SMC Cambodia 2012: Water wells and a Cambodian school

Today we visited a Cambodian grade school, there were approximately 300 students, their ages ranged from 6-14 years old. As we pulled up in our two vans we were greeted with the entire school clapping and singing. It was quite a welcome to say the least! After a quick tour of the small school the students showed off their english skills by rehearsing the alphabet and introducing themselves. They were shy and weren't in a hurry to speak in english. After walking around and trying to have basic conversations with them in english we passed out toothbrushes and toothpaste to the students. Ksenija and Susie (our professors) gave them a quick lesson in dental hygiene. Cambodian children's teeth are maltreated, many don't have dental care and it doesn't help that a can of coke can sometimes be cheaper than a bottle of water. All the children were very happy and nothing but smiles the entire time, it's hard not to be in a good mood around them.

After a great lunch followed by a rest in hammocks we made our way to see the St. Marys' well (pictured below). It was a great feeling to see the families that utilize the well and how much they appreciate it, there are 3 homes that currently use the well. We then made our way to see the progress on the well that Paul, Athan, Tyler and Jian had personally sponsored. The well was almost half way done, they were still in the drilling phase which is done by hand. They had to go down about 90 feet to reach water. We visited with the family that will be using the well, it was eye opening to see how little they had. Their house sat on stilts 10 feet off the ground (to stay dry during rain season). The children slept on the wooden plank floor, they didn't even have bed rolls to sleep on. They were the same children we saw earlier in the day, once again they were nothing but smiles. Tyler taught them to "high-five" and we said our goodbyes.