Issue-31-2019

Issue-31

Kampong Thom Onyx class activities

These are our Onyx students in 2018. They have worked hard this year learning through the program. They are high school students and emerging leaders who were sent by their pastors. Even though they are young, they are willing to learn and share their experiences with each other. I am excited to see that they are learning to work in unity, practice teamwork, and network this year. Through this last half year, I have been encouraged by working with them. I hear their different life experiences each week as they share their stories. They are lovely people. 

I am happy to see that our lessons impact their personal lives. I hope they will heal from the emotional trauma that is so typical here by God’s plan through our Onyx lessons. Being a coordinator, I have learned a lot from class organizing and have a great opportunity to read a real life, which is their lives. It is not just only classroom learning. We often have our class outside the building, and do field working that is fun and full of creative learning. 

“Through the leadership lesson, I learned that being a leader is not easy but I am happy to ask God for wisdom. I need to be aware of developing the right perspectives about myself, God and the community, and identifying the right core values in order to serve God well,” Sok Kung said. 

This leadership lesson is a new lesson where I learned about the character of leaders. It was really different from my own idea. It is an act of the heart to serve people, and giving up power in order to empower others is what gives hope and healing to people around us. I have changed the way that I used to practice leadership in my life. I have stronger commitment now,” Chan said. 

Our Exposure Trip and fun with planting the Tree 

We gathered our Onyx students to visit the rural village and planted saplings in areas devastated by illegal logging. The event was located in Preay Mol village. We drove there on our motorbikes. We got up early in the morning and we arrived there at 8:30 am. Before we begin our planting, we had an event with a primary school. We played games with the kids; encouraged them on sanitation issues, and made good relationships with all the teachers there. It was a great time. Samnang said, “What we do today is for our generation and we show a good example to other people in this community, and I get to see these tree growing big. I learned from this planting. It really encouraged me with hope and I will share what I did today with other kids, youth and my family so they, too, will love trees and the environment”. It was hot there but the students were excited to walk around and plant trees. 

Testimonies 

Chan said, “I grew up in a rural area and in the forest too, and I always thought that trees are valuable and important for human beings, even though I was never encouraged by my parents and community about the value of jungle and the environment. Thank you Onyx, for the fieldwork that helped me to open my eyes. I can see now.” I can see that through all our exposure trips, ONYX students always learn and receive new experience in their lives. They now have more commitment and desire to see change for their communities where they live. During fieldwork, they can learn from each other by helping and working in a team. I am blessed that I am on this ship and I can read different experience books this year (their lives).

“My name is Chanty. I am 19 years old and I come from a rural area of Kompong Thom province. Thank you, God, for this opportunity to learn through DOVE’s ONYX program. I have heard about this program from my friend who stays at a local dormitory, and church. I have decided to follow Jesus as my lord, but my family members are not Christian yet. I live in dormitory and church. I have changed and now receive true love from people in the dormitory. I can learn to live in unity and community. It is a place where I grow up to be like Christ. I hope my relatives and parents will see God’s work in my life one day. Please keep us in your prayers. I am so thankful to God for this great
opportunity of learning through the
ONYX program. I have walked along 
with my Onyx class for almost a year. I have learned a lot. I am more open to others and I have much more confidence. I can talk in front of those eyes. I 
would say I am changed. I can see the big picture vision for serving the Lord in my village. Before I didn’t want to share my experience with others, now I love to share. I feel like I have much more love to give to my parents and I love praying for the poor. I can see that I am very special before God’s. I don’t judge myself anymore. I have a bigger dream in my life, she said.

Peacebuilding in Action 
by Lynn Ogata, Advisor

Thirty DOVE Onyx students, alumni, staff and advisors experienced peacebuilding in action during a reforestation camp on September 23rd to 25th in Prey Lang forest with our partner, Peace Bridges organization. The peacebuilding began, even before we reached the forest, with a few tense moments at a police station! Our buses carrying about 100 people from Phnom Penh stopped for brief sightseeing at Sambor Preah Kuk, an ancient site with temples dating back to the 6th century. We didn’t realize that since it became a UNESCO World Heritage site last year, foreigners are now expected to buy a ticket on the entrance road, not at the temples. Andrew, DOVE’s new advisor from Australia, showed his acumen by not entering the site. Three foreigners, including Molula from Lesotho, a Pakistani-American and I, went in without a ticket. After about 40 minutes of face-saving negotiation, we were each able to pay the ticket price of $10 and sign an apology, instead of each paying a $50 fine. The upside was I quickly got to know Molula, who started as the new DOVE Phnom Penh Drop-in Center intern on September 26th!

Prey Lang, the largest lowland forest in SE Asia, is sprawled over 4 provinces in Cambodia, but currently threatened by illegal logging and clearing for cassava and rubber plantations. The 100 of us from Phnom Penh joined with an equal number of locals to ride on wooden carts into the forest and plant 2000 native tree saplings. The carts were pulled by plows, literally called “mechanical cows” in Khmer, and were hard on the tailbone, but the only way to negotiate the flooded or rutted paths. Peacebuilding continued as we worked side by side with monks, local villagers, local officials, police, and officials from the Ministry of Environment, and residents from Phnom Penh communities involved in land rights disputes. It was extremely hot work. Some staff ate lunch under the carts just to find some shade. At 2pm right, after we finished planting, dark clouds rolled in and it poured rain. One of the alums offered his poncho to cover up our cell phones instead of himself. The rain revived those who were overheated and watered the saplings.

Peacebuilding was also needed to share one squatty potty for everyone and one bucket shower area for the women! The water supply from the well had to be constantly shifted between supplying the toilet, showers, dishwashing and washing red dirt off of everything. When you ran out of the water while showering, you had to yell for someone to pump more. I ran out of spots to hang wet clothes. The camp cooks provided rice, and the DOVE group shared dried meat and fish reheated on a grill. 

Amidst the challenging conditions, there was joy:
- Seeing the Onyx students and alumni interacting with people from all segments of Cambodian society.

- Spotting new green growth from the top of a burned tree trunk.
- DOVE staff hanging out with other civic-minded youth from a secular youth network. 
- Sticking out my tongue to drink in the cold rain.
- Dancing at night on the dirt road, because of the rest of the ground had turned to red glue.

The experience was a great wrap-up for the current Onyx students, after studying Peacebuilding and Social Justice lessons for 4 weeks. And it was an important reminder to all of us to change our habits to preserve the biodiversity of native forests and the environment. 

Ms. Malis’ Testimony

“Even though the weather was hot with no breeze and raining cats and dogs made me wet, and though we slept in a tent without a mattress in the wild and we journeyed on bad roads riding in carts which hurt my body, we still were delighted to join in planting tree seedlings at Prey Lang.

I would like to say thank you to Peace Bridges organization, DOVE and other organizations, to the local officials and to the Prey Lang community for this amazing opportunity for me. This was a great event. I can see how everyone here loves the forest. We feel pain when losing the trees nowadays. Including all those who have a great heart and have taken part in preserving the forest as well as replanting together, I am really excited to see this together.” 

During the sharing time at the end of the camp, Malis added that she learned many good things from the other participants. She loves wood, so in the past, she bought many kinds of wood furniture for her home. But from now on, she said she will stop buying them and will share the message with her neighbours and others so that they can understand the importance of the forest. And next year, she hopes to join the camp with her family. 

Ms. Kong Malis, DOVE volunteer and DP2 alumna.

STUDENT TOUR REPORT

Date: 01 July 2018, Youths Equipped With Skills of Internship Center.
Reported by: Phoebe Omuhinda

On first, of July 2018, my students and I were privileged to visit the National Museum for a learning tour, being on a Sunday, a small percent of these students were catching up with their families for family events after a long week of schooling and they asked to be exempted from this tour. We took a tuktuk together and headed to our destination. All of these students who managed to visit the museum had never been to this museum except for one and this made this trip more fun and full of exciting memories and experiences to be built since we all were curious about this museum. It was a great time for the teacher and the students to have a one on one time for conversations with each other and enjoy the day together!

We bought the tickets and then divided ourselves into small groups and each of these groups had to explore each part of the museum as they discussed and shared their thoughts. We later could meet into the bigger group after every hour to share our experiences and to take some pictures together in remembrance of this day. After the museum was done and the pictures were enough, I interviewed some of these students and they were very excited to share their experiences since they had just built memories that they won`t recover from them. We then headed back home in our tuktuks.

Khmer New Year Celebration

Date: 04 April 4, 2018

This year, Khmer New Year Celebrations were done early at the centre to avoid inconveniences since most of the students at the Center are planning to head to their hometowns for the Celebrations. With this, we had to conduct our celebrations on 30 May 2018. This celebration was slightly different from the other celebrations done at the centre. It largely composed of traditional Khmer games which were played at the Center to mark the big day. These games included:

1. “Veay Kh-orm”. This was a type of a game that we played at the centre where, three pots were filled with cookies, money and powder then tied at the ceiling. One student had to be tied a scarf around his/her eyes to become temporary blind, then, she/he was given a stick which they could use to hit the pot until it breaks!

2. ‘’Lak kon sen”- Here, we assembled into one big circle and one student was given a scarf which he could run with it around the circle and tap on anybody`s back. When tapped on the back, one had to run as first as they could since the owner of the scarf was running after you giving you some whips. When you reach where you had been in the circle, the next person seated next to you had to run since it was their turn to get the whip. 

3. “Bos orng-kun”-Here, the students divided into two groups and competed among themselves. The first group had to erect five balls in the sand, the balls were arranged in such a way that, in the first row, there a lined two balls, one ball at the centre then the other two in the other row. The target of the opposite group was to make sure that they hit those balls with the help of the other balls until they fall down. The rule of the game is such that, only four balls should fall down and if one, by mistake, hit the middle ball hence making it fall down, it resulted to zero points in their group. This among other games were played at the centre during our celebrations. We also had some songs sung by some students at the centre then we had a snack together.

Kampong Cham ONYX-2 Adventure retreat:

It had been raining since 3am. We had agreed to meet by 4:30am and gather in front of a church to depart for our campsite. It was almost 6 am and the rain wasn’t stopping so we left to pick up some of our students who couldn’t manage a ride to our meeting location. It was 6:30am and we were now crossing the bridge where the Mekong river leads to Mondulkiri province, an eastern province of Cambodia which is the largest province yet the most sparsely populated one. That is where we planned to camp for three days and two nights.

We arrived at the campsite at 12 Noon. Pheak (our volunteer) and I went out to buy our lunches while the students were busy setting up the tents and campsite. We had a late lunch at 2pm and we were all so tired from waking up so early, running around in the rain, and from the long ride, but our excitement overcame our tiredness. After having lunch, we gathered next to a stream and enjoyed teambuilding games.

We had so much fun. We laughed until our stomachs hurt, our faces were sore, and we cried we laughed so hard. The first night, when the rain started to pour at midnight, everybody scrambled to take their belonging out of their tents which leaked and we took refuge together in a cottage where we held our meetings. 

We had an opportunity to hear everyone’s story. We now understand what’s behind everyone’s character and differences a little more. Among our 16 students, there are 14 who have had trauma from domestic violence, verbal abuse, losing loved ones, parents breaking up, betrayal, economic crisis, sexual abuse, evil spirits, and so on. Three of them admitted that they had attempted suicide. They shared their deepest hurts for the first time. They are dealing with depression on their own. I didn’t expect them to share this deep since I know some of them are really struggling with trusting another, and I was afraid they didn’t feel safe enough to share. But it ended up quite well with warm love, trust, encouragement, safety, and we all humbly listened to each other.

Testimonies

“This is my first time to go camping like this. I used to be very lonely. I never had a group of friends and never got to hang out with others. It took me a few weeks to build up this kind of courage to share my life story among you. I love being here. I feel so refreshed. I love you guys who are fun and kind. I feel so welcome and loved. I love the lessons we learnt together over the past weeks. I hesitated to join this course. I tried to avoid it many times even after the first meeting. But now I love being part of this community. I don’t know God much yet but I’m in the process. I never thought I can have a bunch of good friends like you guys. I can’t wait to see what is God bringing into my life and will teach me this whole year. I can’t wait to see you guys each week,” Samreth Sopanha said on a night of adventure camping.

“Thank you Ms Sarady for ringing me that day, informing me about your training course. I noticed my brother-in-law Sovann has changed in some ways. He’s more brave and confident. He now could lead almost every program in my church except preaching. After I sent him to Onyx the last time he came back with confidence and faith and he even asked me to let him help lead worship. He started to become interested in God’s word even more. I saw him studying the Bible personally and reading it to his cows and praying while he shepherds them. He talked about his Onyx class. He shared some part of the lessons with his brother, who is a pastor, and with me. Since then he started to help us with many of the activities in my church. He leads worship, prays for the offering, reads passages during the sermon, leads the Sunday program, and goes to other villages in the afternoon to teach 40 children with me, and helps with other events, etc. He used to be very shy and I could barely hear him say anything, especially among others. I know that it is a result of your training. So I sent him again this year. Do you see him change?” “Yes, of course, I do,” I replied. “I’m proud of him,” she continued. “My husband and I feel much less stress because now we can delegate some tasks to him. We almost couldn’t rest because of church responsibilities, and our own full-time jobs. But now we can.

Actually, my coworkers who are a couple, are interested to join too, but they were reluctant. I do want to join as well when I heard you had level 2 going, but this year I just continued my bachelor degree on weekends so I can’t make it this time. I hope next time you still have it. I pray that my brother-in-law is growing in faith with God to be a mature leader to help his community and nation. Please do me a favour by taking care of him and please forgive him if he does something wrong intentionally or unintentionally. May God our Lord bless you and your team and your organization to be a blessing to the young leaders of Cambodia,” Mrs Vanna Heam said on the phone with me two weeks before the Adventure Retreat. 

A CHANCE FOR OUR STUDENTS TO GET TO HEAR ABOUT GOD! 

On April 1, 2018, about 13 of our Drop-In students went to celebrate Khmer New Year at the home of Ms Yamel Calixto, a Spanish teacher at Hope International School, who is from Mexico. The DOVE students were so excited since they had a chance to introduce themselves to other students and got to know more about each other by dividing into different groups. They also played different games, they acted in skits and had a chance to share a meal together. Furthermore, they had a chance to listen to the good news of Jesus Christ and enjoyed the experience. Most of them are not followers of Jesus but are open to hearing more because of the relationships they’ve built at DOVE.

UNDERSTANDING CHILD RIGHTS 

On June 1st, 2018, we had the privilege to celebrate International Children`s Day with the Phnom Penh Drop-In (YESIC) students. Students also invited their families and friends. They learned about the purpose of Children’s Day and why it`s celebrated around the world. A speech was given about the world conference in Geneva, Switzerland about the well-being of children. Questions were then assembled from this speech and small gifts were awarded for every correct answer. The students were given a chance to talk about some of the difficult experiences in their daily lives. They were glad to share some of these challenges with their friends. Skits were also performed to enlighten them about their rights and some of the common child abuses which might occur in their day to day life. We also played some games, including the hat game where students had to tie two tea bags on the hat using their heads. We also had a puzzle game where they had to arrange the letters to form the word “International Children Day.” Some of the students also got a chance to present their talents through singing and dancing. We then shared a meal to mark this special day. 

Testimony

“Hello! My name’s Pho Chanda. I’m 13 years old. I study at Wat Dom Bouk Khpus Secondary School in grade 7. I also study English at YESIC Center. Today I’m very happy to be here to celebrate Children’s day. Before I joined the event, I didn’t know clearly about my rights as a child and that of other children but now I understand and know everything about children’s rights.

I also know about the history of Children’s Day, since we were told about this history at the Center. I really enjoyed being here with my friends and other kids to watch the skits, the songs, dancing and especially the games. They were all amazing and I learned a lot through these games.”