Cambodian Life

After spending the morning learning about ancient Cambodia and Khmer culture, we were eager to spend the rest of the day exploring and learning about the current way of life in Cambodia.  We visited a school, Hun Sen Srah Srang Primary School, to meet teachers and students and learn about Cambodia’s public education system. Great progress has been made in the country to restore and promote education since the time of the Khmer Rouge when schooling was stopped and vilified. Given its poverty, many other countries sponsor public schools in Cambodia; Hun Sen Srang was sponsored by a high school in South Korea.  

Children begin school at age 6 and have compulsory education through 8^th grade.  They start learning English immediately and all subjects are taught in English.  Students have the opportunity to go to high school although it is not compulsory and may involve expenses beyond what poorer families can afford due to transportation and logistics costs.  We visited a fifth grade class and students were eager to share their learning with us – they were constructing bar and line graphs using paper and pencil and enjoyed demonstrating their fluency in English. 

We walked through the village to see how people lived.  It was market day and people were selling fruits and vegetables, fresh and dried fish, fried insects, household goods, flowers and meat. 

Women were slaughtering and cutting up chickens right in the marketplace.  Homes were modest – built of wood and thatch. 

We saw a scarecrow near one house that didn’t even have a garden.  Our guide explained that superstition runs deep in many villages and the scarecrow was intended to keep evil spirits away!

Later that afternoon, we jumped on the back of Vespas or motorcycles to further explore Siem Reap and the countryside. 

First stop was one of the city’s most colorful Buddhist temples, Wat Preah Prom Rath. Buddhism is a very inclusive, welcoming religion and its temples are open to anyone.  We were blessed again by the resident monk and then wandered the grounds enjoying the beautiful artwork and imagery.  The most interesting set of figures depicted the cross-legged Buddha surrounded by a man on horseback and men in a horse drawn chariot, emaciated men behind him and a man to his side lying on the ground with his entrails being ripped apart by a bird.  We were confused by this display since it seems inconsistent with the image of Buddhism as non-violent.

We hopped back on the Vespas, took a quick loop through Pub Street, with its bars, restaurants and multi-colored lights and flags, very popular with tourists, now quiet but sure to be packed tonight, then headed out to the countryside. 

Stopped enroute for a coconut water – doesn’t get any fresher than this and then stopped at a farming village near the rice paddies to see how crops are grown.  In this area, villagers owned and farmed their own land and generally appeared more prosperous than many city dwellers.  Houses were larger and generally better constructed with fields out back.  Many houses still have open air kitchens and only the wealthy have houses with windows.  Most families do have a small TV and radio and even in remote villages, we saw lots of people with cell phones!