Case Study Writing

Part of being a not-for-profit NGO is just that: it is not for profit. Trailblazer's funding relies on donations, and soliciting donations is not an easy feat. Roughly just over half of donations come from individuals, meaning that the personal case studies from Trailblazer's projects are very important. They need to make that person reading them at, say, 1am be compelled to send a check or click on the paypal icon. Last Friday, I went to Chea Smun village (per usual, not how this village is spelled in Khmer (obviously) but how I understand and pronounce the name) to interview two students who had received donated bikes from Trailblazer. 

Srei Mau and her bike

Chea Smun, about an hour by moto away from Siem Reap, was one of the most remote and undeveloped (in terms of infrastructure) village I have been to while in Cambodia thus far. The dirt-clay road was a brilliant sinopia-tawny color, accentuated even more by the puddles left from the immense amount of rain the night before and that morning. We arrived at the secondary school: two lines of classrooms with a portico attaching all of them and a tattered Cambodian flag in the center. 

One of the hardest parts of doing the case study was making sure that the questions my Cambodian partner, Lon Sey (works with Trailblazer), asked were indeed the questions I had prepared. A lot can get lost in translation! Getting more sentimental / opinion answers to the questions (versus one-word answers) I was asking was a tough feat as well from the the boy and girl I interviewed. They were so shy! Then again I would probably be shy too if this massively tall foreign woman wearing strange clothes came to my school asking questions about my bicycle. As for the case study itself, this is what I have written: 

FINALLY got a smile :)

Every day many children in Cambodia have to walk long distances to get to school, meaning they arrive physically tired and mentally drained before class even starts. This situation is exacerbated in Siem Reap province, one of the poorest in Cambodia, and specifically in Meanchey Commune where children often walk to school. The reality is that walking long distances limits students’ capability to succeed and disincentivizes them from attending school. To address this problem, the Trailblazer Foundation has provided bikes to multiple students in Siem Reap Province, allowing for the students and their families to have more mobility and save valuable time. 

As part of Trailblazer Foundation’s Cambodia Assistance Program, Trailblazer provided bikes to students at Chea Smun Secondary School in Chea Smun Village, located in Meanchey Commune of Prasat Bakong District. Besides this, Trailblazer has also installed four biosand water filters at Chea Smun Secondary School to help the students maintain good health. More than half of the students at Chea Smun Secondary School have bikes, making it important to help those who do not integrate at school. The donated bikes in general are easy to use and bike maintenance has so far only included simply repairing flat tires. 

Seyha, a 17 year old student in his eighth year of school, received a bike from Trailblazer four months ago. He said that already his studies and day-to-day life have greatly improved with the time gained from biking as opposed to walking to school. It used to take him thirty minutes to walk to school, and now it takes him five to ten minutes with his new bike. His father finished his studies through grade eight and his mother did not even go to school, so Seyha is excited to attend high school next year and complete his studies as he aspires to become a mathematics and chemistry teacher. Seeing as Chea Smun Secondary School currently only has six teachers for 176 students, Seyha finishing school and becoming a teacher would greatly help the Cambodian education system at large. Because Seyha’s high school next year is 10 kilometers away, his bike is going to substantially reduce the time it takes to get to and from school. On the weekends, his parents also borrow the bike to go to and from the market to buy food for Seyha and his two younger brothers at a much faster pace than before. 

Another one of Srei Mau's neighbors

One of Seyha’s neighbors, Srei Mau, also received a new bike from Trailblazer. Srei Mau is 15 years old and in grade eight as well, and her favorite subjects are chemistry and biology. Similar to Seyha, Srei Mau wishes to become teacher but for biology, yet admits that she has a lot more to learn. Srei Mau loves that her new bike allows her to stay after school for longer to continue studying rather than have to dedicate time to walking home. She will also attend the same high school as Seyha next year, likewise surpassing the education level of both of her parents. Her parents use the bike on Sunday to go work on the farm, while she uses it also to go to the market for her 3-person family.  

Seyha and Srei Mau thank Trailblazer profusely, smiling widely, for giving them the bicycles because the donation has helped them concentrate on their studies with more passion. Bikes save students’ valuable time so that they can study and learn more while following their dreams. Both students also ask if Trailblazer can donate more bicycles or school supplies in general to other poor students, Srei Mau relating poignantly, “please try to help us some more...because we need it.” For only $45, you can supply a bike to help a Cambodian student pursue his/her educational goals, thereby improving wellbeing and quality of life. More educated Cambodian youth means more power for development and social change, and a brighter future for Cambodia.

Me and the cutest savior ever! 

We went to both Seyha and Srei Mau's houses to get photos with their families (that I had to really try to coax smiles out of) and bikes. In both cases, the father was not at home. Seyha actually did not have his bike at school in reality because his mom used it that day. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in these cases albeit slightly awkward (I mean, we were doing an interview about how he bikes to school). Nevertheless, his bike was at home which was great because using the same bike in their individual photos at school was honestly super obvious. 

For the photos at Srei Mau's house, I hid the TV that Srei Mau had in her house toward the front entrance within visibility of the camera. Contrary to popular belief, you can be in dire poverty and still have a television--but most people do not want to see or know this. "If they can afford a television, why do I need to donate a bike? Shouldn't the latter be the top priority?" Well, it can actually be easier to access a 3G network in the jungle than it is a proper waste system in a town, for example. What's more: who are you to tell a family how to spend its money? Just because a family cannot readily afford a bike, does not mean it should be deprived of any simple entertainment. Must a family live extremely basically / in borderline squaller if it cannot afford rudimentary items, but can afford a small toy for a child for the time being? I also made sure not to  photograph the solar panel that a Japanese NGO installed on Seyha's roof the day beforehand. The family also had a water filter from yet another NGO, furthering my burgeoning opinion that NGOs in Cambodia are, in a sense, enabling the government to continue their corrupt practices by doing a ministry's job. That being said, would the government actually step up to the plate? Moreover: we cannot wait ten years for water, transport, education, etc. etc. etc. 

What was most shocking about where Seyha and Srei Mau live is that the flooding is so bad in the rainy season that they must take a boat to cross the murky river that separated their neighborhood from the main village roadway (bike is not going to help in that situation!). Right now, a very slippery and narrow bridge connects the land masses--a bridge that a little girl held my hand walking across. Houses are right up against the river, and I can only imagine the living conditions inside of them during the wet season, and what this does to water supply as well as sanitation practices. Sadly on the way to Lon Sey's motorbike, the little girl was not there to hold my hand. But I sucked it up, realizing how silly I probably looked towering over this girl yet nearly shaking with my fear of heights. 

La Vie de Tomate

A) I really need to set up an alarm on my phone so I remember to take malarone. Although I completely bypassed paying $6 a pill by strategically picking up my prescription in batches over the course of six weeks, I must remember to take these pricey pills that will keep me out of hospital. At least I bought bug spray yesterday. And it smells like citrus (insert emojicon here)!

The pool I visited, 5-star place next to my $5
a night place. 

B) I also need to bite the bullet and buy some sort of sun hat contraption for my dear shoulders. I applied sunscreen twice today and still look like a genetically enhanced tomato. I went to a pool close to my new guesthouse (see below) because the there was a powercut and life without a fan was just not in today's tarot card reading, and it was Saturday.

I am glad I went despite my current tomato status, as the experience was very interesting and something I normally do not do (I am not a fan of pools). I met the owner of the resort, a Singapore-Malay man who lives in Holland and gave me an overview of foreign leased land to build hotels, as well as the immense expat scene in Siem Reap. We also spoke Bahasa! :-o More importantly, he gave me the number of another NGO that works with food and food access that I will call! There were a lot of other long term stay guests/expats (not sure of the line between the two) there as well, which was interesting especially listening in on their conversations. Right before I left, a Cambodian family rolled up in their brand new Toyota, iPad / iPhone in tow. I was actually surprised it wasn't a Lexus, considering the sheer amount I have seen around town. This was just another display of the sheer wealth that certain Cambodians possess.

Yesterday, I was able to find a guesthouse that was far out of town with a monthly rate for $150 a month--almost half of what I had budgeted for. Although I would much prefer a homestay--and still hold hope!--this is fine for now. There are tons of street side restaurants around where I can get really good fried rice for $1. And I mean really good. I had fried rice last night at the market in the center of town and truly, it was a disgrace to fried rice everywhere. The flavor was MIA, I found a random shrimp with two pineapple slices,  the carrots were soggy, so just no.

I also finally got myself a Khmer phone number, although with a company that I have since been told is the worst one in Cambodia (Beeline). I am able to text out to the USA, but cannot receive texts from my mom, for example. I have also realized that some Cambodian phones cannot text in general. In general, I am noticing that there is a wide array of cell phones, from iPhone 5s to Nokias from 2002. When buying my citrus bug spray, I saw a toddler on the floor buy his mom watching a video on his iPad. Seeing all of this Apple wear reminds me of my lost iPhone 4 that I got stolen at Ari Cantik Hospital in Bali, a place I prefer to never go to again (not Bali, the hospital).

Her stuffed animals before her brother came and put them
all behind her head (but didn't take them away? He needs big
brother lessons).

To get my SIM card I went to a shop that was about five minutes walking from my old guesthouse, but the man who worked there, the grandma told me, was getting food and would be back soon. Although she told me this in Khmer, she used enough hand gestures that I knew what she was talking about. So I waited. The children watching TV were too adorable to leave behind, and one of them even brought out all three of her stuffed animals to give me a tour of them (I had no clue what she was saying). Although I loved this grandmother and wanted to give the little girl a toothbrush (although a toothbrush does not change the world, I just hated to watch her drinking Coca Cola with blackened teeth), forty minutes later I was still phone-less, so I went to another shop.

Lots of other exciting things happened yesterday, such as getting lost for about an hour and a half and buying a kilo of mangosteens for $2 (still unsure if this was too expensive, but I was not about to bargain with the woman who was riding on her bike around town sporting long pants, a long shirt, socks with flip flops, and a hat/neck/mouth covering contraption for something that was less than a coffee at La Colombe), and I could keep writing and bore not only you, dear reader, but also myself to tears sitting here with Khmer karaoke in the background and a mosquito bite on my chin. One of the most interesting, poignant, and sad (not sure what the right word is) things I witnessed yesterday were the camps that Cambodian people set up just across the river from the touristy district. Just out of sight for the vast majority of tourists/travelers, Khmer people were setting up camp for that night beside a river. Just four hours earlier, I watched some convoy of three Mercedes, an Escalade, and four police motorbikes and cars escort some public official right by the same place. As I listen to Hun Sen preach on television (the guy switched from karaoke), I am truly shocked at the amount of political and cultural contexts that went right by me last time I was here. I had some idea, but not a fuller picture.