying in college in Phnom Penh) “. We shouldn’t underestimate the role of the older kids as role models.
Over the next few months we will be building a small 8 by 5 metre room with a bathroom for Savoun, Aiéet and their 2 kids across the street on the land we have there. It is effectively Savoun’s land and we will help him do this because he wants and needs his family to have some space from the activity of the centre which is always frenetic. It is a way of helping Savoun and also ensuring he stays with us through the transition with the older kids from High School.
As usual it was a great trip to Siem Reap. The city itself was a baking dustbowl at the peak of tourist season. There was not one drop of rain whilst I was there and the temperatures hovered in the mid 30s with very high humidity, despite it being nominally the cooler season. The dust in the air made it very difficult to breathe at times and every day I would return with a layer of red dirt on my clothes. The main road to the centre, which services the Tonle Sap Lake tourists in buses and vans, was under construction again which meant that Ratah had to take me on back roads by tuktuk every day but unfortunately so did the buses. Sometimes it was chaos with buses, vans, cars, motor bikes and tuktuks all cramming into roads not built for so much traffic. It all adds to the joys of a place like Siem Reap, you can’t let it worry you, just accept it and smile or you will go crazy!
We had the mandatory shopping trips and bought school bags, clothes, volleyball, football, volleyball net, shoes and school supplies. I also had to arrange to pay for repairs to the van and a new tyre, 2 new bicycles plus a bicycle for Srey Vern. It all adds up and it is with your assistance and support that I can take cash with me to pay for all of these types of things.
The kids and the staff are happy and healthy. We have our challenges and that is to be expected but they are being well looked after and are all growing and developing.
Thank you to everyone who assisted us in 2015. Have a terrific festive season and a well earned break for those taking one. I am sure 2016 will bring plenty of new stories from the kids in Imagine Cambodia Foundation.
Peter Joyce
Director
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