Day 9 in Cambodia started off early, despite the team just returning from ATC the evening before.
It was going to be a busy day for the sewing business team (which included Meng and Me) as we had execute our plan to capture on video various interviews we scheduled with a few of the SC staff, namely Mr Chenda, Mr Polla and Mr Dimang, to act as material for a video to be made that would complement our project and any future business proposals.
The first interview with Mr Dimang went very smoothly and frankly speaking we were rather relief everything went according to plan. The other interviews were alright as well, but because the nature of the interview was rather impromptu (ie. Their speech was unscripted and the interview was not planned in detail) some portions were rather “long-winded”.
Nonetheless, I believed we were able to capture the crucial information we required, and hopefully the video we piece together would be presentable as it will definitely go a long way to support SC’s cause.
We were also able to interview the sewing girls and their sewing teacher and it makes sense to do so since they are the real stars in our story, and we wanted to get to know them better. Hopefully by featuring their personal stories, it would motivate our future clients to support their cause, and improve the lives of these girls by providing them with a sustainable income.
After concluding with the interviews, our team took a break for lunch nearby at the Chinese restaurant (we had fried mee J)
After lunch, the entire YEP team attended what would be the last official meeting with the SC staff to allow both sides to discuss any future plans as well as serve as a feedback session for the trip.
After feedback meeting, we’re going to have 2 friendship soccer matches with SC staff and students at Kandeang High School, to where we had already been on the second day. Recalling what we had done yesterday, after swimming in fast current flowing river, we had a so-called warm-up match or perhaps stamina-exhausting torturing. Everyone was too slack and finding excuses for not playing. It seemed “diarrhea” was the best excuse. We got on the truck with a few international volunteers heading to the unknown and unpredictable “battle field”. Hopefully we could come back in one piece (quoted from Li Zhou).
The truck paused for a while in front of a beer store after a short leave from SC. We thought SC people wanted to play “drunk soccer”. Actually they stopped there to buy drinking water. Accidentally, we run into a group of medical students who are also from Singapore to Pursat. With a short conversation between Wen Hao and them, we found that they had been here for 3 days to provide medical service to one of the villages. The rest of us didn’t have any interaction with them, but Wen Hao suggested us most likely have a bonding dinner with them tomorrow.
One funny thing to be mentioned, Sam fell asleep on Wilson’s should, which se wanted to take picture but failed. We went along the way with curiosity and anticipation until we reach the high school. What were waiting for us at the high school were students and our opponents. We felt overwhelmed by the large soccer field, cheering crowd, and our opponents’ uniform and nail shoes. This time everyone was even more reluctant. Because earlier I mentioned I played soccer at NTU on weekends, I was pushed to play with SC staff against the high school team, who were well-trained and well-prepared. Never mind, if I didn’t go to hell, who else? [T_T] The match took approximately 10 minutes respectively for first and second half. The SC team I was in ended up in losing 0-3. The second match started immediately. It was between the high school teachers including the school principle and SC main personnel mixed with 2 foreigners and our Sabbaay team. Surprisingly, Shi Hui was pushed to play because the other side had a female player. The match was less formal. Our Sabbaay team’s guys took turn to play except Sam. Tak Chuen was not feeling well since morning, but he managed to play for quite a long duration. We lost the game by 0-2. The soccer session ended with cloudy sky and little rain.
The celebration banquet was unexpectedly prepared for us already at another area of the school. Under the open sky, the meal was chicken curry served with barquet on a few rows of tables plus local palm wine and village music. Before the dinner kicked off, there was a lengthy speech about the history of Cambodia and the introduction of the high school addressed by the principle. All of us sit face-to-face with SC staff and school teachers. The dinner went on with conversation and laughing. The word of the day, “Joul Mouy”, which is supposed to mean cheers or Yam Sheng, was pronounced like some kind of Cambodian vulgar word. Perhaps drunk by palm wine, some SC people felt so high to describe their opinions and experience. Mr. Synoun, who was the computer technician at SC, shared with a few of us his “10-girl-friend” theory. The end of the dinner was highlighted by the song sung by Mun Yee, Yun Yu and Sam to the whole banquet. The flow of local popular songs was performed by villagers with their traditional er-hu and hand drum to make all of us come together in circle to dance. All of us were so interested in learning Cambodian traditional dance.
The whole celebration ended after 7pm. We got on the truck with a few local and foreign volunteers, so we ended up with squeezing within a row of 5 people. We made some noise under the darkness along the way by singing some random songs like Merry Christmas, Jingle Bell, Singapore Town, The Moon Represents My Heart, etc.
One last but not least thing to be mentioned was that Sam found a girlfriend, Ratha, a local SC student who had been with us at ATC. Everyone was talking about them from the school back to guest house. I was not sure what the process was, but they looked getting with each other very well. Hopefully she would be going with us next day to Waterfall in Chrak La Eang.
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