Day 20 : Monday 9 November 2009 – Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in Cambodia, independence that is from the French who occupied and then ruled Cambodia until from 1863 until 1953.  There are also public holidays to celebrate independence from all their other occupiers; the Thais, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge and you name it.  Public holidays are poor compensation for this crazy life of occupation, domination and destruction. 

With New Hope closed today, I went to visit another project, Grace House, which several of the other volunteers are working on.  (Ann, Gill and Danni have already featured in this blog). 

Gill came up with the idea and very generous offer to take her two classes of teenage students to the National Museum today in an effort to educate them on their own history and culture.   None had been to the Museum before, nor most likely will have the opportunity to again.

Throwing away all the usual rules and regulations associated with class excursions, at least in Australia, we happily piled 30 boys in the back of a truck and sent them off to the Museum, returning with 40 girls and one mortified volunteer, half an hour later.   (I almost fell out of the back of the ute – twice!  The roads are in such hideous condition, even through town).

I chaperoned the 40 teenage girls with a Khmer teacher, while Gill floated between the boys and girls.   It was amazing to watch their genuine interest and thirst for information, I’m really not sure whether they’ve had any formal exposure to their history before but this was certainly a great start.