REPORT ON A SCHOOL OPENING CEREMONY

January 12, 2004

Dear Bernie,

Mr. Shinohara Manabu and his wife Kumiko had arrived in Phnom Penh on 5^th January 2004. I took them from the airport to the Inter-continental Hotel and check in at the Club Floor.

The second day, I took them to the Central Market where they bought volleyballs, soccerballs and net for the children in the Shinohara Manabu School. At the Market they also bought 15 table clothes and 15 smallest scarves for the souvenir of the Japanese children that his wife is teaching and then visited the National Museum and they invited me and the driver (Sarith) to have lunch in the city. We have lunch at the Chinese restaurant opposite to the “Lucky Supermarket”. They were very happy with food there.  

After I picked them up from the Inter-continental Hotel at 3: 00 and visited the Royal Palace and on the way back to hotel they stopped at the NTC office to pick up their airticket  to Siemreap. 

On the third day, we hired a van (Foreigner) to go to the school for the opening ceremony. We left the hotel at 8:00 for the school. On way, the left tire of the car got punctured at the commune town, about 8 km to the school. The driver tried to replace the backup tire on the back of the car, but it is hard because the car is new and difficult to bolt out. The driver went to locate the car repairer in the town while I was looking another car to go to the school. At that time, it was 10:00 a.m. fortunately there is a mini bus available at the town and the owner is also kind enough, he agreed to send us to the school with a charge of $10. We arrived at the school around 10:40. There the school children, villagers and the local authorities are waiting for us.

A group of dignitaries including chief of the district of Education, Mr. Kar Neang, the commune chief, village chief, chief of the school committee, stood on line in front of the entrance of the school to greet the donors. After introducing, we went together to the platform with the children in the school uniforms stood on both sides of the road. When we were at the seat of the platform, the villagers stood up to greet the donors then the ceremony started as the following: 

1-     The organizers of the ceremony announced the cause of the ceremony.

2-     Five Buddhist Monks praise

3-     Welcome speech of the commune chief

4-     The school director’s speech (reporting the history of school)

5-     Donor’s speech (Mr. Shinohara Manabu)

6-     Speech of the chief of the district of Education

7-     Cut the rubbon

8-     Distributing note books, pen, pencils, rule to the children

9-     Visit the computer room

10- Play volleyball with children 

- The commune chief said that the villagers have an honor to have a concrete building donated by the Japanese donors. And on behalf of the local people, he would like to express the pleasure and grateful to the donor and wishes the donor good health, happiness and successes. 

Mr. Shinohara Manabu had drafted his speech in printed out in paper. It is in English and about a half page and takes only 10 to 20 minutes. I translated from English to Khmer. His speech is simple. First he introduced himself and his wife. Then in his speech he encouraged children to play sports. One of his paragraphs said: “ An English proverb said: “ All works and no play make Jack a dull boy.”  

I gave the copy of the donor’s speech to the school director and asked him to laminate the copy and post it on the wall or he can translated in Khmer and post it on the wall for the student to read.  

For his part, the chief of the district of Education praised the donor for helping his district in building schools. “When Kraing Knor village is on the hard time then the donor came and give the school. It is worth and valued assistance,” he said. “In his district, there are 50 primary schools, 5 Junior high schools and one high school. The Kraing Khnor primary school or the Shinohara Manabu School is one of the 50 schools in the district. It is a “special” school that have a solar panel on the roof to provide energy for the computer and the student are very lucky than any children in the district to be able to study English and computer,” he said. 

He has also asked AAFC to help build more school his district. “There is one school built by AAFC in O Dong district,” he said.  

After the speeches, the donors (husband and wife) were invited to cut the ribbon to put the building into use, then the school director told the children to get into the class. The donors, chief of the district of Education, the commune chief and the school director went to class and the donors gave notebooks, pen, pencil to the children from class to class. 

After distributing school supplies, the donors visited the computer room where our FLO teacher was teaching the children. The computer works very well. Mr. Shinohara Manabu is happy and he said that if possible he would provide fund to Internet and e-mail usage at his school. Then he went to play volleyball for he wants to teach children how to play volleyball, as he was a former volleyball coach at a high school in Japan. He played with school children for about 30 minutes. He acknowledged that his school children are the good players. He asked me what’s the favorite sport for the Cambodian children?  Volleyball and football, I told him. It was around 1:00 p.m. we leave the school. Before leaving the villagers gave donors coconuts, palm fruits, four packages of palm sugar.   

We left the school, but we didn’t go back on the road we went. We tried a different road. We get on the local road to the north to the Mountain and then to road #5. We had lunch at the O Dong Mountain with the lunch boxes we ordered from the Inter-continental Hotel and then go back to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 5:00 p.m.  

On January 8^th, I took them from the hotel to the airport. They left the hotel at 8:40 a.m. for the flight to Siemreap where they would stay for two nights before leaving back home. 

Best regards,

Neou Ty