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Just minutes ago, 10 Cambodia SSTers left for Goshen after a final group meal and a full group photo. Eight SSTers stayed behind for an overnight at a guesthouse and then some free-range traveling in Thailand, beginning tomorrow morning. Cambodia SSTers all returned to Phnom Penh Friday, joining Nate and Brett, whose service assignments were here in the capital, and also Kate, who had returned early with her Ratanakiri family for a wedding in nearby Takeo. All arrived in good shape and positive spirits, ready to return to their city families but already missing their hosts in the countryside. Since…
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- Sara K says farewell to her family at the airport.
- Final group photo of 2013 Cambodia SSTers with the Graber Millers
Nate and Brett’s service assignment kept them right at home in Phnom Penh, living with their host families from the “Study” portion of SST and working with a “Get-Out-the-Vote” campaign. Cambodia’s national elections are slated for July 28. Prime Minister Hun Sen, 61, said he believes the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party will again secure two-thirds of the parliamentary seats in the forthcoming election. Mr. Sen, who has been in power for 28 years (since shortly after he left the Khmer Rouge, where he had been a leader, to return with the conquering Vietnamese in 1979), has vowed to remain in…
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- Brett with his family, including Panya (Nana’s longtime boyfriend), sister Mao, Ma (Nam Chenda), sister Nana, sister Leak, and Socheat (Mao’s fiance). Brother David, 17, and Leak’s boyfriend Tong are not pictured.
- Brett at Edutainment, an English-language learning group. Sunday, when Keith visited, Panya and Nana were teaching their students English swear words.
- Nate with his family: brother Yuth (18), Ma, Deth (20), Pa, and List (12)
- Dinner with the Graber Millers at Yumi, a local Japanese restaurant
This week the Graber Millers visited Carina and Maryn in Sbov, a Khmer Muslim village a few minutes from Kep on the southern coast. Given the beauty of the area, the Graber Millers stayed a couple of extra days in the coastal town of Kep for a mini family vacation. Carina and Maryn also enjoy the natural landscapes of Kep. Hills that are part of Kep National Park rise up from the Gulf of Thailand and provide challenging walking trails suitable for birding, animal-watching, and vista-viewing. Nearly every day Maryn and Carina ride to a nearby guesthouse, park their bikes,…
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- Children ride in the Graber Miller tuk-tuk while waiting for school to begin.
- Student at school waiting for class to begin.
- Riding home from Kep on a 100-degree day.
- Carina arrives at her home.
- Carina’s family’s shop on the highway.
- Carina’s family’s food stand
- Carina outside her home.
- Carina with her cousin Sarah (23) and sister Navy (18)
- Chatting under the house.
- Inside Carina’s house, which has one bedroom and then open spaces.
- Bagged rice for the whole year.
- Back of Carina’s house
- View from Carina’s back lawn
- Carina with her Ma, sister Navy, sister Vary, and Pa.
- Mia with Carina’s 21-year-old sister Vary.
- Homes in Sbov near Maryn’s house.
- Bong Srey (older sister), Maryn, and Ma, mother-in-law of Marya.
- The unused modern kitchen inside Maryn’s house.
- Maryn in her room.
- View from Maryn’s unused inside kitchen, over the fish pond and out to the pasture.
- Maryn’s inside bathroom — the only SSTer out in the provinces to have an inside toilet!
- Maryn’s regularly used outside kitchen.
- Maryn’s Bong Srey (older sister) prepares a fish dinner.
- Bong Srey pumps water.
- Maryn gives a thumbs-up for breakfast.
Jake and Sara K live in two quite rural villages outside of Siem Reap, about a half hour from each other and at least a 45-minute bike ride from the city. Both have made their villages home, making connections with family and friends and finding meaningful work/accompaniment. Sara lives in Krabei Riel and commutes into Siem Reap, usually by bike, for her work at IDE, a world leader in practical, market-based solutions to rural poverty. Mike Roberts — husband of Sreyhem Roberts, who was our SST family assistant in 2007 and 2010 — is the overall director of IDE Cambodia,…
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- Sara at the IDE office in Siem Reap
- Sara with Punith, who sometimes helps translate during Sara’s interviews, though Sara’s Khmer skills are quite good.
- Sara with her friend Ravi, an accountant, at IDE’s offices in Siem Reap.
- Sara with Monorom, a Cambodian-Canadian colleague
- Sara with IDE office friends as they prepared to go to a recent wedding.
- Sara interviewing
- Sarah interviews one of the Farm Business Advisors
- One of Sarah’s Farm Business Advisor interviewees.
- Sara interviews another Farm Business Advisor
- Sara with Bong Srey, her sister-in-law.
- Sara with her aunt, who lives 100 meters from Sara’s house.
- Water buffalo on the beautiful ride to Jake’s house
- Schoolchildren heading home on the road to Jake’s
- Jake with his friend Vdup, who owns a lot of land in the village
- Jake with rowdy nephew Pekadei
- Jake with his friend Viet
- Jake and Ratana wait for their English students at the local church
- Sara seemed pleased with Ann and Keith’s gift of Nutella and peanut butter, which most SSTers receive when the Graber Miller’s visit.
Audrey and Joel are in Kampong Phluck (spelled and pronounced in a variety of ways), the remote, stilted village along the Tonle Sap Lake. The entire SST group visited the village when we were in Siem Reap back in early February (see the entry on Kampong Phluck there for more overview photos). Joel and Audrey live just down from the village’s wat in homes on 20-foot stilts located just across the dusty street from each other. Since this is nearing the end of the dry season (the rainy season begins in May), most of Kampong Phluck’s stilts are exposed…
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- Treacherous pathway to the laundry and bathroom area at Joel’s house.
- The perilous pathway to Joel’s bathroom, with a 20-foot drop.
- View from Joel’s back deck.
- Joel’s brother and sister-in-law work on repairing fishing nets.
- Audrey’s mom feeds the fish at the fish farm
- Audrey and Joel’s students
- More of Audrey and Joel’s students
- Heading into Siem Reap with Joel and Audrey
Renae and Henry are living in Svay Klang in Kampong Cham Province, about a 5 1/2 hour van ride away from Phnom Penh. Their home is situated right on the Mekong River, though the riverbed directly in front of their home is dry at this time of the year (the hot and dry season), and community members grow crops on the land while they have a chance. Svay Klang is a largely Muslim community in a Cambodian Province that is 50 percent Muslim, descendants of the Cham people who once occupied much of what is now Vietnam. Our local assistant,…
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- Henry and Renae on their front doorstep.
- Renae in her home
- Renae and Mom (Sa Hapsa)
- Typical ox cart used in Svay Klang for hauling tobacco
- Pa (No Min), Ma (Sa Hapsa), neighbor, uncle and neighbor Dam Saa, Henry and Renae
- Henry and Renae’s outdoor bathroom
- Back window of Renae and Henry’s house
- Neighbor Roni strips the stem out of dried tobacco
- Walking to the mosque with regular neighborhood companions Meselmaya and Ameeyut
- Taking an afternoon break at the neighborhood iced coffee shop
- This tower was builtt by the Cham people about 150 years ago, and the Imam often sang/chanted from it. It was partially destroyed by the Khmer Rouge.
- Henry climbs a bamboo pole inside the 150-year-old Cham tower
- Renae and Henry with Arya, Ameeyut, and Meselmaya
- Henry entertains the school kids with a yoyo before English class
- Keith’s van crosses the Mekong on a ferry on the trip back to Phnom Penh
Living with Tampoun families in Ratanakiri Province — 12 hours by bus from Phnom Penh — is going swimmingly, in both figurative and literal ways. The five students placed there — Madeleine, Kate, Corey, Sarah T, and Seth — are having positive experiences living with their indigenous families and teaching English, and they also usually have a bit of time each afternoon to swim at the Volcanic Crater Lake that is part of the Yeak Lom Tampoun community. Five Tampoun communities are part of the Yeak Lom Tampoun tribal group, and one student lives in each village. As you can…
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This is the third of three posts we’re putting up this evening, so please be sure to read about Jessie’s experience in Tang Khiev and Lauren and Jacob M’s service in Ba Phnom. The Graber Millers have enjoyed a more relaxed pace of life in Phnom Penh over the last two weeks. They’ve been out for two service visits thus far, and are planning a major trip to Ratanakiri Sunday, where they will see Kate, Madeleine, Sarah T, Corey, and Seth. This week they’ve also had many opportunities to chat with SST Director Tom Meyers, who is visiting from back…
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This is the second of three posts we are putting up tonight — the first on Jacob M and Lauren in Ba Phnom, this one on Jessie’s accompaniment assignment, and a third on the Graber Millers’ lives in Phnom Penh. On Wednesday visiting SST Director Tom Meyers as well as Keith and Ann went to visit Jessie in Tang Khiev, adjacent to Preah Reachatrab (Oudong) Mountain in Kandal Province. The trip to Jessie’s village is about a two-hour tuk-tuk ride from the southern part of the city, where the Graber Millers live. Tang Khiev is a relocation site established in…
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In the next 24 hours we’ll post several new blogs, so please take a look at the additional ones on Jessie in Oudong and the Graber Millers in Phnom Penh. Lauren and Jacob M are thriving in Ba Phnom, in Prey Veang Province east of Phnom Penh. Jacob is the first Cambodia SSTer ever to live at a Buddhist wat, making his home among the 15 to 20 monks who live on the temple grounds. Jacob has his own room apart from the monks’ quarters, but he has breakfast and lunch at the wat and uses the monks’ dump shower….
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