As I mentioned, my mother went over to Cambodia to teach English to children and did so through an organization called the Cambodian Living Arts. I got to spend some time in her classrooms with these kids and it was quite an experience. These children are so warm and genuine not to mention eager to learn! They are also extremely happy children which given some of their living conditions the average American might find very surprising. They have such a different attitude about life over there than we do and while they aspire to more, just as we do, they are so much more accepting and gracious about what they have. It was a very moving experience and one that truly makes you appreciate what you have in life.

My mom is now putting two of her students through the University over there and helping one of them, Kuwick, with his family's living situation which may become very dicey, very soon.

As for me I plan to donate my images of Cambodia for a fundraiser that she is giving in Florida. In addition, should anyone be interested in purchasing any of my imagery from Cambodia I will be donating all of the proceeds to Cambodian Living Arts as well.

Here are some images of the children at school, dancing the traditional Khmer dance and some of the living conditions over there.

This girl was so excited about getting the answers right!
and she usually did..

Here they are practicing the traditional Khmer dance in an apartment where Kuwick lives.

This is the apartment complex where Kuwick lives with his family.
There are developers who have bought it and it may be torn down in the near future.

There were a number of small wooden buildings directly behind it which were demolished not long ago by the same developer. The occupants were sent out of the city to another building with no running water, sewage or windows and no way to get back into the city for work.

There are people not even as lucky as that, however, that live at "the dump" A huge garbage dump where many actually live and try to survive off what is thrown out. The living conditions are exactly what you would expect but dangerous as well. A little girl was killed scavenging behind a garbage truck while we were there when the bin it was carrying fell off and landed on her.

We bought lots of fruit and took it out there for them and you can see the chaos of trying to get some fruit for themselves and their families. It wasnt mean or greedy chaos, just pure survival.

We were actually only on the edge of this dump and it was hard to believe anyone could be here scavenging all day let alone setting up make shift housing in the middle of all the toxic smoke and garbage.

For more on these conditions check out this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=kristof%20Cambodia&st=cse

We tried handing the food out at first but as the group of kids grew it became impossible and the box was dropped and a frenzy commenced.

This girl was in such a rush that she jumped off her bike and her friend who was on the back was dumped right on the ground

I will have one more blog about Cambodia to post and then will be getting back to blogging about all the assignment work we have been doing. In the meantime, if you have found any of these images to be something you might want to own, or want to see more. Please contact me. The fees are reasonable and the cause a very important one.