Day 24: Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 November 2009 – New Hope

Today brought more visitors, this time my friend Paige’s parents, Tommy and Michelle, who were visiting Siem Reap after catching up with Paige, Nathan and the boys in Singapore.  They were keen to learn more about New Hope and brought a big suitcase of clothes Oliver’s hand-me-downs, generously donated by Paige.

On Thursday I pulled together all the little boys and fitted them out with groovy boardshorts, t-shirts and undies. They were absolutely rapt!

A few of you have asked how you can help and to get more involved in supporting New Hope.  What New Hope needs most is money to continue to provide education and basic health care to it's villagers, and to help fund the planned new school and clinic.  It also desperately needs sponsorship of families to whom they provide rice, mosquito nets, mats for sleeping and where possible, a bike.  They also desperately need clothes (baby through to teenagers) but the problem is that unless they are couriered, it's likely they'll be hijacked at Customs and end up on sale in one of the three markets!

Please don't feel obligated - this is my journey after all, and I don't want anyone to feel pressured.  But, if  you feel that way inclined, please let me know and I'll tell you the best way to go about it.

Day 23: Tuesday 10 November 2009 – Car pooling, Cambodian style

Today I thought I’d share an experience I had a couple of weeks ago when venturing out on my rickety and rusty bike to get some photocopying done for my afternoon class. 

Unbeknown to me, 11.00 is the time when the morning’s Khmer public school ends and kids leave en masse to go home for lunch, and a timeslot to avoid at all costs!  At 13:30 the next shift fronts for their classes, while those from the morning, such as some of the more privileged New Hope kids, (who can afford a school uniform), go to another school to study English, usually with volunteers. 

At 11.00 a siren sounds, flashing boom gates come down to block the road, and hundreds of kids race out of the school gates and miraculously connect with their parents and older siblings waiting in their cars or on their motos (up to five one the one bike) or the occasional tuk tuk.  Other kids cycle off in a wave of bicycles, dust, heat and perfectly organised chaos.  

Some of the kids linger to flick through the strips of stickers hanging in the ‘shop’, or to pick up a snack of sugary ‘candy’, delicious-looking sweetcorn or “Coka”, from the vendor, strategically positioned across the road from the main gate.    

It’s definitely a sight to experience – once. 

Day 20 : Monday 9 November 2009 – Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in Cambodia, independence that is from the French who occupied and then ruled Cambodia until from 1863 until 1953.  There are also public holidays to celebrate independence from all their other occupiers; the Thais, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge and you name it.  Public holidays are poor compensation for this crazy life of occupation, domination and destruction. 

With New Hope closed today, I went to visit another project, Grace House, which several of the other volunteers are working on.  (Ann, Gill and Danni have already featured in this blog). 

Gill came up with the idea and very generous offer to take her two classes of teenage students to the National Museum today in an effort to educate them on their own history and culture.   None had been to the Museum before, nor most likely will have the opportunity to again.

Throwing away all the usual rules and regulations associated with class excursions, at least in Australia, we happily piled 30 boys in the back of a truck and sent them off to the Museum, returning with 40 girls and one mortified volunteer, half an hour later.   (I almost fell out of the back of the ute – twice!  The roads are in such hideous condition, even through town).

I chaperoned the 40 teenage girls with a Khmer teacher, while Gill floated between the boys and girls.   It was amazing to watch their genuine interest and thirst for information, I’m really not sure whether they’ve had any formal exposure to their history before but this was certainly a great start. 

Day 21: Sunday 8 November 2009 – Tonle Sap

Today involved a visit of the Floating Village on Tonle Sap, Cambodia’s Great Lake.  Tonle Sap Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia, swelling to an expansive 12,00 square kilometres.  During the dry season, half of the year, the Lake shrinks to as small as 2,500 square kilometres, draining into the Tonle Sap River which merges with the Mekong River in the south east, near Phnom Phen.   We motored over what would be dry, dusty roads during the dry season. 

More than 100 varieties of water birds, 200 species of fish, as well as crocodiles, snakes, turtles and other crawlies inhabit the Lake and its mangrove forests.  Apparently 60 – 80 kilogram catfish are common. 

The Lake is an important commercial resource, providing more than half of the fish consumed in Cambodia (and satisfying the enormous demand for Fish Amok in all the restaurants frequented by tourists).  The floating villages feature a variety of stilted houses, barges including; floating supermarkets, a school, a Catholic church, and basketball court, servicing a population of some 1,000 families who apparently happily exist in extremely close confines.   Today we saw them working together, beating tiny fish out of their nets with what looked like tennis rackets - family entertainment on a Sunday afternoon perhaps?  Meanwhile the more enterprising (and cute) ones, rowed or paddled up to our boat, sporting cobras around their necks and sending me into a mild state of panic!

Packed Simon off to his five-star hotel in Bangkok where I think he will sleep a little uneasily.   It was great to have him here and to be able share directly what this place is like and what I'm going through on a daily basis.  The blog is great but sometimes you need to see things with your own eyes and to feel the filth first hand, to really understand the complete poverty in this part of the world.

Day 20: Saturday 7 November 2009 – Back to the Wats

Today we did the obligatory tour of the ‘big gun’ temples, rushing our guide through the motions to escape the insane heat.  I was amazed at the low number of tourists at the temples compared to when I was there two and a half months ago.  Our guide had only had two jobs in the last month, earning US$25 a day – makes you wonder how they survive.

Obviously Angkor Wat is a notch up from the Botanical Gardens or Lady Macquarie’s chair, and therefore high on the list for wedding picture locations.  Check the photos of this divine wedding party - they asked me to join in their luck by having my photo taken with them.

Day 19: Friday 6 November 2009 - New Hope

Today brought a surprise visit from Simon.  He’s doing business in Bangkok at the moment (yet another Fashion Festival!), and flew up to check out things at New Hope.  He arrived in time to catch the afternoon session at school; played cricket with the children, skipped with the girls, and I even caught him singing nursery rhymes with the little ones.  Kerry gave him a tour of one of the local villages where our New Hope kids come from and as you can imagine, I think it has left a lasting impression.  He returned from the tour completely shell-shocked, filthy and completely exhausted from the intensity of the heat. 

Meanwhile, it was ‘Fun Friday’ again, meaning more brilliant craft efforts from my older kids.  The second group wanted to repeat the magazine stories from last week, which they had a ball with.  (See the story about Alex Perry, I’m going to send it to him).  The final class was an absolute riot of colour, shapes and glitter, which they ended up wearing from head to toe.  They had a brilliant time working as a group, and we had trouble getting them to leave at the end of the day.