Leaving Party
They held a fantastic leaving party for me on Saturday evening and the first years presented me with a beautiful painting of Angkor Wat with their names on the back. Sokeang gave me a beautiful blue and pink silk scarf as a thank you from Harpswell.
Killing Fields
Yesterday I went to The Killing Fields with Roith, Siekmouy and Kimlai. It is a very moving place and has very helpful audio information if you ever want to go.
DC Cam New Movie
We also watched the preview of a new movie by DC Cam "Don't think I have forgotten". Currently in the final stages of editing (it is currently 1 hour 40 minutes being cut down to 1 hour). It was all about the beautiful and thriving music industry in Cambodia prior to 17 April 1975 and about the tragic loss of 90% of the musicians afterwards.
The director of DC Cam (who I mentioned in the last post) survived the Khmer Rouge atrocities as a child of 14. He talked about the fact that people died not only from starvation or torture but because of loneliness and loss of hope.
When he was very young his mother told him about a dream she had. In the dream he was lost in the jungle and she couldn't find him even though she screamed for him. Finally she found him lying in a hammock between a cluster of trees. She told Youk that it meant that even though he was going to suffer one day, he would survive and would do great things one day. He held onto that message and believes it is the main reason he survived. He has indeed gone on to do great things. He is the director of DC Cam which is dedicated to recording and sharing information about what happened. Prior to that he worked at the United Nations and was appointed by them to head up the team supporting the first elections here following the atrocities.
Golf
We went to City Golf, Phnom Penh on Sunday. It was fantastic, who would have known such a professional place to practice golf existed! 12 of the girls came, none of whom had ever hit a golf ball before. After an hour they were all hitting balls about 50 to 100 yards. Naturals!
Legal Aid of Cambodia
I've been there pretty much every day over the last week. Yesterday we submitted their proposal for funding to carry out a 3 year project to improve child protection systems in Banteay Meanchey province. Really interesting and a fantastic team. Clearly very knowledgeable. I hope hey get the funding!!
I believe Comic Relief is interested in supporting them through EveryChild (a UK registered charity) so that's exciting for them too.
Off to have a cheap manicure and pedicure (before I have to start paying London prices again) and do some final panic buying in the markets...
Rach
