Overwhelming Welcome

As promised, more about our visit to the school. . .

We visited the school on our last day in Cambodia. Initially we were concerned that it would not feel as powerful to go on our last day - we had been in-country for nearly two weeks at that point and had seen a lot of rural areas and a lot of poverty - maybe we would be underwhelmed. Not an issue - we were blown away.

We arrived at 9am after a two hour drive from Phenom Phen. When we got out of the van, we were greeted by 120 students and several government officials lined up along the walkway clapping and smiling. They handed each of us a bouquet of flowers, and we walked through them to a large tent set up for speeches. It is hard to describe this moment. The attention was embarrassing - it was a Miss America moment, and that is so not me (remember, I like to be BEHIND the camera) - but it was also incredible.

I was disappointed that I couldn't take more pictures of this part of the day, but so many people were taking pictures of Michael and me that it was difficult.

Once we were sitting at the head table in the tent, we realized that in addition to the students, the whole village was in attendance. Several government officials gave speeches (in Khmer, but we came with an employee of the organization that oversaw the construction of the school, and he translated a lot of it for us), and Michael and I gave a speech as well. After one incredibly long speech from the Provincial Minister of Education and tons of posed photographs, we were able to hang out with the kids.

We had given money to have some sports equipment (soccer balls, volleyballs and jump ropes) and school supplies (notebooks, pens, books) purchased for the students. To say they had an inexhaustible energy for soccer and jumping rope would be a gross understatement - they played for hours. Michael played a Mario Brothers typing game on the computer (with many amazed observers!), and I was finally able to wander around and take pictures.

After a banquet lunch with the government officials, we walked through the village. The poverty was the most extreme we had seen during our travel. All of the other places we had been, no matter how remote they seemed, had some tourist dollars coming in since we were obviously not the only ones touring through. This village is two hours from anything. But the people were wonderful and the children were playful and happy. It really puts life into perspective.

So where to go from here? Michael and I thought a lot about next steps. Although we would like to continue to raise money for our school, our biggest hope is that our experience will encourage others to build a school themselves. All it takes is $13,000. While it was more than we were able to write a check for, once we spread the word about what we were doing, we got to our goal pretty quickly - we actually doubled it. And to think that $13,000 changed the lives of not just the 120 students, but the entire village. . . forever. . . it seems like pennies.