Raining mangoes

Sitting outside the Villa Langka Hotel in Phnom Penh, Kitty and I met with Srey, who graduated in 2010. We wanted to catch up with her news. The conversation quickly became a time machine, speeding back to remembrances of Srey’s early quest for schooling. Coming from a poor family, she recalled walking through the countryside to stand finally outside an open classroom window. “I had to drop out of school, and this daily visit became a ritual,” Srey explained. “I didn’t have the money for extra classes, a school uniform or even books and a pen, so this was the closest I came to being inside a classroom.”

For a long time, she thought her visits were going unnoticed. Then one day, the teacher slipped out of the class and asked her, “What in the world are you doing?”

“I just want to learn,” the outdoor student replied.

When her lack of money was weighed against her passion to learn, the teacher, remembering the mission of CASF, asked Srey to be patient. After a full year, an interview with CASF staff was planned in her village, where new students were being recruited.

As Srey retold this story, her voice was tentative and fragile. Kitty and I knew the delicate nature of what was being described, and we took a deep breath. “My father took me to the CASF interview and was the only father present with his daughter. He let me speak of my dreams for schooling, and added that he gave his full support.”

In that exact moment, as the tale was told outside our hotel, we heard a resounding thud, like a stone hitting the ground. As if suddenly being awakened from a trance, Srey said, “A mango just dropped…” Sure enough, we sat twenty feet from a mango tree. Only a girl who grew up in the countryside would identify such things, I thought.

This “thud” was just an introduction to Srey’s outpouring about how CASF and the pursuit of education had changed her life. What began with two years of high school and then four years of university, with CASF’S funding, eventually merged with her own passion to give back to others. Srey works as support staff for an organization that provides micro financing to those in need, so that they may start their own business. To support her family, she drives a Moto one hundred kilometers each way to get to work.

“The mango dropped!”

 In our quest for what is essential, we all have such expressions and associations that freeze important moments in our minds.

 I’ll forever hear the sound of that ripe mango hitting the ground, as I experience the countless tales of our CASF students about their growth through education, and their desire to help others in Cambodia, as they give back what they received.

Fred Lipp, President/Founder CASF