I choose this symbolic name to remember the different camps (Rithy Sen, Ampil, Dang Rek, Site I, Site II, ...) where we spent almost 10 difficult years of our life and where we met Fr. Vincent.
Cheayden is also a symbolic line where he left us for always. He is not anymore with us but his soul and the values he transmitted stay...
This poem comes to my mind when I think to Fr. Vincent (strangely I don't know why -- may be because I learnt it in the camp and it recalls my first winter in France when he came to visit me):
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
-- Robert Frost
2 comments:
Ho yes this is my favorite poem ... saren
Dear Father,
As one of father's pupils who used to have hard-time living along Khmer-Thai from 1984-1992, that was the time i met father, and got support from father, in term of education and guiding. I am very sad that to hear that father had been very sick and passed away.
Father had tried tirelessly teaching us and guide us in the way we should do to to develop ourselves, even though at lunch time that father was supposed to rest but father did not, instead father used this time to teach us English, science and general knowledge so that we can lean and practise speaking and listing, discussing.
Out of education and guiding, father also helped us with looking for god parents to support us, sending and receiving mails, changing money (from US$ to Thai Bath)...etc which we were unable to do so by ourselves in that time. The pupils used to run to father whenever they saw father coming by expecting to receive something from father which they used to.........(mails, correspondence from outside, good news....etc.) and after we finished schooling, father helped us find job and guided us whatever father can. With help and support from father, we are now developed and prosperous, having better lives.
I would like to pay my profound respects and gratitudes to father and pray for father, may god bless father and may father's soul and spirit stay in peace with god.
I would like to convey deepest condolence to father's family for the loss of the great family member (father) who sacrificed for his whole life for peace and development for his beloved pupils, students and human being in the world. May god bless father and family.
From Sorin Reach, father's Cambodian pupil now working in Dili, East Timor (Timor Leste).
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