There are 10 countries in Southeast Asia and each one performed a dance or musical number. The costumes were beautiful and the background screen showed scenes of the different countries. Fortunately, the announcers explained everything in both Khmer and English. It was a long show with so many performances. It started at 6 p.m. and ended at 8:45. I felt like I had a trip around SE Asia without leaving Phnom Penh!
In the tuk tuk on the way home, I asked Sreyneang & Sandan what they thought. Sreyneang was not impressed that some of the countries had no reference to their indigenous people. For example, Thailand's theme was "Thailand, Land of Smiles" and they just had some people in traditional costumes dance around the stage. They did nothing to showcase the diverse indigenous groups that are in that country. It was an interesting perspective especially since Sreyneang has represented Cambodia at UN conferences for indigenous women.
Ship for Southeast Asian & Japanese Youth Program
The ship docked at the port town of Sihanouk Ville in southern Cambodia for 3 days. Last Friday, the participants took buses for the 5 hour trip to Phnom Penh to see the capital city and stay with host families for one night. Bandol hosted 2 students at her home so that her brother, her son and her nephew could experience the program and tour the ship. The two guests were really nice and spoke English extremely well. Ando was from Vietnam and Ridhwan was from Malaysia. Bandol & Dararith toured them around the city. I had lunch with them on Saturday before we took them back to the buses to return to Sihanouk Ville. Then we followed them in a car to see them off at the ship.
Saturday night there was a party for all of the host families and alumni Cambodian participants. Sunday morning there was a tour of the Nippon Maru so Ando & Ridhwan took us around and showed us everything. Then there was a big farewell ceremony on the dock by the ship. The ceremony took nearly two hours and we were sitting in the broiling heat for the whole time. Fortunately, Bandol found an umbrella for me or I would have been fried. It also came in handy when the clouds came in and dumped a bunch of rain on us. There was a platform for the executives including the Prime Minister's son who is the head of the Youth Confederation. Each group of participants came down the gangplank with their respective counties and did a cheer. Then there were some speeches. When the groups filed back onto the ship, the band played "Auld Lang Syne".
The most emotional part of the day was when the participants threw ribbons to their host families as the band played and the ship pulled away. It was quite a send off!