The Cambodia Rural School Project
The Ezra Vogel School
Thin Buthan is 14 years-old. He is a 6th grade student at the Ezra Vogel School. He was ranked number 2 among his 40 classmates at the monthly record of November 2003. His father is a government soldier and his mother is a housewife. His house is about 1 kilometer away from the school. He rides a bicycle to school every day.
“I am an ethnic minority Proav. My grandfather and grandmother are living in a village in Ta Veng district, 60 kilometers up to the north of Banlung. My family moved to live in Banlung because of my father’s job as a government soldier at the barracks in the Provincial town.”
“The culture of Khmer citizen and mine are quite different. If a member of my family is sick, We have to offer food to the soul of the ancestor or to the forest God. It’s up to the condition of the illness; if it’s serious, we have to kill a buffalo, cook and praise to the ancestor; if it’s not serious, we have to kill a chicken and praise to them. It is the traditional custom and it happens every often.”
“When I grow up, I will cut down the culture of praising because I think that people who follow this way haven’t gone to school to get knowledge. The old generation are mostly illiterate and they prefer the praise practice rather than to go to see the doctor when they are ill. With the knowledge I get from the school I can give a fair judgment on it.”
“When I grow up, I want to be a staff of NGOs for I had my foster father who is currently a member of the NGOs. He gets a better job and salary. He also travels to different countries over the world for a seminar and meeting. I want to follow his example and I want to visit the United States too.”
