Our New Friend... Sok Kim

The ship was docked in front of the home of Sok Kim. She is 18 years old and wanted to be with us has much as possible. She is a teacher at the local Fullbright School of English. Schools like this are dotted all over Cambodia because of the desire to learn our language. Students pay to attend. Sok Kim had pretty good English. Her pronunciation was clear and vocabulary diverse. She never went to school in Phnom Penh which surprised me. She wanted so much to keep talking to us and help her speak better. We went on a walk to her family’s land which was growing sugar cane and banana trees. In the first picture, we had just left the main road to head toward the land. Sorry to say I have no more pictures because my batteries went dead. It was a beautiful walk and the weather cooperated with cloudy skies and a nice breeze. But the real interesting visit was to her school. I think she wanted me to come several nights but since I have classes for crew members, I only went one night. In the pictures of the classes, Sok Kim is standing to the far right in one of them. Notice her blue skirt and white shirt which is standard apparel for teachers. She was over the youngest students in this school. There were five other “rooms” of kids scattered throughout the house that was converted into a school. They were grouped by age and ability. I talked with her students and made them laugh (on purpose) trying to get them to speak to me in English. I must have a made a small impression because when I walked to the market the next day, I had some more friends! gail