Regarding my new term, I am taking contemporary political theories, advanced writing, and ethics. Welcome back to Dr. George again! You probably remembered his name last term as I also mentioned a lot in the emails. He's super smart, and I never feel biased to study with him as he treats everyone equally. I am saying that this doesn't mean other professors are not good, but he is one of the outstanding professors at my university. Due to his professional skills and qualifications, he is now teaching my class on contemporary political theories. He's a bit strict during class because he wants each student to obtain his own knowledge. He minds with time management as well. I am always ready for it; otherwise, it's not comfortable to sit in his class without something to review. Other subject for ethics is taught by Prof. Virath. He's Cambodian, and his professionalism is for the knowledge related to Cambodia's history or anthropology. I haven't started my class of advanced writing as we had fewer students and we just concluded and found a professor, named Dr. Lucita. It's my first time hearing her name, but I am interested in learning more about her educational background and how she offers help to the students in class. This is also the only online class as the professor is not in Cambodia, I guess. 

Oh, French class is in progress. Just to remind you, this class is led by PP Isabelle and PG. Andre, who is the couple and they are French. They have been involved in the Rotaract and CRST projects since they first met our team in Melbourne. I have been learning with them for almost 2 months, and it's fun to learn it. Nothing is free if we don't work hard and we will never be paid off. It also has a challenge for pronunciation, particularly with the letter "R". You will hear it differently from English. The grammar is feminine and masculine, which is a bit complicated compared to English. However, this is not going to be an obstacle for me to end up learning it. I observed myself and saw that I had improved every day. All students in the class are active as they always raise their hands to read the conversations. After learning for a while, I also have a plan to continue my French in Phnom Penh as it also provides more benefits to me in the future. I would like to share the facts here related to French and Khmer words. During the French colony, Khmer people were influenced by French and they were able to speak French. Many official words are borrowed from French, especially technical words (science). I started noticing this at the beginning of the class. Today, I also learned that the "Khmer Rouge" we always talk about is that "Rouge" is Red in French which is a well-known word during the dark age of Cambodia's history. I will share the progress again after finishing the class in early April 2025. 

At the end of April and early March, we had the eye doctor's team from Oregon, USA came to Cambodia to provide eye services to the locals. They are a brilliant team from Amigo Vision with 13 members in total. Some of them are just volunteers and Roratians. Before coming to Cambodia, they also contacted us in collaboration with the Rotaract Club to find translators from them. Due to our English ability, we thought this was a golden opportunity to explore new experiences with them. I was a bit nervous at the beginning as I didn't know any medical words related to eyes. However, it's just an easy task that allows everyone to make connections closely with the team assigned. I worked with Dr. Nicole, and it was the stage of the final check for eye diseases. The most memorable words for me are Cataract and Pterygium. Many patients mostly face these diseases when they get older because they work with dust, and rice fields, and are directly affected by sunlight. We worked together just like we have known each other for years. The mission in Siem Reap, we went to 2 different rural areas (Puok District, and Run Ta Ek area). I was also selected to go to Prek Toal in Battambang province, and it's a floating village. We had the mission there for 2 days and I needed to sleep there a night too. This is one of my favorite highlights in my life at that floating village with amazing experiences. We had dinner together after completing our mission. Everyone shared their feelings and it was hard to say goodbye after working with them for 2 weeks. The mission from the Amigo Vision team provided services to 1058 patients including their mission in Kampong Cham province. 

Today, I also had a trip and we are the host of Isabelle and Andre, our French teachers to Kulen mountain. I got up at 6 am to prepare myself and we then left Siem Reap at 7 am. We went to different places on the top of the mountain. This mountain is the historical place where lots of ancient remains including the temple there. According to the research, this used to be a huge city in the past. This is combined with Hindu and Buddha together as more than 90% of Cambodian people are Buddhists. There is a big statue of Buddha lying on the top of the big stone, so we went there as well. We just walked around, and we then went to see the waterfall. However, we also went to check where the water came up from the ground. This has been my question since I was a kid why does it have water on the mountain or water falls from the mountain? It's unbelievable! Close to that, we can see 1,000 lingas as you might know in Hindu. We had a cool lunch there near the waterfall. The water was so cold! While coming back, we also stopped at Preah Dak, where people buy local foods and material arts. We bought Nom Akor Thnot (Palm cake). It's delicious! It's also another incredible of me. 

Thanks for reading and checking my update. I am waiting to hear back from you soon. 🤩👏

Kind regards, 

Tangly