Patrick got over his sickness and today(Tuesday Jan 23), we are finally full crew. Chey drives his 4WD and picks me up in town, pick up Patrick at his out-of-town hide-away guest house (he really likes being away from the town) then pick up Sophat in the next town Puok, 17km west of Siem Reap where he lives. on the way we stop and say hi to this friend, give help to that friend, neaten up Chey's shop, etc... Waiting and waiting, Patrick and I would scoff at their lack of punctuality... oh well. At 3:45 when the class period is almost over we finally head out further west for Poum Steung. This is first time Patrick come to this remote side of Cambodia, curiousity and mixed emotions in his face.
End of the school day when the sunlight is beautiful, we find yet another new thing at the school field.
On my first visit, I had seen this beautiful garden that Mr. Thai made, and the team explained to me that each class of children is assigned to water and take care of each strip of the garden(growing this type of vegitable whose name i can never remember). To water this garden they had dug a large hole in a ground about 4 x 10 meters and good 3 meters deep, where the underground water sits. i had seen a wooden ladder into this pool of water and figured that children have to climb this down with buckets, and climb back up to get the water for the garden.
so i have, on that first visit (only 5 days before) suggested that we together build some kind of poll and pully to lift the water from the ground. and now 5 days later as me and the crew visit the school again, that's already built! just like water gun project, once again Mr. Thai leaves me in awe with his enormous energy. And the children love using it. they almost seem to be over-watering it.
end of the visit i give children some photos i printed from previous visits, figure they don't have mare oppotunity to be photographed, much less to see the pictures of themselves. as we drive off, as i sat in the back flat bed of the pick up truck, some children are shouting 'bye bye!' and run after the truck, which blows dust onto their faces but they don't care.... they run and run and run until i lose their sight in the dust back-lit by the setting sun. i am speachless, completely touched.
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