A Letter From Sreyrath

 

Dearest Gary,

It’s another lovely day to write to you again after we already talked through some emails. Today you will get to know more about me, especially the life I have been through. To help you understand what I want to tell you, a mail translator here will put my words for you into English and when you write back, she will translate it into Khmer for me too.

Can I tell you my name again? I hope you love me to do it. I am Sok Sreyrath and everyone calls me Sreyrath- the way you do, too. My birthday was on April 18th, 2000 and I grew up in Phnom Penh City. There are 7 people in my family: my parents, my little brother, uncle, grandmother, two cousins and me. We all live in a small wooden hut located in the Steung Meanchey area, near the old city dump site.

Before, my mother worked in a factory and my father was a construction worker. My parents often had problems so they lived separately for a while. Without my father, my beloved mother worked very hard to make a living. When my mother got off from her work, which paid her too little to live on, she and I went to pick up garbage. With a cart, we walked along the streets and throughout market sites. My mother never forced me to that tiring job, but I really wanted to help her. Fortunately, my father came back home and the relation in my family is getting better now. My mom has changed her job too and now sells used clothes and my father keeps doing his work on building sites. His job is not steady and very low paid. He sometimes has to go away from home for weeks to work on any site he can find. Even though we lived in a poor family where the daily expenses were always larger than my parents’ incomes, they were able to send me to school. I finished grade 4 at a local primary school. But I did not have a chance to get some extra courses, especially English, the subject in my dream or study properly because our life was so hard.

As usual, papa Scott visited the village where I live. He met me and found out how hard the situations in my family were. He told my mother she could bring me to the CCF Community Centre for an interview. My mother and I were asked a lot of questions about our family. Later on, I was told that I passed the interview so I was allowed to sit in CCF’s Satellite school. My first day was on July 7th, 2011. I was really happy with such a great chance. At CCF, I study English and computer, my favorite subjects. CCF also helps me with other support, such as my study materials, school uniform, bread and even health care. All this really helps with my study. My school life is getting better and now I have qualified to be placed in grade 6 when the new academic year comes. I wish to be a Khmer or English teacher one day.

 

We have already met and you got some pictures of our day out trip too. Today I want to put more photos for you and I hope you love seeing them. The first shot was done with my mother when we came for the interview at CCFCC.

Again, I want to say Thank You very much for sponsoring me. You are so kind to help me and my family. I hope you loved reading my email today. I am sending you a ton of love…

Big Hugs,
Sreyrath