August 30th, 2009 by Theresa | Posted in Watkinson Global Studies Program | No Comments »
One Pearl donates 100% of profits to support non-profit organizations that benefit children’s education and healthcare. Watkinson School’s Global Studies Program is one of the main recipients of One Pearl funding.
Here the Director of the Global Studies Program describes some of the exciting activities and accomplishments of this summer’s service learning trip to Cambodia.
————————————————————————
“We returned from Watkinson’s fifth service-trip on July 7. As our relationships in Poum Knia and around Kampot deepen, some of our work remains similar but there are also significant shifts, or additions, in what we do each year.
Each of the last two years, we have begun our trip with a little longer stay in Phnom Penh, as a way to help the kids acclimate to the new environment, both the heat and culture. At your recommendation, in order to get a sense of the poverty and history we read and talk about, in both 2008 and 2009, we traveled to Steung Meanchey, the Phnom Penh dump. It is unbelievable to see the families who live on and around the garbage, including, we found, approximately 1200 children. While we spend many weeks before our trip studying the culture, history and language of Cambodia, there is nothing that prepares us for the reality of this aspect of life in Southeast Asia, so different from what each of the travelers knows from their experience growing up in the United States. After a brief respite at our guest house, we visit Toul Sleng for a glimpse of the recent history that forms part of the context for our work in Cambodia.
This year we continued working with the deaf and disabled community in Kampot through Epic Arts where our kids taught and learned sign language while working on storytelling through mime activities. In addition we were able to begin working with a housing rights group, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT). We helped tear down a deteriorating thatch house and build a new home for the family of four in the village of Chumkriel outside Kampot.
As always, we spent much of our time around Siem Reap, working with Man Men’s village. We were excited to see and hear about the results of our efforts around health in the village. We had helped install four water filters around the village and started a health education program that included three generations of women from Poum Knia learning about daily health care and diet. The results of these initiatives were quickly apparent in the new vegetable garden and stories of improving health in all generations. This was perhaps best summarized by Man Men in response to our question about how these changes affected life in the village. Grinning, he commented on the dramatic change in energy saying, “I can no longer take naps in the afternoon because of the sounds of all the children playing.” While there we spoke further with Angkor Children’s Hospital about on-going health education during this next year. They are excited about continuing the work we started last year with the women in the village.
This summer we also continued tutoring English, learning Khmer, and started building a second latrine and wash house in the village. During our annual conversation about the future, we talked together about expanding the music classes offered by incorporating a nearby village, Poum Chrieung, into the effort to preserve traditional wedding music and instrument-making. We also discussed other longer-term possibilities around education, including the idea of building a school for the larger area that could become a resource beyond the typical public education through the 6thor 8th grade. Man Men’s openness and encouragement of innovation has been inspiring to us as we continue to learn about the country and search for more ways to learn from, and be of help to, these resilient people.
The combination of the two early experiences in Cambodia, at Steung Meanchey and Toul Sleng, together with the remarkable friendships developed with the people in Kampot, Chumkriel, and Poum Knia is the real gift of the program you have helped establish over these last six years. In many ways the contrast between the history and poverty we witness and the happiness and openness of the people we work with is unfathomable. Experiencing Cambodia, working with the people, forming friendships in a place that appears so different, profoundly affects each of us, instilling a greater appreciation for what we each have and shifting the way we see our own lives in relation to the rest of the world.
It does get harder to leave Cambodia each year and, of course, we are already planning our return next summer. We are planning our trip around the Moahosrop that will take place in Phnom Penh in early August. We also have a filmmaker who graduated years ago from Watkinson, before these trips, who is interested in making a documentary of what we are doing in Cambodia. Part of the work this year with the travelers will be around raising money for this project as well as the continuing service work we do in Cambodia.
It’s hard to adequately express the gratefulness I feel because of the opportunities you help provide for these young people.”
Brian and I set everything up and it looked beautiful. The setting was perfect for lustrous pearls, sparkling gemstones and iridescent silks. I had a terrific time chatting with all those who attended and especially loved showing off the incredible silks which came all the way from Cambodia. 
