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Published: January 22nd 2008
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Day 9- Bantay Srei Country School and Wat Bo school.
Ponheary was to pick us up about 7:15, but it';s more like 7:45...apparently the baker hadn't finished all the bread! With Ponheary today is her nephew Fifi, who is 4 and very shy. (or at least he was with me...he seemed to really like Bill) Our first stop was Bantay Srei...and in the early morning light the temple is even prettier than I would imagine during the day!
After the temple we head to the country school down the road from Bantay Srei. When we pulled up the kids seemed pretty excited once they saw Ponheary get out of the car. Some seemed excited to see us as well, some didn't seem to know what to make of us. Another family came to the school as well, I believe they were from California. And the reporter/photographer who is doing a story on Ponheary was there as well...he was to have been gone already but happened to be there during the Koh Ker crisis, and decided to stay a little longer. Lori showed up with him, and I was really glad to put a face with the name and e-mails
we'd traded back and forth.
We then set about distributing the french baguettes and sweet milk, and from the looks on the children's faces you would have thought we'd brought them the moon. Bill and I gave out WAY too much sweet milk at first, but then I think we caught on and went from room to room passing out the bread and milk. It was overwhelming. When we'd finished, (and Bill had cleaned to gobs of sweet milk stuck to his hands) we spoke at length with the reporter about Ponheary and Lori and their work. As yet he does not have a publisher for his story, I sure hope he can find one. This is definitely a story that needs to get out!
The children had recess, and we walked around and took some pictures. The children are adorable...sweet natured, somewhat shy, but LOVED to have their picture taken! We then gave out uniforms to the first grade class.
I was talking with Lori about the kids, and one little boy Ponheary told Lori was "Joe's kid". I asked Lori about it, and she told me there was an older man and his wife who
had come a few years ago and really connected with this little boy. He then asked Ponheary if he could visit this boys family, and asked how much it would cost to take care of the whole family for a year.He was told $300, and said "done". He then also took on the family next door, even buying some oxen for the families. He and his wife were planning to visit in February, when he suddenly passed away on Christmas Day. Lori said they haven't figured out how they were going to tell these families yet...and I broke down crying.
When we'd finished, Ponheary had them go out back and try them on so they could see if there were any factory flaws they needed to address. Then the kids all lined up in the new uniforms, and sang to us. When we left I knew I had to do more to help, and Bill and I talked about what else we might be able to do.
We came back to the hotel to rest awhile, Ponheary apologized and asked if we would mind spending an hour or so at another school in town. A group of students
and a professor from William and Mary were coming to visit, and they were donating some computers for this school. We said we'd love to come, and went to lunch and rested for awhile.
Ponheary's driver picks us up at 2.Ponheary would meet us there with the William and Mary people. The plan is to be at the Wat Bo school for about an hour, then go see Ta Prohm. This school is in town, with a mixture of wealthy students as well as poor kids Ponheary is supporting. The principal of this school is a childhood friend of Ponheary's, and he tries to keep us entertained and explain about his school while we wait for Ponheary to arrive. Both Ponheary and the professor speak, then the students are encouraged to ask both Ponheary and the principal questions.
They've brought with them 3 laptop computers they are donating, and the plan is to try to hook up a wireless network so they can connect to the principal's computer and give all the computers internet access. When all the speeches and presentations are finished, we go outside to see the children, who are at recess. Bill in the meantime
goes in to observe the IT guy who came to set all the computers up...and well, long story short we didn't leave the school until almost 8 P.M. The IT guy was having some trouble, and Bill being an engineer and a really good man, dove right in to help. They left school at least three times to go buy parts, and while they never were able to get the computers networked to the main computer, they were able to get the others set up and even fixed one of the computers that was already there that had been inoperable.
Ponheary kept apologizing about us missing the temple, but we both told her the temples will still be there tomorrow. This was more important right now. I have no doubt that even now Bill is trying to figure out a way to get those computers networked...he just that kind of guy.
We came back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went out to eat. We met a boy selling postcards who knew more about the United States than most of my students do! He was bright and very sweet, and we bought postcards and bracelets from him.
I had mixed feelings about buying from the kids who are at all the temples...on the one hand, the things they are selling are very inexpensive, so what's the harm. On the other hand, Ponheary said that sometimes the parents of these kids don't allow them to go to school so they call sell at the temples. I wouldn't want to perpetuate that, but my understanding is that some of them DO go to school and work selling these things after they get out. We walked around town a little, but we were both fading fast and took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and crashed.
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