The Week in Review

It has been another interesting week at the farm.  The kids took a little while to settle back into the routine of lessons so we started the week with a great project initiated by Sophie, one of my fellow volunteers who is an Arts and Crafts teacher back in Holland.  Her idea was that we paint a mural on one of the rather plain walls at the farm.  The project went down really well with the kids..and was completed this Friday!

It has also enabled all of us to leave our little mark in Cambodia!

The other highlight of the week was a visit from a group of student dentists.  They gave all of the kids a good check up and finished off with giving each of them a good coating of Flouride! 

We said good bye to Sophie and Dan today (Friday).  They are almost at the end of a 7 month journey and will finish off with a week in Africa.  They have made a great contribution at the farm and will be missed, both by us and the kids with whom they were a great hit.  We said goodbye to them with a farewell dinner at a restaurant called Romdeng.  The restaurant is part of chain of that provides training for street kids to work in the restaurant business.  It is situated is what appeared to me to be a renovated Colonial house, complete with a swimming pool and beautiful outdoor seating. 

 

I loved the decor.  The house is decorated by some of the great art work done by the kids and the food is fabulous and inexpensive.  It is great to have a wonderful dining experience and also know you are contributing to a worthwhile cause!

The other highlight this week was attending a presentation by a number of journalist who covered the conflict both here and Vietnam during the 1970’s.  The event was a special tribute to fallen photographers.  During the entire Indo China war, in the period 1945 to 1975, 135 photographers from many nations including Vietnam and Cambodia were either killed or simply disappeared.  It was very inspiring to sit and listen to these very special journalists who had risked their lives for their life’s work.  The journalists included Sylvana Foa, the only female and a two time Pullitzer Prize nominee.  She must certainly have been a pioneer of her time and described how she just landed in the country with a one-way ticket because of her determination to be a journalist and cover the conflict in this region.    They were were the first and last group of photo journalists to cover a war without censorship!

 

Adventure is a path.
Real adventure- self-determined, self-motivated, often risky-
forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world.
The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it.
Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness.
In this way you will be compelled to grapple
with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind-
and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both.
This will change you.
Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.
-Mark Jenkins