Trip Report – June 2015

I have just returned from another great trip to Cambodia. Apart from seeing the team at Imagine and all the kids it was nice to get warm. When I left Melbourne it was 7 degrees and it was so hot in Siem Reap that leaving shoes outside in the sun made it impossible to put them back on.

I mentioned in the last update that we now have 3 young people in our care who have finished school and are heading into the next phase of their lives. On the first weekend I was in Siem Reap brother and sister Da and Channa came down from Phnom Penh to see me. I was just so happy at how well they are doing. Both of them can now sit with me and converse quite easily in English because their courses at PSE in Phnom Penh are held in English. They are confident and doing really well. Channa spends far too much time talking and texting on her phone but I guess that just means that she is a normal 20 year old.

Va has been accepted into Paul Debrule school in Siem Reap to study to be a pastry chef but I arranged for him to have an interview at Haven Training restaurant when I was there. After a little convincing Va has agreed that this is a better option for him. He will move into the shared house with the other trainees in September this year and will train with Haven for 12 months as an apprentice chef. They have now expanded the program so that after that initial 12 months they do an intern position in a large restaurant or one of the hotels in Siem Reap for 3 months and this year every trainee was offered a job at the place they interned. Haven is now about to open their 2nd restaurant in Siem Reap and they are not only do a great job training chefs and front of house staff but also they serve fantastic food.

Our other kids are doing well at school ( apart from the usual teenage type problems from time to time) and part of my role when I am there is to talk to some of them about what is happening and why they may be struggling at school. One of our boys had decided that school is optional at times and that is not going to continue, after a stern discussion. It is however always amazing to me how they support each other so well and the level of cooperation and help in the house is great and a credit to the staff on the ground. We have always wanted to make the kids feel like this was their home and whilst we encourage them to get out and start their own lives they are always welcome. Naiee left Imagine more than 2 years ago and is now a Haven trained chef. His brother Vandy is still with us. Naiee’s employer is Dutch and is back in Holland for a few weeks so Naiee has been spending a lot of time back at Imagine just being with the other kids he grew up with and helping with the cooking. Whilst this is not unusual to us it is unusual in Children’s Centres in Cambodia who tend to have rules about when someone has to leave. We have never wanted that.

Proek will also sit her final exams for Grade 12 at the end of June and then the national test in August. Our biggest issue with Proek is ambition. She is very intelligent, continually finishing at the top of her class, but she wants to work in a shop or hotel. Earlier she wanted to be a nurse and we encouraged that but that seems to have disappeared. It is a problem in Cambodia because the young people have limited ambition because that is what they see in front of them and what their friends are doing. We will keep working on Proek but she is very stubborn, which of course is not unusual for a 19 year old girl.

In my last correspondence I shared with you an experience we had in celebrating Pisey’s birthday and following that the kids have been asking if they could have the same when their time came. So since that time we have had 3 birthdays celebrated and we now have a list of all their birthdates to remind the staff to arrange it. Many of the kids actually don’t know their birthdates and have to go and look it up from the list. Every person in Cambodia is meant to have a “book” which has their details listed and this is registered with the local village chief. It is that book and registration that makes us legally responsible for the kid’s welfare but sometimes the details are only based on the best of our knowledge.

Samnang was 3 when he came to Imagine and no one actually knew his name or his birthdates but the halfway house he was staying in waiting to be picked up by an NGO gave him the name Samnang ( which means lucky) and a birth date which is 15th June 2006. It was his birthday that we celebrated on my last day in Siem Reap on this trip. The birthday party was a dinner which was cooked by our house mother Vetay and Naiee and Va, one who is a chef and the other who will train as one. The kids sang happy birthday and we settled into a night of eating Khmer food and singing karaoke. We also had Theary and Jon online on the I pad (donated by Remko) from the US. These celebrations are great fun and really treasured by all at Imagine.

For all of you in Australia could I please ask you to keep the dates of the 2015 dinners in mind. I am not asking for bookings yet but I have reserved the 14th and 15th October at Hellenic Republic in Kew. They are a little earlier than previous years to assist the teachers who have parent teacher meetings around the November dates. These dinners are critical to our fundraising and that importance is now even more given the severe reduction in the Australian dollar. Imagine costs us about USD 27,000 a year to run and whilst that used to be about the same in Australian $ it is now closer to A$36,000 a year. Not all our funds are raised in Australia, a reasonable portion is raised in the US and also in Singapore, but the A$ collapse has hurt us.

Thank you again for your ongoing support. I have included some photos taken on this trip so please enjoy them.

Peter Joyce
Director