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Another early day and some of us retirees aren't used to alarm clocks. We piled into three silver SUVs and headed out of town. Carole Garrison, an associate who is familiar with cambodia that we've been thrilled to meet joined us in a fourth. She was in Cambodia visiting.
The main road was quite dusty and bumpy but nothing compared to what was to come. Our first stop was the tarantula service plaza. you can select as many black critters from a piled high platterr as you want, we went for none. Since cambodia is a poor Country, they eat almost anything.
Passing slower cars was easy, you just keep moving further left. If a bike is passing a donkey cart, you just move left. Or if you run out of room on the left, you can pass on the right sholder. Seat belts were definitely in order.
Roads were even bumpier when we turned to head to the village. Cows crossed the road frequently as we passed rice paddies and water Buffalo. The homes were smaller and often on stilts.
We attracted a lot of attention with our convoy, folks gathered along the road and we felt like celebrities.
The 4 plus hour drive was soooooooooooo worthwhile when we pulled into the school and six smiling faces greeted us, this time in khymer. They haven't studied English yet. Other students crawled of of the school windows to watch.
Thought we were dripping with sweat as we often are on this trip, the girls had turtlenecks and jackets since it was their cool season.
They are very dedicated to their studies and all hope to attend University and become teachers, social workers, etc. We are so proud of them!
There was much hugging and photo taking then we visited one student home. It was a one room thatch shack with a slatted floor so rain could pass through. There is no running water or electricity and a few pans made up the kitchen. It's an extremely simple life but the student seemed happy and the family was proud to welcome us to their home. The girls continually thanked us for our support and we were all sad to part. There were tears when we left.
We had to leave since a storm was coming and we had a long drive ahead. As it was getting dark, one car acted up, a clogged filter. However, the drivers were able to fix it. Great news since we didn't want to spend the night on a dark road in the middle of nowhere.
Drove another 2 hours to civilization and our stop, a junglelow in a rainforesty area complete with geckos , frogs and giant water lilles. Too bad it was late, no time for the pool. It was an exilerating day and reinforced the importance of education in improving lives and countries.
Judy
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Richard H. Wonderful entry - gave me a good feel for your experience. See you soon. Love.