Hello friends!!!
I’ve fallen off the blog wagon. I have blog guilt. So many amazing things have happened since my last post, so I will do my best to wrap up my time in Cambodia and move on to my current adventures.
My last few weeks in Cambodia at the Village were incredible. I am proud to have been able to survive conditions that, I’ll admit, I was very anxious about. By the end of my time there, I was able to successfully hold in the screams as a cockroach ran across my foot in the night, and rather than running away in a panic when a roach or lizard or frog showed up unannounced in my room…..I learned to back away slowly and calmly walk for help rather than heading for the hills or jumping off a balcony. (**side note: my first week back in Chicago I had the misfortune to encounter a cockroach on my table at a restaurant, and I immediately defaulted to gasps of horror and twitching. I guess it’s worse when you’re not expecting it… flashbacks from ‘Nam...)
I did have glimpses of "normal life" on occasion though. There was the one night when I was making brownies for the kids in the orphanage’s kitchen and thought to myself, “Ahh….what a lovely evening…baking and feeling a little bit ‘normal’ “ It felt like any other day at home and I was enjoying the quiet….and then I looked up on the wall and saw a big frog eating a lizard and only the lizard’s flailing tail remained sticking out of the frog’s mouth while the frog slowly digested it, alive. That was when I knew it was time to go.
Conditions aside, I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience in Cambodia! And I don’t think it would’ve been as special if it wasn’t so challenging at times. Phnom Penh itself is incredible, I could definitely see myself living there if I were to pick a city in SE Asia to live. There is so much history, and it’s all so recent -- I took it all in and tried to learn as much as I could.
Here are a couple pictures from Phnom Penh:
S-21 prison run by the Khmer Rouge where most of the torturing took place and from where the Cambodian people were sent to die at the “Killing Fields.” There is barbed wire on the balconies to prevent prisoners from committing suicide. And a "no smiling" sign, in case you were compelled.
The Royal Palace and downtown Phnom Penh along the river…it really is a gorgeous sight.
(If you’ve heard the news lately, just beyond this area is the river/bridge where about 400 Cambodian people were killed just last week in a stampede at a city festival.)
The Russian market – a mix of wonderful trinkets and flowers and textiles and jewelry and meat. All under one roof, all right next to each other. You’ll note some of the chickens hanging out, and I wanted to get a picture of all of the pigs’ heads just laying around for sale….but the smell of the meat section prevented me from standing there longer than 30 seconds.
Here we are on our trip to the beaches of Sihanoukville on the southwest coast of Cambodia. We missed our bus from the city, so we decided to be courageous and flag down a local “mini-cab” on the highway to drive us 4 hours to the coast. The thing about these “taxis” is that they are essentially random peoples’ minivans that cram as many people/bags/animals/motorbikes as they can into one van. While our van appeared to be “full”, we were still able to squeeze an extra motorbike hanging off the back on a 2’ x 4’ piece of wood while someone sat on the motorbike itself to make room for the other 13 passengers on the inside….all while driving about 70 miles an hour down the highway. 
The beaches of Sihanoukville were lovely, but there is a serious problem with small children working on the beaches instead of going to school. They were sent by their families or other adults to sell all sorts of things to tourists, and then give the profits to the adults. There are many non-profits dedicated to getting kids off the beaches, but it was astounding how many kids there were….and how convincing they were as little salespeople. They literally came up to us saying “Open your heart, open your wallet.” I bought bracelets from a few of them, but at one point I had 7 kids surrounding me and begging so I had to send them away. Some of them had clearly learned rude English phrases/gestures from all the westerners there, so after sending them away a few of them called me terrible names and flicked me off. And one boy came back 10 minutes later just to flick me off a second time because he was so mad I’d bought from his friend and not him! Sad, but funny, but sad all the same.
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| monks on the beach asking for money in return for a "blessing" | | | | |
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| My travel M.O. = peanut M&Ms and a coke |
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| Me, Ryan, Vuthy & Hoeurng |
I had an amazing last session at Camp Lotus there in the orphanage. I can’t say enough about how great it was to work with the kids at camp who had never left their own villages… or had the opportunity to learn about their HIV diagnoses… or had just been able to eat as much as they wanted and make friends with other kids who were going through the same things. Their tears at the end of the week when they went home meant that we did our job very well and gave them a wonderful experience to remember. It didn’t make it easier to send them home though, knowing what they were going back to. I’ve never given so many hugs to so many kids at once!! I had an especially hard time leaving my little friend, Poeun, behind in the village… he came over to give me a hug each morning for the 6 weeks I was there and always yelled out “A double N!” whenever he saw me. He spent the entire last day with me and even gave me one of his most prized possessions, a picture of himself. He has actually found a way to email me through his school teacher since I left, so I hope I always keep in touch with him.
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| Me and my little guy Poeun |
On the last day of camp, we had a final camp farewell dinner for all of the camp counselors to say “thank you” to them for dedicating their time and working so hard for the kids and the program. I have never felt so much love in one room as I did that night- it was incredible how grateful every person was to be a part of the camp and to get to work together as one team. I am overwhelmed by how welcoming and amazing the Cambodians have been to me. I received so many thoughtful gifts and things to remember everyone by, and I will never be able to properly put into words how special each one of them are to me. It was truly an amazing night to wrap up an amazing experience…and I was left in awe of what we’d accomplished. I’m so grateful and I hope I get a chance to see some of my Cambodian friends again one day.
APT
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| sunset over the village |
We took a bus/van/boat/bus to our own private boat cruise on Halong Bay, where we spent 2 nights gliding through these massive rock formations on an eco-friendly, solar powered wooden ship. Just us and our cook and the captain. Totally ridiculous and awesome. We kayaked through caves and biked to a small village, and spent the afternoons on the deck enjoying tiger beers and swimming off the side of the boat.
