A Change of Guard

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Friday 28 October 2011

From Asheville to Cambodia: Literacy volunteers visit a student's homeland


An elephant walks through the crowds on the road to the gateway of the Angkor Thom temple in Cambodia. Special to the Citizen-Times / Special to the Citizen-Times

Literary Council volunteers visit a student's homeland

Oct. 27, 2011 |
Written by Cheryl Dietrich
Special to the Citizen-Times

She moves with massive grace, a slight wiggle from side to side like a big-bottomed woman in stiletto heels. My husband, Lynn, and I perch on a platform that rests on her shoulders and sway with her.

The gate into the large complex known as Angkor Thom is narrow and ancient but extends high into the air, built in an age when elephants comprised the main mode of transportation. As we enter the ancient land of the Khmer god-kings, the face of Jayavarman VII, carved into the top of the gate, smiles beneficently upon us.

The elephant’s driver dresses in traditional Cambodian costume, silk tunic over baggy trousers, but presses an undeniably 21st-century cellphone to his ear the whole ride. The elephant is obviously in charge, so for half an hour we go where she takes us.

She passes through the gate and off the paved road, onto a narrow path through ancient spung trees whose roots reach above ground. Like Tolkien’s Ents, they seem to walk.

We pass temple ruins that are being tugged up like stubborn roots. Long-tailed monkeys scamper up and down, stare and chatter, perhaps wondering how we came to be on the back of an elephant in a country halfway around the world from home. Good question.

Lynn and I both volunteer with the Literacy Council of Buncombe County as tutors of English as a Second Language. Between the two of us we have tutored adults from Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Russia, South Korea and Ukraine.

We eat their food, hear their music, listen entranced to their folk tales. They give us little gifts from their countries and big gifts from their hearts. They hold a mirror up to us, show us America through fresh eyes, show us ourselves.

Lynn and Wann Near, a native of Cambodia, worked together for three years until, in November 2009, Wann received his American citizenship. In February, he and his American-born wife, Rebecca, visited the homeland he left years earlier. He was delighted when we asked to join them.

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