Last Day, Productive Trip

I'll be standing in line at the Siem Reap International Airport in about 12 hours waiting for the first of 3 flights to get home. This is the day for last-minute shopping, indulging in the local culinary delights, and tying off loose ends. Here's the summary of activity for 2015:

• Taught 2 classes at the Provincial Teacher Training College for the week of July 20-24
• One Train the Trainer course focused on helping staff improve their computer skills and address administrative challenges
• One Overview of Office course focused on helping about 30 students start using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for when they teach classes
• Distributed flash drives to all students with a variety of English eBooks and some Khmer books. All textbooks at high school or college level.
• Replaced the PC at Bos Kralanh village (Mr. Sok's house in particular) which was beyond it's useful age with a new laptop
• Recognized our 2015 and 2014 graduates with a "Graduation Party" at the West Baray. Sought out those who couldn't attend and ensured they were congratulated for their achievements. This is unusual in Cambodia and important to reinforce this program.
• Started a comprehensive list of Building Cambodia Activities in a format easy to display on a Google Map
• Researched the quality and supply of mosquito nets manufactured in Cambodia and determined that locally sourced versions are reasonable. 
• Researched the situation of children living at the prison and determined that their policy recently changed. There are no children there any more, only one baby recently born. There might still be opportunity to help here, but it will be different than initially expected.

Another good year!

Sending Off for a Dear Friend

Today Deanna heads back to the US. She's been working here for about 5 weeks on various projects. That's actually a short trip for her, but since last year she wasn't able to make it this is not bad.

We're helping her to do last minute shopping, tie off on projects, double check the bags, and generally get ready for her flight. It's the 11:45pm red-eye to Korea so she's in for a long journey home.

I wouldn't be surprised to see several people show up at the airport to give her a proper farewell. Well done Deanna, thanks for another productive year!

An Incredible Presentation

The Provincial Teacher Training College in Siem Reap serves a very large area of the country. Prospective teachers come here to study on a two year course before heading back to their villages as a certified teacher. The work we do here is very much "train the trainer" for highly motivated people.

Friday was final exams for the second year students, but somehow they arranged to have a full ceremony for us in gratitude of the work we did this year. Gifts were presented to us, words of thanks, and even a well done rendition of "You Lift me Up" by a student! I returned the favor by giving each member of my computer class a USB flash drive with ebooks and training materials. 

I love the wells, toilets, PCs, and other tangible items we establish. The personal training we do is equally important!