SEALNet project is coming soon!

Dear All,

I am a core team member of SEALNet Project Philippines 2009. SEALNet (Southeast Asian Service Leadership Network) is a non-profit organization based in California and was founded at Stanford in 2004 by a coalition of Stanford students and professional mentors. Our mission is to bring service to Southeast Asia and to promote the spirit of service leadership in the region. On behalf of SEALNet, I am writing to seek your support for our 2-week community service project in Cebu City, the Philippines.

Project Philippines 2009 aims to educate the Cebu City community about the public health implications of gastrointestinal worms. We plan to conduct a variety of health education events targeting both elementary school students as well as their parents and teachers. In addition, we will conduct workshops to equip the local youth with practical leadership and organizational skills. We will also facilitate the local youth in designing and implementing their own projects to address local health issues of their interests. The National Institutes of Health, one of the largest non-profit organizations in the Philippines, kindly agreed to be our local partner. They will facilitate our work on the site and will assist us in ensuring the future sustainability of the projects. Attached with this email are the project details.

Currently, we are seeking sponsorship from various local and international philanthropists to finance our project. We therefore would love to have your support for Project Philippines 2008. Therefore, all your contributions will go directly towards benefiting the children, the local youth, and the community of Cebu City.

More information about SEALNet can be found at www.sealnetonline.org. Contributions of any amount (tax-deductible) would be very much appreciated and you will receive a trip report after the project as well as SEALNet Annual Reports in the future. Please let me know if you would be interested in contributing to our project.

Thank you very much for your kind attention and I look forward to hearing from you.

To donate now, please click here or contact me via 012 77 44 09

Another poem for Khmer New Year!

A memory in Koh Kong!

A big thank to my friends!

It has been so long that I have never updated my blog due to the recent boring life. So now I just would like to say thanks to all my good friends who made a birthday celebration for me since February… It was actually so surprising to have all of you remembered! Thanks everyone and especially Gech, Rina, Rinet, Vichara… for the participation! Wish you all the best… Meanwhile, I also would like to thank my respected parents and siblings for the birthday celebration as well… Moreover, I have never forgotten all my friends who sent me wishing messages via sms or email… Thanks lots!

Happy Chinese New Year! Kong sei fat choi!

Chinese new year 2009 falls on 26th of January, 2009 (animal sign OX). The Chinese New Year is celebrated as the symbol of spring's celebration. In fact in China the Chinese New Year is still called the Spring festival(Chun Jie). It is celebrated after the fall harvest and before the spring planting season. The date of the Chinese New Year is always changing and is dependant on the Chinese calendar. Emperor Huangdi in the year 2637 B.C.E invented the Chinese calendar.

The Chinese calendar is a combined solar/lunar calendar and is somewhat similar to the Chinese calendar. For the purpose of determining the dates of the Chinese New Year some astronomical calculations need to be taken care of. Firstly, we need to determine the dates for the new moon. The new moon is the black moon that is when the moon is in conjunction with the sun.
The date of the new moon is taken as the first day of the new month. Secondly those dates are determined when the sun's longitude is the multiple of 30 degrees. These dates are termed as Principal terms and are used for determining the number of each month.

The Principle term 1 takes place when the sun's longitude is 330 degrees, the 2nd Principle term occurs when the sun's longitude is about 0 degrees. The principle term 3 takes place when the sun's longitude is 30 degrees, the principle term 11 occurs when the sun's longitude is 270 degrees and the principle term 12 occurs when the sun's longitude is 300 degrees.

In Cambodia, many people are celebrating this festival since large number of us are half-blood Chinese. This is one of the most jubilant ocassions in Cambodia. Many people gather their families and visit their relatives; moreover, it is the best time for people to relax and have fun with family! Many people go to various local tourism sites especially Sihanouk ville, Siem Reap (land of history:Angkor) and thousands of beautiful sites in Cambodia. Some (depending on living standard) may go visit oversea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Korea or maybe some other countries. Therefore, the capital, Phnom Penh, is becoming very quite! I may go to a province, yet it is for charity work... So how about all of you? Share fun with me then.... :)

Happy Chinese New Year again!!! Wish you all the best!

A challenge I am participating!

Well, a full day participating in a challenge has never been an easy thing! Today is one of the most memorable, challenging and useful days ever in my life which began with 80 competitive shorted list participants in the morning and ended up with only final 16 at night! Some of you may wonder what type of challenge I joined and some may think that what's a tough game! Yeah, it actually was! ( lol, wondering ... ), the challenge I am talking about is Youth Leader Challenge (YLC) season 5! YLC is an innovative reality television show that combines entertainment with valuable learning opportunities for the youth of Cambodia. It was produced and developed by the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) in 2006. The existence the challenge is a fantastic signal for the future development of this miserable country--Cambodia since Youths are the bamboo of a nation! "Strong Youth, Top Nation".

As I decided to participate in this challenge, I've now reached the last 16 round! It was not that easy to pass each round! As I know, almost 400 people applied this challenge; however, after background selection and an interview, only 80 contestants were accepted! This morning, everyone was invited to participate in the challenge which began since 7am. Meeting many people from really various backgrounds who have their own potentials and talents was a huge opportunity to get to know and learn from one another; The game began with the group work by 16 contestants each. I, fortunately, was in group 4 whose members mostly friendly and knowledgeable. Then all group were asked to form a name and symbol of their group by giving about 10mns to discuss! Everyone started sharing his/her own opinion. After a while, we finally formed the conclusion. My group members' idea were great! We decided to put the name of PEACE which had a hidden meaning P:Participation, E:Encouragement, A:Achievement, Commitment and E:Excellent.

To be continued... quite tired, srr