 Welcome, and aloha! My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today, we are going across the sea with Jerry and Vanny Clay from Cambodia. Jerry's a lawyer. Vanny is a teacher. They live and work in Honolulu, but they've decided to take their personal aloha, Cambodia, to translate their aloha into Khmer, the language of Cambodia. They're sponsoring a school in a small rural village in northeastern Cambodia, and I've asked them to come and talk about it, to share their journey across the sea with us. Welcome, Jerry, Vanny. Nice to see you both. Thank you for being here and telling us about your school in Cambodia. But first of all, I want you to tell me a little bit about yourselves. Okay, Vanny, where were you born? Where did you grow up? How did you get to Hawaii? And then we'll go to Jerry after that. Okay, sure. Well, first I'd like to thank you for having us today on your show. My name is Vanny, Vanny Clay, as you said. I was born in Cambodia, grew up there until the age of 17, and then I left my country to go to further my education in France, in Europe, and where I completed my bachelor degree and my master degree. And then in 1983, I came to visit my older sister in Hawaii. I like it so much, and then I moved to Hawaii, and I started to teach at Pune Hall in 1984. So this is my 36 years teaching at Pune Hall. And what do you teach? I teach French to the junior school students. French language. And the French is what you studied in France, I guess. Well, I knew French when I entered kindergarten and through the whole education, because Cambodia used to be under the French protectorate. Although when I was born, Cambodia already received independence, but heavily we were under the French administration, French language. So all school, the school I went to, we were taught in French. All subjects were taught in French. So basically French is my language. I think an interesting little aside is when she came to Hawaii, she got interviewed by someone in the French language. Oh, for your job at Pune Hall? Yeah, sure. It was Mr. Rambler. Oh, yes, yes. I know Mr. Rambler, because I was a graduate of Pune Hall also. But Jerry, what's your background? I know you're a lawyer. I am. Okay. Okay, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Oh, wow. I followed the Browns and the Indians. Went to law school in Ann Arbor, practiced in Detroit for six years, came to Hawaii in 1974, met this young lady, July 28, 1991. We got married. We went to visit Cambodia for the first time in 2002. And that's where the whole thing started. Okay, now before we get there, so you folks have your careers here in Hawaii. That's our home. This is your hometown now. You both came from different places. How did you get back to Cambodia? How did that start? And what is the school? What is your school in Cambodia? Tell us about that. Well, let me begin by saying that in 2002, Jerry would like to see my home country. So we took a trip to Cambodia. And I have not lived there for so many years. I left when I was a child. So we were around Angkor Buon, and we met a lot of children, you know, selling trinkets and little souvenirs here and there. And so I just said, it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and they go to school. And the answer was that at that time there was no school in the rural area. So we kind of, wow, I can't believe that these kids don't go to school. Just stay running around in the field selling trinkets. I'm sorry. So you mean you've come from Hawaii? Yes. Where everybody's in school? Yeah, our school. Yeah, everybody could go to school. And you go back to your place of your birth. And not everybody's going to school. And that's kind of, that's just, it's not right. So then we... So let me take this over. One Sunday morning, I'm reading the AARP magazine. And they have a series of articles. What are you doing in your retirement? And they talk about a guy who set up a charity to build schools in Cambodia. Was this before you went to Cambodia or after? This was after. I see. We came home. We wanted to do something. And you're thinking? And we're thinking. And we couldn't, we didn't know how to get where to begin. Out of the blue, I'm reading about a guy who set up an American charity to donate money to build schools in Cambodia. Who was this? His name was Bernie Krischer. He had formerly been the bureau chief for Newsweek magazine, starting in the 60s. And being a journalist, he got to know lots and lots of movers and shakers, including King Sianook of Cambodia. And it's a very sad story about how Cambodia got under the communists and many people died. And King Sianook spent the wartime in China. And after the communists were defeated, Sianook came back to try to resurrect a government for the people of Cambodia. And he called Bernie Krischer his old friend to help. Okay. Can I just add a little bit on that? Of course, my dear. Now we went back to the article he read, and then he told me that Bernie really, this guy building school. And I said, I don't believe at all, because anybody can write anything he or she wants. So at the end of the article, there was one line, his email address. So I emailed him right after I finished the article. And two minutes later, I said, the article claimed that you build a lot of school. And I would like to see some of your school, if that's true. And he says, sure. The email replied, you can come and visit some of my school at your own expense. And then in December 2004, we went back. And one of his employees in Cambodia took us around to four schools unannounced. That he talks to the school director, the teachers, and the kids and says it's for real. We were convinced that this is not, this is not fake. This is true. This is real. We signed a check. We left in December 2004. We went back in December 2005 to dedicate the school to open officially open the school. That's how it starts. I want to put up a map of Cambodia. And tell us a little bit about this location of Cambodia and your school. So as you can see, Cambodia is surrounded by three countries. We have Thailand, Laos, and then Vietnam. And the capital city of Cambodia is called Phnom Penh. And our school is in the eastern part of Cambodia, near the border with Vietnam. And the school is in the province called Ratanak Thierry and in a tiny little village called Chiang Ra. Okay. And how did you decide on that village or that place? How did you get there? What happened was we were assigned this as an area that badly needed a school. And we said, if they badly need a school, we're here to help. And so who assigned it? This was the organization. The organization which was called, at that time, American Assistance for Cambodia, which is a 501c3 American charity. So they told us like, there are a lot of needs in that area. We would hope that you consider and we say, sure. I mean, I'm from the capital city. What would I do in the jungle? Right? Never been even there. So it's like out of my side. Why? And I realized that if there's a need, then we should do it. And yeah. And so I mean, you're from Phnom Penh? Yes, capital city, city girl. And how long would it take you to go up to Chiang Ra? Okay. So in 2005, 2006, and 2007, we were lucky. They have a commercial little small plane, Russian small plane, and it will take us about an hour to get there. And then the plane crash. So there was no more commercial plane to go there. So we had to take a four wheel drive. And it took about 12 hours in the old day, but now roads are being improved. Most of the roads are now paved. They weren't back then. Eight hours to nine hours. Now. Nowadays. Okay. And what were the kids like? You went there and you met some of them and how did you get up there? Or what was your trip? So for all our trip, we would leave the capital city, arrive in the, the nearest city called Ban Long, and we stay there at night. And in the morning, we will take our four wheel drive to go to school. That takes us about nowadays 30 minutes in the old day, about an hour, depending on the road and the monsoon season, you know, but it's about 30 minutes. So when we get there, the kids come and we, we let them know way ahead of time what day we will arrive. And the kids come and greet us and, and then we start our, you know, they all wear their uniforms. Yes. You can see blue skirt and pants and white top. About every four or five years, we give everybody new uniforms. We also yearly give them a packet of school supplies. Right now you can see a picture. There are over 420 kids in our school. It grew from 250 in 2005 to 450 roughly. And we also give them, not, not we, I mean the school director made an ID card for each kid because it has too many kids. And is that what they show us? And it has like their name, their date of birth, their home address, the parents name, and then a signature and a stamp from the school director. Those are cute kids. Yeah, they are, they are, they are delighted. And when you go and meet with them, I mean, do they understand your relationship or what? Yeah, they know who we are. And they really know my wife very well. Amongst all the Cambodian people, I'm known as Mr. Vanny Clay. Well, you know, here, here is one slide that's kind of interesting. Jerry, that's you. And what are you doing? I'm in front of the English class. I see. Okay. So you're teaching them English? Okay. Okay. And I'm teaching them English by trying to sing a song called Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Okay. And I didn't know any of the words after the second verse. And I was surprised that that evening, the English teacher was able to go to a place where he had a hotspot and get on the internet and download all the words. And then he put all the words on the board. And so the second day, now we're going, we're teaching them all the words. So you're actually like being a teacher? I'm having fun. Jerry always liked to be a teacher. And do the kids, I mean, do they understand English? Do they understand the words? Or is this this process of learning? Okay, let me explain to you that they all learn Khmer, which is a Cambodian language, everybody in the whole country. And we hire an English teacher to teach them basic English. So they were able to say their name, where they live, their village. They have a brother or sister? Yes, a very, very, you know, short conversation. I don't think they know all the meanings of each word, but at least they were going along with the rhyme with the song that Jerry taught them. You know, communication is so much more than just the words. And so you begin to find ways that you really connect with the ideas. Connect with people. Yeah, just learning a little bit about it. And even this song may come up. You never know. By the way, did you sing this song to them? Or were you just? Of course. We all had to do this together. I see. Karaoke, Cambodian style. No. Okay. And do they speak French too? Zero French. That is something. That's my generation. We knew French. Not anymore. Yes, not anymore. It's all either Khmer or a little bit of English. We're going to take a one minute break and come back. And I would like to go through the photos one more time and have a little more talk about each one as we go through. So right now we're going to take a break and we'll be back. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Aloha. I'm Mellie James, host of Let's Mana Up. Tuesdays every other Tuesday from 11 to 11 30. This show is meant to dive into stories of local product entrepreneurs and how they're growing their companies from right here in Hawaii. I'm so thrilled to have our show kicked off. And so please join us on Tuesdays at 11 o'clock as we talk to local entrepreneurs and hear their stories. Aloha. I'm Keisha King, host of At the Crossroads where we have conversations that are real and relevant. We have spoken with community leaders from right here locally in Hawaii and all around the world. Won't you join us on thinktecawaii.com or on YouTube on the Think Tech Hawaii channel. Our conversations are real, relevant and lots of fun. I'll see you at the Crossroads. Aloha. Aloha. We are back with Jerry and Vanny Clay and we are talking about their school in Cambodia. And I'd like to Jerry and Vanny, I'd like to kind of go through the photos one more time. We went quickly through some of them. And tell me a little bit about each one as we go through. So let's start with the first photo after this one. Is that your school? And what about this? What does this tell us? We have had to hire a contractor because in the rainy season the place just kind of floods out. So we have Harris the front of the school. This is the main school building for classrooms. We have since then in honor of one of our other friends, he donated money to build a classroom. And we have built a library. And on that last last image. There was no library in that image. No, you don't see it. But there's a title. What is what is that in the blue? Oh, work hard. You know, it's good for you. Education basically just tell the kids. I see. Okay, let's take a look at the next photo. The next photo is children in a classroom. And I would like to say that the class size is big. It's about 30 kids per 30, sometimes 35, which is unfortunate. But you know, that's all we can do. How does that compare with America? Oh, well, in some private school, you have smaller class, you know, and but they learn how to read. They learn how to write. What are they studying? They study. I believe it's a textbook on the history of it's an article. And they they learn to read and then they write and they talk to their teacher. So they seem to be engaged. And there's no behavior problem. And that's something I it's amazing. And these are all kids from the country rural areas. Okay, not city kids. City kids don't come to our jungle. Okay, let's take a look at the next one. And here's one with the ID cards, the three little boys. Yes. Yeah. And they all got this, which is, I guess, a big advance for them compared to what their life was prior to you. Oh, yeah. Otherwise, they just sit and watch the cows pass by farm all day long helping their their families. So they are lucky in one way. And we are very lucky to have a chance to help. Mark, if I could just give maybe a two minute overview of the history, when the communists, the Cameroos took over, they deliberately destroyed all the school. They didn't want anybody to have any education, except the party people. They killed roughly a million people out of the total population. I'm sorry. Closer to two million people out of a population of about seven million. And so this country had to come really from scratch and rebuild. And because they destroyed all the schools in these rural areas, you have to have somebody sponsor building a school. And then the idea of the charity was, could we continue to be involved and help the kids get better and better education? Let's take a look at the next photo. All right. And here you're handing them supplies. A school supply that has notebooks, pens, pencil, an eraser, a sharpener and a ruler. So let me give you a little background about that photo. You can see that our school supplies, our school provides education to three ethnic groups. One is the Khmer people, the Cambodian people. One is the Tumpun, which is the ethnic background of ethnic group of that area. And one is the Cham people. And the Cham people, they practice Islam. So regardless of your ethnic background, your social economic background, we don't care what we care. We give you an education. So they all get along. They all get along very well. And which is very... Maybe we could learn something. I would hope so. All right. Let's take a look at the next photo. All right. And here you're both, I guess they're celebrating their supplies. Yes. And some year they celebrate their new clothing, new uniform. I see. Okay. Let's take a look at the next one. Okay. There's the story of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. That we talked about earlier. That we talked about earlier and having fun. Okay. Next photo. Vanny, what is this? Okay. Let me explain to you. This is a photo of all the staff, teachers and staff. On the left hand side, you see the man, the chief of the village, the one who donated the land to us to build a school. And then you have seven teachers. One is the English teacher in the bike. And then the school director also, he played the role of the teacher as well. He's really in the bike ground. And the rest are all teachers. And we have a lady taking care of, you know, the janitor help us with, actually two people help to take care of the school. And you can see there were two young teacher, one next to Jerry and one next to me. They both were students in that school, in our school. And they came back and start to teach. And that is, that is really, it makes us so happy. You gosh, that's amazing. You must have been just. Yeah, we were just so pleased. Yes. Wow, that is really cool. That is really nice. The teacher on the far right is, you can see a young person practicing Islam. And the Islamic community that feeds into the school is very, very supportive of the school. Okay. And you folks, what do you provide? Money, supplies, uniforms? Okay, so what we do is every year we have a certain budget that we dedicate to help the kids in that school. We give them school supplies, a textbook, sports equipment, maintenance of the school. Anything to do with the school, the government will not help us. However, the government help us by paying six teachers. Okay. So the government is involved. It's involved just for the teachers. Just for the teachers. The rest. You provide the facility. Everything else. I see. And for the kids. Including building two small houses for the teachers to live on the school campus. And how many grades does this go? From first grade to sixth grade. And when they finish sixth grade, that's it. Most of them go back to farm in their village. And a few will continue. And starting from 2019, 2020, we came up with the idea of opening a program called Scholarship for Children who are, you know, very good and who would like to continue to the nearest city. And we start that this coming year. And so that would be seventh grade? Seventh all the way to twelfth grade. Is it the same type of grades we have here? Yes, yes. From seventh grade all the way to twelfth grade, we will support them for six years so that they can finish the entire high school. And then, obviously, the ones that came back as teachers, they already did. They did. They showed us. Do they have to go to college? They had to go to the college. It's a teacher program. I think it's like 18 or 24 months. Yeah. Well, they finished the high school, then they continue, I believe, in the capital city to be trained as a teacher. And then they decide what they want to do in life. Some of them remain in the city, in the capital city. Some of them go to wherever they want. And then only a few that come back to the rural area. So there is a little bit of a mixed blessing here, right? Because some of them, they will leave their home. And that's because of their education, really, isn't it? They got a big advantage for the education. And so they may have to leave their family in order to pursue their dreams, if you will. And we've met a number of our students who have gone on to the capital city and building a life there. How does it make you feel? Terrific. It feels good. And just, you know, as long as we are able to help, give them a chance, why not do it? And as you know, education is the future for the children of any country. Now, let's take a look. This next photo here, they got computers. Yeah, we donate the computers. Ah, I see. Now, if I might, the school being so rural has no infrastructure. So there's no electricity, no running water, no sewer. So we donated the money to purchase two solar panels, which power two computers for about four to five hours a day. And the students take turns on the two computers learning basic programs. Computer skills. Something that they would never have ever had before. Absolutely. And they don't have it. Even now. I mean, they wouldn't have it but for this school. Yes. Right. And let's take a look at the last couple photos here. That's, I guess that's all the students out in front of the school. They're still on the side. I think it didn't show on the photo. But that's over 400 students. Wow. And there you are. Right. That was just back in June. Okay. Now, let me ask you, we're about at the end here of our talk. If somebody else wants to be involved in this program or help in Cambodia, I mean, I understand you came from Cambodia and you feel a connection there. And then Jerry went there and read an article in the paper. I mean, how does that happen? But anyway, what can they do? How can they, if they want to help out, what should they do? The easiest thing is to contact us. Okay. How would they do that? Easiest email or telephone. Our email, we didn't set it up. But what is your email address? G-V-Vanny Gerald and Vanny Plays, C-L-A-Y, at gmail.com. Okay. And so, if somebody feels that they would like to participate and help out and enjoy you. Anytime they can email us. Okay. And we're all kind of one, aren't we? I mean, you're helping these people, but maybe they will help us later on. Certainly with an explanation of how to live together. I mean, it's actually, some of those photos are quite remarkable. So, Jerry, Vanny, thank you very much. And thank you, Mark. Thank you very much. Enjoyed hearing about your school in Cambodia. And aloha everybody, we are done for today. We have left Cambodia and that beautiful shrine. What shrine is that? It's a temple, Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat Temple. Yes. Okay. All right. Aloha, everybody.