Recent Donations, Constructions

Lots of construction projects going on. Especially in terms of bricks, paint and concrete bags. I’ve been in my rural village long enough to witness these changes. It’s on the main road to Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s magnetic and amazing tourist site. Nowadays, people are obliged to destroy their front yards (being government property) to enlarge the roads.

Many storefronts had been destroyed or moved into their house instead of the lawn/side walk. One reason I heard for this was so people coming to shop would have space to stand on the actual sidewalk instead of in the street where traffic can hit you. So enlargement of the roads will facilitate tourism and travel as in the surrounding countries. It’s amazing: the dirt roads I’ve known so long won’t be causing the dust storms I bike through, but will be black asphalt and too-soon-faded division lines. I think it’d be wonderful to have more speed bumps around to prevent the driving getting too fast.

^^^ABOVE, a 2nd grader’s page from required textbook. Crash course into life skills

It’s an odd thing to see that even with a huge statue at the roundabout, people are still speeding through the curve, pretending to be possesor’s of omnivision of all people around the corner, like a small kid on a bike (who’s usually too small for his bike so only half a foot is on a pedal at a time – hence, less control of bike maneuvering). Doesn’t it worry you too?

In other news, the school fence is being built like there’s no tomorrow. The high noon sun is fierce and painters still paint and cement is still churned on the ground. It is custom to have the names of the donors of the fence materials be written near the top of the 1.5 meter concrete fence. Sometimes I think a barbed wire fence is enough because it keeps out the cows. But people have a fancier vision of my high school. My school director recently called it a resource school — grabbing many kids as far as 13 km to attend because surrounding high schools are either far or understaffed (very common problem in rural setting).

And a WOW for this next update!

A donor in the neighborhood has graciously blessed the school with a $70 000 construction project of a new 2-story library. There is some conflict of interests as to where it will be placed. The donor and teachers at the school would like to construct the library in the center of the school, but officials(? – someone of authority) would like it at a different edge of the school. I was talking to some teacher friends and asked them if the conflict would disappear if the donor just bought $70 000 worth of textbooks. . . Nonplussed looks were my part of the reception.

Another kind person, a former high school student, with friends from a western university in Australia helped bring 3 new computers to the school. The friends at the university had paid for the computers to be shipped over and decided to give the computers to the school because they were going to be recycled, but thought better to continue letting teachers and students use the outdated PCs albeit much-new-to-my-colleagues. So far, only 2 teachers know how to handle computers so they’re not so used these days.