Phnom Penh remains a contradiction – the evidence of westernisation is growing by the hour, it seems, and yet it still has all the sights and sounds and smells – good and bad – of a third world city. 2013 sits comfortably alongside centuries of society – and it’s a smorgasbord for the senses.
For people watching, you can’t beat an Asian city – and Phnom Penh remains my favourite.
Leaving Kampot in general and CLS in particular this time was a surprising wrench – much moreso than on past visits.
Friday morning was especially emotional. Those who know me know I cry at Sorbent toilet tissue ads (or did I just hear someone say “menopause”?) but presenting 20 little scholarship students with brand new school uniforms, followed by a protracted and teary goodbye to all the staff (especially Mr T and Phoas)…. Well, I cried me a river.
After the initial weep-fest that was my first visit to Chumkriel, I’ve managed to keep the emotions fairly well in check. Friday morning’s little faces – shining with sheer delight at the thought of new clothes – undid all that pragmatism.
The clothes given to the Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie by former member and Dubbo businesswoman, Adele Oulton, whose generosity is remarkable and so appreciated.
After some of the skirts and shorts were altered (read: downsized) by the ladies at Dorsu (a sewing business that’s partnered with CLS) we presented each of these tiny little scholarship students (chosen by CLS as being of greatest need) – and each stepped forward as they were called to receive their package, clasping their hands together in the traditional gesture of respect and saying “thank you, teacher”. Some were dressed in what can only be described as rags – a mixture of thread-bare t-shirts and shorts or even more raggedy pyjamas.
Then, amid great hilarity and excitement, they all changed into their new uniforms, marvelling at the tags that said to all that these were THEIR clothes – not passed down from an older sibling, not donated by charity, not found amid the flotsam and jetsam of cast-offs from the more privileged. I swear some of those tags will be left on until they fall off.
I wish Adele could have been with us to see the impact of her generosity – this gift was so much more than clothes. It’s the gift of fellowship and the gift of at least a little self-esteem for these children who have so little.
I hope the photographs help Adele to know how much her generous donation lifted these little spirits.
It really is a small world, after all.
This week I met Milly Freestone, a delightful young woman from Lue, near Mudgee, who has set up and is running a pre-school for ex-pat and local Khmer children in Kampot.
You’ll have to wait to “read all about it” in Weekender in the coming weeks, but I couldn’t resist a little teaser – Milly is doing a fantastic job, leading an interesting and fulfilling life and – like so many people I meet on the gift that is these travels – she’s an inspiration.
A lawyer by trade and training, Milly is 28 years old, very grounded and lives on the smell of an oily rag so that she can help build a bright – and safe – future for her little charges, 90 per cent of whom are Khmer. She is running the centre – Fireflies – as a business, but it’s basically a social enterprise without the charity status that hampers so many otherwise worthy operations.
You can have a sneak peek at what she does at her website – firefliespreschoolkampot.com. And stay tuned for an up-close-and-personal yarn with Milly in Weekender soon….
In the meantime – how’s “Colour Blindness” for the title of the photo below….
Since the concept of a language school at Chumkriel first took root – and from less than humble beginnings with Mr Thy, a desk under a palm tree and six students – the Chumkriel Language School (CLS) as we know it today is a thriving hub of educational and social activity.
With the support of Rotary, CLS now offers not only English language classes (its core business) but a range of educational activities and programs for the students and for the wider community of Chumkriel.
Here’s a quick overview:
The Computer Project: This project offers students and people from the community the chance to learn how to use the internet and Microsoft Office. Students learn to type in both English and Khmer. This helps to provide access to the kind of information we all take for granted these days. Visiting Rotarians and volunteers from Dubbo have helped to set up this project by providing computers and expertise. Access to computers also allows staff to keep in touch with donors and other organisations and to gather information and expertise as CLS grows. I have spent most of my time here on this visit helping Phoas and Mr T and the teachers to prepare a template for their monthly reports and quarterly newsletter.
Community Focus Class:
CLS supports poor and at-risk students from the Chumkriel region to complete primary school and continue their education. Classes include English, Khmer, art, craft and physical education. Two classes consist of students who will study at CLS long term, beginning in Grade 2 or 3. Students complete the course in three years. CLS also makes these classes available to all students from the Chumkriel State School. Both long and short term educational opportunities are provided.
Evening School:
The Evening School offers affordable English language classes for children and adults throughout the Chumkriel area. By learning English, students have a better chance of finding employment and continuing their education. There are currently seven teachers, who take 14 classes, which are held week nights between 5-7pm. State Schooling in Cambodia is free, but many families are unable to meet the extra costs of educating their children, for instance providing supplies like books and pens and school bags, and also school uniforms (which are compulsory). CLS has identified a number of students to whom it provides a “scholarship” in the form of assistance with these items.
We were delighted during this visit to bring with us an extraordinarily generous donation from Dubbo businesswoman Adele Oulton, who supplied dozens of brand new white shirts, navy skirts and navy school pants and shorts for the scholarship students of CLS. The delight on their faces was worth hauling the two massive bags all the way from Oz. Thank you a thousand times over to Del for her incredible generosity. These children rarely, if ever, get anything new – and to see their little faces light up at being given these pristine clothes (all still in their plastic and with tags attached) was beyond priceless. Some of the shorts and skirts were a tad large (these little poppets are minute) so local social enterprise, Dorsu (which is a tailoring/sewing business that employs and teaches locals to sew) helped by altering the garments to fit.
The Salt Field Project:
This project assists children who are living and working at Chumkriel’s salt fields, to attend the State School. Families who live around and work at the salt fields are some of the poorest at Chumkriel, and are not able to afford to send their children to school. This is not only because of the cost associated with school, but because the children are needed to work in the salt fields, which are also quite a long way (by Cambodian standards) from the school. Parents are also (formally) uneducated, and do not recognise the value in education for their children. CLS works in concert with the State School, local authorities and other organisations to help provide equal access to education for these children – CLS provides help with transportation (there is now a bus – which is beginning to show the ravages of rust from travelling across the salt fields every day) – and also with the provision of school supplies for the children, all while aiming to increase the awareness of the importance of education.
The Library Project:
Established with the support and financial assistance of the Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie, after member Glenys Mulholland visited CLS in 2011, the Library has gone from strength to strength, and is a very valuable resource for CLS. The books and resources are provided free for the use of students and people from the community. Library classes are held, and there is often a teacher available to help people from the community with their reading. During last year’s visit, our team made had a book-buying trip in Kampot (and in Phnom Penh for those books we couldn’t source locally) to purchase English and Khmer text books and resources to stock the library. We also donated some of these books to the State School, because the students of CLS benefit from the sharing of resources.
Presentation of books
CLS Library – 2012
The Agriculture Project:
Being from the bush, an’ all, we have been particularly thrilled with the progress of the agriculture project and plot at CLS, which is lovingly tended and co-ordinated by Sony, one of CLS’s wonderful teachers. This past few weeks has seen a bumper cucumber crop – and I swear you can almost hear them growing! The vegetables (the plot is also growing Chinese radish and some carrot-like vegetables, with tomatoes planned when they come back into season) are used to help supply the Soup Kitchen Project (see below) and it’s hoped to eventually grow enough to sell some for profit in town. Sony spent some time last week hawking the cucumbers around town to some of the restaurants – which was terrific motivation. All the vegetables are grown organically. The compost is made by local volunteers who come to the school and mulch up all manner of organic material they find around the community – this is then turned into compost and used on the furrows. Sony tells me he has used the resources in the library and on the internet to research ways to grow organic vegetables and make his own natural pest repellants. Eventually, Sony would like to extend this project to teach students and community members about organic farming practices.
The Soup Kitchen Project:
Some families are so poor they are unable to feed their children properly, which in turn affects school attendance and learning. CLS provides a nutritionally balanced lunch to 30 students five days a week. The students and their parents are also given information about eating well even with minimal resources, and CLS also helps with medical assistance where necessary. As I mentioned, the agriculture plot helps to provide ingredients for the soup kitchen.
Health and Hygiene:
Way back when the CLS project first began, one of the first activities the Rotary volunteer team did was to conduct some basic “wash your hands” classes. From that small gesture, the CLS hygiene project has grown and is now a formal and important part of the overall provision of education at the school. CLS provides the children with toothbrushes and toothpaste and teaches them how to use both, along with helping those in need to access dental care. Part of the program is teaching children how their health is related to the environment. Lessons about cleaning up rubbish are also taught (it’s a slow and steady battle!).
Although Rotary and now other organisations have been instrumental in the progress of CLS, it’s thanks to some very dedicated local Khmer people that it is now a sustainable and professional organisation – leading that charge is the inimitable Mr T (Thy Sothy) whose dream it was in the first place. The man is extraordinary – and his is the smile that sealed a hundred funding deals! We are honoured, proud and humbled to have been part of what CLS is today and what it will be in the future.
Over the years, there’s been one little coffee house in Kampot that’s become something of a bolt-hole for visiting Dubbonian Rotarians.
Established in 2003, Epic Arts Cafe is a social enterprise that provides an “Inclusive working environment” for disabled local people – many of them deaf.
Essentially, Epic Arts brings employment and empowerment through the arts for people with and without disability. The cafe is the “face” of the organisation and it’s staffed entirely by people with a disability – people who are without doubt among the most friendly, cheery and utterly delightful in all of Kampot.
Orders are taken through an innovative system whereby customers choose from the menu then record their own order on a special form. SIgns around the cafe advise that if staff fail to respond, they’re not being rude, they’re just deaf! And the menu comes complete with a very handy little lesson on Khmer sign language.
Adorning the walls is a range of artwork and craft items made by the “employees” of Epic Arts – everything from cloth bags to jewellery and cards and traditional scarves. The organisation runs a number of inclusive arts-based programs, with their overall aim being to encourage everyone to “see the ability not the disability”.
When I visited today with Jos Barber (Narromine ex-pat, Kampot guest house owner, CLS board member and all-round extraordinary person) , the place was chock-a-block with people from all over the world enjoying the great coffee and great food, secure in the knowledge that their money was being put to good use.
Epic Arts is a worthy organisation and its people are charming.
Not to mention that thier lime/coconut cake seriously should be legal tender.
Being on the coast, fishing is a major industry for the people of the Kampot region – and while we continue to marvel at the fact that there are any fish left (there’s no such thing as a size limit here) the industry sustains many people both personally and commercially.
Our little off-sider Phoas (liaison/admin at CLS) came with us for a day at Sianhoukville (further down the coast) on Sunday and on the way back she asked if we could stop so she could buy some crabs for her family for dinner.
The arrival of “barangs” created quite a kerfuffle – it’s not what you’d call a tourist destination – and we were ushered with great ceremony down behind the shop front to the little processing area along a very rickety dock area (terrified with every step that my big barang legs would go straight through the boards and into the murky – and I DO mean murky – depths below) where the crabs were being unloaded fresh from the boats to be sorted into sizes (again no size limits – some were only as big as a 20c piece). Phoas selected 1.5kg of live crabs – for which she paid $US12.
There was great interest in us – and as usual, the kids were fascinated by my camera and insisted I keep taking their photo. I was happy to oblige.
But I’ll be eating chicken for a while, I think…..
Although this is my third visit to Kampot, there is still so much to discover and learn.
We took a break in the CLS traffic over the weekend to do a couple of day trips out of town, and on Saturday made the trek up Bokor Mountain, which overlooks Kampot and the Kampong Cham region.
The journey up the mountain takes about an hour and a half on a motorbike – and anyone familiar with my usual disdain for the things will know this is no mean feat.
But road up into Bokor National Park is very good now , thanks to the Chinese-built monstrosity that now sits atop the mountain in the form of a giant “resort” hotel and casino complex. It was built with the intention of drawing hoards of international visitors and the money that’s been invested into the place is eye-popping. However it’s populated almost entirely by hundreds of Khmer staff – which is good for employment – but very few visitors. In fact, it’s so deserted, it’s borderline creepy. I’m sure I heard the strains of “Hotel California” playing as we walked through the massive front doors.
But that meant loads of customer service when we sat down for lunch at the 100m buffet – groaning with enough food to sustain the entire community of Kampot for a week – but apart from a portly German gentleman who tucked in like a human hoover and wouldn’t meet our eyes – we were the only “guests”. And I couldn’t help but note the obscenity of such waste in a country so poor. I’d like to think the leftovers went to the staff, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Atop this misty mountain, we also found some remarkable remnants from the past. There is an abandoned Catholic Church – built as part of a colonial French settlement. We were greeted by a sign warning we should not sleep there overnight. Not a chance in hell of that anyway, sporto – the place was eerie enough in daylight. At night, I’ll wager it would scare the bejeezus out of Stephen King.
It’s become something of a dumping ground for the flotsam and jetsam of visiting kids – littered with Anchor Beer cans and the detritus of some serious partying. Look past the rubbish and the graffiti and it’s actually quite beautiful – somehow made moreso by the ravages of a century’s merciless weather.
The older buildings up on Bokor have been cloaked in a quite unusual moss/lichen that glows brilliant orange. At first I thought it was orange paint, but it feels like velvet and gives a quite extraordinary hue to the whole place.
The little Buddhist wat (temple) that sits incongruously behind the monstrosity that is the casino – is breathtaking. Perched right at the edge of a cliff, it is a working wat with monks coming and going, it was very beautiful with the mist rolling around the mountain – a noticeable drop in the temperature made the experience all the more noteworthy!
Also atop Bokor Mountain is an imposing building with a sinister history that paints the place as grey as its facade. Originally built (or almost built – it was never finished) as a casino and hotel, this abandoned building was used as a stronghold for the Khmer Rouge during their murderous reign in the 70s. It’s a veritable fortress – again, perched right at the edge of a cliff, with 360 degree views. It would be quite breathtaking as a hotel but equally effective as a stockade. Recent work on the place has covered up all the bullet holes, apparently, but just knowing its history makes it a sombre place indeed.
We had the enormous pleasure earlier in the week of presenting some brand new t-shirts to the CLS Girls’ Football (Soccer) Team – generously donated by the good folk from Country Rugby League (nothing like a little international cross-pollination of codes!).
Our timing was impeccable – because that same afternoon, the girls were set to play an “international” match against the children from a visiting volunteer group from Singapore.
It wasn’t exactly what you’d call “a level playing field”! Cyclonic rain the night before turned the “pitch” into a mud-bath – but hey, what’s an international test match without a little mud?
“Our” girls were magnificent – gracious in victory. Unlike Mrs Jen, who was singularly one-eyed in her barracking for the mighty CLS gals!
As with our own schools, sport is a valuable part of the CLS program – it’s a great tool for engaging kids, particularly those “at risk”. The donated t-shirts represented more than just rare new clothes for the girls – they looked, felt and played like a team and they were so proud of themselves. And the sight of these lovely young ladies emerging like a bright yellow wave from the CLS bus struck fear deep into the hearts of their opponents!
All bias aside, this exercise proved again that sport can be a remarkably effective conduit for international fellowship. Who needs language when you have a ball, some mud and a bunch of energetic kids?
Dara – the cleanest ref on the planet. Dara is a teacher at CLS – but he takes his reffing VERY seriously. He even managed to play a friendly match without a scrap of mud. (Or touching the ball! But that’s a minor detail!)
“Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime…”
We’ve spent the first few days of our 2013 visit reacquainting ourselves with Kampot and the Chumkriel Language School (CLS) – which has been both delightful and easy. This is a place that quickly lodges itself in your heart – filled with people who do the same.
We are noticing more and more western influence around Kampot – and this is both a blessing and a curse. The city (around the same size as Dubbo) retains its rustic charm but the nod to the growing “barang” (westerner) tourist interest is noticeable. The streets are demonstrably cleaner and there are increasing numbers of Khmer owned businesses. But there are supermarkets and shopping “malls” springing up – and there are noticeably more international aid/NGO types getting around in their brand new black Lexus 4WDs.
We know we’re part of this westernisation so we can’t be too hypocritical – but it’s a fine balancing act, even for an organisation like Rotary. Where does help end and welfare/paternalism begin?
From its humble beginnings in 2008, CLS is now an NGO force to be reckoned with, and Thy Sothy (the irrepressible “Mr T”) has grown magnificently into his role as school director – to the point where he is now an experienced project co-ordinator, community developer and international diplomat!
The core business of CLS – the teaching of English language – remains the same. But there are now a number of arms to the organisation, including projects involving agriculture, health and dental service delivery and training, teacher training, community outreach and house building (for the poorest of families) throughout the wider Chumkriel district.
Mark Horton – Dubbo Rotarian and founder/project manager of the CLS Rotary Project from its inception – is now working with Mr T on a smaller project to establish water purification facilities throughout Chumkriel community. It’s an experiment at this stage, but the aim is to build a prototype solar still and a bio-sand water filter which can be replicated at minimal cost for each village. It is hoped that each filter will service about eight families in each village with clean drinking water. We think, at this stage, that these filters can be built for a cost of $US7 – less than $1 per family. 
The issue of polluted water continues to plague the villagers in the regions around Chumkriel – and in turn impacts adversely not only on health and economic circumstance – and therefore, ultimately and as always, on access to education. So by helping the villages to help themselves by imparting knowledge about the value of clean water, it’s hoped this small project will lead to greater empowerment within these communities.
As with all of Mark’s (and CLS’s) projects, it’s important that the locals and the recipients have some level of “buy in” – so we plan to provide the instructions and the moulds and encourage/direct the families to work together to build their own filters.
Mark and Phoas Keo (our little pocket rocket CLS liaison/admin officer) went shopping on Tuesday for all the necessary bits and pieces to make the still and the mould – and we felt very much like locals balancing all our building materials, our backpacks and two big “barangs” on one small moto! (And no, you can’t see pics – my helmet is a pink Hello Kitty number and there will NEVER be photographic evidence!)
Fingers crossed that this experimental still/mould works! Or it’s back to the drawing board for Mr Mark and Mr T.
The unofficial mantra of all these projects is an oldie but a goodie: “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”
Jen Cowley 