Today we got up at 7:30 AM!!! We went to breakfast. W e had French toast and pancakes. Maddie and Shannon said hi. The pancakes were cold. We got dressed and went down stairs and played pool in the hotel lobby. After about 1 hour we got on the bus to go to the Peak Sneng village. We were going to our main event of the trip .... the opening ceremony of the Bowral High School Friendship Library.
After we got off the bus, we had the opportunity to once again “teach” classes for about thirty minutes. After the classes we sat down for the opening speech spoken by the village chief and translated by our guide Sophy, welcoming us and thanking Bowral for their efforts. Mr. Malone and Emma Dunn also made speeches on behalf of Bowral High, translated into Khmer by our guide Sophy so the Cambodian students could understand what was being said. The speeches felt like it was going to go forever. Most of the people there from Bowral and the village were about to fall asleep. Most of the people in the village were getting restless but us Bowral High students were strong and were quiet the whole time.
When the children of the village sang their national anthem they were all loud and happy, but when it came to us everyone was quiet and not very enthusiastic. I (Jack) tried to sing up so everybody would sing louder but they all stared and got quieter.
After the speeches, Mr Malone cut the ribbon to the library with the help of the chief of the village and the education administrator. To top of the experience we took part in a feast to celebrate the occasion. We all had noodles, bread, beef and chicken curry and lots of other nice green stuff. All the food was prepared by the village community. By the end of the meal we had consumed four plates of bread, (mostly consumed by myself (Jack)). Sam, Lewis, Lani, Blake and Daniel and a spider joined us for our meal.
After our feast we had a party with really, really loud music. There were three subwoofers and four amplifiers pumping out music. All the kids were really energetic and wanted to dance and were jumping around everywhere and having a great time. We all joined in. By the end of the afternoon we were all hot and sweaty but some of us had made new friends within the students.
Some of the older students that could understand English wrote some of the Bowral High kid’s letters and got their email addresses so that they could stay in touch. After the hours of merriment and exchanging of contact information we piled on to the bus once again and waved goodbye to the students who were all teary eyed and sad to see us go.
Jack and Sam
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