Follow up at the schools......

By God's grace we have had 5 good years and completed 5 schools - Chhom Trach, Ta Peuv, O Ta Saeng, Phum Lieu and Phum Ley. Some villages have done better than others.

We have followed up at Chhom Trach a lot more than the others because it is the poorest of the villages, and have been very heartened by the progress it has made. Recently the poly students repainted the exterior and it really made a difference. We are always impressed by the show of their flag lowering ceremony at the end of the day. To imagine the lids were at one time running around naked and filthy, and now being able to line up in a discipline fashion to do the flag lowering ceremony. Just brought a lump to the throat.

The main reason we visit the villages this time round was to continue to impress upon the schools and the students/teachers that we haven't forgotten about them and that remained concerned about their progress. In particular we wanted to encourage the students to be diligent in their studies and to work hard. To this ends we created a scheme to give out prizes to the top 5 students from each grade. We actually started this last year, so this would be second time we are doing this in the school. I think it is making an impact on the kids and teachers.

Images of Boeung Rial

Ee Sin and Chi Seng

Piang Ngok doing his thing

Jimmy

Penny and Chee Khiang

Me and Ps Kia

Ps Boon Leong, Jhon and Chi Seng

Ping and Swee Oon - How deep??

District Officer, Ps Kia, Esther, Ps Boon Leong and me at back

Veron, Wai Ling and Chew

Jhon

Ping

Light of Life School@Boeung Rial

You can see the floating school at back

We prayed for rain...and boy, did it rain!! We thought we'd have to slosh through muddy fields all the way to Boeung Rial, but God spared us that ordeal and gave us rain in abundance. So much rain that we had to brave in hour long journey in open boats. These ponchos came in handy.....but only to a limited extent because we still ended up drenched.But it was indeed a joyous meeting at the floating classroom.

The villagers gamely braved the elements just to be at the commissioning. Even the District Officer made it.

Me with Ps Samreth.... Poster says Light of Life School with a verse from John 8:12.

Ps Boon Leong preaching openly with Ps Samreth translating. The District officer is at the back.

What can I say....? It was just such a wonderful moment to see the school in stark physical reality. Despite the rain, the villagers were in high spirits. The government was to have appointed teachers, but because the school was so inaccessible, they could not get anyone to take up the job. As a result, we continue to use the part time teachers from Somrong Church to take the classes. Currently 2 teachers ran classes 3 days a week, but thanks the the generous support from a well wisher, we can now pay the teachers to run classes 5 days a week.