高山氏の宿舎の横にある倉庫を利用して、日本語学校を開校。当初は高山が教えていたが、今では同校を巣立ったOGが教師役を務めている。
生徒は小・中・高と年齢はバラバラであるが、皆日本が大好きみたいで、小生らの訪問を大歓迎し、日本の歌謡曲を合唱してくれた。アカペラながら非常に上手で、しかも真剣に楽しく歌ってくれた姿に、ちょっと感動した・・・。
中学校訪問、何故か校庭は草だらけ・・・。スポーツらしきものは授業にないみたい。
可愛らしい女子生徒。恥じらいながらも礼儀と笑顔は忘れない・・・。学校のトイレ、水桶から水をすくって流す。お尻は水をかけて綺麗に・・・。
結婚式の前撮りらしい。カンボジアの結婚式は、とにかく多くの人を呼び集め、飲んで歌っての大騒ぎが一般的で、二百人、三百人では少ない方と云われるくらい。
タサエン地区から車で約5時間、トレンサップ湖着。湖の中に造られた水上生活者のお墓、。
水上生活者の水上学校。登校は勿論船、小生も高校は船通学であったが、趣きは全く違う。水は土色に淀んでおり、1メートル下も見えない感じであるが、生活のすべてでこの水を使い、用をたすのもこの中へ直接とか。
アンコールトムからアンコールワット
遺跡に草や木が生える為、除草をしている作業員。
アンコールワットのお堀
セムリアップ(カンボジア)からバンコクに飛び、翌日アユタヤ遺跡等を見学。
戦争で仏像の首が全て切られたとか・・。
水上マーケット
とにかくたくましいと云うか・・・人間はその気になれば何処ででも暮らせるのだ・・・、しかも幸せに・・・。そんな事を強く感じた8日間のカンボジア訪問であった。
結果、カンボジアのオ・トム村に 小学校の校舎を寄贈することにした。50人が学べる教室が3つの小さな校舎であるが、カンボジアではそれが普通。午前午後の2部制なので300人の生徒が雨露をしのぎ学べるのだ。日本だと幾ら安く見積もっても5千万円は下らないだろうと思うが、何と現地では220万円で出来るという。よって、何もせずに4千800万円儲かった気分になり、大喜びである。
We visited a junior high school, and the schoolyard was covered with grass for some reason. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of sports in the class.
A lovely schoolgirl. He is shy, but he never forgets politeness and a smile… School toilets, scooping and flushing water from the water barrel. The buttocks were splashed with water and cleaned…
Apparently, it’s a pre-wedding shoot. At weddings in Cambodia, many people are usually invited to drink and sing and make a lot of noise.
It takes about 5 hours by car from Tasaen area to arrive at Trensap Lake. A waterman’s grave built in the lake.
A water school for water people. I went to school by boat, of course, and I also went to high school by boat, but the atmosphere was completely different. The water is so stagnant that you can’t even see a meter below.
Angkor Thom to Angkor Wat
Workers weeding the site to prevent grass and trees from growing on the site.
The moat at Angkor Wat
We flew from Sem Reap (Cambodia) to Bangkok and visited Ayutthaya ruins on the next day.
All the heads of Buddha statues were beheaded in the war…
market on the water
Anyway, it’s hard to say…human beings can live anywhere if they want to…and happily. I felt this strongly during my eight-day visit to Cambodia.
As a result, they decided to donate a primary school building in the village of Oh Thom, Cambodia, which has three small classrooms for 50 students, which is the norm in Cambodia. It’s a two-part class in the morning and afternoon, so 300 students can brave the rain and dew to learn. In Japan, I think it would be less than 50 million yen even with a cheap estimate, but it can be done locally for 220,000 yen. Therefore, I felt like I had made 48 million yen without doing anything, and I was overjoyed.
Visit to Cambodia Part 2
The Japanese company’s factory was attracted to the Tasaeng district on the Thai-Cambodian border. In order to revive this area, where there was no place to work except in agriculture and construction, Takayama thought that the first thing to do was to provide a place to work. Three factories in Ehime Prefecture have now set up shop in the KANBOHIA-JYAPAN INDUSTRAL PARK (JIP), creating 230 jobs. Both are labor-intensive industries that employ mainly girls around the age of 20. His salary is a little over $100 per month, which is enough to cover the living expenses of five people in a modest, but well-balanced family. Incidentally, the salary of the principal of an elementary school is $120 or less, so you can understand how fortunate the wages of female laborers are in this area.
A sign at the entrance to the JIP
Working in the factory. Work to make a congratulatory gift bag.
Production of hanging scrolls and wrapping paper for Japanese costumes
Me and my wife and Takayama (at the entrance of the factory)
This is another location, but the site of a factory under construction. All the workers were barefoot and wearing sandals.
In addition, the family came to work together and set up a tent next to the site, where the family lived. The new wife is working hard at cooking, perhaps to prepare dinner. Children are, of course, barefoot. It was so cute that I tried to hold it, but she hated me…
A girl in Ehime Prefecture, Mieko donated a junior high school (three classrooms for 50 students and a staff room), and for some reason, the grass is covered in the schoolyard.
Staff room (just a table in the middle instead of a desk)
In that school, I tried to hold a toddler (a teacher’s child, etc.), but he hated me.
A friend of mine from Takayama runs a fruit tree farm in the back of the school. I lost both of my legs to land mines, but I’m doing pretty well with my prosthetic leg (actually, he’s the same age as me).
On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at the town hall of the group. The center is Guncho-san, barefoot for some reason. In Japan, he’s the mayor of the city…. Mr. Guncho, who was in a good mood, brought some whiskey for Takayama and me, and wanted to have a drink… However, since we were driving, we were able to decline the request successfully, but this is an area where one thing is true regardless of anything, and the law and nothing is equal to nothing.
When I returned to my lodgings, the villagers brought me five or six snakes for dinner. I’m going to have a drink of snake food right away… I have a live ammunition rifle in my hand. Where the Chief of Police is always guarding the high mountain at night, where they share a meal at the quarters, where I lend him my rifle and enjoy the feel of it…
The house of the master who offered me a snake. His wife runs a general store. It was the biggest shop in the village.
Koyama chats with border guards, border river.