Posted By Mark Hyman
Dear Friends,

My heart is full after today's experiences. Words are not sufficient, but I will try.

Today we visited four music classes which are part of Arn Chorn's program "Cambodia Living Arts." The purpose of this program is to try to recover and sustain Cambodian traditional arts which was almost completely wiped out during the Khmer Rouge Genocide.

The classes are held in a shanty town or poor section of Phnom Penh. Yet amidst this poverty Arn's master teachers are performing a miracle: they are restoring an entire performing arts culture through the open hearts and ready minds of the children. You see, this tradition is passed down orally; it will die without master adults from one generation and child students from the next. And with the death of a culture comes the death of a whole people.

This is quite a burden to place on a handful of master performers - all survivors of the Khmer Rouge - and children from the poorest section of Cambodia. But after what I witnessed today, it is clear that even in the most difficult of living conditions, children - when given the chance - will find joy in this responsibility. For I have never seen such happy and proud children as the dancers, singers and musicians I saw today. Children from what seemed like age 6 and up proudly displayed their talents with precise dance motions, soulful voices and exotic and wonderful instrumentation. Their performances literally brought tears to our eyes.

Let me tell you about the people. The first thing you notice are their smiles: a beeming radiance that comes over their faces in response to your greeting(which you do by bowing with both hands held together in front of your face). Then there is this: the capacity to make complete strangers - us - feel both welcome and safe as we literally walked through their streets and in front of their homes. We felt no concern whatsoever.

I will close with this: we are all grateful to be representing Tenafly as your window into Cambodia. Each of the students representing you have been wonderful, understanding and deeply compassionate. You would be proud of them. They are opening not only their minds but their hearts; that is not an easy thing to do. I am proud to be part of this Tenafly delegation and I look forward to sharing more with you on a daily basis.

Sincerely,

Mark Hyman