Dream @ 9

The Dream of a boy called John....

This is where I live

I managed to find my location using my nokia handphone using google maps software. Then I saved the satellite pics. What a pity, I couldn't use nokia maps (they do not have Cambodia in their list of countries with road maps). Even google has to bear with these old satellite photos. People might think there are no roads here in Cambodia. Not true. They just change from time to time since they are unpaved yet.

How to become myself

Last night I watched this Japanese movie: “How to become myself” (ok I don't understand Japanese but they're subtitled in English).Based on a novel by Kaori Mado, this movie ‘Ashita no Watashi no Tsukurikata’ tells the story of Juri (Riko Narumi) a typical schoolgirl who acts the part expected of her – perky and cool, but lives in fear of the mask slipping and her true, unperky, uncool self being revealed. She admires a classmate, Kanako (Atsuko Maeda), who seems able to play the popularity game effortlessly. Then, in the blink of an eye, Kanako falls from grace and becomes the class sacrificial lamb. Juri sympathizes, but can say nothing until the primary school graduation ceremony, when she and Kanako have a rare moment alone to share what they keep in their hearts. A bond is sealed between the two outcasts, one actual, the other potential.

In high school, Kanako finally makes her escape as their family moves to a distant town. Juri then anonymously e-mails Kanako a continuing story about a girl named "Hina (Little chick)" who becomes popular with the help of some advice Juri takes from the Internet. Inspired, Kanako adopts the Hina persona and achieves a Hina-like success but comes to realize her act is a fake. Juri’s motivation was the novelist Dasai Osamu’s line: “If you’re a good liar (hiding the truth), at least do the right thing.” This is the rationale of us wearing masks in order to go about with the varied roles we have to keep in life. But at the end of the day we ask: How can I be true to myself? Which one is the "fake me" and the "real me"? And for Hina, what happens when her benefactor Juri, known only to her as "Kotori (Little Bird)," stops feeding her lines?

A lesson for me to cherish : "To be true to myself and to love myself as I am" is the only thing that matters. Because Someone up there (and maybe some others down here) loves me for who I am and not just for the masks I put on every time I perform a role in life.

Making Brooms 1.0

Here's a basic simple way of making brooms here in our place in Poipet.
The boarders of our vocational school demonstrate this in three easy steps:
Step 1- gather these "special twigs" from the farm or wilderness
Step 2 - Defoliage them and allow them to dry for some time
Step 3 - Bunch them together and tie them
Voila! new brooms for street sweeping.

Christmas is coming. I've got to start sweeping my room... the inner one, that is.

Angkor Wat - Veni, Vidi, Victus sum

Finally after staying and working in Cambodia for the last seven years, I finally managed to come to Siem Riep and see for myself the famed Angkor Wat (and the nearby temples of course) on the 4th of November.

Whenever friends or guests would come to Phnom Penh and get an occasional tour of the national museum from me. I would usually brief them with a short but tantalizing account of the religious history of Cambodia as we breeze through the different sections (periods) of the museum. I would narrate the exploits of various Khmer kings and their achievements, their temple palaces and their capital cities. At the end I would tell them of how the various museum pieces found their way there from Siem Riep. After they ask me, "have you seen those temples?" - I would usually just change the topic.


But now to Siem riep and the Angkor Wat Complex... I came, I saw, yet I admit I was conquered. The grandeur of it all for one who sees the stories in those stones is overwhelming.

A lesson I got for myself was when I saw how Temples and Trees (esp. at Ta Phrom) joined in an unexplicable intertwining. The the non-living mixing with the living.... or in cyberlanguage... technology blending with humanity.... but at the end we all know that "Life will always find a way."

CRD seminar

Recuperating from fever, I reluctantly rode the bus on an eight hour journey to Phnom Penh on the 26th of October. Whether I like it or not I shall be staying there in that vicinity for around a week or more.

27-28 October. I gave a seminar to the staff of CRD (Cambodian Researchers for Development) and some invited NGO researchers. The two day seminar on the English language dealt with an introduction to metaphorical speech - IDIOMS.

Literacy Center Graduation and Gratitude Day

Last week the School kids celebrated Gratitude day and the grade six certificates were handed out. This day being the last day of the school year for the kids was also a day to thank everyone.


The children did this through a display of talents where they showed what they learned in dancing, speech reading, and play acting.

Prospective Students for Don Bosco

August is the month when we at the various Don Bosco schools receive the applications for new students. A whole week is alloted for interview and it is capped by the entrance exam at the week's end. DB Poipet held its interviews from 13-17 August. Their minimum entry level is grade six. Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh had theirs the following week (19-25 August). Here the minimum entry level is at least grade nine. For the secretarial course they must finish grade 12.

It dampens my spirit that for more than a thousand plus applicants for Phnom Penh, only around 200 will be accepted for the first year of technical training. Well, where else will you find a two-year quality voc-tech training for free here in Cambodia? If only we had more money and donors to expand the program!

Interestingly, I wanted to recruit one from Phnom Penh to help out here in Poipet, but I was too late since all the 2nd years of the Electrical and Machine Shop sections have been recruited by various companies... even before they graduate in September.

Cambodia will never want for blue-collar jobs. Let's hope we can train these young men and women into ethically committed professional young workers. Ahh... that's the legacy of St. John Bosco.
From the pictures you will see that we had to use our covered courts for the exams since the classrooms alone will not suffice for the number of applicants.

Such are the difficulties that poor but deserving students may have to face. Tough times never last, but tough people do. Personally that's how I wish to help in training these young ones for the future.

A Window that looks inward

Many love songs and poems have romanticized the window as a tool that encourages one to look outwards - standing by my window…I watched from my window…the world through my window…

I think the window is a kind of structure which separates two worlds. Take for example your house window. A person who sits in front of it belongs to the world of the house which may perhaps be so peaceful and safe. And yet the window also allows the same person to stare at another world outside where perhaps it may be more noisy and risky.

But here in Poipet, if you peep through this church (actually a small room) window you’ll just see a big wall staring back at you. Interestingly, this window looks inwards. For two Sundays now I noticed this little girl curiously looking at us inside the room (I got to take her picture too). Surprisingly, she stood there by the window until the end of the service actively participating in the singing and in the prayers.

Another kind of window that looks inward are one's eyes. The eyes are two windows – you can let good in or evil in. And whichever you let in takes possession of your heart. You have a window, too, and You have promised that, if we obey You, and open the windows of our lives upon others, You "will open the windows of Heaven, and pour out such a blessing, there will not be room enough to hold it." (Mal.3:10)

11th UPOU Commencement Exercises

Got a chance to go home and attend my graduation at the University of the Philippines. I wasn't planning to attend but they asked me to give the speech on behalf of the graduating class of 2007. How could I refuse such an honor.

The Master of Development Communication class of '07 with the Dean, Program Chair , & professors (with sash on left shoulder).


UP does not use anymore the traditional "toga" as academic attire. Instead we have a sash called the "sablay" which is turned from the right shoulder to the left as you graduate.


More news at the www.upou.org website: (click my picture below for the text of my speech)