This was how in early May 1998, I boarded a flight to Jakarta Indonesia to attend a “World Day of Prayer” conference. It was only my second trip abroad. Little did I know that Indonesia was in the middle of national turmoil and that I would witness riots and violence and almost did not make it out of the country on time. Maybe I will write about that experience in another blog entry.

At the time I was finishing up my first year in college. A lot had happened in that year. I moved to the capital with about $20.00 to my name given by my parents of course. I lived with a friend and her sister at a dormitory for medical school students. It was nothing like a dormitory here in the U.S. The three of us slept on the floor in a room we shared with four, sometimes five, other girls. All the students—hundreds of us—shared one big bathroom downstairs. That bathroom was always dark inside. At almost any given time, there would be people in there taking a shower in the dark! We wore sarongs or scarves to take a shower, which meant scooping water from the basin and dumping it on our body. With no transport, I had to walk to school. Later my parents purchased me a bicycle.

I lived there for a few months and then I was invited to live with my distant relatives on the other side of town. This meant living in a bigger home and eating my meals with the family. In exchange, I would be tutoring their young kids. My relatives’ home was close to a Methodist church, which I soon began attending. I had been teaching Sunday school in my hometown for several years, and so I volunteered to teach at my new church as well.

The grandpa of the house was very strict and after a few months with them I got another offer to live with a new family, a widower and her mom in the middle of the city. I accepted that offer and moved again! There I started teaching English classes in the evening to bring in more income on top of the job I got at the Methodist office as a translator.

Even with two part-time jobs I lived pay-check to pay-check. At the time that I boarded that flight to Indonesia, I only had $5.00 to bring. Looking back it was an act of faith to go to another country with just $5.00 in the pocket. Well, I was young. I did not have much worry in my heart and wanted to go see the world after spending the first 16 years of life in a small town.

I told Dr. Chunakara that there was nothing better than practical learning experience! Before traveling abroad, I saw myself as a “pumpkin head from the field.” Those traveling experiences helped me grow in my communication skills, English skills, and to develop my views of the bigger world out there.

Having journeyed from being a recipient to being a sponsor myself I am eternally grateful for the opportunities that were given to me and offer a big thank you to our current and prospective sponsors for continuing this act of kindness and compassion -- giving a student somewhere out there in this world a ray of hope for a better future.

My only child, 3 years and 9 months old, is still struggling with receptive and expressive language delays. Recently I took him in for an evaluation for this year with our town’s school district. A preschool language test was administered. It was hard for me to see him struggle to understand what being asked of him and failing many of the questions. This week I went back to the school to discuss the results with the speech therapist. My son’s auditory comprehension is equivalent to a 2-year 3-month toddler. His expressive comprehension is not much better off, only equivalent to a 2-year 7-month toddler. These results suggest severe delays in receptive and expressive language skills.

Being a woman and first-time mother, I have been worried about him on and off since he turned 2 without talking much. Now the speech therapist wants to provide only two 30-minute sessions twice a week whereas I feel that he needs more intensive services. There is another program that I have just discovered. This is through the county, which will provide him full-day preschool services pending an intake appointment. Fortunately there are educational services available for those who need help here in the U.S. as long as you know where to look.

I have shared many times my concerns for my son’s speech and language delays with my own parents. They often dismiss my concerns and tell me that we cannot go through life worrying. Maybe they have a point. In Cambodia, many parents would have many children due to economic reasons -- children are their parents’ old age investments. These sons and daughters will grow up and provide support for their parents. A family would have many kids, so if one or two have health problems and/or learning disabilities there will still be plenty that are OK. The ones who need help are usually left without help.

Unfortunately (for most of us!) in this home we call earth, the mere happenstance of where we are born usually determines the kind of life we are likely to have. I still do not understand why I deserve to be more well-fed, well-clothed, well-sheltered, well-educated than others who are less fortunate. I hope for those of us who are more fortunate will be involved in some ways in giving back to our less fortunate friends wherever they may be.

Entry #4: What will be will be
by Dalay
May 1st, 2011

“When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me…….Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours, to see.” Oh, the questions! I fell in love with this Doris Day song the first time I heard it. It was love at first sound! To listen to the song yourself click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdhAfMor9BM

The “what will I be” question helps us to want to know ourselves better – our desires, our wants, our goals for our lives. As a little girl I knew I wanted education. As long as I could obtain it, what would be would be. Here in the U.S., many of our children take education for granted. We need to continue to remind them the importance of this determining phase of life.

On Tuesday a friend of mine came over for dinner. During our chat over Cambodian pancakes I recalled to her a time perhaps 11 years ago. I was living from paycheck to paycheck trying to support myself through college. This one time I ran out of money before the end of the month. What to do? I did not want to borrow money from others so I had to just face the reality on my own. Feeling the burden of not having enough I hopped on my motorbike and drove to the post office hoping to get some mails to cheer me up. At the time, I had several pen pals overseas. To my utmost surprise one of the letters came from my current mission partner, Laurie! A few months earlier I came to visit the U.S. and her family was one of my host families. She wrote me a nice a letter and enclosed $50 as a gift! It was a huge amount for me. But more than that it came just when I needed it the most! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you, our sponsors, for your giving spirit and generosity!!! Your support is huge for these students, but more than that it comes just when they need it the most!  

With your support, they will be able to reach more of their potential. Having obtained education myself, I can declare confidently for them that what will be will be! :)

Thanks!

One of my earliest memories is of walking to school barefoot in the hot Cambodian sun. I loved walking to school. The distance from my parents’ home to Tak Sin elementary school was only about .5 kilometer. School was a lot of fun. There were between 50 to 60 students in each class. From 1^st grade to 5^th grade, each year I could recite every single classmate’s name. I remembered all 50 names or 60 names by heart.

School uniform was required. Blue pants for boys; blue skirt for girls and white shirts, which could be short or long-sleeved. We usually had to tuck our shirt in. Most schools in present-day Cambodia still require students to wear the similar uniforms. I personally like the idea of school uniforms because it creates equal opportunity for appearance for all students, no matter how rich or poor. Back then children from rich families went to school with the rest of us middle class and low-income families. There was no alternative private school.  

Both of my parents worked. My father worked for the government buying crops from farmers and exporting them to Vietnam in exchange for industrial products like cloth. He traveled frequently and we would be left with my hardworking Mom, who was a midwife at the state hospital. At the time it was the only hospital in town.

Because my Mom was a working Mom, I was in daycare by the time I became a toddler. I skipped kindergarten and started first grade when I was five years old. I graduated from high school when I was sixteen. Between 1^st grade 12^th grade, I took for granted the fact that my parents could afford to keep me in school. Some of my girlfriends were married off and stopped school in 7^th grade! I did not know back then that marrying off a daughter was a response to economic pressure on poor families. I thought it was just a custom for some of us to marry young.

12^th grade hit me hard. While many of my friends from well-to-do families were planning to move to Phnom Penh after high school graduation to take preparation courses for entrance exams to the different colleges my parents told me they could not afford to do it. I was sad for many months.

Graduation came and passed and those lucky friends left for Phnom Penh. That summer our town (Kompong Cham) was hit hard by flooding. My parents’ home, which was built on high stilts, was more than half way under water. Our beds were under water! There were fish swimming in the house! It was the only time it was flooded that high.

We had to use some flat wood to make temporary beds among the rafters and sleep up there. Many of my neighbors ran for higher ground since their homes were completely under water. We got stuck in the house, living mainly in the roof. I hated going down into the water below because of the leeches that would attach themselves to my legs. I remember one afternoon I was standing on my underwater bed and looking out the window at the pouring rain. I had never felt so trapped despite the fact that I had been in that same small town for the first 16 years of my life. That was an inflection point in my life. I told myself I needed to move out of Kompong Cham and go on to college if I wanted a better life. Only education could do it. I packed and went to Phnom Penh against my parents wishes and paid my way with babysitting and tutoring jobs. I also got a lot of support from relatives and eventually got a job doing translations from English to Khmer. I was very lucky and almost did not make it.

Whenever I think of that seminal moment I can easily feel the pain of the many students who find themselves in similar situations after high school. They feel stuck in the town they grew up in, having no shot at the higher education they so desperately want! That is where your support comes in and can make a big difference in your student’s life by unlocking their dreams of a university education. I understand that many sponsors out there love to sponsor younger students. They are cute and we hate to think of them dropping out of school so early. But remember that in our Help Cambodian Students project we offer support to both younger and older students as they try to reach their goals of educational success. After all, students who get higher education have a much higher chance of being able to have a qualitatively better career and the potential to give much more back to their community. Once again thank you for your support!  And happy Khmer New Year!

It is high time for me to contribute to the blog section of our site. I am feeling grateful for Martin Luther King Day. It encourages us to dare to hope and to heal. To work for and strive for justice and equality. To dream our dreams. When I was a little girl, I dreamed about bringing the christian Good News to people who would otherwise have had no access to it and I dreamed about traveling the world. Little did I know that the traveling-the-world part would come true. At the time all I knew was that in order to accomplish my dreams, I would need to study hard and obtain as much as education as I could.   

Yesterday at our church we had a guest preacher. The preacher's sermon was titled "Never Give Up." She based her sermon on Romans 8:38-39, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."