Year 13 Trip to our UWS School in Cambodia
The community of La Meuy is actually a collection of 3 hamlets not far from the Laos border. It is geographically isolated; from Ban Lung (nearest town) it took us 2 hours on a dirt road followed by 40 mins in small boats to arrive at La Meuy. The village is a collection of various sized houses mostly built from wood or bamboo cut from the surrounding forests. The main street is a well-maintained dirt track. From our perspective it looked quite picturesque. Banana and cashew trees line the banks of the river, wild pigs roam the village and pass through the school’s playground and children swim in the river. There is not a car in sight and only a collection of mopeds and bicycles – people walk. However, like many other hillside villages in the area, La Meuy is also isolated by the fact that people speak their own dialect. They cannot understand Khmer and therefore cannot access government services. Time and time again the students told us that learning Khmer would make the biggest difference to their lives.
It was an incredible experience for us all; we all commented on how happy the children looked, how they enjoyed everything they did both in the UWS school and in the playground. They were proud to show us around their village and to show us how they lived. They have a much closer connection to the food they eat and we learnt much about living sustainably and simply. Many children clearly only have one set of clothes yet they always wore a smile we have rarely witnessed – although I have to say our BSP students did give it a good try. Thank you so much for all your support. This is a project and a trip that will run until 2030 so plenty of future opportunities to come to be a part of something truly special.
More photos in our Flickr album
