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oh wow!!!! internet that works! I had a day off then started work. All my friends had left and i it was just me - about to embark on a journey. School's 7km from where i lived. So 14km a day- and i was getting quite fast and good at it.
It was funny- i had become a local at the corner shop across the road and at the place that i bought bananas from for 400reil a bunch (4000reil = $1USD).....
And i fell in love. With Kampot, with the kids at school and with the lady who served me iced tea with milk everyday. Words can not describe my love for kampot. I mean to look at, it's not much. There are no really tourist attractions, and of the ones that are worth seeing - you could come and go in a day or two.
there is so much heartache in this place. I have a friend, jon, a 17 year old boy who moved from a REALLY REALLY small village to kampot to get educated. Here is one boy who dreams of graduating university with a PhD. He is also a realist and realises that he will more than likely end up finishing high school and working in a cafe or as a fisherman with his uncle (his dad is dead). He and his family can not afford the $150 a year for his basic undergraduate studies.
Then there is bob, 20 year old in grade ten at school. Would love to go o/s to thailand, but always asks, 'how can?? How can??'
And the Director (a local Kmer mAn) of the school is on a salary per month that resembles what i earn in less than two hours at work. Even so, he could star in a Toothpaste ad. His smile is so big, warm and inviting and his Teeth are perfect!!
I taught the poorest of the poor. The kids who, without a basic education will end up being victims of child abuse. They are the scholarship kids, the class whose families are so poor that they can not afford the $2 a month for english class. ;0(
and to think.... I grumble if the bakery do not have the cup cakes in the colour that i like.
even tho i was the teacher of these kids, they were my teachers too, my family and my friends. To leave them was like leaving a part of me there. It was awful. I miss them dearly.
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