Snake Bites & Good Samaritans

The days pass by so quickly as our time here in Cambodia is winding down. We finally have time to catch another swift breath & write a bit more for you all. Even with Matt & Riva’s arrival (and fairly quick departure), our team barely had time to pause. Meeting Richard Fitoussi in person was one highlight for Olivia and most of our team members who have only conversed via email & Skype. It was a genuine pleasure speaking with him and learning of his various travels and passions in life. At first encounter, he has a quiet, charismatic presence but as conversations flow, a domineering side emerges. He is a well read, well spoken, subtly humorous, energetic and an altogether positive person to be around. We are happy to be working with such an ambitious and inspiring individual.

Mr. Brian Janes taught a couple crash courses of first aid at the Volunteer Development Poverty Children’s School with the gracious support of Miss Gwen Hobbs. It was an intriguing course for the kids, which covered very basic first aid techniques [like choking, stopping bleeding, getting stung by insects and a classroom favorite, SNAKE BITES]! Differences in respective cultures were exchanged as Brian helped them understand the western way of medical response and how it can benefit them all to learn the basics. The children shared with him the challenges they have helping people in their community when they get hurt. The “Good Samaritan Law,” doesn’t really exist here in Cambodia and there are even greater fears of helping severely injured [bleeding] patients in regards to HIV, AIDS and other blood born diseases. People are apprehensive in helping others when they need medical help, despite this, Brian was successful in sharing ways the kids could help without putting themselves in harms way. One thing notable was that the children were very interested in health related illness and conveyed the desire to learn more. Perhaps this is something we can help plan for sometime down the road. Ideas anyone?

Minutes after landing Riva and Matt were ready to fully engage the people, sites and genuine beauty surging within the landscape of Siem Reap. We got them checked into the Angkor Green Guesthouse (a local favorite of ours: www.angkorgreen.com) and took them on a quick tour of the area. We had a meeting afterwards to get them fully prepared for the rest of the week. Their excitement and energy was rejuvenating. One of the first things we tackled was taking them out to the Landmine Museum. Monday was a Holiday, a day of remembrance for the Khmer, Victory Over Genocide Day. We hoped to give a good tour of the Landmine Museum and Facility to share with Matt & Riva our inspiration for helping the people within Cambodia. We had quite the entourage of tuk tuk’s…Richard Fitoussi, Lisa McCoy, Bill Morse, Brian & Gwen and Matt & Riva joined us for a dusty, colorful, full of electric beauty ride through the countryside to the Cambodia Landmine Museum. Upon arrival everyone there was busy preparing for the ceremony on Thursday. Our team was able to get a good look at the facility and later met up with Richard, Akira, Hourt and the rest of their team to put the finishing touches on the plans for the ceremony.

While Asad continued to show Matt & Riva various projects, Brian & Gwen also kept busy. Brian designed a recycling and compost area for the museum and later in the week teamed up with Lisa and Gwen to construct a new clothing line for the museum. We can’t express how happy we are to have such a dynamic group on our team! We worked so hard to make good things happen, great job to everyone! Next chapter, the perseverance and dedication of all pays off, we take a small break to visit our good friend Sao’s village, visit some school sites and help Akira & Richard celebrate the museum’s success…

Quick updates...

01/06/08-

First things first- we have to wish everyone all the best in health and happiness in this fantastic New Year. Olivia and I want to personally thank EVERYONE who made 2007 such a productive and empowering one. We are eternally in debt to you all for allowing us to pursue our passion of serving the amazing people of Cambodia! We cannot say thank you enough!

I will try to give you a quick update on the happening of the last week.

*Mr. Meng is the assistant director at the VDPCS School, if you have been keeping up on the Blog you know Mr. Togh as the Director at the school. Well Mr. Meng was out with Graham getting cement for the foundation of the new school. He returned from the cement shop to find his motto had been stolen. He had the keys in his pocket even. Long story short I sent out an email and was able to raise a quick $500 to buy Mr. Meng another motto! Thank you so much Graham, Nick, Kipp and Chann, we were able to give Mr. Meng the best possible Christmas present!

*We returned to Sao’s village with Brian and Gwen in tow. As always the hospitality and kindness that is shared through the village leaves us in tears, there are not words to describe the kindness and sheer joy we feel. I will let the pictures speak instead!

*Sao took us to his pagoda in his village, Bangro pagoda to be exact. It is a humble place, maybe 20 or 25 monks living there. We watched Malay teach English to the children of Sao’s village. I felt bad as they were more focused on us then their lesson. Giggles and smiles seemed to be the topic of the class! Malay is a 22-year-old monk/teacher; he shared his simple classroom and explained to us the frustrations of trying to teach English to the children, as he had only one textbook for 60 children. We discussed the possibility of Project Enlighten helping provide materials for a very simple and basic school. As you will see by the pictures, it was standing room only and even some children were using their bikes as a make shift desk! I hope to make this a thing of the past, as every child should have the ability to write on a desk, not a bike seat.

*Olivia and I have been visiting the local universities and speaking with students with the pro’s and con’s of each. I want to Build Bright University or BBU and was able to speak with Mr. Siv Vutthy (First Vice President) and Mr Srin Sivhorng (Vice President Student Affairs). I shared with them my intent for Project Enlighten to provide 2 scholarships for 2 students. One under the John Fletcher McKim scholarship and one under the Dave Linsdell scholarship. Mr. Vutty explained to me that he had a list of 49 students who met the entrance requirements for the university but where to poor to attend BBU. For the price of $330 to $390 a year for tuition, we will do some massive fundraising when we get home, as my dream is to wipe that list of 49 students to zero!

* The team is together. As I mentioned earlier, Brian and Gwen are in Siem Reap. Bill Morse our dear friend from the Land Mine Relief Fund came into down and we had a wonderful dinner and caught up on the work we need to accomplish in our time together. Lisa McCoy a wonderful fundraiser from Canada was in town as well. She raised close to $4000 to build schools for Akira in the rural villages in northern Cambodia! As Olivia and I were waiting at the airport to pick up our Board Members Matt and Riva we were shocked to see Richard Fitoussi walk down the ramp! Wow what a day, the whole team is here!
We were so happy to see Riva and Matt today as well, we were so worried that the massive storms in California would cancel their flights, well after many delays and cancelled flights we were so happy to see their smiling faces at Siem Reap Airport! We are so fortunate to have a wonderful people like Matt and Riva on our Board! We will be interviewing 6 prospective scholarship candidates at the University on Wednesday with Matt and Riva, we will keep you posted! We have a very busy week upcoming as we attempt to get Matt and Riva up to speed on our TEAMS many projects! Life is grand!

Thavy.

12/30/07-

I must apologize for the lack of updates for the last week; we have not slowed up at all, trust me. It has been more of a matter of getting Olivia up to speed on the ground with our projects. First off, was having her meet the new children at the Landmine Museum and meeting Mr. Togh and Mr. Meng from the school and a day with Sal our Cow Bank Manager.

We have had some amazing and dear friends arrive in Siem Reap today, Brian Janes and Gwen Hobbs arrived from California via New York back, across the west and over to the land of bliss. We are humbled to have them as part of our Advisory TEAM and look forward to getting them up to speed and sleeves rolled up as WE continue to forge forward!

We have spent the last few days checking out the various Universities in Siem Reap, finding out about cost structure and admissions. We’ve taken tours of classrooms and libraries and have been talking with current students on pro’s and con’s of each facility.


I was supposed to take Chet to Phnom Penh to get refitted for a new prosthetic leg; sadly I came down with a great case of something not so pleasant. So I reluctantly had to call and promise to reschedule our trip, I’m thankful he understood and wanted to make sure I was healthy before we went. There is a great little side story to this, Thavy is one of the daughters with whom we are staying with, and she is 10 and has a wonderful personality and charm. She faithfully comes upstairs and whistles and sings softly at 0630 to make sure that we are awake! It’s a really funny thing as she slides notes under our door to see if we are awake. So Thavy came in the afternoon to give Olivia and I our Khmer language lessons, Olivia showed her by hand signs that I was ill and not feeling good. Thavy had a confused look on her face and then said she would come back at 1700 to give us her lesson. She came back a few minutes later to say our lesson would have to be at 1800 as she was going to the Angkor Wat. This made no sense but we shook our heads in understanding, Liv told me she would cut the lesson short if I was not feeling up to it, I would give it try. Well imagine our surprise and wonderment when we hear Thavy and her older sister Chaen walking up the stairs with a tray of warm rice and fried fish. Young little Thavy never went to Angkor Wat like she told us, she went straight downstairs to start cooking us a simple dinner that would rest easy on my stomach. She changed the time of our Khmer lesson so she could prepare that beautiful dinner for us. This gesture my friend shows the beauty and compassion of this amazing family, country and culture! Thank you Thavy for your calculated act of kindness and compassion, you shine as bright as Kampuchea!

Another positive step forward!

12/23/2007-

The great news of the day is that Olivia has landed safely and is getting eased into the hustle and charged pace of Siem Reap. Every part of her travels went flawless, for that I was very thankful. Sao was so very excited to see Olivia as he paced back and forth at the airport, checking the arrival board every few seconds, I decided to chill with a plate of fresh spring rolls and large bottle of Angkor beer!


On the way home we had bite to eat at an old favorite restaurant, Green House. The food is great and the staff is genuinely caring. After a restful nights sleep, it didn’t take long to get to work. It was breakfast & meeting with Sao first thing in the morning. Computer classes have been going really well for Sao. It seems he is learning with ease. A trip out to meet with Togh and his friends at a neighboring Wat was on the docket for the day. We couldn’t be happier with Togh and the Volunteer Development Poverty Children’s School’s (VDPCS) success! They have already broke ground on the new building site for the school and the children are so excited about it that even they have gone to help build it!

We had a meeting with a friend of Togh’s, Daro. Daro is a monk at Kok Chork Wat, not very far from the VDPCS site. He has lofty dreams to build a better structure for the English & Buddhism School he runs. They currently are teaching in a very simple structure built of simple wood poles & thatch walls and roof. Their template for a new school is based on that which is currently being built for VDPCS. They wrote up a project proposal for their new school, it will be presented in it’s final form to Project Enlighten’s Board of Directors for vote.

After meeting with Daro, we made our way to VDPCS new school site. It was absolutely amazing, what we saw! The children from Togh’s school had all come to help move the rocks for the foundation onto the property for the school! How cool is that? Graham who volunteers and one of the teachers at the school, Victoria, were already helping move the rocks so we hopped right in to help. Asad organized the crowd of smiling faces into a couple lines, to teach them the “chaining” technique we often use at home. The children had a wonderful time, laughing & giggling all the way. The pictures are worth more than a thousand words; see here with your own eyes.

Nothing could be more satisfying than an ice cold drink after an evening of good hard work. We settled in for dinner at the Taj India Restaurant. It is a newer Indian style establishment that serves exquisite food that is to die for. When you make your way to Siem Reap and hunger for fine Indian Cuisine/ Halal Food, please check them out! Another successful day in Cambodia, Olivia is feeling at home.

Merry Christmas Chet!

12/13/2007-

This was a morning I was looking forward to for a long time. Spending some quality time with my boy Chet, though reality is I’m watching him transition from a boy to a man. I see him watching over the younger children and helping Akira and Hourt, being respectful to the staff. This was a far cry from the boy I left last year, teetering on the choice of buckling down on school or running to the bright lights and trouble of Phnom Penh. I’m very proud of the choice he made.
So as I entered the new Museum, my smile widened as the people’s faces grew sadder, why is this you say, well about time we wake up to the horrific reality of landmines and what they leave behind after the war machine and the troops go home. The children, the museum and Akira’s work are a testament to the will of the people to pick up the fragmented pieces and carry on, carry on and smile. Lessons learned!

Ok back to Chet, I asked my main man were Akira was as I had brought 2 refurbished laptops over for the children and their future Education Center. He pointed upstairs and said he would take me there, I heard Chet yell up to Akira in Khmer, all I picked up was “Bong Asad, Bong Asad” (older brother).
I gave Hourt a big hug and gratefully shook Akira’s hand as we talked about his impressive new home. What a difference a year makes, again if you haven’t seen their website, have a look. http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/
Chet and I had planned to spend the day in Siem Reap, he really wanted a hair cut and try to find a music store that could fix his keyboard as many of the keys are stuck. Before we left I wanted to spend some time with the new children who have recently come to the museum, I was so impressed with their kindness and playfulness, we had a blast in the short time we spent together!
Chet and I said goodbye to Akira and Hourt and loaded our trusted Tuk tuk with Sao at the helm. Chet asked if he could take pictures as Joa who is one of the wonderful
English volunteers caught a ride back with us. Chet was so happy trying to compose great pictures on a bumpy Khmer road while Joa and I were in bliss talking American Football!
We dropped Joa off and proceeded to Sao’s favorite restaurant, we walk in and they ask..”The usual Mr Asad?” yup the usual Beef with green Khmer paste. We had a fantastic meal, so much so desert was not an option, stuffed!

Well we knew of only one shop that could possibly fix a keyboard, as luck would have it, they couldn’t fix them but more than happy to sell you a used one! Merry Christmas Chet, your hard work and solid grades did not go unnoticed by me!

Pigskin/family/friends!

I was flipping through some pictures to use on my next entry, and stumbled across these, I forgot how much I love them and how much I love football and admire and respect my dear friend Phouva! I had the pleasure of meeting this outstanding gentleman at our National Wild land Fire Academy in Sacramento. Olivia was his crew boss and briefly introduced me to this amazing man from Laos. Phouva came up to my hotshot buggie on the Zaca fire earlier this year, we briefly discussed his dream of returning to his village and assisting with rebuilding his school and other projects. I was humbled and honored at the thought of working with this compassionate leader, who wants to use his Natural Resources degree to stop deforestation in his country.
Phouva gave me a call yesterday at the museum as I was in a meeting with Hourt, his voice and character reminded me how much I look forward to working with him and helping in some small way. He sent me these pictures before I left of his wonderful family! Man I love the passion of football/family and friends!

Kok Chark Pagoda.

12/12/2007

Went back to the Togh’s school in the morning, we talked about buying school supplies as I had promised $200 from Project Enlighten! We talked about his teachers and training they needed, I expressed our interest in wanting to support the teachers with continued training and development. I also shared our desire for Togh to spread the word among staff and students for our upcoming scholarship. Togh was very excited when I described our expectations. He stated almost instantly who he thought would be perfect. I won’t give anything away yet, but I look forward to Olivia, Matt, Riva, Gwen and Brian showing up and sharing in this process.
I went with Togh to visit his fellow monks at the Kok Chark Pagoda; this was a 5-minute walk from Togh’s current school, very nice and peaceful walk to get to the Pagoda. I met with several of the monks who teach English to 20 poor children. On the Pagoda’s grounds you will find at least 30 families who were so poor they had no were to live, this Pagoda helped them build simple shelter on the Pagodas land in which this impoverished families call home. So I spoke with Sithon and Daro about what they envision for the future. There problem was simple really, the current classroom is on low ground, thus it floods in the rainy season. They have watched the number of children increase due to the fact they have more poor families building on their land. Their dream is to build a 3-room classroom on the other side of the Pagoda where the ground is high and won’t flood in the rainy season. I shared with them the idea of recycling what we could from Togh’s old school, with was made mostly of wood. They had not thought of that, but liked the idea of not wasting anything, I tell you a recycling plant and ethos would go far in Siem Reap!
I told Sithon and Daro I would visit later in the week, and wanted them to draw up some simple plans for the school on paper and give some idea on project costs. The first number was $200 based on 3-classrooms, I asked do you want a library? Would you like an office? How about a concrete floor? We adjusted our number now to $500. I shared with them that we would not build the entire school, that they would have to assist with the labor. It is very important to Project Enlighten that we share in the construction of the building and in turn the Pagoda will share in the vested ownership of this task!
I shared with them my pleasure in seeing their compassion towards to poor families and wanting to improve their current classroom. I shared with them that I was committed to seeing Togh’s school been built, plus various team members are coming over and want to share their ideas with them as well. I look forward to the possibility of working with the Kok Chark Pagoda.