Dan (pronounced Don) comes from a remote village in northeastern Cambodia. She is pictured here to the right wearing glasses. She is Kavet (a minority group located in a mountainous region in Eastern Cambodia). She lived with Anne Thomas while attending high school in Banlung and was the first Kavet girl to attend junior high and high school.
Dan dropped out of high school because of a lack of money and not having enough to eat. She moved back to the village and became the kindergarten teacher. And then she married Khon, the son of the village chief. Here she is pictured with Anne and her husband, Khon. She completed high school later on weekends in Bamlung, by staying at Anne’s house.
They had a baby.
The Kavet are very poor and live in rural isolated villages. Here is a typical Kavet house. They make a living by subsistence farming and foraging in the forest.
Among the plants they harvest is the malva nut tree. It grows in the wild and its nuts are extremely valuable as they are used in Chinese herbal medicine. Extremely fit Kavet young men shinny up the tree and shake the branches to gather the nuts. The malva nut is worth 100 times the price of cashews which is the main cash crop for the Kavet.
One year ago, after Khon had climbed up the malva tree and shook the branches, he was coming down the tree, fell and died. Dan became a widow at 22.
In 2023 CUSP offered Dan a scholarship to attend Build Bright University in Banlung. She started this winter and commutes by motorcycle.
Her journey is on dirt roads, which can be closed during the monsoon season and on a ferry to cross the Sesan river. The journey takes at least 1.5 hours.
Here she is registering for the university.
Anne has opened up her house in Banlung for Kavet high school and university students who come from remote villages. Most of the students attend on the weekends and return to their villages during the week. Sometimes there are 30 students staying in Anne’s house. Then Anne sleeps on the balcony. Here is a recent picture of Dan and some of the students at dinner.
It was late at night in Anne’s house. Most students were asleep, and Anne discovered Dan studying English by herself.
If you are having a hard day, just imagine that Dan is your neighbor, and you’ve invited her over for coffee.
Whatever you talk about, I’m guessing the sun would come out.