Thursday, May 21
Aaaaaaah
My last week in Thailand is going to be totally self indulgent. While traveling I was really quite disciplined with my money. Generally I was very good at sticking to $20/day or less. Now that I've made it to the end of the trip I've decided to enjoy a bit of what Bangkok has to offer. NOT the seedy stuff (get your mind out of the gutter). Rather, Bangkok has great spa treatments: Thai massage, oil massage, foot massage, facial, mani- pedicures etc all for cheap cheap cheap. Tomorrow, though, is shopping day. It's going to be a good week. :-)
Monday, May 18
Driven Out!
It was a manic decision. But we needed to leave Laos. We tried to like it, but in the end Laos just didn't do it for us. Maybe we're just tired of traveling. Or perhaps there is only so much sticky rice a person can handle. But what ultimately made us leave were the ants.
They invaded at night. In the morning they were everywhere. Even in our beds as mosquito nets are completely useless against ants. We spent two hours murderously cleaning out our packs. We became increasingly vexed by the situation, and by association Laos, and decided it was definitely time to go to Bangkok.
They invaded at night. In the morning they were everywhere. Even in our beds as mosquito nets are completely useless against ants. We spent two hours murderously cleaning out our packs. We became increasingly vexed by the situation, and by association Laos, and decided it was definitely time to go to Bangkok.
Friday, May 8
A Note About Tuk-Tuks
*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP* (a loud and obnoxious clap probably best used to scare a raccoon from your garbage cans or in some other similar human-animal interaction.)
I glare (through my sunglasses) in the man's general direction. Though I know he can't see me it makes me feel better.
"HEY LADY! YOU WANNA TUKTUK!?!?!??!"
What do you think? I think to myself probably more bitterly than the situation really requires. I'm walking towards Pub Street. It's about 20 feet. Do I really need a tuk tuk?!
"WHERE YOU GOING?"
Not really any of your business.
"TUKTUK!?TUKTUK!?"
Whatever happened to hailing a tuk-tuk when you need a tuk-tuk?
It's not really an impulse decision.
You either need a tuk tuk or you don't need a tuk tuk.
I am aware of the possibility of taking a tuk tuk.
"TUKTUK PLEASE?"
Gaah!!! As soon as I get to Bangkok I am making a t-shirt: I DON'T NEED A FREAKING TUK-TUK!
For three weeks, whenever I left my guesthouse, a restaurant, store, or go anywhere near the outside world I'd go through this interaction at least a half dozen times. Today, at the Pakse International Airport, there wasn't a single tuk-tuk for hire. I'm serious. Zero. Nada. None. It's like they don't have tuk-tuks in Laos, which is obviously just silly. It was a totally freaky experience.
I glare (through my sunglasses) in the man's general direction. Though I know he can't see me it makes me feel better.
"HEY LADY! YOU WANNA TUKTUK!?!?!??!"
What do you think? I think to myself probably more bitterly than the situation really requires. I'm walking towards Pub Street. It's about 20 feet. Do I really need a tuk tuk?!
"WHERE YOU GOING?"
Not really any of your business.
"TUKTUK!?TUKTUK!?"
Whatever happened to hailing a tuk-tuk when you need a tuk-tuk?
It's not really an impulse decision.
You either need a tuk tuk or you don't need a tuk tuk.
I am aware of the possibility of taking a tuk tuk.
"TUKTUK PLEASE?"
Gaah!!! As soon as I get to Bangkok I am making a t-shirt: I DON'T NEED A FREAKING TUK-TUK!
For three weeks, whenever I left my guesthouse, a restaurant, store, or go anywhere near the outside world I'd go through this interaction at least a half dozen times. Today, at the Pakse International Airport, there wasn't a single tuk-tuk for hire. I'm serious. Zero. Nada. None. It's like they don't have tuk-tuks in Laos, which is obviously just silly. It was a totally freaky experience.
Friday, May 1
One More Week
I don't really want to leave. Julia doesn't really want to leave. So why leave?
This evening at around 7 pm Julia had a magnificent brainwave for a fundraiser for New Hope. At 8 pm we had changed our flight to Laos giving us an extra week in Siem Reap. I know it may appear we've gone a little mental for this organization. But honestly, is that bad?
Julia's idea involves our kids, simple art projects, her friend's gallery, her brother's band, and hopefully a whole lot of revenue for New Hope. The finer points have yet to be nailed down (they'll probably be formed and fueled by many ice coffees over the weekend).
What tipped the scales, really, was our walk through the village today. The school itself is in the "better part of town" meaning the buildings have walls and roofs. About 100 meters down the same road, the shacks are made primarily of palm leaves, walls are optional. "Kitchen" is used to refer to the one pot in a household -wherever it happens to be put down.
We've seen the same kids come to school every day for a week. They all wear the same thing everyday and they are all pretty grubby. In a classroom setting it is more difficult to tell who comes from a poor family and who comes from a desperately poor family. It's a different story out in the village. It's easy to see that the family living in a corrugated steel building (four walls and a roof) is far better off than the mother and her kids squatting under s palm leaf roof with no walls.
We saw how much rice families had to feed 4-9 people for the next six days. Not much. Malnutrition is rampant. We saw a 14 month old baby no bigger than a healthy 6 month old. Most infuriating of all, the Cambodian government actively bans, and will destroy, vegetables grown on their land (the majority of the huts are essentially squatting on government land).
Here's why I am staying. Kids from sponsored families were so obviously so much healthier and better off than kids with no sponsor. Considering the miniscule cost to keep a family alive we can't not at least try.
This evening at around 7 pm Julia had a magnificent brainwave for a fundraiser for New Hope. At 8 pm we had changed our flight to Laos giving us an extra week in Siem Reap. I know it may appear we've gone a little mental for this organization. But honestly, is that bad?
Julia's idea involves our kids, simple art projects, her friend's gallery, her brother's band, and hopefully a whole lot of revenue for New Hope. The finer points have yet to be nailed down (they'll probably be formed and fueled by many ice coffees over the weekend).
What tipped the scales, really, was our walk through the village today. The school itself is in the "better part of town" meaning the buildings have walls and roofs. About 100 meters down the same road, the shacks are made primarily of palm leaves, walls are optional. "Kitchen" is used to refer to the one pot in a household -wherever it happens to be put down.
We've seen the same kids come to school every day for a week. They all wear the same thing everyday and they are all pretty grubby. In a classroom setting it is more difficult to tell who comes from a poor family and who comes from a desperately poor family. It's a different story out in the village. It's easy to see that the family living in a corrugated steel building (four walls and a roof) is far better off than the mother and her kids squatting under s palm leaf roof with no walls.
We saw how much rice families had to feed 4-9 people for the next six days. Not much. Malnutrition is rampant. We saw a 14 month old baby no bigger than a healthy 6 month old. Most infuriating of all, the Cambodian government actively bans, and will destroy, vegetables grown on their land (the majority of the huts are essentially squatting on government land).
Here's why I am staying. Kids from sponsored families were so obviously so much healthier and better off than kids with no sponsor. Considering the miniscule cost to keep a family alive we can't not at least try.
Wednesday, April 29
New Hope Community Center
I've spent four days at the New Hope Community Center. This NGO operates within a very poor community living on the doorstep of Angkor Wat. Its HQ is a former "karaoke" bar (brothel) now a community center. Three rooms are dedicated to teaching Khmer and English. There is one computer room (they have Internet on Fridays), a kitchen and a beauty room to teach practical skills the students can use to find jobs. A free clinic on campus provides basic health care and medicines. One of the most important roles New Hope plays in this community is organizing sponsors, via their webpage, to help families in critical condition receive 15 kg of rice a month.
For two days I worked as an English teacher. The lessons I taught were very similar to those I taught in Korea but the experience at the school has been extremely different. Many of the kids get to school by peddling a grownup bicycle, about 5 times too big for them, with one kid on the back, one kid on the front, and one barely touching the pedals with their feet. Few of them are wearing shoes. But they are a smiling bunch of kids extremely motivated to learn.
More volunteers arrived on Tuesday and I gave up my class to do some admin work. The last two days I have dedicated to writing profiles of families in need from the community. These profiles will be posted to their webpage and hopefully somebody will sign up to be their sponsor. Today I'll be going with a Khmer New Hope volunteer into the village to collect more stories.
On Monday, we all got a stark reminder of how close these kids are living to starvation. Over the weekend a little boy in the kindergarten class (the class we made balloon animals with on Friday) ate poisonous toad eggs and died. Of the four kids who ate the eggs one died, one is still in hospital and two have returned to their families. There was an emergency assembly at school to tell all the little kids never ever to eat eggs they find and if they are hungry to come to the school and they will be given food.
On Tuesday, a woman showed up at the school sobbing uncontrollably. Her neck bore red marks from her husband's hands where he had tried to strangle her. She had obviously been beaten and was clearly in a lot of pain. As far as I understand the situation, they are getting a divorce but the man showed up demanding she give him 2000 riel (equivalent to 50 cents US). We called the police but they were busy. They told us, as an NGO, we could take a statement from the woman. Finally a policeman showed up but it appears all he accomplished was to force the man to "take care"of his wife. It seemed like an extremely dodgy resolution to force a batterer to be in close contact with his victim.
Teaching feels like a side note to the drama that passes through New Hope on a daily basis. Though I definitely recognize its importance. It's been an eye-opening experience here at New Hope and I will endeavor to continue my support of this organization after I leave Cambodia.
For two days I worked as an English teacher. The lessons I taught were very similar to those I taught in Korea but the experience at the school has been extremely different. Many of the kids get to school by peddling a grownup bicycle, about 5 times too big for them, with one kid on the back, one kid on the front, and one barely touching the pedals with their feet. Few of them are wearing shoes. But they are a smiling bunch of kids extremely motivated to learn.
More volunteers arrived on Tuesday and I gave up my class to do some admin work. The last two days I have dedicated to writing profiles of families in need from the community. These profiles will be posted to their webpage and hopefully somebody will sign up to be their sponsor. Today I'll be going with a Khmer New Hope volunteer into the village to collect more stories.
On Monday, we all got a stark reminder of how close these kids are living to starvation. Over the weekend a little boy in the kindergarten class (the class we made balloon animals with on Friday) ate poisonous toad eggs and died. Of the four kids who ate the eggs one died, one is still in hospital and two have returned to their families. There was an emergency assembly at school to tell all the little kids never ever to eat eggs they find and if they are hungry to come to the school and they will be given food.
On Tuesday, a woman showed up at the school sobbing uncontrollably. Her neck bore red marks from her husband's hands where he had tried to strangle her. She had obviously been beaten and was clearly in a lot of pain. As far as I understand the situation, they are getting a divorce but the man showed up demanding she give him 2000 riel (equivalent to 50 cents US). We called the police but they were busy. They told us, as an NGO, we could take a statement from the woman. Finally a policeman showed up but it appears all he accomplished was to force the man to "take care"of his wife. It seemed like an extremely dodgy resolution to force a batterer to be in close contact with his victim.
Teaching feels like a side note to the drama that passes through New Hope on a daily basis. Though I definitely recognize its importance. It's been an eye-opening experience here at New Hope and I will endeavor to continue my support of this organization after I leave Cambodia.
Friday, April 24
Dr. Beatocello
Dr. Beat (pronounced be-at) Richner has opened 6 children's hospitals in Cambodia. He has developed a system in which he can provide free medical care and medicine to his patients. He is doing great work for the children of Cambodia. To support his hospitals he relies on private donations and receives some support from the Cambodian and Swiss governments. I learned about his work from a provocatively named documentary "Dr Beat and the Passive Genocide of Children." Dr. Beatocello is the stage name of this Swiss doctor who believes poor children in poor countries deserve the same medical care as kids in richer countries. I went to his concert last Saturday night to hear him play his cello. Though he played two of the shortest pieces I have ever heard I believe his cause is a good one. Learn more at his website.
Julia and Julia Teachers
Julia Teacher is back! In the volunteer edition. Next week Julia Teacher 1 and Julia Teacher 2 will be helping out at the New Hope School on the outskirts of Siem Reap.
Today we showed up for some orientation which translated into making 75 balloon dogs, and playing a variety of my favorite games from Korea includin 7UP and hangman though sadly no hokey pokey.
The downside of teaching is the hours. We work from 2-6pm which happens to be the hottest time of the day during the hottest month of the year in Cambodia. It is unbelievably hot. By 2:30 I had drenched my T-shirt in sweat. It does, though, feel really good to have purpose to my day more than hunting down food/lodging and the occasional temple.
Today we showed up for some orientation which translated into making 75 balloon dogs, and playing a variety of my favorite games from Korea includin 7UP and hangman though sadly no hokey pokey.
The downside of teaching is the hours. We work from 2-6pm which happens to be the hottest time of the day during the hottest month of the year in Cambodia. It is unbelievably hot. By 2:30 I had drenched my T-shirt in sweat. It does, though, feel really good to have purpose to my day more than hunting down food/lodging and the occasional temple.
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