ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISIT

We were up and out of the hotel by
8:30 to go to the  elementary school that Viking Cruise Lines sponsors.  The ride was very interesting – travelling down dirt roads in such rural areas.  The soil is so very red here – must be full of iron.  Got some great pictures out of the bus window using the extreme camera shake setting on the camera.  Seeing the families travelling together on the motor scooter is always interesting.  Dad driving – sometimes a little child in front of him and then a bigger child in the middle and mom on the back.  No helmets but this is how they get around.

When we got to the school, a little girl came up to walk with me and show me around.  Her name was Vannatheab.  She read an I Spy book to me and showed me the different rooms. 

There was a library – sadly with very few books and books that would not be very good for the children who are learning to read.  There were many empty shelves.  Made me wonder if there are some discards in the school I work at that would have some various ESL beginning readers that I can somehow send to help fill the shelves.  They also had a computer room with some older but not ancient computers and evidently they have internet. Then there were 2 other classrooms where the children were repeating phrases from the blackboard.  Then the children sang two songs for us – If you are happy and you know it and then a song in Khmer language.  They were so cute.

We went back to the hotel to check out and get on our way to Kampong Cham to board the boat for our river cruise.  It was a long ride – about 4.5 hours.  We were about half way through of some kidney shaking road surface when we stopped at a happy place (place with a bathroom) and then back on the bus for the rest of the trip.  Tony – our tour guide for the two weeks – said ok we are finished with the smooth part of the ride now we get Cambodian back massage.  My goodness, he wasn’t far off the mark.  There were lots of pot holes and we took them all at great speed…but we did arrive alive and boarded the RV Saigon Pandaw for our Mekong River Journey.

 

We did a cruise around the area, but docked back at Kampong Cham for the night.  Never really thought about it, but we dock at night and scenic cruising during the day – that’s the difference of a river cruise.

So, after dinner, there was a movie about Pol Pot, but I was so very tired I just went to bed.  He was a nasty person anyway and although I would have liked to take part, I was in no shape to.  I just needed some sleep.

Til tomorrow…