The night before we left Siem Reap, we took our favorite Tuk Tuk drivers out to the FCC to play some pool and order a few smoothies. We played a few games that were somehow able to include everyone and had a great time. After the FCC we went to dinner, but before that we had to say goodbye to Tony, Pealy, and Mr. Aht, who were by far the best drivers we've had this trip. They made each trip a little bit more fun whether it was teaching us some new phrases or telling a few jokes. It was sad to say goodbye to them, but at least Steve and Karen will be back to see them again, if not some of us as well. We went out to dinner and relaxed for a little while in the old market and also enjoyed a few more games of pool. (I was told not to mention this, but I successfully beat Riege in a game of pool, although he will most likely deny it if you ask him about it) After dinner all of the travelers, Arn and Sayma went to Zone one where we danced and sang Karaoke.
I think that I can speak for us all when I say that this trip has been nothing but amazing.
After leaving Siem Reap, we took a public bus back to Phnom Penh. The bus ride was very long, and although we made a few stops along the way to grab some food and stretch our legs it wasn't the best part of the trip. Most of us were sad to be leaving Siem Reap where we had made new friendships and had been extremely rewarded with being able to help the village whether it was teaching the kids english, or making contributions to allow them to have a healthier community.
We arrived in Phnom Penh in the afternoon, and directly after getting off the bus we were attacked by Tuk Tuk drivers who wanted to take us to wherever we had to go. With a little bargaining Karen managed to get us 6 Tuk Tuks for all of the travelers and all of our luggage. After, we went to the hotel and checked into our rooms and then we all split up. Some of us stayed back at the hotel to relax a little bit, while others went to the Russian Market for a little while to do some shopping until we all had to meet again as a group.
That night, Arn took us to a very nice and relaxing restaurant. It was a Cambodian style restaurant where we all sat on pillows on the floor and ate our food around the table. The food was delicious and the environment was so relaxing that we had to leave before everyone fell asleep there. After dinner, some people decided to explore the city to find some places to play pool until late, while the rest of the went back to the hotel and fell asleep.
This morning we woke up and had a group breakfast at around 8:30 in a nice small place on the top of a building where there was a nice view of Phnom Penh. We then went straight to the U.S. Embassy and met the United States Ambassador. We got the chance to meet with him in a room where it was just us and him. We talked a lot about the issues going on currently in Cambodia, and what he is doing to improve the situation. He also had a lot of questions for us about what we were doing here and why we were doing it. We also got the chance to ask him a few questions, and it was very interesting to hear his point of view on all of the issues going on currently between Cambodia and the rest of the world. He was very laid back and friendly, which made the experience even better.
After meeting the Ambassador, we all split up again and found a few places to have lunch and shop some more. We met up again around 2 to go and see the man who taught Arn how to play the flute. When we got there, Arn was so excited to learn that he remembered him. He's an older man and has started losing his memory. He played a few different songs on the flute for us and also sang some songs. It was really exciting to meet the person that taught Arn how to play flute since that is basically what saved his life. A few of us bought flutes that were made by him and his family and it was good to be able to support them.
After that the people who bought instruments went to pick them up, while other people went back to the Russian market for more shopping. We definitely loved buying things on this trip.
It's now our last night and I think that there are mixed feelings. We all have had such a life changing experience and would love to stay here for longer and do so much more even though we've already accomplished so much, but at the same time we all miss home life, family and friends. I'm pretty sure that everyone would come back here if they were given the chance.
For now, we're headed out to our last dinner together with Arn and Sayma, and we are leaving for the airport early tomorrow morning.
See you all soon!
--Hannah
Monday, July 7, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Last Days in Siem Reap
I have just returned from a friendly game of competitive haggling (for kramas) at the market across the river. Each "team"was given $50 and told to get as many kramas as possible. From what I can gather, the victorious team was Connor, Annalise, and Hilary, with an impressive 140 kramas. Diana, Hannah, and I came in with a close second place, with 130 kramas. Now we have a short break before we go and play some pool at the FCC. It is a very competitive day!
This morning we took a trip out to see the floating villages. It was very fascinating to see how these people live. However, Arn enlightened us on the issues surrounding the cultural ownership of the village. Many people from various surrounding nations are building in, and around, the floating villages and the Cambodians are not sharing in the profits. As tourism becomes more popular in Cambodia--especially in Siem Reap, because of the Angkor Temples--it is important to make sure that it is the Cambodians who are profiting. Karen and Riege told us that this was something that they considered when choosing hotels.
Yesterday was a sad day, because we had to say goodbye to our new friends in the village. This past week, Karen and Riege have worked with many different organisations to figure out how to best help the village with the money that we have raised. The first thing that we asked, was that five women of the village attend daily classes for the next few weeks, and then monthly classes all year, regarding health issues. Much of the health issues in rural Cambodian villages are due to a lack of education, and we hope this will help to improve health, as well as to elevate the influence of the women in the village.
We have also aimed to fix some health issues by building an entirely new latrine system. On the same day of having the idea, and speaking to the village, the materials were being transfered. The next morning (yesterday), the foundation was set and the people were already working on the walls. They plan to have a men's bathroom as well as a women's bathroom. Surprisingly, many young women of the village were actively participating in the construction. From what I hear, this is a vast difference to how the women of the village were treated in the building of the friendship hut, last summer.
We also spoke to a European producer of water filters and bought five filters for the village--one for each family. These will be installed in the ground and will hopefully reduce the amount of common colds, this year. For these minor sicknesses, we have provided the village with their own medicine chest. This was something that they specifically asked for, which shows how the trust is being strengthened every year.
The final thing that we bought was four new bikes, with the wonderful haggling skills of Sayma. What is so important to realize is that this is possible from the fundraising that we do in the States. So, buy more kramas! Buy more Kampot pepper! And please, make donations!
It is also important to realize that our relationship, with Ma Mein's Village, is not meerely one of us giving gifts. While that is helpful, we try to connect with the people on a different level. I believe that we succeed in this. We are able to communicate without words by playing games, such as volleyball and hand games, and by facial expressions and laughing. We often undermine non-auditory language where we are from, but by speaking to people who are deaf, and people without a common language, we have learned entirely different ways to understand people.
However, we did try to swap languages in our english lessons. We spilt into four groups (advanced boys, advanced girls, elementary boys, elementary girls) and had 3 full-length lessons. While saying the english, we would mime out the words until they figured out what we were trying to do, and then they yelled it back in khmer. We would then try the khmer pronunciation and they would try the english. Needless to say, they were much more successful at these excersises.
Tomorrow we will leave Siem Reap, and head to our final destination in Cambodia, Phnom Penh. We all miss you all at home, but want to stay in Cambodia for longer. Why don't you all come here? They flight isn't that bad. Well, actually yes, it is. Three more days!
-Luke Murphy
This morning we took a trip out to see the floating villages. It was very fascinating to see how these people live. However, Arn enlightened us on the issues surrounding the cultural ownership of the village. Many people from various surrounding nations are building in, and around, the floating villages and the Cambodians are not sharing in the profits. As tourism becomes more popular in Cambodia--especially in Siem Reap, because of the Angkor Temples--it is important to make sure that it is the Cambodians who are profiting. Karen and Riege told us that this was something that they considered when choosing hotels.
Yesterday was a sad day, because we had to say goodbye to our new friends in the village. This past week, Karen and Riege have worked with many different organisations to figure out how to best help the village with the money that we have raised. The first thing that we asked, was that five women of the village attend daily classes for the next few weeks, and then monthly classes all year, regarding health issues. Much of the health issues in rural Cambodian villages are due to a lack of education, and we hope this will help to improve health, as well as to elevate the influence of the women in the village.
We have also aimed to fix some health issues by building an entirely new latrine system. On the same day of having the idea, and speaking to the village, the materials were being transfered. The next morning (yesterday), the foundation was set and the people were already working on the walls. They plan to have a men's bathroom as well as a women's bathroom. Surprisingly, many young women of the village were actively participating in the construction. From what I hear, this is a vast difference to how the women of the village were treated in the building of the friendship hut, last summer.
We also spoke to a European producer of water filters and bought five filters for the village--one for each family. These will be installed in the ground and will hopefully reduce the amount of common colds, this year. For these minor sicknesses, we have provided the village with their own medicine chest. This was something that they specifically asked for, which shows how the trust is being strengthened every year.
The final thing that we bought was four new bikes, with the wonderful haggling skills of Sayma. What is so important to realize is that this is possible from the fundraising that we do in the States. So, buy more kramas! Buy more Kampot pepper! And please, make donations!
It is also important to realize that our relationship, with Ma Mein's Village, is not meerely one of us giving gifts. While that is helpful, we try to connect with the people on a different level. I believe that we succeed in this. We are able to communicate without words by playing games, such as volleyball and hand games, and by facial expressions and laughing. We often undermine non-auditory language where we are from, but by speaking to people who are deaf, and people without a common language, we have learned entirely different ways to understand people.
However, we did try to swap languages in our english lessons. We spilt into four groups (advanced boys, advanced girls, elementary boys, elementary girls) and had 3 full-length lessons. While saying the english, we would mime out the words until they figured out what we were trying to do, and then they yelled it back in khmer. We would then try the khmer pronunciation and they would try the english. Needless to say, they were much more successful at these excersises.
Tomorrow we will leave Siem Reap, and head to our final destination in Cambodia, Phnom Penh. We all miss you all at home, but want to stay in Cambodia for longer. Why don't you all come here? They flight isn't that bad. Well, actually yes, it is. Three more days!
-Luke Murphy
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
July 1st, 2008
Once again yesturday was another morning at the village. The group continued their English lessons, with mostly the same group as last time. Some of the younger kids didn't show up. I have been working one on one with Piseth, a 21 year old, who is in the 11th grade in high school, and happens to be the best English speaker in the village. I have had a little more trouble then the other groups, due to his vast knowledge of the language already. While the younger groups teach numbers and colors, and the older groups teach basic conversation skills (what is your name?, how old are you?...) I am doing some more advance work. Mostly we have been working in a grammer book, learning all the rules for past tense. This has proven to be a little difficult for Piseth, due to the fact that in Khmer there are no tenses. I also have never realized how much rules there are in the English language, its pretty crazy.
So after a few hours of teaching, attention spans started to drift. We played with the kids until Karen, Steve, Arn and Siy Ma returned with a truck full of fruit trees for the villagers to plant. Then we said our goodbyes for the day and headed to lunch. After lunch everyone took a rest back at the hotel until about 2 o'clock.
At 2 we took a short tuk tuk ride to the Angkor Childrens Hospital. There we met with a guide who told us about the hospital and showed us a dvd about what they do there. It is a free health care hospital for children. It also has a home visit unit, which sounded like a great thing for Man Men's Village. After taking a short tour of the grounds, we all hopped back in our tuk tuks and headed for Angkor Wat.
Standing at the crib side looking at the long walk way across the mote and into the temple was just the start. As we crossed the bridge and entered the temple grounds it felt amazing. There are really no words to discribe it. The famous 3 towers (which seem to the the logo for everything here) stood in front of us 20 feet tall at least. Sarah and I decided to walk the temple together. We started by going along side the outter edge where there are very famous carvings into the stone. It took about 30 mins. to walk around and see all of the carvings, though we got alittle distracted by a group of monkeys. Then we actually entered the temple and climbed the stairs to the top. Unfortunatly the 3 towers were ropped off so we could not climb all the way. There are really no words to discribe it. We all met at the enterence just as a fast moving dark cloud came over us. We all then went to dinner at the Singing Tree, a sort of health food resturant in the area. After dinner it was dark, however the night was still young. The group, minus Steve and Karen, decided to go out to a local dance club called Zone One. Everyone got dressed up and had a great time.
This morning we all met our tuk tuk drivers at 8:30 for a long ride out to a National Park that had supposed holy strem and a great waterfall. We stopped on the way, at a land mine museum. There we learned even more about the Khmer Rouge and land mines in general. It was started by a man who was a child soilder and actually laid land mines for the Khmer Rouge. He later decided to dedicate his life to clearing Cambodia of them. After another hour or so we mad it to the base of a small mountain. We all then climbed up a steep trail to a beautiful waterfall. There everyone got wet from the falls and played in the water. It was great. We all then took the hike down to the base and had a good lunch. After repairing a flat tire on one of the tuk tuks, we were off back to the hotel. Tonight we are all headed to dinner at 7:15 and later we will go to the FCC and lounge/ resturant where we can play pool and have milkshakes. Tomorrow we head back to the village for our last round of english classes. Much more to come on out last week in this beautiful country.
~MT~
Once again yesturday was another morning at the village. The group continued their English lessons, with mostly the same group as last time. Some of the younger kids didn't show up. I have been working one on one with Piseth, a 21 year old, who is in the 11th grade in high school, and happens to be the best English speaker in the village. I have had a little more trouble then the other groups, due to his vast knowledge of the language already. While the younger groups teach numbers and colors, and the older groups teach basic conversation skills (what is your name?, how old are you?...) I am doing some more advance work. Mostly we have been working in a grammer book, learning all the rules for past tense. This has proven to be a little difficult for Piseth, due to the fact that in Khmer there are no tenses. I also have never realized how much rules there are in the English language, its pretty crazy.
So after a few hours of teaching, attention spans started to drift. We played with the kids until Karen, Steve, Arn and Siy Ma returned with a truck full of fruit trees for the villagers to plant. Then we said our goodbyes for the day and headed to lunch. After lunch everyone took a rest back at the hotel until about 2 o'clock.
At 2 we took a short tuk tuk ride to the Angkor Childrens Hospital. There we met with a guide who told us about the hospital and showed us a dvd about what they do there. It is a free health care hospital for children. It also has a home visit unit, which sounded like a great thing for Man Men's Village. After taking a short tour of the grounds, we all hopped back in our tuk tuks and headed for Angkor Wat.
Standing at the crib side looking at the long walk way across the mote and into the temple was just the start. As we crossed the bridge and entered the temple grounds it felt amazing. There are really no words to discribe it. The famous 3 towers (which seem to the the logo for everything here) stood in front of us 20 feet tall at least. Sarah and I decided to walk the temple together. We started by going along side the outter edge where there are very famous carvings into the stone. It took about 30 mins. to walk around and see all of the carvings, though we got alittle distracted by a group of monkeys. Then we actually entered the temple and climbed the stairs to the top. Unfortunatly the 3 towers were ropped off so we could not climb all the way. There are really no words to discribe it. We all met at the enterence just as a fast moving dark cloud came over us. We all then went to dinner at the Singing Tree, a sort of health food resturant in the area. After dinner it was dark, however the night was still young. The group, minus Steve and Karen, decided to go out to a local dance club called Zone One. Everyone got dressed up and had a great time.
This morning we all met our tuk tuk drivers at 8:30 for a long ride out to a National Park that had supposed holy strem and a great waterfall. We stopped on the way, at a land mine museum. There we learned even more about the Khmer Rouge and land mines in general. It was started by a man who was a child soilder and actually laid land mines for the Khmer Rouge. He later decided to dedicate his life to clearing Cambodia of them. After another hour or so we mad it to the base of a small mountain. We all then climbed up a steep trail to a beautiful waterfall. There everyone got wet from the falls and played in the water. It was great. We all then took the hike down to the base and had a good lunch. After repairing a flat tire on one of the tuk tuks, we were off back to the hotel. Tonight we are all headed to dinner at 7:15 and later we will go to the FCC and lounge/ resturant where we can play pool and have milkshakes. Tomorrow we head back to the village for our last round of english classes. Much more to come on out last week in this beautiful country.
~MT~
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Siem Reap
So currently I am sitting here in this internet cafe in between two buddhist monks. How awesome is that. One of my favorite things about Cambodia is seeing the monks dressed in their bright orange robes doing typical everyday things. These include writing emails, talking on their cellphones, riding on the back of motos, swimming in the ocean (still wearing their robes), etc.
Anyways, so yesterday morning we took a dusty tuk-tuk ride back to Man Men's village to begin english lessons. Before we left, we had a quick strategizing meeting in Reige's room to try and brainstorm ideas on how we were actually going to go about teaching english. We decided it would be best to split the kids into two groups of younger children who knew very little english, and two groups of older and more advanced teens; one guys and one girls. We spilt the older group by gender because in Cambodian society females are taught to wait until alll the men have spoken first. By splitting them up, we hoped that the girls would feel more comfortable speaking, which is an essential part in learning a language. Sarah, hannah, connor and I worked with the younger kids while luke and mitch worked with the older guys and diana and annalise worked with the older girls. There were about 20-25 kids ranging from age 7-21 (so not all kids) who showed up for our lessons. Even though we had tried to prepare ourselves, we really had no idea what to expect. For the little kids we worked on numbers, colors, and basic conversation ("hello", "My name is ___", "I am ___ years old"). They already knew the numbers 1-10 but had a difficult time grasping 11-20. They also had a hard time understanding what "I am ___ years old" meant even after help translating from Sey Ma. By teaching them colors we also learned that the colors blue and green share the same name. The older groups worked on pronunciation, math, world maps, and more advanced conversations. The sounds "ch", "th", "r" and "f"are very difficult for Cambodians to say, because those sounds do not exist in their language. Some of them knew alot more english then we had expected, which is a good sign in the development (in terms of jobs) of the village. While we were teaching english, Karen, Steve, Arn and Sey Ma went into town and purchased the medicine that they requested and two more fishing nets. Hopefully they will be teaching us how to fish soon! After about 2 hours of lessons we played games with them and learned some Khmer to pass the time. Again they gave all the girls in our group lots and LOTS of flowers. We said good-bye to them and went out to lunch near the Old Market.
The Old Market is one of the most amazing places i have ever been. Its stuffed with hundreds of small "shops" filled with everything from silk kramas, t-shirts, souvenirs, carvings and anything else you could possibly want from Cambodia. It is very cheap (especially if you have gotten good at bargaining) and most of us have already finished buying all of our gifts for friends and relatives. After, we visited Artisans d'Angkor which trains people from the country side in various traditional arts. Karen, Steve, Sarah and I took a 45 min, very, very dusty tuk-tuk ride out of the city to visit a silk worm factory (part of Artisans d'Angkor). It was incredible to see how precise the whole process was. *Did you know that you can produce 400 meters of silk thread from one silk worm cocoon?* Sarah, Riege and I each ate a boiled silk worm. It was disgusting and squishy.
We rejoined the group for dinner at "Hawaii Pizza House"to get our American food fix. We planned on heading to bed early but some of us stayed up a little bit longer and played (and learned) Texas Hold 'em.
We woke up "bright"and early at 4 am to take tuk-tuks to watch the sunrise over Bayon temple, a huge temple with about 200 giant faces and over 1.2 km of carvings all over the walls. After that we visited 2 other temples in the area. On one of the temples we climbed steps which were about 6 inches wide and 18 inches tall. In other words, fun to go up and terrifying to go down. We went back to the hotel for a quick break then went out to brunch at the Butterfly Restaurant. The whole restaurant is surrounded by nets and once a week orphan children are paid to catch and release hundreds of butterflies (most of which die in about ten minutes). Its an amazing but sad sight.
We returned to the village in the afternoon to play games with the kids. The guys played a heated game of volleyball, while the girls played lacrosse, frisbee, hand games and Cambodian hop-scotch. Even though we visit them everyday, the villagers are always so excited to see us. Tomorrow we will be returning to teach english again. We'll keep you posted!
-Hilary
Anyways, so yesterday morning we took a dusty tuk-tuk ride back to Man Men's village to begin english lessons. Before we left, we had a quick strategizing meeting in Reige's room to try and brainstorm ideas on how we were actually going to go about teaching english. We decided it would be best to split the kids into two groups of younger children who knew very little english, and two groups of older and more advanced teens; one guys and one girls. We spilt the older group by gender because in Cambodian society females are taught to wait until alll the men have spoken first. By splitting them up, we hoped that the girls would feel more comfortable speaking, which is an essential part in learning a language. Sarah, hannah, connor and I worked with the younger kids while luke and mitch worked with the older guys and diana and annalise worked with the older girls. There were about 20-25 kids ranging from age 7-21 (so not all kids) who showed up for our lessons. Even though we had tried to prepare ourselves, we really had no idea what to expect. For the little kids we worked on numbers, colors, and basic conversation ("hello", "My name is ___", "I am ___ years old"). They already knew the numbers 1-10 but had a difficult time grasping 11-20. They also had a hard time understanding what "I am ___ years old" meant even after help translating from Sey Ma. By teaching them colors we also learned that the colors blue and green share the same name. The older groups worked on pronunciation, math, world maps, and more advanced conversations. The sounds "ch", "th", "r" and "f"are very difficult for Cambodians to say, because those sounds do not exist in their language. Some of them knew alot more english then we had expected, which is a good sign in the development (in terms of jobs) of the village. While we were teaching english, Karen, Steve, Arn and Sey Ma went into town and purchased the medicine that they requested and two more fishing nets. Hopefully they will be teaching us how to fish soon! After about 2 hours of lessons we played games with them and learned some Khmer to pass the time. Again they gave all the girls in our group lots and LOTS of flowers. We said good-bye to them and went out to lunch near the Old Market.
The Old Market is one of the most amazing places i have ever been. Its stuffed with hundreds of small "shops" filled with everything from silk kramas, t-shirts, souvenirs, carvings and anything else you could possibly want from Cambodia. It is very cheap (especially if you have gotten good at bargaining) and most of us have already finished buying all of our gifts for friends and relatives. After, we visited Artisans d'Angkor which trains people from the country side in various traditional arts. Karen, Steve, Sarah and I took a 45 min, very, very dusty tuk-tuk ride out of the city to visit a silk worm factory (part of Artisans d'Angkor). It was incredible to see how precise the whole process was. *Did you know that you can produce 400 meters of silk thread from one silk worm cocoon?* Sarah, Riege and I each ate a boiled silk worm. It was disgusting and squishy.
We rejoined the group for dinner at "Hawaii Pizza House"to get our American food fix. We planned on heading to bed early but some of us stayed up a little bit longer and played (and learned) Texas Hold 'em.
We woke up "bright"and early at 4 am to take tuk-tuks to watch the sunrise over Bayon temple, a huge temple with about 200 giant faces and over 1.2 km of carvings all over the walls. After that we visited 2 other temples in the area. On one of the temples we climbed steps which were about 6 inches wide and 18 inches tall. In other words, fun to go up and terrifying to go down. We went back to the hotel for a quick break then went out to brunch at the Butterfly Restaurant. The whole restaurant is surrounded by nets and once a week orphan children are paid to catch and release hundreds of butterflies (most of which die in about ten minutes). Its an amazing but sad sight.
We returned to the village in the afternoon to play games with the kids. The guys played a heated game of volleyball, while the girls played lacrosse, frisbee, hand games and Cambodian hop-scotch. Even though we visit them everyday, the villagers are always so excited to see us. Tomorrow we will be returning to teach english again. We'll keep you posted!
-Hilary
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Arn's House to Siem Reap
So I thought I'd start off by wishing my sister Jennifer a happy birthday. It was yesterday, the 27th, and she turned 19. So if you're completely bored out of your mind, call her up and wish her a happy birthday.
We left for Arn's house early in the morning, stopping first at his plantation where we got a very quick tour of the trees he grew there. Our second stop was at this very nice restaurant on the Mekong river, where there were no tables or chairs, just hammocks. We almost persuaded Jake to dive into the water, but Karen (always the logical one) talked him out of it.
Our first night at Arn's house was very simple. We all went to the market to watch Sey Ma and her astounding bargaining skills, and later set up our sleeping areas and ate dinner. We ended up going to bed at around 7:30, partially because there was nothing else to do an it was dark, and partially because we were exhausted. The next morning we woke up and had a breakfast of coconut waffles from the market. The day went by fairly slowly, with some of us going to the market, watching a presidential parade, playing frisbee, or lounging around reading. Arn showed us some of his music videos he had made of Sey Ma, some of them fused with hip-hop. One of the videos featured this one Cambodian kid who must have spent his entire life watching MTV, because he looked like a professional rapper from the U.S., including all the dance moves and fashion choices. At the end of the night, Sey Ma and Arn sang and played for us, accompanied by a guitar. In exchange, Mitch and Luke sang, and I played guitar for them. After that, Karen led a short acting lesson for the people that live at Arn's place (Arn's request. He wants them to be in his movie, but he feels like they need to get more used to acting). The next morning we got up early and left for Siem Reap, which took us about six hours total. Once again, we stopped for lunch at a place with hammocks, which was very relaxing, except they made you pay to use a squat toilet, and the woman who was collecting the money kept raising her price with every person who went.
After arriving in Siem Reap and getting settled, we took a tuktuk tour around the Angkor grounds (we'll update you more as we continue exploring the area). Once we returned to the guest house, we ate dinner at the star rise restaurant (a favorite of last year's travelers), and went to bed. This morning, we all met in Riege's room to take inventory of everything we had brought for Man Men's village. We have loads of stuff, and will be spreading out our gifts over the week so as not to overwhelm them on the first day. When we arrived at the village, we received a very warm welcome. They played music for us, and we presented them gifts of headlamps (for fishing), copies of the CDs they recorded last year, clothes, and toys. The bubbles were a huge hit- they were playing with them the entire time we were there. Many of the younger kids took all of the girls by the hand and ran them around the village twice for absolutely no reason. They also gave us lots of flowers, and later turned branches into crowns and covered them with more flowers. Several of the guys had fun playing volleyball with the older boys, and were later accompanied by our tuktuk drivers. It was a very fun and productive visit. We learned a lot more about the village and how it's changed in the past year. We think that only one of the trees planted last year survived, but the friendship hut is still standing strong, and seems as though it will continue to do so for quite a long time. We also learned that all of the rice patties were gone, which led us to worry about how they will eat, seeing as the price of rice tripled within the past year. There were also two new healthy babies, and Man Men (without being asked) told Karen and Reige that they wanted medicinal supplies for their village, which was exciting because it means that they are learning to trust us even more.
Later on, we ate lunch and made our first visit to Angkor. We visited Ta Prohm, which is impossible to describe in a blog, so you can just check out pictures of them when we return. We then ate dinner and saw Dr. Beat Richer play the cello for about 5 minutes.... then talk for 15 minutes.... then he showed us a 40 minute video about his hospital. yay music!
We'll update you all about our time in Siem Reap later this week.
-Sarah
We left for Arn's house early in the morning, stopping first at his plantation where we got a very quick tour of the trees he grew there. Our second stop was at this very nice restaurant on the Mekong river, where there were no tables or chairs, just hammocks. We almost persuaded Jake to dive into the water, but Karen (always the logical one) talked him out of it.
Our first night at Arn's house was very simple. We all went to the market to watch Sey Ma and her astounding bargaining skills, and later set up our sleeping areas and ate dinner. We ended up going to bed at around 7:30, partially because there was nothing else to do an it was dark, and partially because we were exhausted. The next morning we woke up and had a breakfast of coconut waffles from the market. The day went by fairly slowly, with some of us going to the market, watching a presidential parade, playing frisbee, or lounging around reading. Arn showed us some of his music videos he had made of Sey Ma, some of them fused with hip-hop. One of the videos featured this one Cambodian kid who must have spent his entire life watching MTV, because he looked like a professional rapper from the U.S., including all the dance moves and fashion choices. At the end of the night, Sey Ma and Arn sang and played for us, accompanied by a guitar. In exchange, Mitch and Luke sang, and I played guitar for them. After that, Karen led a short acting lesson for the people that live at Arn's place (Arn's request. He wants them to be in his movie, but he feels like they need to get more used to acting). The next morning we got up early and left for Siem Reap, which took us about six hours total. Once again, we stopped for lunch at a place with hammocks, which was very relaxing, except they made you pay to use a squat toilet, and the woman who was collecting the money kept raising her price with every person who went.
After arriving in Siem Reap and getting settled, we took a tuktuk tour around the Angkor grounds (we'll update you more as we continue exploring the area). Once we returned to the guest house, we ate dinner at the star rise restaurant (a favorite of last year's travelers), and went to bed. This morning, we all met in Riege's room to take inventory of everything we had brought for Man Men's village. We have loads of stuff, and will be spreading out our gifts over the week so as not to overwhelm them on the first day. When we arrived at the village, we received a very warm welcome. They played music for us, and we presented them gifts of headlamps (for fishing), copies of the CDs they recorded last year, clothes, and toys. The bubbles were a huge hit- they were playing with them the entire time we were there. Many of the younger kids took all of the girls by the hand and ran them around the village twice for absolutely no reason. They also gave us lots of flowers, and later turned branches into crowns and covered them with more flowers. Several of the guys had fun playing volleyball with the older boys, and were later accompanied by our tuktuk drivers. It was a very fun and productive visit. We learned a lot more about the village and how it's changed in the past year. We think that only one of the trees planted last year survived, but the friendship hut is still standing strong, and seems as though it will continue to do so for quite a long time. We also learned that all of the rice patties were gone, which led us to worry about how they will eat, seeing as the price of rice tripled within the past year. There were also two new healthy babies, and Man Men (without being asked) told Karen and Reige that they wanted medicinal supplies for their village, which was exciting because it means that they are learning to trust us even more.
Later on, we ate lunch and made our first visit to Angkor. We visited Ta Prohm, which is impossible to describe in a blog, so you can just check out pictures of them when we return. We then ate dinner and saw Dr. Beat Richer play the cello for about 5 minutes.... then talk for 15 minutes.... then he showed us a 40 minute video about his hospital. yay music!
We'll update you all about our time in Siem Reap later this week.
-Sarah
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Last Post from Kampot
The pace here in Kampot remains fun, yet relaxing. It's been wonderful getting to work with the kids at Epic Arts, especially because we see them all around the town and they always stop to say hello and teach us more sign. Sometimes they even ride by our hotel just to say hello to us as we ride our bikes in circles around the front courtyard. It's really amazing how much they appreciate our company.
Yesterday morning we loaded ourselves into a van and headed towards the Vietnamese border to visit the pepper plantation. On the way there, we were warned to stay on the paths of the plantation because of the landmines that still might be in the ground from the times of war. The ride was maybe 45 minutes long, so it seemed exceedingly short compared to adventure out to the beach in Kep the previous day. We arrived and our guide showed us through the rows and rows of vines of pepper and fed us fact after fact about the pepper plantations, for instance how long it takes a pepper vine to reach 7 feet tall, when they harvest and things of that nature. While some of us went off and explored through the rows on our own, we bumped into a new-born calf that we think lost his mother. Some of us even got close enough to pet it. After a while, our guide took us away from the vines of pepper and beyond the houses where the pepper farmers lived. There we spent a while taking pictures and videos of about a dozen piglets and a few very, very fat mothers. Our guide told us that at the farm, within 3 months the piglets weighed 220 pounds. Quite the operation!
We left the pepper plantation and returned around noon, just in time for lunch. Then we had a free afternoon before leaving at 4:00 to visit Sey Ma's mother's home. I, unfortunately had to stay behind feeling a little sick, but I gather from everyone else it was a great time. The ride to her house took about a half an hour and there they met Sey Ma's mother, daughter, as well as her sister-in-law and her daughter who lived there. For a while, Karen had been looking for this type of Buddhist banner and after asking around several of the markets in Phnom Penh and Kampot she came up unsuccessful. However, Sey Ma's sister-in-law made this particular banner specially for Karen and gave it to us yesterday, so that was a highlight of the day. Karen and Mr. Riege plan to give the banner to Watkinson as a gift. They left Sey Ma's mother's and biked on for another half an hour and reached a stream where a few of the travelers chose to swim, but most stayed out of the fresh water. They returned briefly before going back out to dinner and returned a little after 9, and that was the end of our day.
Today was our last day getting to work with the people at Epic Arts. This morning we ran a workshop with the older students and played some more advanced games than we had the previous times. We made group machines that had feelings, we made frozen group pictures in groups of three, we marched around the room as though the floor were a grid and participated in several other activities that we all enjoyed. Everyone was a little sad when it came time to say goodbye, especially because the students were so sweet to us. As we said farewell, they told us that they would remember us and think of us all the time, but most of all that they would miss us.
So all in all, our stay in Kampot has been really great. Now we look forward to spending a few relaxing days at Arn's house before going to Siem Reap. We won't have internet for the next few days, but you can expect to get an update when we reach Siem Reap.
--Annalise
Yesterday morning we loaded ourselves into a van and headed towards the Vietnamese border to visit the pepper plantation. On the way there, we were warned to stay on the paths of the plantation because of the landmines that still might be in the ground from the times of war. The ride was maybe 45 minutes long, so it seemed exceedingly short compared to adventure out to the beach in Kep the previous day. We arrived and our guide showed us through the rows and rows of vines of pepper and fed us fact after fact about the pepper plantations, for instance how long it takes a pepper vine to reach 7 feet tall, when they harvest and things of that nature. While some of us went off and explored through the rows on our own, we bumped into a new-born calf that we think lost his mother. Some of us even got close enough to pet it. After a while, our guide took us away from the vines of pepper and beyond the houses where the pepper farmers lived. There we spent a while taking pictures and videos of about a dozen piglets and a few very, very fat mothers. Our guide told us that at the farm, within 3 months the piglets weighed 220 pounds. Quite the operation!
We left the pepper plantation and returned around noon, just in time for lunch. Then we had a free afternoon before leaving at 4:00 to visit Sey Ma's mother's home. I, unfortunately had to stay behind feeling a little sick, but I gather from everyone else it was a great time. The ride to her house took about a half an hour and there they met Sey Ma's mother, daughter, as well as her sister-in-law and her daughter who lived there. For a while, Karen had been looking for this type of Buddhist banner and after asking around several of the markets in Phnom Penh and Kampot she came up unsuccessful. However, Sey Ma's sister-in-law made this particular banner specially for Karen and gave it to us yesterday, so that was a highlight of the day. Karen and Mr. Riege plan to give the banner to Watkinson as a gift. They left Sey Ma's mother's and biked on for another half an hour and reached a stream where a few of the travelers chose to swim, but most stayed out of the fresh water. They returned briefly before going back out to dinner and returned a little after 9, and that was the end of our day.
Today was our last day getting to work with the people at Epic Arts. This morning we ran a workshop with the older students and played some more advanced games than we had the previous times. We made group machines that had feelings, we made frozen group pictures in groups of three, we marched around the room as though the floor were a grid and participated in several other activities that we all enjoyed. Everyone was a little sad when it came time to say goodbye, especially because the students were so sweet to us. As we said farewell, they told us that they would remember us and think of us all the time, but most of all that they would miss us.
So all in all, our stay in Kampot has been really great. Now we look forward to spending a few relaxing days at Arn's house before going to Siem Reap. We won't have internet for the next few days, but you can expect to get an update when we reach Siem Reap.
--Annalise
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Cambodia travelers in Kampot
So, we are out of the big city of Phnom Penh and in the smaller town of Kampot. The pace is a lot easier here. Less cars, less beeping, less tuk tuks. We've rented a bunch of bicycles and this is our main way of transportation... assuming that the chains are still attached.
A lot of us have started to get sick. I won't go into the details, but we're all being cautious of what we eat. Some of us (no names) have even been taking immodium even though they don't think they have anything. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.
Especially on the hour and a half hay ride (sans the hay) to the beach that we had today. We met up with the kids from Epic Arts that we had met the day before. For those of you who don't know, Epic Arts is an organization for deaf (and some handicapped) children. Though, a lot of them aren't really kids. Some of them are actually over 20.
Yesterday, when we were first introduced, the "children" all gave us our own names. I'm sure your kids can show you their sign when they get home but some of them were:
Mitch- signing his corn rows (The people here are fascinated with his hair. It's incredibly hard for the kids at Epic Arts to not touch it. He doesn't seem to mind, though)
Connor- signing his braces
Annalise- Signing to her head band
Basically, they find features about you and make a sign for it. They saw my bracelet and made a sign of running your pinkie over your wrist. Unfortunately, this looks like a slitting wrist motion which is similar to Sarah's slitting throat motion in reference to her necklace. But, we take this all in good fun.
After being introduced, we went through a series of acting/kinesthetic activities that Karen has been planning out over the past week. Let me tell you, these kids know how to be expressive. They even performed a few skits using masks and miming.
We all became well acquainted and today, as I said earlier, we went to the beach. Ask anyone who went, the scenery was beautiful. The water was a little brown but I think we were all appreciative for the swim anyways.
Well, that is until we wandered a little too far down and hit the sharp rock beds. Parents, if your kids come home with scarred feet and hands, it wasn't our fault. There was no escaping the jagged fate that awaited us. It's okay though, the salt water stopped the bleeding. We just had to protect our wounds from the flies.
All in all, the day was nice with hammocks, coconut water, and a picnic by the beach, even though we all got sun burnt. When we got back to the hotel, we all were kind of beat, though some of us went to a neighboring school run by Buddhists. We taught English to the kids (I was not one of this people, so unfortunately, I can't give more details).
That's it for now. Things are slower here in Kampot. So you'll be happy to know that when we're not resurfacing our last meal, we are quite relaxed.
A lot of us have started to get sick. I won't go into the details, but we're all being cautious of what we eat. Some of us (no names) have even been taking immodium even though they don't think they have anything. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.
Especially on the hour and a half hay ride (sans the hay) to the beach that we had today. We met up with the kids from Epic Arts that we had met the day before. For those of you who don't know, Epic Arts is an organization for deaf (and some handicapped) children. Though, a lot of them aren't really kids. Some of them are actually over 20.
Yesterday, when we were first introduced, the "children" all gave us our own names. I'm sure your kids can show you their sign when they get home but some of them were:
Mitch- signing his corn rows (The people here are fascinated with his hair. It's incredibly hard for the kids at Epic Arts to not touch it. He doesn't seem to mind, though)
Connor- signing his braces
Annalise- Signing to her head band
Basically, they find features about you and make a sign for it. They saw my bracelet and made a sign of running your pinkie over your wrist. Unfortunately, this looks like a slitting wrist motion which is similar to Sarah's slitting throat motion in reference to her necklace. But, we take this all in good fun.
After being introduced, we went through a series of acting/kinesthetic activities that Karen has been planning out over the past week. Let me tell you, these kids know how to be expressive. They even performed a few skits using masks and miming.
We all became well acquainted and today, as I said earlier, we went to the beach. Ask anyone who went, the scenery was beautiful. The water was a little brown but I think we were all appreciative for the swim anyways.
Well, that is until we wandered a little too far down and hit the sharp rock beds. Parents, if your kids come home with scarred feet and hands, it wasn't our fault. There was no escaping the jagged fate that awaited us. It's okay though, the salt water stopped the bleeding. We just had to protect our wounds from the flies.
All in all, the day was nice with hammocks, coconut water, and a picnic by the beach, even though we all got sun burnt. When we got back to the hotel, we all were kind of beat, though some of us went to a neighboring school run by Buddhists. We taught English to the kids (I was not one of this people, so unfortunately, I can't give more details).
That's it for now. Things are slower here in Kampot. So you'll be happy to know that when we're not resurfacing our last meal, we are quite relaxed.
-Diana G-
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Even More News
- Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world-
-Hackysack in the squatters community-
-Cycloing-
- 10 people in a Tuk Tuk--I just came back from dinner and I'm going to continue the post I abandoned midthought earlier-
The big news of the next morning (at least with Mitch and I) was the Celtics mercy killing the Lakers and winning the championship. We had banna cream cookies for a nutritious breakfast and got ready to go to the land fill. The ride to the land fill took us through the poor part of town, and involved hydroplaning over large puddles that could be considered lakes. Sitting next to and posessing a comanding view of the landfill was the school for vunerable child garbage workers. Once we got out of teh bus the stench was horrendous; all we could see was giant mounds of trash with hundreds of people picking over it. Every few minutes a garbage truck would arrive and prompt a small frezy of activity until it finished depositing its load. The way back from the landfill was perilous as we opted to take an alternative route and attempt to navigate small alleys in a large bus.
We made it back to the hotel in one piece, showered and headed out for fresh crepes, and in a few cases fish. When breakfast ended we went over to Tuol Slang, the largest detention center for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Being at a place where a genocide actually happened is incredibly intense, and hard to really put to words. If you want to find out about Tuol Slang there are a variety of books and several movies out that do a better job than I could.
That afternoon we had the oppurtunity to see Kong Nay perform, and to no ones suprise he was wonderfull. After that we made our first contact with the cambodian living arts foundation by observing a classical cambodian instruments class in action. The kids were all underprivleged childrent that cambodian living arts paid to take classes to preserve the heritage of Cambodia. Mr. Riege said that for some of them they are their families only wage earners. We also visited the recording studio where I bought a CD of Kong Nay's. After that we came back to the hotel and I started blogging, I ate dinner and I came back and continued blogging.
I'm exhausted and about to go to bed so I'm going to end here. Sorry to go on for so long.
Connor Henderson
News from the Far East
---The past few days have been both enlightening and amazing---
We were lucky to be able to spend a day in Taipei; exploring a city so different from our own, especially Taipei 101 (The worlds tallest building and an engineering marvel), was absolutley fascinating. By the end of the day, we were all completly beat. we had been up for almost 40 hours with only a few minutes of sleep here and there along the way. Before we went out again for the evening, at about 3:45 pm, Luke and I decided to take a short nap. We both woke up around 2:30 am throughly refreshed, and with our body clocks throughly messed up. The flight to Cambodia was short and mostly uneventful.
Within a few moments on the ground, our world views were irrevocably and quite literally expanded. A complete lack of road laws left traffic a giant game of chicken, and the goats and chickens everywhere give free range a whole new meaning. Arn and Sol May (phonetically spelled) have wonderful hosts, helping us get used to a completly foreign culture.
We explored the back roads of Phnom Phen for several hours before feasting on the simple fare of a nearby resturant. After lunch Arn had arranged for a fleet of cyclos - think reclineing lawn chairs pushed by a bike - to give us a tour of the city. Our first stop was Wat Phnom, meaning literally the temple on the hill, a beatiful building with scenic views. On the way up we saw a baby monkey, and instantaneously the cameras came out. The temple was beatiful, and for a as yet undetermined reason a ceremonial group of musicians were playing.
We loadeed up into the cyclos and and set off for the squatters camp. On the way we saw an elephant, which was pretty cool. My experiences at the squatters camop has been by far the best part of the trip for me. The human to human connection is incredible, especially considering the vast differences in culture, status, and language. Little interactions, smiles, handgames, reinforce the point (sorry if i'm a bit heavy handed and cliched) that were all pretty much the same in basic ways.
Inside the squatters camp we got visit the most famous musician in Cambodia. Blind with almost no use of his legs, Kong Nay presents an image that is eerily reminiescint of Ray Charles. Kong Nay is one of a select few individuals that exudes charisma, just being in a room with him can brighten your day. After grabbing dinner at the FCC, we all returned to the hotel and hit the sack.
More To Come Shortly
Connor Henderson
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Arrival
We arrived yesterday morning on time with all our luggage, after 24 hours in Taiwan. Phone issues prevented us from calling last evening; I hope this gets through and families will check in with others to be sure everyone knows we arrived rested and eager for new adventures. Lots to say; we're off to the dump in 30 minutes at 6am. Will try to uplad a few photos and offer a new post later today.
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