Monday, February 19, 2018

Good Morning from Phnom Penh.  It is 7:45am and I am sitting in the garden restaurant of Villa Langka drinking tea and enjoying my most favorite mango.  I arrived at Villa Langka on Friday at 2:00 in the afternoon after 37 hours of travel. We checked in, took naps, woke for dinner here at the hotel then turned in early for the night, we were so tired after the long journey.

We have been quite busy the last couple days, it seems hard to believe I left Maine five days ago as the time has gone by so quickly.  Here is a recap Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday, February 17, 2018 Silk Island

We had a relaxing morning.  Breakfast, complete with mango of course: ) Then a little time by the pool trying to recover from the long flight.

It was so nice to just be outside even though it is very hot and humid.  It has been in the mid 90's and the humidity is around 80% or higher.

I started a new book, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah which I am really enjoying.  It is not a book I would recommend for middle school students, however, on the plane I finished Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson that I highly recommend.  I hope you are finding some time to read over vacation as well.

After lunch we met Mr. Lee, our tuktuk driver, and headed to Silk Island.  It took about an hour to get there, we had to take a ferry to cross the Mekong River and then rode through beautiful farmland.  We were in search of a woman our friend Constance had met a couple of years ago who weaves the most beautiful silk scarves in her home.  Constance had had a wonderful adventure and we were in search of the same.Upon our arrival we found ourselves very disappointed because we were at a cooperative where weaving demonstrations were conducted and scarves were for sale but it was not the real experience of seeing the actual weaving that happens as part of weavers daily lives.  Juli, who is the Executive Director of CASF had downloaded a photo of the woman we were in search of from Constance so we showed the photo, the girls running the shop recognized her gave Mr. Lee directions and we were on our way.

It felt like a bit of a wild goose chase as we stopped several times to once again show the photo and ask if the person we were speaking knew her.  Each person kept pointing to continue on in the direction we were headed until the last person said, "yes, this is me."  What started as a disappointment turned in to a wonderful experience.

She invited us into her home where there are three big looms, she explained one of her sisters and her mother all weave in this space then she asked if we would like to try.  I was quick to say yes and was amazed by the process that creates that turns silk in to georgeous scarves. We then went into her shop to purchase scarves to sell on our website to raise money for CASF.

Here are photos of the day. Check out the two videos me weaving and a professional : )

Sunday, February 18, 2018 Svay Rieng Province

We woke up very early to begin our three hour drive to Svay Rieng.  A few of the University studenmet us at Villa Langka, we piled into the van then stopped at Open Book (CASF's Umbrella Organization in Cambodia) to pick up Catherine Cousins, the Founder of Open Book, and we were on off.

We had a great visit with our students in Svay Rieng.  We discussed what their favorite subjects are, what their plans are for the future and university students were able to answer questions about the National Exam and the process of applying to University to the provincial students, particularly the 12th graders who will be going through this process in the spring.

After lunch we had a Kamishibai performnce first in Khmer and then in Eglinsh of Jean-Claude Redonnet's new book, The Cat and Dog Fable.Kamishibai

Also, while we were there I was able to see the library TAMS donated books to last year which is being called Open Book 4.  It’s very exciting to see this!