Technology Hits the Rice Paddies

One of the great benefits of being part of the Football for Hope Festival 2010 is the access to the World Cup sponsors.  The World Cup is sponsored by adidas, Sony and Coca-Cola, among others.  adidas will outfit each delegation with uniforms and other gear upon arrival in South Africa, which is a huge bonus for each team.  Sony is sponoring a photo competition among participating delegation (32 groups representing 50 countries) which includes a donation of two cameras, a laptop, a GPS and a photo printer plus a trainer to teach the team how to use the equipment.

Sony Singapore, as the closest Sony office to Cambodia, flew a contingency up to Phnom Penh and braved the four hour death-defying drive to Battambang to officially kick-off the partnership.  A press conference was held with the Sony exeutives, local media, Spirit of Soccer and the team.  As all good press conferences require, lots of photos were taken of the event, especially of the team.  If the team seem bewildered by all these dressed up adults handing them boxes of technical equipment, they didn't show it on their smiling faces.  They acted as if they did this kind of thing every day, rather than help their parents in the rice fields and take care of farm animals.

As stated previously, the majority of the team lives in villages with no electricity and certainly no laptops or wifi are in use by the local residents, in the schools or by local government officials.  Thus, the kids were being introdued to totally foreign technology with no frame of reference for much of the typical training jargon and procedures.

The Singaporean trainer, Casey Teo, was enthusiastic about the task at hand while bringing a sense of excitement about the subject matter.  As he doesn't speak Khmer, one of the coaches had to translate the entire training and it can be hard to translate technical terms, especially if you don't really understand the terminology yourself!  In a classroom setting, the team was introduced to the basic functions of a digital camera, simple photos and care of the camera.  Their eyes were huge as they passed around the cameras and they couldn't containt their giggles once they were allowed to snap away.

The idea behind the contest is for each team member to take the camera home to document their life, family, friends, hobbies, etc.  The kids love taking pictures and love getting their photos taken even more.  All youth in Cambodia give a reverse peace sign, often with their arms crossed, for all photos and these kids followed this time honored tradition.

The first day of training was informative and well received.  The day ended with a field trip to a local Pagoda to practice the newly learned skills.  Cambodia offers so many great opportunities for unique and beautiful pictures and this outing didn't disappoint.  The group of teens toting cameras piqued the curiosity of the local kids playing near the Pagoda.  Soon the team had a merry band of half-naked kids mugging for the camera, trying not to be outdone by the local cows roaming the sacred area or the coverful Buddhist temple as subjects for the budding photographers.

Day two started off successfully as the team learned how to print photos.  Each team member printed a photo to take home as a souvenir of the weekend.  The boys all wanted a picture of themselves, posing, while the girls wanted group shots with the other girls.  As each picture magically came out of the printer, the team watched wide-eyed and burst into peals of laughter once the photo was finished.  The team was bonding off the field and a shared awe of digital photography was helping break down the barriers between the boys and girls in this very traditional society.

The introduction of the laptop, the internet and a camera GPS was when the cultural gap began to rear its ugly head.  The trainer started off talking about the battery life of the laptop and how it must be plugged in to recharge the battery.  Although we had told him about the lack of electricity in most of the team's homes, he didn't seem to grasp that reality.    Continuing on, he tried to explain how the GPS could show where the photos were taken on google earth.  He pulled up google earth on the laptop to show the team a map of the area and how the photos would be pinpointed on the map.  Of course, they had never seen the internet, nor a map of the area and they defintely couldn't  come close to understanding the concept of the GPS (satellites, trajectory and longitude/latitude).  Our translater, an educated but rural Cambodian, was pretty lost on trying to explain the GPS in Khmer as he didn't understand it himself.  As the confusion started to mount, we cut the session short to do a quick recap on the cameras and photography before the cameras were taken to the villages to document a day in the life. 

Results from the team soon to come...

Logisitics

Group travel generally requires a high level of organization, coordination and planning.  Group travel in Cambodia throws these basic tenets out the window, subsituting them with patience, luck and connections.

Passports, plane tickets, vaccinations, visas are the key ingredients to international travel and without these four checked off, the trip is going nowhere fast.  Puchasing plane tickets was the top concern for the trip to South Africa since airfare was rapidly rising as the official countdown to the World Cup had begun in December. 

Step number one, translate all team members' names from Khmer (Cambodian script) into Latin letters.  The Khmer alphabet has 33 letters and names don't easily translate into just one spelling.  Each time a name is translated, it typically has a different spelling and this isn't unusual in Cambodia.  To illustrate this point, one of the Cambodian Spirit of Soccer coaches has his name spelled differently on his passport, driver's license, facebook and email.  After stressing repeatedly that the spelling must be uniform and going back and forth on what the final spelling would be, each team member had their name translated into their "official" name for all future documents in English.  This is the name that each team member will identify with for the rest of their lives and it is a big responsibility to determine what that name will be.

Step number two, find cheap and relatively direct plane tickets for 12 people from Phnom Penh to Johannesburg during the last two weeks of the World Cup, the world's largest sporting event.  After exhausting routing options and airline choices with the local travel agent, with prices rising by the day, the most practical option was to buy directly from the airline in hopes of securing a group discount.  The group discount did not pan out after many emails, phone calls and pleas with the airline, all very difficult with the language barrier and lack of concrete contact information.  As we say in Cambodia, two steps forward and one and a half steps back (at least).

After finally booking the tickets, the question of payment was broached.  In Cambodia, almost all transactions take place in cash and if a credit card is used, a hefty percentage fee is tacked onto the price.  Option one - go to the bank and draw out thousands of dollars in cash, which is never an easy undertaking.  Option two - pay with a credit card and deal with ensuing headaches to make the transaction happen.  We chose option two as the airline waived the credit card fee and it is safer to have American Express on our side in case something happens with the trip.  After numerous international phone calls to American Express to get the transaction approved, at least five trips to the airline office and several phone calls to the airline's bank, we were able to buy the plane tickets.  All told, the ordeal took over 30 hours.

Cambodian bureaucracy is difficult to navigate, especially for foreigners.  Securing passports is a difficult task at best and monumental at worst.  Luckily, Spirit of Soccer works closely with the Cambodian Football Federation (FFC) and the FFC was able to help with the passport process.  After completing dossiers on each team member, something akin to what was compiled by the CIA on Jason Bourne, with letters from the parents (many who do not read or write), letters from the regional Ministry of Education offices okaying the trip, letters from each local commune council and letters from the Football for Hope organizing committee, the passport process had begun. 

All in all, the process was running smoothly until a last minute request required all parents and team members to travel to Phnom Penh for a visit to the Passport Office.  Phnom Penh is over four hours away from the provinicial capital, Battambang, where the team meets every other weekend.  The team members live one to three hours away from Battambang, many coming from villages on dirt roads with no running water or electricity.  Assembling the bewildered parents in Battambang to travel to Phnom Penh, where most of the parents had never been, happened quickly and efficiently.  With the parents traveling by tourist bus and the team traveling by Spirit of Soccer vehicles, the group of 26 pulled into Phnom Penh late Sunday afternoon and was already on its way back to Battambang at 2:00 Monday afternoon with photos taken, documents signed and fees paid. Passports were issued within the week!  A night's stay in the Capital in a hotel with air conditioning was a once in a lifetime experience for many of the parents.

The team now has plane tickets and passports for South Africa.  Watch out Festival for Hope 2010, the Cambodian delegation is on its way!

Meet the Team

The Spirit of Soccer Football for Hope 2010 team is comprised of eight girls and boys from rural Cambodia who all live in landmine affected areas. Each player was selected for the team based on their participation with Spirit of Soccer programs, soccer skills, personality, team work and commitment.

Here is the team:

Linda Choeun is from Pailin town and has been playing soccer two years and her favorite subject in school is English. Her father lost part of his leg to a landmine, so she is very aware of the dangers of landmines. She is a leader among the team, trying to emulate her favorite player, Ronaldo.

Sengvy Ridam is from Banaan village and wants to travel to South Afria to play soccer and learn about the different culture. His favorite player is Rooney. The most people he has ridden a motorbike with at one time is four.

Naroth Vann is also from Pailin town and has been playing soccer for four years. She too has personal experience with landmines as her neighbor lost his hand to a landmine. She wants to go to South Africa to share the culture of Cambodia and tell people about the problem of landmines.

Vith Yem is also from Pailin town and sees landmine signs all over his village. He has played soccer for five years and Andreas Savin is his favorite player. He has the best hair on the team!

Channou Keng is from Bour village and has eleven siblings! She has never been to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, but is excited to travel to South Africa. She has a huge smile and is a great addition to the team.

Vanneath Kheng is from Somloth village and has a landmine sign in front of his house. He wants to be a soccer coach when he grows up and Beckham is his favorite player. He is a hard worker on the field and also loves to play volleyball.

Socheata Seng is from Bour village and has an uncle injured by a landmine. She is excited to travel to South Africa to see the difference between South Africa and Cambodia. She loves Beckham and mathematics.

Vrak Phon is from Sampouv Loun village and has to travel up to five hours by dirt road for training every other weekend. He has been playing soccer ten years and has seven brothers. He wants to be a pro soccer player when he grows up and he definitely has the moves and personality.