Daily Reflections by Qianru and Siyu

Today is a special day; it is the last day we are staying at the village.

In the morning (8 to 10 am), we held a hygiene fair at Sre Chea Primary School. Primary 4-6 students and their parents were all invited to this fair. To reinforce the hygiene concepts we’ve taught in class, we set up eight game stations such as ‘Shooting the bad teeth’, ‘Fishing for rubbish’ and ‘Colouring’. As compared to the English fair, the hygiene fair was more fun-oriented. Flashcards used during lessons were reintroduced at the fair, but were used as props for games. By encouraging parent participation and rewarding those who visited all 8 booths with toothbrushes and toothpastes, we hope to spread the concept of hygiene among a wider population in the commune. Some students were so keen in the games that they visited some stations more than twice! Thanks to the coordination of Hygiene Comm I/C Kewei and the effort of all station masters, we managed to end the hygiene fair on a happy note.

We had some time before lunch to do a final check on the English and hygiene materials that we were going to leave behind for the school.

After lunch, we set off for the closing ceremony at school. We felt both excited and moody on our way to the school as this would be our last time visiting the loving students and teachers. When we arrived at the school, we were greeted with a colourfully decorated stage and cheerful villagers and students. To our curiosity, we also noticed a specially designated space beside the stage. It was not until the commune head’s speech that we were told that the space was for the ‘Pounding Rice’ (Dal Ambok) ceremony. In fact, it was a traditional practice for rural Cambodians to grind the young (newly harvested) glutinous rice by cooking and pounding it. We were lucky to join in this event because it’s the harvest season now. We were quite surprised to see the presumably gentle and calm Cambodians participate so enthusiastically in this ceremony that some of them even try to start ahead of others by ignoring signals from the bell. The commune head had to constantly remind the participants to adhere to the ritual by putting off the fire they lighted or pouring pack the rice they put into the pot.

Besides the ‘Pounding Rice’ ceremony, we were exposed to other forms of Cambodia culture by listening to Cambodian instruments and songs, and watching traditional Cambodia dance performance. Students, teachers and commune leaders have put up a fantastic show for us. In exchange, we danced and sang the song ‘Home’, our batch song and the ‘banana song’.

On the whole, we felt very honoured by the warm reception from the school. They treated us with fresh coconuts and pounded rice near the end of the ceremony. They also taught us simple steps of Cambodian dance and we danced together round and round a tree. The atmosphere was so high that we felt reluctant to slow down our dancing feet. In the end, we exchanged gifts with the school and took photos to capture our last moments together.

Upon returning home, we distributed the clothes to the 12 families that we’ve visited over the past 2 weeks. We felt sorry that we can do just this little to help with their dire needs, but still comforted by the thought that we have made a change to their lives.

The day was officially ended by a short debrief at night during which we thanked our 4 Rainwater Cambodia staff for their help and guidance. Some of us then took a night walk to the field to gaze at the stars. We spotted several shooting stars and identified some stars with the help of Kewei.

The night turned late with stars shifting quietly above us, but we still could hardly let go of today, for we will miss this place and the time we had here.