Last night I was very fortunate to have dinner with Sarath and Chanton of CVCD) ,Sarath's wife (who's name escapes me), Sothea Arun (who used to run CVCD) and my old high school friend and Cambodian icon, Arn Chorn-Pond.

Arn and I met while we attended Gould Academy for two years in the mid 80's. To call Arn a "survivor" of the Khmer Rouge is not accurate as he has done so much more than simply "survive", although considering the circumstances, that would have been impressive enough.

Arn was recently the subject of the award winning documentary The Flute Player.

Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air described him this way (radio interview here):

As a child, Chorn-Pond was held in a Khmer Rouge labor camp where many children starved to death, many others were murdered, and those who survived were forced to work from 5 a.m. to midnight. He was taught to play the flute to play propaganda songs which helped assure his survival. Later at age 14, Chorn-Pond was forced into the Khmer Rouge army to fight the invading Vietnamese. After seeing his friends die, he fled into the jungle. He found his way to a Thailand refugee camp where he was adopted by an American relief worker, Peter Pond, and brought to the United States. Now Chorn-Pond spends half his time in Cambodia where he is searching for the masters of traditional Cambodian music, many of whom were murdered under the regime of Pol Pot.

Arn helped us establish our relationship with Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development (which he had founded years ago) when we first started our program here in 2001.

Last night was a wonderful evening of laughter and catching up and Arn and I will go visit his home today outside Phnom Penh. More importantly, though, Arn and I started planning on how to raise money to try and bring Sesame Street to Cambodia in a culturally sensitive fashion.

It is part of Arn's rural outreach work to educate young children in literacy, basic hygiene and cultural education. He and his skilled team has lined up all the proper paperwork etcetera.... we hope to be able to approach funders this summer.... wanna help?

Chanton, Sothea Arun, James Hathaway, Arn Chorn-Pond, Mr. and Mrs. Douer Sarath