Category - Personal Interest/Experience

Going to a church for the first time

Youth pray for Jesus Christ

Youth pray for Jesus Christ / by: Dara Saoyuth

Have you ever gone to a church? In what occasion? And what do you find interesting there?

In a long chat last night with my friend, I became interested after being invited to join her tomorrow in going to Phnom Penh New Life Church situated in Sangkat Boeng Keng Kang 2, Khan Chamcar Mon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

This morning I had to set my phone alarm to 5:30am so that I can reach the place on time. However, my finger pressed stop button as soon as it rang and that’s why I didn’t wake up until I got a telephone call from her.

With my second plan I used to cope with getting up late, we were able to go there just on time.

 

Youth gather to study bible

After Order of Worship, Youth gather on the top floor learning bible / by: Dara Saoyuth

As soon as I rode motor into a parking lot, many questions came to my mind starting from “Why are there many people here?”.

My friend walked in front of me up the stairs to the meeting room where I could see many people were in their seats already waiting for the program to start. Along the way up to the hall, I noticed that there were a few people standing on each landing to welcome all the guests including me and my friend.

We had our seats in the front of the room so that I could see very clearly what’s happening in front of me except what people at the back were doing.

The program started and I began to adapt myself to the environment surrounding me.

“Don’t ask me during the time and I’ll answer every questions from you after that,” said my friend as soon as the program started. She must know that I have lots of questions and it’s true.

 

Bible and Praise Song

Bible and Praise Song / by: Dara Saoyuth

There were lots of programs one follow another, but to me, most of the programs are entertaining, not too serious. I stated like this due to the fact that many times that people came to the stage and sang songs praising their god. There are three groups who went on stage to sing a group song ranking from children group, teenager group and adult group.

There are many more things to write to totally express my feeling over this visited, but I’m afraid that all of you think I’m writing a book instead of a blog post.

As I like taking new experiences, I hope I can go there again in the future and bring something new to you as my visitors.

By: Dara Saoyuth
05/12/2010

The first time to Koh Pich after a tragedy

The Cambodian aunt and sister of a vicitim pray for their relative at the Diamond Gate bridge

The Cambodian aunt and sister of a vicitim pray for their relative at the Diamond Gate bridge / by: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images

After having dinner outside with friends this evening, I decided to ride my motor with them to Koh Pich (Diamond Island). This is the first time I rode across the bridge after the tragedy happened on 22 November 2010.

Everything is quite different from the last time I went there before the bad accident occurred. The north bridge where hundreds people died because of stampede is still being closed after the accident, so I was able to go to the island and back to the mainland only by another bridge.

There are not many people on the island though today is the weekend. It’s very easy for me to ride around the island unlike the earlier time I was there,  but I still think it’s better to have more people.

Most of the shops didn’t open especially entertainment places where now, there are only a few people there who mostly are the entertainment places owners themselves. It seem like no one dare to get on that entertainment instruments after something unpleasant happened.

I know that it’s not easy to forget about something happen on the last day of water festival in Cambodia this year. It take more time to calm people’s feeling that I myself have no idea when will this feeling goes away from Cambodians’ minds.

by: Dara Saoyuth
04/12/2010

យុវ​ជន​កំពុង​ប្រើ​ប្រព័ន្ធ​អ៊ីនធឺណិត​ដើម្បី​ផ្សព្វ​ផ្សាយ​សំឡេង​របស់​ពួក​គេ​ទៅ​កាន់​ពិភព​លោក​ទាំង​មូល

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ស្រប​ពេល​ដែល​មនុស្ស​ភាគ​ច្រើន​អាច​ប្រើ​ប្រាស់​ប្រព័ន្ធ​អ៊ីនធឺណិត បាន​ដោយ​មិន​ចាំ​បាច់​មាន​ការ​លំបាក​ដូច​កាល​ពី​ប៉ុន្មាន​ឆ្នាំ​មុន ​យុវជន​កម្ពុជា​បាន​ចាប់​យក​ប្រព័ន្ធ​មួយ​នេះ​ដើម្បី​ផ្សព្វ​ផ្សាយ​នូវ​ សំឡេង​របស់​ពួក​គេ​ទៅ​កាន់​ពិភព​លោក​។ ជាក់​ស្តែង​ដូច​ជា​ការ​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​ដែល​ត្រូវ​បាន​ធ្វើ​ឡើង​ទាក់​ទង​នឹង​ ព្រឹត្តិ​ការណ៍​រត់​ជាន់​គ្នា​នៅ​ស្ពាន​ពេជ្រ​ដែល​បណ្តាល​ឱ្យ​មនុស្ស​រាប់ ​រយ​នាក់​ស្លាប់​បាត់​បង់​ជីវិត​ និង​រាប់​រយ​នាក់​ផ្សេង​ទៀត​រង​របួស​។

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លី ទី​ណេត បាន​ឱ្យ​ដឹង​ថា​៖ «ខ្ញុំ​ធ្វើ​ការ​ផ្លាស់​ប្តូរ​រូប​ភាព​ក៏​ដូច​ជា​សរសេរ​អ្វី​ផ្សេង​ៗ​ទាំង​ នេះ​ គឺ​ចង់​ចូល​រួម​រំលែក​ទុក្ខ​ជា​មួយ​នឹង​ក្រុម​គ្រួសារ​ជន​រង​គ្រោះ ​នឹង​ដើម្បី​បង្ហាញ​ថា​ប្រជាជន​ខ្មែរ​តែង​តែ​ចេះ​ជួយ​គ្នា ​និង​យក​ចិត្ត​ទុក​ដាក់​ចំពោះ​គ្នា​នៅ​ពេល​ដែល​មាន​រឿង​ហេតុ​អាក្រក់​កើត​ ឡើង​ម្តង​ៗ»។

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ម៉ៅ ​ពិសិដ្ឋ​ ជា​ម្ចាស់​ប្លុក​ឈ្មោះ ​កំណត់​ហេតុ​ពិសិដ្ឋ​ (http://mpsinfor.wordpress.com ) ហើយ​លោក​បាន​សរសេរ​អត្ថបទ​ចំនួន​ពីរ​ផ្សេង​ៗ​គ្នា​ទាក់​ទង​នឹង​ ព្រឹត្តិ​ការណ៍​កើត​ឡើង​នៅ​កោះ​ពេជ្រ។ ​ម៉ៅ ​ពិសិដ្ឋ ​បាន​ឱ្យ​ដឹង​ថា​គាត់​ចូល​ចិត្ត​សរសេរ​ប្លុក​ដោយ​សារ​តែ ប្លុក​ចំពោះ​គាត់​គឺ​សម្រាប់​ជា​កំណត់​ហេតុ​ផ្ទាល់​ខ្លួន​ផង ​និង​អាច​មាន​ជា​ប្រយោជន៍​ដល់​អ្នក​ដទៃ​ដែល​បាន​អាន​ផង​ដែរ​។ នៅ​ក្នុង​អត្ថបទ​ទាំង​ពីរ​របស់​គាត់ ​ម៉ៅ ​ពិសិដ្ឋ ​បញ្ចេញ​នូវ​ទស្សន​ផ្ទាល់​ខ្លួន​ដើម្បី​បង្ហាញ​នូវ​ការ​បារម្ភ ​និង​ដើម្បី​ជួយ​ឱ្យ​អ្នក​ដែល​បាន​អាន​គិត​ឡើង​វិញ​នូវ​រាល់​ពាក្យ​ចចាម​ អារាម ​ផ្សេង​ៗ​ដែល​ទាក់​ទង​នឹង​សោកនា​ដកម្ម។

ម៉ៅ ​ពិសិដ្ឋ​មាន​ប្រសាសន៍​ថា​៖ «ខ្ញុំ​គិត​ថា​អ្វី​ដែល​បាន​កើត​ឡើង​នៅ​កោះ​ពេជ្រ​មិន​មែន​ជា​រឿង​ធម្មតា​ នោះទេ ​ ព្រោះ​មនុស្ស​ម្នា​នៅ​តែ​បន្ត​កាន់​ទុក្ខ​ចំពោះ​អ្នក​ដែល​បាន​ស្លាប់​បាត់​ បង់​ជីវិត​»។ លោក​បន្ត​ថា​គាត់​មិន​ចង់​ឱ្យ​អ្នក​ដែល​នៅ​រស់​រាន​មាន​ជីវិត​កាន់​តែ​មាន​ ការ​ភ័យ​ខ្លាច​ជា​មួយ​នឹង​ពាក្យ​ចចាម​អារាម​ផ្សេង​ៗ​នោះ​ទេ​ ហេតុ​នេះ​ទើប​គាត់​សរសេរ​ទាក់​ទង​ពី​កត្តា​ទាំង​អស់​នេះ​ដាក់ ក្នុង​ប្លុក​របស់​គាត់។ អត្ថបទ​ភាគ​ច្រើន​របស់ ​ម៉ៅ ​ពិសិដ្ឋ ​ត្រូវ​បាន​សរសេរ​ជា​ភាសា​អង់គ្លេស ​ប៉ុន្តែ​សម្រាប់​រឿង​ទាំង​ពីរ​នេះ​ត្រូវ​បាន​សរសេ​រជា​ភាសារ​ខ្មែរ​ដោយ​មាន ​បក​ប្រែ​ជា​ភាសា​អង់គ្លេស​នៅ​ពី​ខាង​ក្រោម។

ម៉ៅ ​ពិសិដ្ឋ​បាន​ឱ្យ​ដឹង​ថា​៖ «ខ្ញុំ​ព្យាយាម​សរសេរ​រឿង​ទាំង​នេះ​ជា​ពីរ​ភាសា ​គឺ​ដើម្បី​ឱ្យ​អ្នក​ទស្សនា​ទាំង​ជន​បរទេស​ ទាំង​ជន​ជាតិ​ខ្មែរ​អាច​អាន​បាន។​ បុរស​អាយុ ​២៦​ឆ្នាំ​រូប​នេះ​បាន​បន្ត​ថា ​ចំពោះ​អ្នក​ដែល​មិន​មាន​ពុម្ព​អក្សរ​យូនី​កូដ ​ពួក​គាត់​ក៏​អាច​អាន​ជា​ភាសា​អង់​គ្លេស​បាន​ដែរ​។

ទាក់​ទងនឹ​ង​ការ​ដែល​ថា​តើ អត្ថ​បទ​ទាំង​អស់​នេះ​នឹង​ត្រូវ​បាន ផ្សព្វ​ផ្សាយ​ទៅ​ដល់​អ្នក​ទស្សនា បាន​ច្រើន​ប៉ុណ្ណា​នោះ ​ម៉ៅ ​ពិសិដ្ឋ​ បាន​ឱ្យ​ដឹង​ថា​គាត់​មិន​ធានា​ថា​វា​អាច​ទៅ​ដល់​មនុស្ស​ច្រើន​នោះ​ទេ​ តែ​បើ​តាម​ស្ថិតិ​ក្នុង​ប្លុក​របស់​គាត់​បញ្ជាក់​ថា​វា​បាន​ទៅ​ដល់​មនុស្ស ច្រើន​គួរ​សម​ដែរ​  ហើយ​បើ​យ៉ាង​ហោច​ណាស់​ក៏​ពាក់​កណ្តាល​នៃ ​មិត្ត​ភក្តិ​របស់​គាត់​ជាង​៧០០​នាក់​នៅ​ក្នុង​Facebook​ បាន​អាន​អំពី​វា​ដែរ​ ព្រោះ តែ​គាត់​បាន​ចែក​រំលែក​វា​នៅ​ក្នុង​ ​Facebook ផង​ដែរ។

បើ​ទោះ​បី​ជា​ព័ត៌​មាន​ដែល​ចេញ​មក​ពី​បណ្តាញ​សង្គម​ទាំង​អស់​នេះ​ត្រូវ​ បាន​ គេ​ចាត់​ទុក​ថា​ជា​ព័ត៌​មាន​ក្រៅ​ផ្លូវ​ការ​ដោយ​សារ​តែ​មិន​មាន​អ្នក​ត្រួត​ ពិនិត្យ​មុន​ពេល​បោះពុម្ព យ៉ាង​ហោច​ណាស់​ក៏​វា​បាន​ផ្តល់​នូវ​​ព័ត៌​មាន​និង​សាវតា​នៃ​រឿង​ទៅ​ដល់​ អ្នក​ដែល​មិន​ទាន់​បាន​ដឹង​សោះ​ពី​ព្រឹត្តិ​ការណ៍​ណា​មួយ​នោះ​ដែរ៕

By: Dara Saoyuth
This article was published on Lift, Issue 47 published on December 02, 2010
You can also read the article on Phnom Penh Post website by CLICKING HERE
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Telling the story of a tragedy

Blessing for the deceased

Relatives blessing for the deceased / by: Dara Saoyuth

Having come to Phnom Penh to pursue higher education from my home in the province, it is rare that I have a few days off to visit my family. So, rather than joining the millions of people who came to Phnom Penh, I made the opposite trip and went home for the festival weekend.

I was sound asleep in my parents’ house, enjoying the comforts of familiar places, when my parents woke me up. I was rather annoyed, seeing that it was 2am, but once I understood what they were telling me, questions began to come to my mind, which was having an impossible time accepting that hundreds of people have actually died on the Koh Pich bridge.

Most of the questions involved the status of my friends still in the city and I frantically dialed numbers and sent out messages to find out if people were okay. Some of my friends had a similar reaction to mine upon being woken up – annoyed – but it was worth it to me to hear their voices.

I left the province at 7am, with few of my initial questions answered. As soon as I finished my lunch upon my return to the city, I hurriedly put my camera, recorder, notebook and a bottle of water into my backpack and rushed to the Phnom Penh Post office. I was asked by my editor to help another reporter, who was from America, to shoot a documentary about the event. After being so far away from the event earlier in the day, I was anxious to find out what really happened in my nation.

The Cambodian -Russian Friendship Hospital was teeming with crowds of victims’ relatives as we arrived. I immediately became overwhelmed by sadness, but this was the truth I wanted to see. For those involved in the stampede, desperation was the only emotion there was in the days after the stampede. We spent almost an hour walking around the hospital and nothing like tiredness even crossed my mind. I was too filled with sympathy and pity to consider anything else.

There were two big boards with victims’ photos stuck on either side. Some people burst into tears when they saw photos of their relatives lying dead. I couldn’t imagine. My friends and family were okay but I was still barely able to look at the rows of photos.

I talked with a girl who was among the many family members roaming the halls and tending to their kin. I talked to a girl who said her aunt was still alive in a nearby room, but was unable to move any part of her body. She said a few more words, but then stopped. As her eyes filled with tears, I couldn’t bear to ask any more questions or push her to talk more. My heart truly ached for her and all the others in her situation.

The fact that I was carrying a camera bag and a tripod, along with a fixed camera hanging around my neck, didn’t exactly make me inconspicuous; and as I walked by, I heard people whisper that another foreign journalist was there to cover their tragedy. I was proud that I looked like a professional to these people, but I also felt like I should put down all of this stuff and help calm people who were crying, carry coffins into the truck, or care for those still suffering.  This was the first time I had been assigned a story like this, and it made me realise how difficult it must be for journalists to balance their duty to tell the story of terrible events and help the desperate people around them.

I wanted to separate my job that day from my feelings, but I simply couldn’t. This is my country and these were fellow Cambodians suffering around me.  I kept imagining how terrible it would feel just to find out that someone I know was among the people who died that night on the bridge. If it was someone I truly loved I can’t imagine how bad it would hurt.

I arrived home with an overwhelming sense of sadness hanging on me. I called my friends who also helped report the story and they were also unable to shake the depression and fear that the day’s events had inspired. I thought about how the water festival has always been a happy time for Cambodian people, and whether that would ever be true again.

By: Dara Saoyuth
This article was published on Lift, Issue 47 published on December 02, 2010
You can also read the article on Phnom Penh Post website by CLICKING HERE

Watching a new Cambodian film, Kiles

If you read LIFT issue 44, you’ll know what a reporter wrote for this week in what’s new section. No wonder, it’s a review of a Cambodian drama film, Kiles (literally translate as Passion), written by Mao Ayuth, the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Information.

After reading the review, I was so eager to watch the film. Fortunately, I received a free ticket from one of my friends, so Saturday afternoon was my second time I went to lux cinema watching films.

I don’t remember my first time in this cinema, but for this time, one thing I’ve noticed is that most of the audiences are teenagers who mostly walk in with their partners and some were still wearing school uniforms as if they were entering classroom. Before the film started, I was on my seat trying to fathom out the reason why there are small number of adults in the theater. Unfortunately, the film had started before I could find the answer, so let me give you a floor to come up with the answer to my doubt.

Below is the original review of the film written by Tet Chan, a LIFT reporter. Cheers,

Kiles poster

Kiles poster

Perhaps you have heard stories about life in Cambodia during French colonization. Maybe you are even an expert on the period, but I’m certainly not.  Hoping to learn more about postWorld War II Cambodia, I went with my friends to see Kiles, the newest movie to hit Cambodia’s theatres, and the first production by the Cambodia Film Commission, a government- funded initiative meant to raise the standard of Cambodian film.

The sounds of chanting plays over the opening scene as an old rich man named Kiles is lying in bed, lonely and weak. It doesn’t look like he has long to live, but, as luck would have it, the frail fellow recovers and returns to live with his four wives and countless servants.

The news keeps getting better for the geezer when one of these servants reads his palm and tells him that his fifth wife will be a beautiful young woman. Kiles isn’t a man to wait around for fortune to find him, so he tells his future-seeing househelp to track down someone who owes him money and demand that they give him their daughter’s hand in marriage to clear their debt.

The unfortunate and indebted man who the servant finds conveniently has a beautiful daughter named Teuy. Her devoted boyfriend Plok is a cremator, and he has been taking the golden coins from the mouths of corpses to save for their wedding. When the servant comes knocking he has 99 of the 100 coins needed to get engaged.

Close doesn’t cut it for Teuy’s father, who predictably agrees to marry her off to erase his debts.

It’s not long before old man Kiles and young beauty Teuy are preparing to be married. I’m not a movie-spoiler, so I’m not gonna tell you what happens next. I’ll say that it’s not as predictable as the plot I described thus far.

In some ways the movie seemed to sugggest it would be a sad love story, but that’s not how it was recieved. My friends and I laughed with the rest of the audience during much of the movie, especially a series of scenes showing Plok trying to commit suicide, once by taking a bowl, filling it with water and immersing his head in an attempt to drown. His efforts are so obviously futile that moviegoers don’t have to worry about his pending death. Plok isn’t a complete coward though, in another scene he puts his life on the line to steal his woman from the decrepit dude who stole her away … I’ll let you find out what happens when you see the movie. Feel free to thank me later.

While some of the scenes were silly, others were quite beautiful; with music and gorgeous Cambodian scenery that made me feel a bit of nationalistic pride while being entertained. It was refreshing to see a Cambodian movie with decent acting and voices that are actually recorded during production.

I was quite happy with my decision to spend an hour and half immersed in scenes and stories from Cambodia’s past. You too will have a new perspective on our history, and although some parts of the plot and character development were a bit thin, I walked out of the theatre optimistic about the future of Cambodian film.

Kiles is a unique type of filem in Cambodia these days. It was enjoyable to watch.

“I was happy having spent 90 minutes immersed in scenes from Cambodia’s past.”

14/11/2010
You can also read the article in LIFT, the Phnom Penh Post website by CLICKING HERE

 

Activities in the Previous Week

14/10/2010: Closing Ceremony of “Reporting for Radio Course”

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Today, we are celebrating the closing ceremony of our intensive course on Reporting for Radio in the presence of German Ambassador, DMC acting head, and our trainers, Thorsten Karg and Kyle James.

In the occasion, Dr. Wolfgang Moser, a German Ambassador, has encouraged us by saying that journalism is very important in democratic society and he also gives us some suggestions that we, as journalists, have to be aware of what we are doing, how far we can go, what to report and what not to report, and also need to take care for our sources of information.

Since I step into journalism field in late 2008, I have to admit that this is my first time to know about Reporting for Radio and I was very lucky to have participated in the  one-month intensive course on this subject. It was also the luck to have two trainers from a Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, staying with us and guiding us throughout the workshop.

I started to know the differences between writing news for print media and writing news for radio broadcasting.

What’s New “The Launch of Cambodian First Space Mission”

I had a memorable weekend as I joined a group of tech whizzes and aeronautical enthusiasts for the launch of a one-of-a-kind Cambodian spacecraft. Maybe we didn’t make it to space, but the launch of “The Sun” was absolutely awesome.

[slideshow]

You may have already heard about the quasi-spacecraft that flew to 30 kilometres above Cambodia last weekend, in what was deemed “Cambodia’s first space mission”, so rather than risk boring you by retelling the news, I’ll let you know what it was like be part of the awe-inspiring aeronautical action.

I woke up early Saturday, packed my bags and headed to meet the organisers of the launch, who invited Lift to come along for the day-long adventure. On the way there, my head was filled with visions of me jumping aboard a spaceship and shooting through the atmosphere with an expert crew before landing on earth and returning home for dinner, but when I arrived at our meeting point, I found some unidentifiable equipment laid out next to a folded tarp and some floatable pool toys. Apparently this wasn’t going to be the type of space mission I had in mind.

But, nonetheless, my excitement over the day ahead began to brew as Eduardo Jezierski, the leader of the project and a chief technical adviser for the NGO InSTEDD, projected images of mines and unexploded ordnances on the wall and told us what to do if we ran across them in our search for the device, essentially made of balloons, tin foil, flip-flops and two cameras to capture sights normally seen only through satellites.

Our crew set out in four vehicles, each with five or six people, at six o’clock in the morning. The adventure began as Jezierski, our fearless leader, announced that we would travel as “convoy” behind the lead car, equipped with antennae tuned to show the way to the launch pad.

I was the youngest person in our convoy, but I had no trouble connecting with the other participants, from varying places and background, united in our desire to be part of an exciting and memorable event. After an hour of driving I looked out the window and saw the familiar scene of rice fields and dikes spread out over the countryside. As we came to a halt I realised this bland scenery was about to be brought to life by the launch of the humble spaceship named Preah Atit (The Sun).

I had launched balloons into space in the past, usually by accident as they slipped out of my hand and floated into the sky. But for this glorified balloon, attached to a lightweight box, we had to first prepare equipment and calculate where the craft was likely to land.

After preparations were complete we began the countdown from 10 and Cambodia’s cosmic creation began the ascent toward its flaming namesake, becoming smaller and smaller until it disappeared from our earthly sight.
Although we temporarily lost contact with The Sun, the onboard camera promised to capture everything we missed (check it out at www.Phnompenhpost.com). After more than an hour we finally reestablished visual contact and watched intently as the device returned to earth, with nearly two hours of priceless footage on board.

We knew that the helium-powered ship along with two cameras, securely fastened before take-off, were now stranded somewhere within about 100 kilometres of our launching pad.

Despite our excitement over the pending search and rescue mission, the crew in our car was running extremely low on energy, having hoped for a celebratory breakfast after a successful launch, and agreed that food was urgent.

On cue, I pulled two baguettes out of my back pack, split them among my famished friends and we set off to find the fallen craft. “Chasing and finding The Sun is like looking for a needle in the ocean,” said one of my compatriots as our driver, guided by a Global Positioning System and printed map of Cambodia, headed towards the approximate point of landing.

For some reason, we soon lost the signal from The Sun and stopped for lunch while Jezierski worked out a new estimate for the landing location as his tech-savvy troops tried to connect to the internet for consultation.

After a short delay, our new coordinates were passed around and we rolled along for nearly three hours. The drivers drove like men on a mission as main roads led to smaller roads, which led to dirt paths until it seemed like we were forging out own path through the countryside. Even so, we soon realised that our vehicles could only take us so far and we stopped the convoy and set out on foot to find the fallen “Sun”.

A frightening snake and flesh-eating ants proved to be minor obstacles as we scoured the earth’s surface for our elusive spaceship. After 10 minutes we heard shouts that were immediately recognisable as signals of success.

After taking a group photo we returned to where our cars were parked and wasted little time in taking a memory card out of one of the cameras and gathering around to watch a clip of “The Sun’s” voyage on a laptop.

Given my high expectations for the trip, I am still a bit disappointed that I spent the day stuck on earth, but it is an experience I’ll never forget, and at least I can use the videos we helped capture to prepare for the next Cambodian space mission, when I will surely be sitting alongside the cameras as I shoot toward the sun.

by: Dara Saoyuth
This article was published on Lift, Issue 39, October 6, 2010
You can also read the article on Phnom Penh Post website

After BarCamp Phnom Penh [3]

Though it finished two days ago, I do still remember well about BarCamp Phnom Penh [3], an open technology conference which everyone has chance to express and share their knowledge in any topic related to technology.

This year marks the 3rd time of BarCamp celebration in Cambodia, but it is the first time for me to join as a volunteer for the event. Coming from different places is not a problem since they share the same interest of getting and sharing information.

I missed people who had been working together in organizing the event since one month before 25th-26th September, 2010. We are all getting to know each other clearly when we work and have meal together for three days (one day before the event and two days in the event).

So far, I have added some of those who have facebook account and hopefully those who not yet have the account can create it soon so that we are able to keep in touch together.

Below are volunteer names in BarCamp Phnom Penh [3] that I can find. If anyone cannot see their name, please let me know by any mean for example by email (dara_saoyuth@yahoo.com) so that I will update it as soon as possible.

1. Chea Raksmy 2. Chea Sideith 3. Cheng Bunkheang 4. Chhan Putheary 5. Chhon Meily 6. Dara Saoyuth 7. Vireak Heng 8. Sokchannaroath 9. Khe Longsean 10. Khuoch Khemrath 11. Khuoch Khemren 12. Koam Tivea 13. Long Chanveasna 14. Ly YouY 15. Moung Vandy 16. moung Vathanak 17. Neang Maneth 18. Pen Pichdaro 19. Phay Paty 20. Phoan Putheary 21. Samnang Vitheavy 22. Sath Sokun 23. Sok Eng 24. Soy Somnoup 25. Sroeung Setharoth 26. Sun Narin 27. Tang Khyhay 28. Thon Daravuth 29. Ung Rithpornsak 30. Veng Rachana 31. Voeun Sopheap 32. Vorn Sophea

To see some photo from the event click the link below:
1. BarCamp Phnom Penh [3] first day
2. BarCamp Phnom Penh [3] second day
3. Volunteers take their certificates
To see some articles related to the event click the link below:
1. Why BarCamp in Phnom Penh by Tharum Bun
2. BarCamp Phnom Penh 2010 by Vutha
Dara Saoyuth
28/09/2010

Photo Exhibition on “LIFE ALONG THE RAILS”

Showing his interest, a visitor is looking closely at the photo / by: Dara Saoyuth

Showing his interest, a visitor is looking closely at the photo / by: Dara Saoyuth

Spending almost a whole day in front of my computer screen made me headache, so this evening, I hurried to go out after I was invited by my friends to join a photo exhibition under the theme LIFE ALONG THE RAILS.

As soon as I arrived the place, I saw photos by a 31-year-old Conor Wall from Ireland was printed in large size and stuck to the walls of the room, and many people mostly are foreigners gathered around to see the photos.

Visitors gathering around to see the photos and some are communicating with people who have the same interest / By: Dara Saoyuth

Visitors gathering around to see the photos and some are communicating with people who have the same interest / By: Dara Saoyuth

In the exhibition, there were around 20 photos to be displayed and all of them showed the daily lives of people living along the tracks.

“I first became interested in the lives of people living along the railway tracks two years ago when I used to walk along the rails in Boeung Kok. I took photos of locals there, going back again and again to shoot more and return prints to those in the pictures. I never really had a plan to publish or exhibit those shots. I was just doing it because I enjoyed it,” said Cornor Wall, who first came to Cambodia in 2004.

Who know the purpose of showing these photos?

Actually, I don’t have answer to the question, but I think that he wants us, especially human right activists to pay more attention on people over there since the government is working on the reconstruction of the railway tracks. More people might face eviction from their home, so on the railway, we won’t be able to see vendors selling or children playing on it anymore…

To know more about Conor Wall and his Photography and Story Portfolio, check his website by CLICKING HERE
by: Dara Saoyuth
16/09/2010