REPORT ON A SCHOOL 205

Dear Mohammad,

First a word about getting to School #205...Mr. Neou Ty, who works for Bernie at the Cambodia Daily newspaper in Pnomh Penh, arranged everything for us and acted as our guide. He is very knowledgeable about Ratanakiri, Khmer history, and seemingly every aspect of the school projects. In addition he is outgoing and quite charming, and it was a real pleasure to travel with him. The CNN video makes it seem somewhat daunting to travel to the wilds of Cambodia, but my wife Patti and I were both pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get to Ban Lung by air, and not that hard to get to School 205 by SUV. Admitedly, it was just the very beginning of the rainy season, so the road is still in pretty good shape.

It takes about a hour to fly to Ban Lung from Pnomh Penh and about an hour and a half to drive to School 205.

The Terre Rouge guest house, where we stayed in Ban Lung is very nice indeed, and serves excellent food. If you have not already been there, I would highly recommend you visit if you have the chance, as Ratanakiri is a beautiful and relatively unspoiled place.

On the way to Kanh Chheung village we passed a number of hamlets here local people were engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture, and we saw fields that were so recently cleared that they were still smoldering. They appear to be growing mainly soybeans and peanuts, and in some areas they have cashew orchards.

Regarding School #205, my wife and I were very impressed with the teacher, Ms. Meay Chamnan. She speaks English quite well and the students we met all seemed very attached to her. She is a brave young woman to move from the security of the FLO in Pnomh Penh to volunteer to live and work in a rural area where malaria and dysentery are endemic. She is teaching Kreung-tribal children who may not yet even speak Khmer fluently.

In the picture we emailed to Bernie from the school, and that you now have on your www.oneummah.com website, Ms. Chamnan is watching me prepare to edit pictures from Mr. Ty's digital camera.

Mr. Ty then worked with her to write up instructions so that both she and the students could more easily process more digital photos in the future.

regards,

Bob Marsh