Hi all, Sour Sdei, Happy New Year 2009!Traditionally, education were offered by the wats (Buddhist temples). Then in 1975 when Khmer Rouge regime came into power, education systems were abolished, destroying learning materials and schools. But in 1979, the new Cambodian Government came into place, and soon after that modern education came into order.And this is my short humble story.
My name is Sowree*, I am a year 3 student in Cambodia. My parents said that, if I study hard, when I grow up, I can become a succesful entrepeneur, and helps to improve the live of our family and also to better improve the living quality of our country.I know most of my friends around the world started their new school term last week, and now I would like to share our daily school day in where we live.
We have a very small wooden school in our village, it only have a single clasroom, and we have to take turn to use the area for our study.
Not all children are able to study, my friend Sokha, is still not eligible to study, but he always come to school, watching and observing what the student are learning.
These are two of my friends, Samay and Channe. Samay feels sad because this is the first time he attended the class and the first time being away from his family.
This is what we are learning today, and on the board is our alphabets. That is our teacher, Ms. Rom Chang. We love our teacher because, our teacher have taught us how to read and write.
Mr. Montha is also one of our teachers. He is a very humble guy, and when we are sad, he always entertained us with his magician skills and his joke, although his jokes and magics were sometimes lame, but we just laugh with him as not to hurt his feeling. (Don't tell him that, that is our secret.)
This is when my friends were shown one of our workbooks, and they were praised of having a good high marks. I am proud of them.
Breaktime is one of our favourites. We can eat our food. The food are usually prepared at home by our parents, so we eat it and share it with our friends.Oh, I have not actually mentioned the whereabout of my school.
This is our school. It is actually a floating school. I was informed that some of my friends in Brunei also have lots of schools built on the water, and some are connected via jetties.Unfortunately, we do not have jetties connecting from one school to another, as each individual establishment are built on its own boat or barrage. So how do we get to school?
This is how we get to school, by human powered paddle boat. That is my friend, Prak, rowing the boat to school, carrying along his small sister, Veatta. It will get more interesting if it is a rainy day. Although at times we wanted to just swim to school but the teacher do not allow us, because it will wet our school uniforms. Now, I will also share with you, how my other friends living on land travel to their school.
For those lucky few, they are sent to the school by their father on motorbike.
Otherwise, we just cycle to school. A good form of exercise to keep ourselves healthy, who knows we might represent the country for the Olympics!
And for those who cannot afford to get a bicycle, we just walk to school, mostly in groups, comes rain, comes shine, despite not having those fancy footwears, we just walk ahead, because we wanted to gain knowledge and change our living condition.
And even with having no footwear at all does not stop us from coming to school! For the sake of knowledge we will walk all the way to the peak of success.So my friends, I hope we all should not waste our resources, be thankful of what the government have been providing for us. Some are lucky to be chauffered around in an airconditioned vehicle, yet some have been denying the privileges of schooling on their own accord, like escaping from school, being lazy and such.Please my friends, do not quit school, they are many more unfortunate children who are longing to have a proper school environment, as opposed to writing from the "ink" of the dark forest roots, and writing on the dried papyrus leave.*NOTE: All the names are fictional.
What I found quite touching, even til now, is to see children mesmerized in such a patriotic ambience.
A child holding the National Flag, moment like this, for sure will linger in their memory, until they are old.
Something, that they can share and tell their school friends, families, and perhaps to their small kids.So bring your kids, let them experience the experience, be a part of the national history.
.. the kid in red ...
... kid red ...... hmmm too lazy to type... that's all folks ...
... kids ... who are we kidding ...... tell me which local wedding function with no kids ... no have one meh ..... so while the kids are there .. make full use of them ... eeerm... doesn't sounds right .... eerrr... I mean .. get loads of pix of them ... kids laughing .. playing .... looking curious .. or they are just plainly curious ..... sneaking at people.... .. and if only we know what they are thinking ....... " .. hmmmm.. what happen to this lady's clothing ... not straight ... got hole there... got hole here... " ...... " .. why so many colour ah the clothes ... make my eyes and head spinning ......" ....... " ... hmmm.... eh black suit...? .. in this hot day light ....?! .. why black ...? .. not warm meh ..? "... " ... haha .. that photographer using that horrendous Crocs' shoes ... who does he think he is ... Jack Nicholson.. or Dean Cain ...? .. "
... a curious kid .. sneaking a peek at wedding ceremony ....
... in any festive season ... one of the most happening ... or joyous group of people... are the children ... ... photographing them is a challenge ... such that .. they move faster then the lens can focus!! .. eer... unless you are using those super fast expensive lens... then ... that is another story ... 
... 3 sweet funny kids .... who love to pose for the camera .... ;)
.. " .. Baaaaanng .. lakas tah arah kadai menjual kain di sana ah ... abis karang kainnya .." ...... " ... Bang .. bah udah ada quotation kan membali kereta ani ... lalai karang ..." ...... " ... Bang kedai sana atu ada sale ... murah ucapnya .. kalah time inda sale ... ia kah? .." ..... Well .. I dunno whether you realise it or not ... but ... I think most of the adverts on the local mass media ... especially on the radio .. will have such statement ... the wife .. nagging the hubby to go to this certain bank ... shops .... and events etc .... ... what does that means? ... does the women influence the men in their purchasing power ....? ... Does .. the nagging of the wifey to their hubby .. make a good advert? ... ... what happen to those .. out-of-the-box-that-make-u-think kind of advert ...? ... ... I'm always looking forward to the advert by Petronas especially during the festive season ... every year without fail ... since eeermm so n so year .. they have made a very touching advert ... tangkap lintuk punya .. wa cakap sama lu ... meleleh babe ... oh well.. not me thou ... but the women mostly .... ;) ... they are loads of memorable adverts on telly be it locally .. regional or even international ... just can't list them out here .... .. but I guess ... an ultimate not-so-nice but annoying advert do cling on your head .. especially if they have those annoying slogan or tune .... like ... eeermmm.. ... eeermm.. oh .. I better not say it .... I bet u know some ... eer o loads of 'em ....
.. kampung ayer child listening to his favourite song thru his personal stereo .. eermm.. MP3 ... .. listening to your iPod or MP3's whilst jogging on the road is actually not a good idea ... in fact it is very dangerous... because .. you cannot hear the traffic ... why not just ditch your MP3 .. and listen to the nature .... that's the only time you can enjoy the natural ambience .. so might as well... :)... back to the earlier paragraph ... the art of listening .... did you know that ... Listen and Silent both have the same letters! ... so .. in listening ... one should know how to be silent .... .. especially to the women .... the guy should know .. how to listen to their silent .... ;)
.. still on the black and white series ... and getting closer towards the ice cream vendor... also known as the Eskrim Potong Man ... or loosely translated as The Cut Ice-Cream Man ..... from the big box container .. the ice-cream is then cut into a cuboid .. or an elongated cube ... which is then wrap with bread or soft bun... or just taken as it is ... plain ice-cream....... one can have various flavour .... Yam ... vanilla ... corn .... durian ... yeap... Durian the fruit.... 
.. a young girl wait solemnly for her "ice-cream" potong ... from the eskrim potong man ...
... at another part of the celebration .... thou still within the same location ...
... students lining up in front of the BIDB Dar Takaful building .... waiting to greet His Majesty ...
... another bunch of participants .... young kids .. the future generation ....
... the 'lil ones ... looking up gracefully .. or curiously ... wondering .. what is the photographer wanna capture ..... .. " .. eh lain jua skill nya ia ani ... dimana ia belajar ah ...."
.. just a quick post ... an everyday local scene ....
.. The Boy & The Boats ... .... so many boats to choose from ... just like our daily life... full of options .... the choice is up to you .... you can see the lots ... but at the end of the day .... u have to decide which path to choose ...... . follow your heart ... .. but make sure u do some research beforehand ... just don't pick blindly ... ... pray for the best ...
... Kampung Aying ( Water Village ) ... was not part of our earlier outing plan ... ( .. in fact we didn't have any plan .... ) ... but ... we just follow what ever it was .... hence.... we manage to cruise along Sungai Kedayan (Kedayan River) ... taking shots whatever that might be of interest .... and obviously .... Kampung Aying never fail to bore anyone .... ......... Kampung Aying is where.... the villages ... will stop doing whatever they're doing ... and then.. smile .. and wave .. or perhaps .... do some stunning or "sexy" pose ... to the passing "tourists" ..... especially if the "tourist" are carrying those "large bulky cameras and stimulating zoom lens".... like us ...
.. Another shot from the Leica R8 .... ... this scene reminds me of my childhood days living in Kampung Aying ... where we also did .. wave frantically ... cheering ... doing sommersault... and doing mexican wave ....eerr.. ignore the mexican wave thingy ... was just exaggerating .... but yea... we wave whenever we see real tourists lurking with their cameras... and happily will pose for the camera .... I guess... the friendly welcoming "tradition" of waving by Orang Kampung Air ( Water Villagers ) .. still occurs up to now ... really glad about it ... hopefully it will continues for many years to come..... .. another fascinating stuff about Kampung Aying .... is the way how they name their "super boat" with various interesting name ... just like above .. "Subaru 555" ... one can even find name such as .... " Ferrari Merah" ... "Roda Impian" ... " Kau Bukan Milikku Lagi" ... "Jaguh Aying" ... "Kalau Takut Dilambung Ombak Jangan Berumah DI Tepi Pantai" ..... " Mutubot Dayang Rogayah Dan Haji Bagol Dan Anak-anak Serta Keluarga Dengan Gandingan Gabungan Kumpulan-kumpulan Hadrah dan Gambus dan Dijamin Oleh Tauke-tauke Balak Dengan Tanggungan Berhad" ... eermm.. oh well I might add them myself... but yea... U get me right ...? ... Welcome to Brunei Darussalam ... ;)
... not far from the "rich man's ride" ... and in contrast of those huge one .... I encountered these children ... paddling happily in their self made rowing boat ... or in malay also known as Sampan ... ... looking at their gears ... they might also be an "expert" in scuba diving ... hmmmm..... .... I still remember .. back in the childhood days ..... living in Kampung Aying (Water Village) ... (yeap ... I'm from Kampung Aying ... and proud of it ... ;) ) ..... doing a backflip ... from the verandah to the open water below .... playing with those mud .... covering our body with it ... ( and now lotsa SPAs are also doing it.... that .... the mud bath thingy .... .. macam orang kampung aying jua tu .... ) ..... ..... we also manage to "play" with those small square paddle boat .... and our heart will be pulsating with excitement .. everytime the tide rises ..... siuk kali ah ... mun aying dalam ....
... and yea ... while we are in the subject of who follows who .... ... did u know that ... or realise that ... there are a lot of similarity between Sushi ... & Pulut Panggang ...? if u cut Pulut Panggang .. accordingly .. it will look like Sushi .... ... well... yang banar nya ... durang atu ... dulu masa jaman jipun ... dorang teliat Pulut Panggang ... so eyatah .. dorang ikut di Jipun .... but dorang inda tercari daun nyirik atu.. or watever daun yang kena pakai membuat Pulut Panggang ..... so they use the ubiquitous Seaweed .... n Tada .... there u go ..... the origin of Sushi ..... ;)
... whilst staying at the 20 something floor hotel room in Bangkok ... looked outside the window.. and saw this interesting subjects ..... zoomed in and thus this is what I got ....
Children are future assets ... they are like a plain white clothes... we are the one who "design" & "colour" the clothes ...
f/5.6
