Before I get on to reporting on the trip, for those of you who live in Melbourne could I please remind you of the dinners on October 15th and 21st? If you are coming please let me know and of course bring as many people as you can.
It is always good to go to Imagine at this time of the year because it is school vacation time and it is easier to spend time with the kids. They are not totally idle because the Khmer primary school is back and they are going to English school in the afternoons, but between 10.30 and 4.30 basically everyone is at the centre. The downside is that it is rainy season which can make navigating your way around Siem Reap more difficult but this rainy season has not been particularly wet, which is good for the tourists but not so good for the rice farmers.
The timing of the trip enabled me to be in Siem Reap when Va left and started as an apprentice chef at the Haven Training Restaurant. Va came to us when he was in year 9 and really didn’t have much foundation to his education. He struggled his way through the last few years of his schooling and he passed his High School diploma but could not pass the national test despite two attempts to do so. The trainees at Haven all live in a share house together during the 12 months of their training and the 3 month internship they do at various restaurants and hotels at the end of the apprenticeship. Va is 21 years old but he reverted to a young boy on that day, withdrawn and nervous. When Savoun and I took him to the house all the new students were the same, standing against the wall looking down at their feet and obviously feeling very apprehensive.
The Cambodian kids seem to have none of the bravado of Australian kids or maybe it’s the background of these particular ones because Haven only takes young people of disadvantaged background. That was on September 1st but I saw Va again on Saturday night September 5th and he was back to his old self. He had been given a mobile phone and the other trainees were really nice. They had started their English lessons and trips to the market to learn how to pick the best and freshest food. Va has always struggled to articulate well in English but he was determined to tell me all about it and how happy he was.
I reported back in March on a birthday party we held for Pisey and how overwhelmed she was so after that we have decided to celebrate everyone’s birthday. When we have visitors there, who the kids know, we will have a party for them but if not they arrange their own party. This time around it was Chantha turning 16 and Henn turning 11. They both knew that they were going to have a party because I was there, but the lack of surprise did not dampen any excitement they had. Given the good chance of rain we decided against a barbeque and they had a pizza and birthday cake party followed by ridiculously loud Khmer music and a few hours of karaoke through the makeshift set up Eng has got for them now.
I even had to do my shaky rendition of “I Started a Joke” my standard Bee Gees karaoke number. There is no way I could have one cake with two names, they HAD to have their own individual cake with their names on them. Despite the lack of surprise both of the girls still cried when they blew out the candles and had the birthday song sung to them. For both of them it was the first ever they had celebrated a birthday. I assume, eventually, it will not mean as much to them but whilst it does it is a simple thing that brings so much joy. It’s amazing to be there actually.
We also went for a day trip to West Baray, which is effectively a reservoir, where the kids all went swimming and we ate some pretty horrible Khmer food which they loved! It is really just a series of open shacks next to the waterside with hammocks between beams where everyone lies around, eats, talks and swims. West Baray is a man-made lake which is perfectly square. It was originally built by the Angkor Kingdom around the 12-13th century to feed a series of canals that supplied water to the burgeoning population and it has a temple in the middle of it. It is amazing that such a sophisticated reservoir with a series of dikes and canals could be built so long ago but today it is just a place for locals to have fun and relax.
We also did the mandatory shopping trip to the market where the kids bought pants, shirts and shoes. We also had to arrange 14 new school uniforms for the new school year. 2 white shirts and the purchase of enough material to have 2 pairs of pants or 2 skirts made costs USD 25 for each of the kids but they all look crisp and clean for the new school year, although it doesn’t last long. I also bought 5 of the boys football boots which cost $8 each. They were incredibly happy with these boots and were playing in them straight after getting home.
Da and Channa came down from Phnom Penh for the time I was there and it was wonderful to see them so happy and loving their courses. There is a long history with the Sina family going back to Jon Ryder’s involvement with Life and Hope Association and the PACE house which is a Children’s Centre in Siem Reap. Their older sister Kim Lai was in PACE with Da and Channa before Imagine started and whilst they were in our original intake in 2008, Kim Lai stayed at PACE. Their mother is still living in Siem Reap but she is a difficult and erratic person living in harsh circumstances, a long story best not covered here.
There are 4 brothers and sisters in Kim Lai, Da and Channa and an 18 year old daughter. The younger sister was never taken into care and whilst Kim Lai was educated in hospitality and now works in a hotel and Da and Channa are studying in Phnom Penh, she has spent the last 12 months in an adult prison in Siem Reap where she was originally jailed as a 16 year old. It has been a burden for Channa and Da to deal with this and they have told us that she was just with a group of friends some of who had drugs on them when they were arrested and she will be released in November. Imagine will try and find a way to support her although we will not be taking her into the house, we believe that to be too big a risk. Initially we will try and help her live with her sister rather than her mother and step father and also help her with English language classes. If she can prove herself we will try other ways of assisting her.
Proek was our only one who sat the national test this year and we have just heard that she has passed her national test. This is a major achievement for her but unfortunately she has not done well enough to be able to study nursing in Phnom Penh and join Da and Channa there. She has decided that she will try and do teaching so we are now in the process of trying to get her accepted into that course. Proek is a young lady of exceptional promise and we believe that she would make a wonderful teacher.
I got to meet our Director Savoun’s new son Saktya for the first time on this trip as well. He is now 2 months old. The Imagine family has a lot of small children now from our staff members and they spend a lot of time at the house and have a ready supply and babysitters. We are thankful that Saktya is well and the Savoun’s wife Aiéet is also, given all the problems of the last birth at the end of 2012.
It was great to be with the kids and the staff again. I always listen to them all read when I am there and they are always getting a bit better. There is one or two who now read in English to a level I never thought they would attain. The key for us is to keep them focused as much as we can on their education and what lies ahead for them. Thankfully they are now seeing really good role models in the ones who have left and have studied after leaving school. Assuming Proek will study in Phnom Pend we will have 5 young people we still support in some way not living in the centre in Siem Reap. Where we differ from so many of the other centres in Cambodia is that we don’t consider them gone at that point, simply living away from “home”. They all come back and just slot back into the daily life of the centre. We are very proud of this.
As usual it was hard to leave but the kids are doing really well.
Peter Joyce
Director
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