My husband Rob and I are currently in retreat in the coastal town of Kep to get away from the madness of the capital, Phnom Penh. Kep town was, in another era, a tourist centre for the wealthy from Phnom Penh, who enjoyed its beaches, fish and sea breezes. Now, the municipality as a whole is impoverished and relies on inshore fishing and small-scale agriculture. There are a couple of family-run fish sauce factories, and about 1,000 hectares of salt basins providing employment for about twenty family enterprises and seasonable employment for perhaps sixty more.Kep has always been our choice for weekend getaways because, compared to Cambodia’s other beachtown, Sihanoukville, it still has a “remote” feel to it and there is still a small number of tourists coming in. Besides, Kep has a special place in our hearts, having lived here in 2006 when I started IDRC's rural ICT project here.

Our visit this time has another purpose – for my husband to turn over the brand new computer set with sound system and copier-printer-scanner machine to the monks of Wat Kampong Tralach where he used to teach while we lived here. The money used to purchase all of these was collected from the sales of the Cambodian CD maps, plus, the donation from his family in memory of his deceased grandmother and grandfather. The happiness on the faces of the monks was undeniable, and the excitement of the kids was contagious when they saw the computer games they could play with. Apart from computer operations, we spent half a day yesterday at the wat with Rob teaching the head monk, Ven. Pring Phoeun, how to operate the three-in-one machine: photocopying, scanning and printing documents. The photocopy machine is very useful to them to reproduce their lesson plans and exercises for the students, and also for designing and printing signs and leaflets for the wat. The classes are of mixed ages and abilities, and some travel by bicycle from as far as halfway to Kampot for free English classes. These are children of farmers and fishermen who are eager to study the language, but do not have enough resources to go to a private language school. If anybody would like to donate materials, such as books, educational CDs, or similar, Cambodia Maps CD now has a post office box address:
Cambodia Maps CD
P.O. Box 576, Phnom Penh
Cambodia

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For more information on the Cambodia Maps CD, please click here.