Published January 10, 2009
A month after their visit to Southeast Asia, emotions still run high among Milton High School students who made the trip.
By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item
MILTON -- A month after their visit to Southeast Asia, emotions still run high among Milton High School students who made the trip.
"I still see the faces of the kids at the school," said Nicole Unroe. "Even though they couldn't tell us, we knew they appreciated what we had done."
Unroe was one of eight Milton students who made a weeklong trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. The high point of the trip was the dedication of the Milton School in Mean, a tiny village in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. The school was made possible with more than $30,000 collected by Milton students and donated to an international aid agency.
"It was an amazing experience," agreed Sarah Haas, seated next to Unroe as they both looked at photographs of their trip.
Particularly moving, the two said, was their arrival in Mean on the morning of Dec. 8. They had bounced and jounced along rutted roads and followed a nearly non-existent cattle trail for more than two hours. When they got off the bus, they found the students at the school lined up in two lines, applauding as the 14 Americans walked onto the school grounds.
"I'll never forget what we saw and what we did," said Haas. "They were clapping for us, and we were all crying."
The American students and their six adult chaperones, some of whom had never traveled outside the United States, visited cultural and historic sites in Vietnam and Cambodia before making the pilgrimage to the school on the final day of their trip.
J.C. Reich, the only boy on the trip, remembered what he felt at the dedication ceremony, which was all conducted in Khmer, the language of Cambodia.
"I was thinking to myself that we had a lot more to do," he said soberly. "Going there didn't mean anything. There's so much more to do, and we have to work out how to keep what happened in Cambodia from ever happening again."
Reich was talking about the reign of terror in Cambodia that happened at the conclusion of the country's civil war. The Khmer Rouge, a communist organization, won the war, and over the next 20 years, they murdered at least two million of their fellow Cambodians, including teachers, doctors and other educated people, burned books and demolished schools.
"We can't just pat ourselves on the back," Reich said. "We have to do more."
"It won't change the world, but it will change the lives of those kids. We were humbled by what we saw," said Michael Conn, the Milton social studies teacher who helped start the "Team Cambodia" fundraiser and escorted the group. Conn said more funds would help the school add more solar panels to power additional computers, as well as additional classrooms, teachers and materials.
Conn hopes to escort another group to Southeast Asia in June, 2010, during which the group will visit Angkor Wat, a long-abandoned city, as well as other historical and cultural sites and also make another visit to the school. Conn said anyone interested in joining the tour next year may call him at 524-0261.
In spite of everything the people of the country have been through, and the fact that Cambodia is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, the people all seem happy, said Haas.
"They have nothing, yet they were so happy," she said.
A month after their visit to Southeast Asia, emotions still run high among Milton High School students who made the trip.
By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item
MILTON -- A month after their visit to Southeast Asia, emotions still run high among Milton High School students who made the trip.
"I still see the faces of the kids at the school," said Nicole Unroe. "Even though they couldn't tell us, we knew they appreciated what we had done."
Unroe was one of eight Milton students who made a weeklong trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. The high point of the trip was the dedication of the Milton School in Mean, a tiny village in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. The school was made possible with more than $30,000 collected by Milton students and donated to an international aid agency.
"It was an amazing experience," agreed Sarah Haas, seated next to Unroe as they both looked at photographs of their trip.
Particularly moving, the two said, was their arrival in Mean on the morning of Dec. 8. They had bounced and jounced along rutted roads and followed a nearly non-existent cattle trail for more than two hours. When they got off the bus, they found the students at the school lined up in two lines, applauding as the 14 Americans walked onto the school grounds.
"I'll never forget what we saw and what we did," said Haas. "They were clapping for us, and we were all crying."
The American students and their six adult chaperones, some of whom had never traveled outside the United States, visited cultural and historic sites in Vietnam and Cambodia before making the pilgrimage to the school on the final day of their trip.
J.C. Reich, the only boy on the trip, remembered what he felt at the dedication ceremony, which was all conducted in Khmer, the language of Cambodia.
"I was thinking to myself that we had a lot more to do," he said soberly. "Going there didn't mean anything. There's so much more to do, and we have to work out how to keep what happened in Cambodia from ever happening again."
Reich was talking about the reign of terror in Cambodia that happened at the conclusion of the country's civil war. The Khmer Rouge, a communist organization, won the war, and over the next 20 years, they murdered at least two million of their fellow Cambodians, including teachers, doctors and other educated people, burned books and demolished schools.
"We can't just pat ourselves on the back," Reich said. "We have to do more."
"It won't change the world, but it will change the lives of those kids. We were humbled by what we saw," said Michael Conn, the Milton social studies teacher who helped start the "Team Cambodia" fundraiser and escorted the group. Conn said more funds would help the school add more solar panels to power additional computers, as well as additional classrooms, teachers and materials.
Conn hopes to escort another group to Southeast Asia in June, 2010, during which the group will visit Angkor Wat, a long-abandoned city, as well as other historical and cultural sites and also make another visit to the school. Conn said anyone interested in joining the tour next year may call him at 524-0261.
In spite of everything the people of the country have been through, and the fact that Cambodia is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, the people all seem happy, said Haas.
"They have nothing, yet they were so happy," she said.
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