Sound Like Her Husband Name Fried Bull Frog

DATELINE: July 21, 2013
Patricia E Lyon

or, "The Kabop of Peace"

After dealing with the oohing and ahhing and not okay of strawberry purses, it was time to see about homework. Silence. To finally fill in the gap, I said, "did you forget?" Mony translated. More quiet. Deanna said, "what is the problem?"

Not knowing if the women can write I pointed to the whiteboard and reminded, "you can do name? Draw picture?" Translate.

Then the first woman pulled out her lined paper. She had written a very long autobiography. Precise dates, location, marital status (her husband is in the class), on and on. Then much gratefulness about teachers come to her village. The writing was exquisite. The Khmer learn to write on a kind of graph paper to assure the precise size and direction of each letter. I asked, "it is good? Do you like?" Everyone raised their hands. They like. Is good. Then more students gave Mony their papers. Something was lost in the translation as Mony read the next story. He struggled with names of villages far away. Then he said, "sound like her husband name Fried Bull Frog.". Uproarious laughter and correction.

Less shyness followed as women brought forth their homework. One ran home on her moto bike because a relative could write better, or so she said. They selected their fabric and pens to make the purse at home. They wanted to be able to think and be careful about the writing. The suspense is killing me. I cannot wait for class to see what they will bring to show us.

As we left, Mony said one of the women had thrown up four times before class but wanted to come. She had also four sick kids at home ages 3-11. What do you think about that?