In Phnom Penh again!

We are in Cambodia again, this time during the rainy season. I was quite thrilled to be in a tuk-tuk when the June rains descended with fury upon us. The wind and the rain pattering on the canvas roof was music to my ears after days and days of sweltering heat. I love cheap thrills. =) Our kids splash and run around in the rain after their classes; my sandals became dirty beyond rescue (it will remain stained with dirt forever) and my clothes never really dried properly. Still, the rain was a welcome diversion to the heat.

When we arrived in Phnom Penh via our usual budget flight, Sotheavy (Sophon's daughter) drove us to Diana's place (where we are staying for the duration of our stay in Phnom Penh) from the airport. While she was driving, we were having a conversation about school. Theavy is in her final semester at university and I am going to be starting university in August. We drove past her school and she pointed it out to me. I was quite surprised to see that it wasn't in a place where rent is cheaper.

It was near the city centre, and it was small compared to the 3 public universities in Singapore.

So I asked Theavy: why doesn't the university locate itself in a place where land is cheaper and therefore students can have other facilities in addition to their classrooms and hall?

Her reply made me want to kill myself for being so insensitive.

She said universities locate themselves near the city centre because that's where all the people who can afford university live. There is no point if a university is in the fringes of the city because there is no one there who can afford an education in a university. In Phnom Penh, the distance to travel to and fro school is very important to a student. As she was explaining things to me, she was still driving and I saw that she was right; I saw 2 or 3 more universities along the way. I reckon they went with the same rule of thumb that distance to travel mattered to a student.

This is such a big contrast to Singapore, where students gladly travel for their tertiary education. And Singaporean public universities have so many other facilities for students to explore their other interests.

I guess in a place where money is in high (very very high) demand, education is often far away from the minds of most children in Cambodia when their younger siblings are starving. Some gather scraps of food to sell as fertilizer and others sell themselves as sex workers. This is all in order to help their younger siblings to survive even though they might want to have a better job. The older sister of Dale's adopted children is one such person.

Riverkids Project has started the Get Ready programme for our older kids, just so that they are able to learn skills to support themselves instead of being stranded with no skills at all. Our kids are looking better and happier now that they are learning skills that will benefit them in the future.

More in the next few days!