Be the Change Network

June 15, 2009 - Chrauk Tiek, Cambodia

We arrive at school late on a Sunday afternoon, and the school committee is busy making a stage out of palm fronds for tomorrow’s “thank you for building the fence” ceremony. The chairman of the school committee invites us to his home for dinner.  His wife has prepared 4 wonderful dishes of stir-fired vegetables, pork and noodles, all donated by members of the committee. We’re the honored guests.

Several members of the committee share the meal, but one stood back. Ek Chun, a tiny Souy man with a gentle demeanor who is always gracious and excited to see me. He sat at the edge of the darkness where the warm glow from the single light bulb powered by the generator did not reach. His wife and sister and their 8 children were with him, but claimed to be full from having already eaten their dinner. Later I realized that they didn’t have anything to contribute to the meal so Chun and his family would not partake.

After we’d finished the meal and pushed back from the table, the women and children were all standing quietly together watching us, a baby on one breast. From the edge of the darkness their smiles glowed. Chun whispered something to Paul, who whispered to me. He wanted to apologize to me for not sending his children to the school for a few weeks. He needed their labor to go to the forest and dig for wild potatoes. They have not had any rice for 2 months. He did not want anyone to know.

I looked at the children’s faces, the empty plates we just finished, the half dish of rice I had left from being too full. I wanted to throw up.

In hushed tones in the dark, Paul, Yoen and I hatched a plan. We drove our van to the market town and woke up the rice seller, and purchased two 50-kilo bags of rice. To avoid arousing attention we coasted in front of Chun’s home with the lights turned off. Under cover of darkness, we carried the two huge bags of rice down the long path to his thatch hut. Chun’s wife clasped her prayerful hands around mine in the darkness with a fierceness of a mother desperate to feed her children. She and Chun bowed profusely to thank me for the rice.

Chun showed me his empty rice barn and explained the bad harvest, he didn’t want to bother me. He wanted me to know they would continue to dig for roots and only use two small cans of rice per day to make it last.

In the glow of candlelight we discussed their oldest daughters education. Sa Ran is 17 and in 7th grade. She missed the last two weeks of school to dig for potatoes. She missed the test to complete the level, she would either have to repeat the grade or drop out. I knew the later was likely.

I told Chun and his wife to make this child’s education a priority no matter what, even if they must sacrifice the others to work, this one MUST go to school. They agree that education is the most important and they do not want their daughter to get married until she completes the highest level. I asked  Sa Ran what is her ambition. She wants to complete 12th grade or higher.  She wants to become a Khmer teacher and come back to this village to teach. Her parents will let her go to the boarding house in Phnom Penh next year. But first she has to get past the 7th grade.

She is studying today. Tomorrow I will go to the secondary school at Bonteay Proh Neak and bribe the teacher to let her retake the test. That shouldn’t be too hard.