After a morning of hard work in Thnouh village, we travelled by Tuk Tuk to Khnarong, another village in Takeo, to promote the Health Carnival and Eye-Check to be held 2 days later. It was the first time for many of us in the team to visit Khnarong, which is a village with breath-taking scenery.

On our way to Khnarong, we passed by the tracks built for local trains. The railway extended to an invisible and unknown destination, leaving us to ponder when and from where a train will come into view. What laid in front of our eyes was vastly different from how many of us imagined Cambodia to be. Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy, or else we would have stayed for a photoshoot!

After we safely arrived in Khnarong, we split into teams to visit households for promotion. With a stack of simple, black and white leaflets promoting the carnival, we went into homes saying, “jom reep sue! (Hello!)” Villagers often smiled with surprise, curious about what we were going to say. “Od gud lui! Dull sala! (It’s for free! Come to the school!)” we exclaimed with exaggerated body language.

Everyone of us tried to use the limited Khmer that we knew to spread the message. Even the Tuk Tuk driver joined us and helped! Without us explaining much what he had to do, he led us to different households, complemented what we said, and sincerely explained to villagers about the eye-check and carnival. The afternoon was filled with villagers’ laughter in response to our attempts to speak Khmer, and we all smiled with satisfaction at the end of the day as we tore down the language barrier as a team.