Yarann is cousin to Ronnie Yimsut team member of Project Enlighten, with whom I had corresponded about staying at their place in Siem Reap. Yarann met us at the airport and took us to "Yimsust Suites". They had gone to considerable effort to provide a warm and welcoming place for us.
Yarann's wife, Saeng, daughters: Thavy and Chien, as well as a family friend, Somali, live on the ground floor. Often during the day, Yarann and Saeng go to the family home in Bakong Village, west of Siem Reap where she supervises and does accounting for the cow bank and micro lending projects connected with this aspect of Project Enlighten.
Three key Project Enlighten team members meet for breakfast at Soup DragonRestaurant (old town Siem Reap), Lisa McCoy (far right), Bill Morse (left of Lisa) from Palm Springs, Ca and key sponsor of demining activities. Across the table is Richard Fitoussi a Canadian journalist and International Project Manager of CAMBODIA LAND MINE MUSEUM RELIEF Fund
Lisa McCoy, all around maven of good works, and Naret, try to pinpoint the sites of the various on-going efforts of Project Enlighten in the Bakong locale. See Lisa's AMAZING blog at http://schoolsforcambodia.blogspot.com/
Naret effectively fills the role of the indispensible translator and coordinator (along with Yarann and Saeng) for projects such as Micro Lending, the Cow Project, and now the Bike Project that serve the villiage of Bakong. Ronnie has also undertaken a major project of building a technical college (BTC) with lots and lots of potential to affect the lives of these folks. The Cambodian people "get it" that education is their future.
Canadian Jay Harrison, a Rotarian, consults with Mr. Tough, principal of the free school at Volunteer Development Children's Association Cambodia on the edge of Siem Reap town near the temples.
Linda Harrison, visiting from Canada with her husband handing out shoes for village kids (and adults) Linda, a nurse, was also able to utilize her considerable health care skills in several other endeavors during their 2 week stay.
Sim Sao, designated #1 tuk tuk driver for Project Enlighten enjoys bringing visitors to his home village of Pongro in Kantreng Commune. Sao was a very young survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide. He lost his identity in that he never knew his parent's names--so he didn't know who he was. He has a family now and a purpose. He heads up TukTuks for Peace.
At Sao's village we are priveledged to meet his beautiful wife and 9 month old daughter.
Next door (actually across the road) from Yimsut Suites, while out walking, we met this young couple enjoying their newly born son. Their pride and happiness were contagious. I love this photo for capturing their evident joy.
Keith's painful joints became more and more aggrivated and we finally had to admit that we needed to be in a slightly more convenient location. So, we called on our tour guide from 5 years ago, Srun Sopheak. He helped us relocate and also to revisit some of the great ruins we'd been wanting to see again.
Mr. T. was still the driver for Sopheak. It has been a slow year since tourism generally is down. However, there are more and more Korean, Japanese, and Chinese tourists these days which is a good thing.
Sopheak's family: Tarro, (age 7) Naret, and Vichea, (age 3.) Join us on our last night. The Pizza parlor next door to our hotel had a playground setup for kids which was roundly enjoyed by the boys and we got a chance to say good-bye.
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