Deaf Development Program Trip to Kampong Cham, Cambodia

21 February 2002

The Deaf Development Program of the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization took an educational field trip to Kampong Cham Province on 21 February 2002. It was quite an interesting day which included a long bus trip, swimming in the Mekong River, finding an unexploded rocket propelled grenade, visiting Angkor Wat's smaller cousin, and then a bus breakdown on the way home. Come back tomorrow for the details!

Ready to leave CDPO early in the morning
Here we are at 6:30 AM, waiting to board the bus to Kampong Cham, a province three hours north of Phnom Penh by road (one of only two good roads in the country!). The foreigner next to me is Peter Ward, a deaf man from Britain who is working with Khmer sign language research and the training of deaf teachers. Swimming in the Mekong River
At Kampong Cham, the Mekong River is very wide and some parts are relatively shallow now in the dry season. All the boys went down to their underwear and jumped in from a sandbar reached by a wooden bamboo bridge. The girls waded--and eventually got dunked--fully clothed.

Fifty feet from where the young people were swimming in the river, I found a rocket propelled grenade washed up on the sandbar. These and the landmines and the other UXOs (Unexploded Ordnance) are the curse of Cambodia. It was interesting to notice that most in our group, who grew up in relatively safe Phnom Penh, had never seen live munitions like this. Charlie at Wat Angkok Jai
After leaving the river, our first stop was Wat Angkor Jai, what in the area is called "Little Angkor Wat." It's certainly not on the same scale as Angkor Wat (which is in Siem Reap, 200 miles to the northwest), but it is an interesting ruin right on the edge of the town.

Inside Little Angkor Wat
Little Angkor Wat is unusual in that it is an old (probably 12th century) ruin, with the same apsaras and other figures carved in the stone, but it is also still in use. Parts of the old ruins have been surrounded by contemporary Buddhist structures and a Buddha image added. Here some of the deaf young men pause for a reflective moment.
A wedding party at Little Angkor Wat
Many Western customs have spread throughout Asia. One of the most pervasive and most common is the Western style wedding dress, always in addition to the local customs. Here a wedding party waits for another shot as the photographer's assistants help the bride change her dress. She changed three times while I was there, from white to yellow to blue!

On the Sister Hill
Outside of the town of Kampong Cham are two low hills called Brother and Sister Hill. A Cambodian legend describes how the higher hill seen here was built by the women--using trickery--in a competition with the men over the right to choose their own husbands. Our broken down bus on the way home
Shortly after leaving Sister Hill, our bus gave out. The driver couldn't shift out of second gear so we limped along to a roadside mechanic. He wasn't able to do anything so we waited three hours for another bus to come from Phnom Penh to pick us up for the return trip.

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The Deaf Development Program of the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization took an educational field trip to Kampong Cham Province on 21 February 2002. It was quite an interesting day which included a long bus trip, swimming in the Mekong River, finding an unexploded rocket propelled grenade, visiting Angkor Wat's smaller cousin, and then a bus breakdown on the way home. Come back tomorrow for the details!
Here we are at 6:30 AM, waiting to board the bus to Kampong Cham, a province three hours north of Phnom Penh by road (one of only two good roads in the country!). The foreigner next to me is Peter Ward, a deaf man from Britain who is working with Khmer sign language research and the training of deaf teachers.	At Kampong Cham, the Mekong River is very wide and some parts are relatively shallow now in the dry season. All the boys went down to their underwear and jumped in from a sandbar reached by a wooden bamboo bridge. The girls waded--and eventually got dunked--fully clothed.
Fifty feet from where the young people were swimming in the river, I found a rocket propelled grenade washed up on the sandbar. These and the landmines and the other UXOs (Unexploded Ordnance) are the curse of Cambodia. It was interesting to notice that most in our group, who grew up in relatively safe Phnom Penh, had never seen live munitions like this.	After leaving the river, our first stop was Wat Angkor Jai, what in the area is called "Little Angkor Wat." It's certainly not on the same scale as Angkor Wat (which is in Siem Reap, 200 miles to the northwest), but it is an interesting ruin right on the edge of the town.
Little Angkor Wat is unusual in that it is an old (probably 12th century) ruin, with the same apsaras and other figures carved in the stone, but it is also still in use. Parts of the old ruins have been surrounded by contemporary Buddhist structures and a Buddha image added. Here some of the deaf young men pause for a reflective moment.	Many Western customs have spread throughout Asia. One of the most pervasive and most common is the Western style wedding dress, always in addition to the local customs. Here a wedding party waits for another shot as the photographer's assistants help the bride change her dress. She changed three times while I was there, from white to yellow to blue!
Outside of the town of Kampong Cham are two low hills called Brother and Sister Hill. A Cambodian legend describes how the higher hill seen here was built by the women--using trickery--in a competition with the men over the right to choose their own husbands.	Shortly after leaving Sister Hill, our bus gave out. The driver couldn't shift out of second gear so we limped along to a roadside mechanic. He wasn't able to do anything so we waited three hours for another bus to come from Phnom Penh to pick us up for the return trip.