Staying in School
The best part of this week at the school was going into the villages and speaking to the parents about the Bike-to-School Program (BTSP), interviewing parents and grandparents about their views on education, and asking all of the towns people to come to the education event on the 10th.
Some of the houses would make anyone feel so sad.... small SMALL wooden platforms, covered with a thatched roof - where 7 kids live, with no parents, as their parents are over the boarder in Thailand working. Or, a man who had broken his arm with a bamboo "cast" wrapping who says he thinks his arm will heal in 6+ months and in the meantime he sits, waiting for the day he can work again and support his family.
Daniela K, our PEPY videographer, is in from London. It is SO nice to see her again, and to speak with someone who lives and breaths PEPY every day as much as I do. She is making a full length documentary (look out for it next year) which will feature PEPY and other voluntour operators.
Daniela K. had fallen in love with a group of girls who are now in 6th grade at the PEPY school. When she arrived at the school she found three of the foursome, but was told that the final friend, Vith, was not coming to school anymore as her parents needed her to work. We made a point of visiting the parents of all the girls. On the final day before the performance, we went to visit Vith.
News that we were coming to see her had already reached her village and her mother kept her home from the fields that day to meet the foreigners who were coming to see her. Her home is in a SMALL small village, about 10km from the school which you approach on tiny dirt roads. It is a good 45 minute bike ride from school as the roads are so bumpy and windy.
Vith was waiting and so happy to see us. She impressed us and her whole village with her English when she greeted us and asked us how we were. Her mother, so young and beautiful herself, invited us into her home. Her mother spoke about how Vith's bike was broken and that was the reason she was not able to attend school anymore. She said how she wanted a better life for Vith and how she wanted her to go to school. When her mother finally stopped speaking, Vith looked at us and burst into tears, as did I.
I worried later that she was sad, that yes, of course she did want to go to school as was so evident by looking at her, but maybe she felt such a strong need to be at home and working. Daniela K disagreed, and as usual, I now agree with her. She says Vith cried because someone cared, because we had gone out of our way to find her, to ask her mother to send her back to school, because she had been a hero in her village for the first time - the girl who the "barangs" came to see, because she knew how much we cared about her.
We asked Vith's mother to come to school the next day.
When I got up to speak yesterday, I noticed that there was Vith's mom, front and center. She was beaming up at me and me at her. The mothers of Vith, Sam, and Channda, who all live in rural villages, had all come, despite having told us it would be almost impossible for them to leave their homes. We sent a car to pick them up, and amazing PEPY volunteer Audrey was somehow able to convince them, by sitting around and waiting for a LONG time, to come to the show.
At the end of the night, when I brought all three mothers to the pick up truck which would take them back to their village, they all smiled and said thank you over and over. They had "never seen such a beautiful show." They "would send their girls to school through 6th grade and then on to secondary school to learn more." They "were so happy they came." I was so happy they came too and I hope with all my might that the girls are indeed allowed to continue to study.
Some of the houses would make anyone feel so sad.... small SMALL wooden platforms, covered with a thatched roof - where 7 kids live, with no parents, as their parents are over the boarder in Thailand working. Or, a man who had broken his arm with a bamboo "cast" wrapping who says he thinks his arm will heal in 6+ months and in the meantime he sits, waiting for the day he can work again and support his family.
Daniela K, our PEPY videographer, is in from London. It is SO nice to see her again, and to speak with someone who lives and breaths PEPY every day as much as I do. She is making a full length documentary (look out for it next year) which will feature PEPY and other voluntour operators.
Daniela K. had fallen in love with a group of girls who are now in 6th grade at the PEPY school. When she arrived at the school she found three of the foursome, but was told that the final friend, Vith, was not coming to school anymore as her parents needed her to work. We made a point of visiting the parents of all the girls. On the final day before the performance, we went to visit Vith.
News that we were coming to see her had already reached her village and her mother kept her home from the fields that day to meet the foreigners who were coming to see her. Her home is in a SMALL small village, about 10km from the school which you approach on tiny dirt roads. It is a good 45 minute bike ride from school as the roads are so bumpy and windy.
Vith was waiting and so happy to see us. She impressed us and her whole village with her English when she greeted us and asked us how we were. Her mother, so young and beautiful herself, invited us into her home. Her mother spoke about how Vith's bike was broken and that was the reason she was not able to attend school anymore. She said how she wanted a better life for Vith and how she wanted her to go to school. When her mother finally stopped speaking, Vith looked at us and burst into tears, as did I.
I worried later that she was sad, that yes, of course she did want to go to school as was so evident by looking at her, but maybe she felt such a strong need to be at home and working. Daniela K disagreed, and as usual, I now agree with her. She says Vith cried because someone cared, because we had gone out of our way to find her, to ask her mother to send her back to school, because she had been a hero in her village for the first time - the girl who the "barangs" came to see, because she knew how much we cared about her.
We asked Vith's mother to come to school the next day.
When I got up to speak yesterday, I noticed that there was Vith's mom, front and center. She was beaming up at me and me at her. The mothers of Vith, Sam, and Channda, who all live in rural villages, had all come, despite having told us it would be almost impossible for them to leave their homes. We sent a car to pick them up, and amazing PEPY volunteer Audrey was somehow able to convince them, by sitting around and waiting for a LONG time, to come to the show.
At the end of the night, when I brought all three mothers to the pick up truck which would take them back to their village, they all smiled and said thank you over and over. They had "never seen such a beautiful show." They "would send their girls to school through 6th grade and then on to secondary school to learn more." They "were so happy they came." I was so happy they came too and I hope with all my might that the girls are indeed allowed to continue to study.
Daniela Papi
1 Comments:
Fantastic...you are making a REAL difference...never stop.
See you soon in PPenh.
AndyB
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