Riding the Magic School Bus into a Ditch

I've realized that i should really keep a pad with me at all times to write down the little things that happen to me during the day so i can write about them later, but im going to try to write as much as i can before i pass out tonight. The past couple weeks have been more of the same. Working in rice fields during the day, followed by lunches at the infamous Hao an restaurant, and breakfasts and dinners at SMILE. SMILE is a restaurant run by the same NGO that runs the orphanage we work at. It helps train students in cooking and then inevitably gives them a job. It also uses some of its profits to put back into the orphanage project. It isn't always easy to explain the sensory overload that i experience everyday. Sights, smells (lots of them), and sounds that are usually indescribable... Most of them have become commonplace after a month here....Goat in the middle of the road, no problem, penis on the menu...obviously, some random dude peeing off a bridge, no one bothers looking twice. Cambodia in a lot of ways is like a free for all...anything goes most of the time. This became evident when having a conversation about drunk driving in cambodia which doesn't really have any repercussions in the countryside. The past few weeks i have been working on a playground project at the orphanage which was finally completed today with the installation of two swings, a slide, and two seesaws. The kids at the orphanage have started to like me more. Almost all of them know my name now, and always pull me aside to play with them. Today was the epitome of this, when i was dragged onto the slide five times, despite the fact that every time i was convinced it was going to break....not much else has been going on, except some small excitement which will be saved for another time.

Interesting

So...unfortunately i dont have much time to use the internet here in Cambodia so as always, im not able to update my blog as often as i would like. Hopefully, i'm going to write a substantial post tomorrow or the next day but for the time being, im going to post just a few of the most interesting/weird/funny occurrences i can think of in the next five minutes.

1. I rode a motorbike from our hotel in Phnom Pehn to the Airport (approx. 30 minutes) and it might have been the most exciting/scary experiences of my life. Apparently normal traffic etiquette (even by Cambodian standards) doesn't apply to motorbikes.

2. Got chased down by a monkey with a clef lip...enough said i suppose.

3. I have been getting Khmer lessons from a 14 (or so she says) year old Orphan named Srey-Pal. She keeps telling me I'm doing a good job but i think shes just being nice.

4. Today i rode in an unmarked van from Siemp Reap to Phnom Pehn with three Cambodians, one Thai, and one American. Its moments like this that make me glad im not in a big tour group.

5. Shortly before arriving in Phnom Pehn we were rear ended by another car.......Its Cambodia....

6. Yesterday we visited the Ta Prohm Temple. I would post pictures but am currently in an internet cafe, so if you're interested...look it up.

7. This week we completed all of the projects that we have been working on since the start of my time here, so tomorrow we should be starting a whole mess of new ones...yippyyy.

8. Finally, two nights ago we had a party for the final night in our base house, with all of the kids from the orphanage, and for some reason we decided to take one bus. We managed to cram 22 students, 5 leaders, and 31 kids into one bus.....pictures to come. This might have been the highlight of my trip thus far.

There must be lots of other things that have happened in the past few days but honestly i cant think of any more....

Just Some Pics

Same Same but Different

This week has been generally the same as the last week except we have staff leaders who know whats going on and a group of forty kids instead of twenty five. I have been working on building a playground at the orphanage, but in actuality i have been building a brick wall to keep sand in. Its much more difficult than it looks, and we have come to the conclusion that the american schooling system doesnt teach kids anything useful. My roommate Brent put it the most eloquently. He said: Matt and I spent $400,000 at Johns Hopkins, and a farmer smoking a cigarette walks by and knows exactly how to tile, while it takes us three days to put one in. The people in Cambodia know how to do everything. Some of the kids this week dont really feel like working most of the time, so weve given them the option to leave the orphanage in the afternoon to just sit in the hotel, and thats generally when we get the most work done. One afternoon we got to watch the orphans do their traditional upsalla dancing which was amazing (pic). This week we had a base house available to us. Its not huge but big enough for all 40 kids to hang out and play games in. Some kids slept there last night but most didn't want to. Its probably about 1000 square feet with a huge yard, and the rent is only $100 per month. Today we went to another Temple that was entirely inhabited by monkeys. They were all really mean, and kept trying to take peoples cameras, and when we bought them food, they stole the entire bag from people. Im not entirely sure that im going back to the orphanage project next week, but chances are i will be because there is another huge group of kids coming in. I dont have much else to say, except that im getting sun burned a lot and am getting tired of eating the same food everyday. Tonight we are having a party with the orphans in the base house because we leave tomorrow to go to Siemp Reap and go to Angkor Wat again. This week went infinitely quicker than last.

Birthday Galavanting

So much has happened since my last post, its going to be difficult to try to remember everything. Work at the orphanage has been the same as since i posted last. We have been mainly working on building a retaining wall in the ricefields that the orphanage owns and finishing the tiling work we started. On the fourth of July it rained so we didn't have time to celebrate, but on the 5th there was a giant party for the students and orphans. We had music, played volleyball, and even set off fireworks. We also had time to visit another temple near the orphanage. It was pretty strange because they built giant stone fruit around the complex to try to attract tourists. But the view was incredible.


The sixth was our last day at the orphanage with the kids who are only staying on the project for a week so there was some emotion saying goodbye. The day ended watching the lion king and eating some sketchy cambodian sandwiches. Wednesday morning we departed to Siemp Reap, a city roughly 3 hours away that is the site of the Angkor Wat Temple Complex. It was most likely the coolest place i have ever been in my life. I took a group of kids there that will only been in siemp reap for one day and we had a blast. Afterwards we had dinner, and went to the night market which sells loads of tourist crap, but had lots of awesome fake rayban sunglasses that i bought for $1 each. After the night market i went out with a few staff members for my birthday and we found an ally that had a bunch of projectors for the world cup.


The next morning was insane. We had to send a number of kids off to the airport who were heading back to the states. Some kids were staying in siemp reap till the evening to fly off to Laos, and then I took the group who is staying in the orphanage back to Phnom Pehn. Luckily everything worked out alright. The hotel in Phnom Pehn is terrible, and i hardly slept last night. We are heading back to the orphanage today and I honestly couldnt be happier. Ill try to post a better blog sooon!

Ricefields and Tile Floors

Since i have some more time to update on my travels, im going to give a play by play of the past few days i have had in Cambodia. (NOTE: Spell check doesn't work on these computers so i apologize for my stupidness)

Thursday July 1- We arrived after a long journey to the Angkor International Hotel in Phnom Pehn, where i learned that i was going to be a program leader at the Cambodia Orphanage program located in Kampong Cham. I traveled over here with another flight leader named Brent, who I met in Baltimore during my interview process in April. He has been a member of rustic pathways for 4 years and knows what is going so i was much more comfortable with everything. The other two leaders on my program are Emily and Katie, both of whom are new to Rustic, but Emily has been here for three weeks so already knows the lay of the land with the program. Anywho, Thursday was mostly a settling in day, and we ate dinner and passed out.

Friday July 2- early in the morning we head out for a short tour of the city which included the Kings Mansion and the Killing Fields. I wont go into much detail now because I'm going to be visiting these sites at least two more times and honestly was extremely tired through both tours. In the afternoon we stopped at a roadside stand on the way to kampong cham to try eating some spiders. When we got off the bus a hoard of little girls ran up to us and place enormous spiders on our chests and tried to get us to buy pineapple from them. Most of the students tried eating the spiders, including myself, and honestly it just tasted like a barbecued potato chip. Three hours later we arrived at the hotel and had a short meeting, dinner, and went to sleep to prepare for a day working at the orphanage.


Saturday July 3-Breakfast on Saturday was a treat. We eat in a restaurant named Smiles, that is right next door to the hotel. The restaurant serves a range of food, but for breakfast we get pancakes, eggs, toast, fruit, and an abundance of nutella since Cambodia is a former French colony. Also, the coffee is served in a french press, although we are pretty convinced that its instant put into a press. After breakfast we head off to the market for the girls to all buy sarongs and shawls to cover themselves when we head to the temple in the afternoon. the market is filled with fake watches and sunglasses, and just about anything you could possibly need for your entire life. The orphanage we are working at isn't the typical orphanage you would think of. Its a program set up by a monk that takes kids in during the day who live with foster families and gives them a place to play with other kids after school and learn about Buddhism and other things. there are several projects that the rustic pathways staff is working on. One is to help weed rice paddies and gardens that provide the center with food. Two is to build a patio for the kids to play on and for the staff to relax on(the project that I'm currently in charge of). Third is to build a playground. And finally is to help repair a road that has recently been flooded. This first day we only received a brief tour of the projects and the temple complex there.

Saturday July 4- This day was spent only doing volunteer projects. In the morning we helped build up a retaining wall in one of the rice fields (picture at top). We are fortunate enough to have kids who aren't afraid to get dirty and everyone was really willing to give a hand carrying large baskets of dirt and rocks into the waist high water and mud. There is a lot more to write about but i don't have much time and its hard to remember everything. I'll blog again in a few days but enjoy this so far!!

Arrival

I only have a moment to update this, so im sorry for not writing more. After an extremely long flight over to cambodia (LA-Tokyo-Singapore-Kuala Lampur-Phnom Pehn) with 51 students from LA and New York, we safely all made it to tha Angkor International Hotel. The program i currently am working on is an Orphanage program located in Kampong Cham, the third largest city in Cambodia roughly 2.5 hours from Phnom Pehn. My responsibilities have just been to keep an eye on the studens traveling with rustic pathways, and monitoring their allowances. The orphanage we are working at is not your typical orphanage. The students all have foster families who they live with at nighttime and come to spend the days there, playing with eachother or gardening for food. So far we have been responsible for retiling a patio, weeding a garden and rice paddy, and re surfacing a road (with dirt, not pavement). I will have to update this in a few days when i have more time, but right now i have to go meet up with the kids to take them to dinner and it started pouring out. Talk to you all soon!!!