Day 4: Meetings and the Market

     This morning MaryAnne and I had a meeting with a woman named Tan Phally at the Girl Guide Office.  MaryAnne and her family gives funding to the Girl Guides program, which is comparable to Girl Scout Troops in the United States.  MaryAnne funded the Promise Ceremony that will be held on Saturday in Phum Thom, and we discussed what our role will be in helping out in the ceremony.  The five women we met with were very friendly and understood English fairly well.  They showed us pictures of what events the troops had taken part in throughout the past year. One particular thing the girls learned in Girl Guides was how to read and locate places on a map. MaryAnne explained her goal for Girl Guides.  She emphasized the importance of each girl feeling good about themselves.  She wants the girls to participate in community service, learn new skills, educate themselves beyond secondary school, and learn to protect themselves- particularly from human trafficking. I really enjoyed meeting Tan Phally and the other young women at the meeting today- they seemed about my age.   Girl Guides is such an incredible program that MaryAnne supports.

           

Our next stop was the Russian Market- and boy was that a great thing to see! The market is huge and has anything and everything you can ever want.  The market has very narrow paths with vendors lined up on each and every side and it is extremely hot and crowded. I was able to purchase a couple of cds with Khmer music to use in my video that I am producing. Narith helped us to bargain, he was great! We plan to go back to the market a few more times while we are here.

            After the market, we had a meeting with a young woman named Dara, who is the director of the five schools that the MaryAnne oversees. In addition, MaryAnne herself pays for Dara’s education in law school.  Dara was a kind-hearted and very organized person.  She has been taking classes for a year now to better her English; she does very well. We discussed the details for the Celebration with children and parents that will be held on Thursday.  Also, tomorrow we will be going shopping with Dara to purchase 100 books for the schools and other school supplies for the children.

            Today was a very fulfilling day, and I look forward to tomorrow!