Posted by Aaron King, Director

[This is Part Six of Aaron's "Campus Division in Cambodia" story. Here's Part Five and this is the final installment!]

Friday January 4, 2008

I think it can go without saying that we began our day with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Our first stop today was to visit a couple of floating schools; schools actually on large boats in the river. Apparently as the seasons change, and the fishing areas change, and the level of the river changes, this school can be in several areas up and down the river. We were told that one challenge is that sometimes during the rainy season, some families will leave the village, and the students are unable to attend school.

Posted by Aaron King, Director

[This is Part Five of Aaron's "Campus Division in Cambodia" story. Here's Part Four and look out for the subsequent tales in the coming week...]

Thursday January 3, 2008

Believe it or not, we again began the day with a phenomenal breakfast. We met up with a few RTR staff, and then took a van out to see the first school. Upon entrance, all the students were lined up and clapping for us. Similar to the fanfare of our first night, this was quite humbling; these students were so appreciative of RTR, and I was left feeling like I hadn’t done enough.

Posted by Aaron King, Director

[This is Part Four of Aaron's "Campus Division in Cambodia" story. Here's Part Three and look out for the subsequent tales in the coming week...]

Tuesday January 1, 2008

5am felt more like the end of the night than the beginning of a day. Unfortunately, this was too early for the breakfast buffet, so we had to forgo it and instead have breakfast to go in a box. We drove and hiked out to the temples in almost complete darkness. To our surprise, there must have been hundreds of people out there making the trip to see the first sunrise of the New Year over the temple. When the sun rose up over the temple, and cast a reflection on the pool in front, it was quite astonishing. I cannot imagine a better way to ring in the New Year than the overall experience I had in Cambodia.

Posted by Aaron King, Director

[This is Part Three of Aaron's "Campus Division in Cambodia" story. Here's Part Two and look out for the subsequent tales in the coming week...]

Monday December 31, 2008

Before departure, we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. This was hands down the most amazing breakfast buffet I have ever seen. Big trays of rice and noodles and stir fries and meats and eggs and bread and fruit were everywhere. The fruit selection alone would have been enough to put this breakfast over the top as one of my most amazing ever. I don’t think I even recognized half the fruits there.

Posted by Aaron King, Director

[This is Part Two of Aaron's "Campus Division in Cambodia" story. Here's Part One and look out for the subsequent tales in the coming week...]

Sunday, December 30th, 2007 After a few hours sleep we got up to explore the city. Our itinerary was to take us to Cambodia later that night, so we had limited time. Our consensus was to visit a nearby Pagoda. There were golden statues and tributes to Buddha all around where people could light incense and pray to Buddha and hope for good luck. The atmosphere was peaceful, serene, refreshing and relaxing, a good omen for things to come.

Posted by Natasha Harris, Pacific Senior Director

We've been getting a lot of requests to see photos from our Cambodia trip, so I thought I'd include a few below from our shared repertoire.  Click on the individual link of any picture to make it bigger.


I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that I feel so lucky to be part of such a passionate and amazing team of people.  Spending these weeks together visiting Room to Read projects was as reaffirming and incredible as I could ever imagine.  You're a great and talented bunch and I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to learn from each of you!

Posted by: Damara Catlett, Northern Mid-Atlantic Regional Director

It’s been about a week since I and four other Better World Books employees visited Cambodia to see first hand the incredible impact that Room to Read is making in Cambodian schools through their library, computer classroom and Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship progroms.

The most soul stirring part of the trip was our visit to the family of a Room to Grow scholar named Yum Sophally. To reach her home we traveled almost 2 ½ hours each way using 3 modes of transportation. The first hour we traveled by car and to our surprise transferred to a hummer truck in order to traverse the rocky and practically road less terrain. Lastly, a 30 minute boat ride brought us to a small fishing community by the name of Thnot Leam Bot which translates into “broken palms”. This small village is the home of 17 Room to Read scholars.

Prior to Room to Read’s assistance these girls would have had to make the very expensive 2 ½ hour trek each day to and from school. However, thanks to the scholarship program, room and board is provided for the scholars close to the school where they are cared for by their teachers.

We were graciously welcomed into the home of Yum’s mother, In Lavy. In Lavy is a 58 year old widower and 16 year old Yum is her only child. As a testament to this woman’s generosity and warmth she has taken in her orphaned niece and nephew who did their homework in the next room as we spoke. In Lavy described Yum as a quiet, gentle, and studious girl who is incredibly cautious and thoughtful. In Lavy, knows that her investment in her education is crucial to Yum fulfilling her dreams of becoming a teacher or doctor.

Although, mother and daughter only see each three times a year they have fully embraced this opportunity as only 19% of Cambodian girls are enrolled in school at the secondary level. As we closed our interview In Lavy promised that “As long as I’m on the earth I’m committed to helping my daughter continue her education.”

Posted by Natasha Harris, Pacific Senior Director

(The following is a two part post, follow the link below for the rest of part two and part one is the post beneath this one)

I think back on my childhood and on the privileged path I’ve been on since the age of two. I’ve always been a reader – a passion that was heavily supported by my family and my teachers throughout my formative years. In all my life, I’ve never suffered for the lack of a good book to read. I’ve also been given plenty of recognition and offered numerous scholarships to help me achieve my dreams. I grew up in a country where I was taught that if I think big and believe in myself there is no threshold I cannot cross – no barrier to keep me from my dreams. How much of this have I taken for granted? How many classes have I skipped in my life because I had something “better” to do? I look back on myself and my classmates growing up and I realize that all of us – the richest of us, the poorest, the most clever and more challenged – we all approached our education with at least some degree of indifference, at least some of the time. And why not? Education was always a given, at least through high school. I remember whining about going back to school after a long vacation, wishing I could spend my days outside instead of being cooped up in a classroom with all of its rules and expectations. Cambodia put that all in perspective.

Posted by Natasha Harris, Senior West Coast Director

(The following is a two part post, follow the link below for the rest of part one and part two will be the post following this one)

I’m currently sitting in a Los Angeles coffee shop sipping on a rather tasty latte that cost (gulp) a whopping $3.65. That’s some perspective. Just last week I would probably have been sipping an even more delicious cup of Vietnamese coffee (probably at this very moment, as it’s 6pm here, and Vietnam is 15 hours into the future – 9am breakfast) that cost all of $.33 and came from a cup that did not have the Starbucks label on it.

Since back, I’ve sat down several times to put down a few words about my experiences in Southeast Asia for all of you. It’s been difficult to find words to express all that I experienced while there, and several times I’ve put aside my notes for other things, waiting for the words to come to me.

Posted by Aaron King, Director of Campus Acquisitions.

Our first experience on the streets of Vietnam was a breathtaking one; not in the “oh-wow-this is so amazing and beautiful-I can’t even breathe-I’m so happy” kind of way (which does technically describe their sunrises over the South China Sea), but rather breathtaking in a “hyperventilating, oh-my-god-we-are-all-about-to-die” manner. 

First of all, you need to know that Vietnam is the land of the motorbike.  Motorcycles and riders outnumbered the cars at least twelve to one.  The only cars out there were primarily taxies and delivery trucks.  Now imagine a very fast river, with rapids pounding all over rocks, water cascading everywhere.  Now substitute water and rocks for very large mass of these bikers and cars, and you have this amazing fast paced moving stream of traffic.  Traffic lights were few and far between, and even then only occasionally obeyed.   It was like a huge stampede of wild horses running through the jungle. Really fast. 

Our taxi driver speeds away from the airport at a fairly fast clip, (tough to say, we were too nervous to do the metric conversion).  Upon approaching the intersection of vehicular chaos, our driver did not slow down a bit (as we might have expected), but if anything accelerated, and dove right in.  Amazingly, it was perfect.  Not a single rider was overturned.  It was like the traffic was one single organism, moving as one.  Some motor bikes swerved a bit, some slowed a bit, and our taxi immediately became engulfed as part of the stream, picture perfect osmosis.  We then proceeded to begin passing and merging other vehicles with complete abandon, again with no harm caused.  It was like every single rider was completely aware of his or her surroundings.  We even saw many bikes with families on them, a mother, father and small child all sandwiched on one fast moving bike in the middle of the stream.   At a certain point we had to let go and imagine we were actually watching a high speed chase in a movie, and hope to high heaven there would be no overturned fruit trucks in this scene. 

Upon arriving safely and soundly at our hotel, our driver then had the audacity to demand a big tip on top of his already jacked up price as a reward for how quick he got us there.  Let’s be honest, I gave him 2 dollars, cause I was definitely impressed.