Graduation in Banteay Meanchey Province 29 June 2005

The Deaf Development Program has classrooms in Phnom Penh and four provinces for our two-year education program.  At the end of the course (which was actually 2½ years this time) we had graduation ceremonies for the students, to recognize their efforts and those of their families who allowed them to attend school when they could be working to help the family survive. Our first graduation ceremony was in Banteay Meanchey Province, in the far northwest of Cambodia, near the Thailand border.  A trip that took 10 hours five years ago, when we crossed streams on bridges of logs, required 5½ hours in a speeding taxi this time.  We were able to go to Banteay Meanchey and return the same day, something unheard of just a few years ago. Bunthok, our Education Team Leader, prepares notes before the ceremony Bunthok and Chap Kim Hoeung, our new Program Manager (red blouse), learned a lot talking with the parents Chap Kim Hoeung, the new DDP Program Manager, addresses the students and families Chan Tong, the Banteay Meanchey teacher, with Sinoun interpreting into sign language The DDP students and their certificates. Note the wide range of ages. Parents pose with their daughter and her certificate. Chan Tong the teacher joined the photograph because Cambodians believe the middle of only three persons in a photo will die. The restaurant venue for our ceremony and meal together. Luckily the owner stopped the bulldozer and dump trucks building an extension during our meal. A quick stop on the return to buy a sweetened rice treat in a bamboo tube. Kim, our program manager (second left), was telling me how she, in her early twenties, spent "three terrible years" in this area in forced labor under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

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