The Cambodia Rural School Project
The Alex and Lily Talarico School
(August, 2001)
Pun Saran is a 19-year-old 10th grade student at the Alex and Lily Talarico School. She was ranked second among 37 students in her class at the end of last year. Her father is a soldier and her mother is a housewife.
In Their Own Words . . .
| On going to school with her siblings: | “One of my three siblings is also at this school. She is my older sister, and it is nice to have her here because she can explain any questions that I have difficulty with.”
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| On school subjects: | “I like mathematics because when it is explained well it is easy. I dislike chemistry because it is too complex.”
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| On her free time: | “I like to play volleyball, but I also have to spend a lot of time studying.”
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| On leaving the town: | “I have left this town once, to visit Siem Reap with my classmates and a teacher. We went to visit Angkor Wat during a school vacation. I liked it because it is a very old, wonderful temple, with lots of history. No one could build something like that now.”
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| If I could go anywhere…: | “I would go to Kompong Som because I have heard that it is beautiful and a fun place.” [Kompong Som, on Cambodia’s southern coast, is famous for its beaches.]
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| If I could do anything…: | “I would work in this village, close to home. I want to become a teacher, but my mother doesn’t want me to do that. She thinks that I will get sick from all of the chalk dust.” |
