Bitter Sweet Memories : Matengai Pi Dong, Madong Matruop

translation: ambil 2 kali sehari, 2 biji setiap kali.hehe..that's Khmer language. the longest
sentence ive learnt during my 2 weeks stay in Cambodia. sorry if the meaning lari sket or the spelling isnt right.

Throughout the relief mission, there wasn't any moment tht i regret my decision to join the team. the new things ive learnt, the people i got to know there..everything is precious n priceless! i'll write more on the mission once i receive the pics frm the boss. but wht i wanna share now is about this one cambodian fren we know.

seeing him, i would never have imagined he's the person tht needs to go against his family will for his idea to change the lives of his village hence pursuing medicine in USS in Phnom Penh and now in his 5th yr.(or is it 6th?cudnt remember)..btw medical course in Cambodia is 8 yrs.He came from a rural village in one of the provinces in Cambodia where the main source of living is fishing.

For the people around him, helping their parents to earn a living was considered to be more "useful" than studying. Most of the kids settled only til elementary. So when no one in the village likes to study, when the school is 20 km away, when parents and grandparents oppose, and when living is hard, he, Ghazali (or Rosaly) Yakop determined. (or in Khmer, Kop Roly). Even when he had to cycle 20 km to high skool, and also helped his father go fishing in the weekend, he never waver from his idea of the importance of education. He was then awarded a scholarship by the gov and became the first from his village to further in university. Hesitantly, he chose to become a doctor over a teacher.

The scholarship however only covered the tuition fee. Poor kampung boy needed to survive on his own feet in Phnom Penh city with estimated expenses of approximately 150$ p/month for food, books, accomd etc. His parents could only support around $50/60 p/month. And the rest was on him.

So he did part time jobs. One at a local restaurant and the other one was distributing newspapers. Uni during the day, and work from 5 til night. (can we possibly manage tht?) He also once worked with nurses in the hospital at night. he was so exhausted tht his lecturer once asked him why he often dozes off in class. (we also doze off in class but with a different reason kn?) Once in a while, the thought of giving up came across his mind. But then he keeps reminding himself tht if he give it all up and go home now, he would still be the same guy who have nothing and the villagers would jst blame him for being stubborn n not following the common. And so he preserve res.Then Alhamdulillah he got another scholarship from IDB (Islamic dev. bank) tht lessen a bit the burden off his shoulder.

In 2nd yr, he got to know IMAC, Islamic Medical Assoc. Cambodia. They do mobile clinics in rural areas almost every week! (IMAC is another story..later ye). Even with the scholarships he got, getting original new medical books is still beyond his reach. He only uses photostated books. In uni library, they have a very limited number of reference books. They can only read the books there in the library. Using only black and white photocopied books, whenever he needs diagrams or figures to refer (remember in medicine we really need pictures?!), he would go to the library, look at it there and read about the details at home. (Yes, let's count how MANY untouched/used reference books we have on our shelf).

Now he still do part time job since he needs more books and stuffs as he progresses. The smart n brilliant Roly now works as a tutor at a private college teaching biology. So every night, he needs to prepare for his lesson as well as his study. Being the stubborn n the rebellious one in his family, he decided not to go against his family in this one matter: marriage. He accepts with an open heart his match-make arranged by his mother and now engaged.He has no time to think tht medicine is hard, coz to be able to study n live itself are hard enough for him.-the end-So now, are we in the position the complain n whine?? Ya Allah, place us among those who're grateful to You...ameen

by Afiqah Farhana