Ark @ Boeung Rial

Floating in about 4ms of water. The vegetation at back is actually the tops of  a copse of gum trees.

When we built the floating school at Boeung Rial, we never realized how God will eventually use the school.

The recent floods have pretty much driven the villages from there homes.The flood waters have risen the water levels so that there few areas left for the villagers to deploy their homes. We visited the small cluster of homes that had managed to find a shallow strip of land. Even so, the villagers shared that they were scared to remain in their homes at nights when the winds were strong. A few families had sought refuge in the floating school, which for them represented the only stable, safe and secure refuge from the rains and floods. School had essentially ceased during this time because the teachers have been unable  make the trip in to the school.

Swee Oon will be pleased to learn that the floating school is finally really floating in about 4 metres of water.

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

So excited about the floating classroom.....

The rains have filled up the Tonle Sap flood plains. The above photo is of Boeung Rial at the moment and you can see the poverty and the poor state of their dwellings.

The floating classroom is however almost complete. This is a picture of the structure as they are putting in the finishing touches. Not quite ready to float yet....and we are praying that it will indeed float. But there's no reason why it should not float. The classroom looks fantastic and I am actually quite pleased to see it brought to this stage of completion. What a joyous occasion for the villagers! Praise God!! I can't wait to go and see it for myself.

I will be there in end of September with Ps Peter. This will primarily be to review the Andaut situation. We will take the opportunity to see the floating classroom before we go and commission it in October.

Floating school@Boeung Rial - design sketch#2

Any contributions to the school building fund would be very much appreciated.

Any cheques should be made out to :

"Mt Carmel BP Church Ltd" and tagged on back to "Cambodia School Building Fund"

The cheques can be mailed directly to :

Attn:Fiona
Mount Carmel BP Church
Clementi Bible Centre
152 West Coast Road
SINGAPORE 127370

Floating school - preliminary costing

The preliminary cost estimates for the construction of one floating classroom, of approximately 7m x 10m is:

Wood needed (11.14 m3 x US$350/m3) = US$3900
Bamboo = US$850
Windows and doors = US$375
Zinc roof and the plywood ceiling, nails, smoothing wood etc = US$1100
Transport/petrol/phone = US$550,
Labour = US$1400
Tables US$25 x 25pcs = US$625

Total construction cost = US$8800
Add maintenance costs (US$400 per year x 10 years) =US$4000

So I reckon if we can raise US$13,000, we can have a single classroom school with a toilet operating for 10 years minimum. The wooden school structure can last 30 years.

Fishing Village @ Boeung Rial #4 - the community

In the dry season, Boeung Rial is perched in the cove of a small lake south of the main TonleSap. It is linked to a number of family clusters along the shores of a river than runs in a Southerly towards another lake, e.g. SonnTann (hope I got the spelling right) and Kampong Chham (apparently named because some Chham fisherfolk used to live there. (BTW 'kampong' actually means a port by by the river).

We hopped into small narrow fishing boats which brought our team to Kampong Chham where we had a meeting with the heads of Boeung Rial and Kampong Chham.

SonnTann (?spelling)

Disembarking at Kampong Chham

Village Chiefs of Kampong Chham and Boeung Rial

Veron, just before she got 'baptized'

The sun was already fast setting as we returned to Boeung Rial. All in all, a good productive outing. We had a meeting of minds and have been convinced of the villages' commitment to the idea of a floating school. Importantly, Juhan (Ceruk), the Boeung Rial Chief seemed like someone we can trust to take charge of the school.

Fishing Village @ Boeung Rial #3 - temporary school

While waiting for the school to be built, the pastors have set up a temporary structure, making use of the tentage we had provided them before, for a part time school. A teacher comes in 3 times a week to take simple classes. The teacher's salary has been sponsored by private funds.

It was a very heartening sight to behold, and I was actually very excited by what I saw. What was especially heartening was the sight of mothers carrying babies, sitting with the children listening attentively to the classes and learning alongside the children. There is no surer way of getting the children interested in schooling than if the mother learns alongside.

Three generations of illiteracy is surely coming to an end.

Distributing used clothes

Beautiful little girl. Smart too. Her name is Rii....or at least that was what it sounded like.

Fishing Village @ Boeung Rial #2

Boeung Rial

The Fishing Village, Boeung Rial had relocated to a small 'lake'. They were connected to a number of family clusters connected by a 'river. These clusters were variously named SonnTann and Kampong Chham (not the main town of the province!).

Boeung Rial village chief. His unfortunate name of Ceruk (pig) was happily renamed by Esther to Juhan (John). He is a steady dependable sort of guy, who has apparently been looking after a floating 'house' down the river, so he is a good choice for someone who can look after a floating school.

Most of the the community in the Boeung Rial clusters are Christians, thanks to the untiring efforts of the pastoral team. Sadly, their faith is not yet strong, although they will attend fellowship and worship meetings whenever these are held.

A new venture?

So we return to Cambodia tomorrow. This will be the first trip for 2010. Jhon, Jimmy, Piang Ngok, Veron and myself. For Piang Ngok and Veron, this will be the first time.

On the previous trip Ps Kea had raise the possibility of a visit to a very remote village in the Santuk district. Poor, isolated and often exploited because of timber concessions, he asked if we could help. So here we are heading towards Tropeang Russei (Bamboo Pond), not knowing what to expect. It will be a rough ride...approximately 40kms NorthEast, off the main road at Kpg Thmor. This relatively short stretch of dirt track will takes us approximately 4 hours to navigate through. Because there is nowhere to stay in the village, it will be a day trip.... meaning 8 hours of slow bumpy travel. We will do what we can, get to know the village leadership...and evaluate their needs.

We will need your prayers for journey mercies and for security.

The other mission will be to revisit the fishing village, and meet with the village leadership. The idea is to discuss how we can build a school for them.

Meanwhile Esther has planned for a small party for the handicap in Baray. Piang Ngok has offered to sponsor the party and I went today to the Verge in Tekkah to pick up a whole bunch of balloons and party blowers for them. Pray that all will have a great time.

A floating school? Is it possible? I need help!

There is no doubt the 'Fishing Village' needs a school. The question is how can we construct the school? As the land does not belong to the villages, it is not possible to construct a permanent stilted structure.

Located at the edge of shifting waters of the Ton Le Sap flood plains, the 'Fishing Village' moves with the availability of dry land. Any school will need to be able to move with them. The idea is to have it as floating classrooms so that it can be towed to the nearest location that is close to the community. The problem is that the depth of the waters in the flood plain is unpredictable. My guesstimate is that the deepest channel may not be more than 1-2 meters deep. Hence any floating structure cannot require too much of a depth clearance.

This concept of a floating school is quite different from others, in Siem Reap for example, where the waters are much deeper.

One model I have in mind is perhaps a floating pontoon of empty oil drums. This can be the base upon which a wooden 2 classroom structure can be built upon. Properly constructed, I think the oil drum pontoon should be able to bear the combined weight of the wooden classrooms, furniture, plus about 100 children.

Here is a diagram of such a platform. There are only 4 oil drums here, but theoretically we can construct a base of 500 oil drums beneath a 10 x 30 m platform. Since each empty oil drum has been estimated to be able to support a weight of about 175 kgs, theoretically the platform built upon 500 oil drums should be able to support 87.5 metric tons.

Is this enough? I really don't know. A hundred children each weighing an average of 30 kgs will contribute 3000 kgs, or only 3 metric tons. I don't know the weight estimate for 2 wooden classrooms.

Help!!! Is there an engineer who can help me figure this out?

The 'Fishing Village'

Back in 2001, after we had helped out with the 2000 flood relief work, we were told of a very poor and neglected fishing village. We responded then to what was to become a recurring refrain over the years:"Can you help?"

We soon led 2 trips into the village with supplies and a medical-dental team. In those days we naively thought it quite quaint that an armed police escort had to follow us around. Later we found out that the area was frequented by bandits, and in fact one bandit group had narrowly missed us, though they had specifically intended to intercept us. God's hand of protection had been over us!

The 'Fishing Village' is a village with no real name. The nearest recognizable village was one called Boeung Ria. The village was a semi-nomadic village that lived on the edge of the Ton Le Sap tidal flood plains. Two or three times a year, as the water levels rose and fell, and as the water edge moved, the village will dismantle and move according to the availability of dry land. Their huts are made of wood and palm leaves, but secured with string rather than nails. There are about 60-70 families in that cluster, but the cluster breaks up as they relocate to dry ground.

After our initial visits, the local pastor, particularly Pastor Kea, had continued to follow up with the villagers. Families began to be converted and gradually the character and mood of the village community also began to change.

Pastor Kea

Setting off by boat

We revisited the village this last trip because there was a request for a school. The village had become tired of being illiterate and did not want the next generation to be illiterate. They wanted their children to go to school. Currently the nearest school was in ChakTaLeuk, a long distance away by boat, and which was pretty much inaccessible to the children. Could they have a school close to their village, perhaps a floating one?

Unarmed escort

This last trip, we were also escorted by a police officer, but he was unarmed and largely superfluous as the bandits had long been disbanded. A ceremonial presence.

The village we visited was recognizable, but only in form. The poverty was still there. And so were the portable huts which reminded us of the booths the Hebrews had occupied when they moved through the desert after fleeing Egypt. But the people were not so despondent, so lost. There was a refreshing sense of hope and purposefulness.

Pastor Kea's brother-in-law, a young man named Kimsour, functioned as a pastoral assistant and had been regularly ministering to the villagers. Every Sunday afternoon, he held a small worship sevice in the home of one of the parishioners. He told me there were 8 Christian families there now. And though many had not formally accepted Christ, they were very open and often attended their meetings.

Kimsour in front of the home where they have their regular Sunday afternoon worship

Chern Chern doing her toothbrushing drill

Deworming

Pastor Teara distributing fishing nets

We stayed long enough to attended a last minute call to the villagers to meet for a song and prayer session. There under the tentage, we fellowshipped with them as they sang a few songs of praise. We prayed with them. My wife was particularly taken by the little girl who could not only sing praise songs but also pray aloud.

It was a wonderful time. And it made me reflect on how wonderful it was, that there in the middle of nowhere, in a village that had no name, we were able to pray and fellowship with families who shared our same God. Just reminded me of the wonder of being in God's family.