Project: Kids in Cambodia!

So Long Cambodia...

2010-03-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

As I sit here at the Siem Reap airport about to board to Phnom Penh, the travel time has dawned on me: I have a 5 hour layover in Phnom Penh, 20 hours of flight time and another 3 hour layover in Seoul... that puts me almost 30 hours to Paris. Bummer...

Today was extremely hot.

The last couple days in Siem Reap, I was lucky to spend with my favorite buddies: Anthony, Simon, Anette and Stine... it was too sad to say goodbye to them and we are all hoping to someday reconnect, preferably all together for some more awesome times, but sadly, Cambodia will be a distant, but warm memory.

I'm actually really, really sad. I didn't think I would be so emotional, but this trip has been pretty overwhelming and I've fallen madly in love with Cambodia. The smiles on the people's faces in the traffic as the tuk-tuk brought me to the airport was comforting but too nostalgic at the same time. I really wish I had been able to stay longer. This place is so magical and it will be greatly missed. With high hopes to return soon and hopefully with a mission to open a school, I leave here with tears in my eyes and sweat on my brow.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog, it means a lot that you care and I hope to have met your writing/blogging standards in the process.

Much love, from Cambodia

Erica :-)

Laos!

2010-03-13T04:45:00.000-08:00

And then we went to Laos...

Nikki and I arrived in Vientiane, Laos at 10:30am on Friday and decided to rush to catch the 11am bus to Vang Vieng, a 'resort' town just a few hours away. We shared a local bus with Laotians only, stopping at random stops along the way where food stands sold the most unappetizing dried fish I've ever seen, not that dried fish is ever really that appetizing... As soon as we arrived, a German guy who looked Israeli recommended a modest guesthouse to us ($6/night), which we ended up moving from later in the day to a much nicer one for double the price.

The town instantly seemed bizarre. It looked sort of like Long Beach, New Jersey, which shouldn't be normal for... Laos. It was slightly empty - we were wondering where everyone was and we realized they were probably 'tubing,' which is what the town is famous for. We made friends with a weird Canadian guy, who gave us some insight on the town and helped us prepare the next day.

We tooled around town that evening, changed guesthouses and got an early, spicy dinner and a sound sleep. The next day, after a really hysterical conversation with a couple of caged parrots at the guesthouse who were very clearly saying "good morning," "sa ba dee" and LAUGHING at us, we set off as early as possible to go check out some of the caves in the area. THEY WERE SENSATIONAL!!!!!!! We biked a few kilometers away from town then hiked pretty high through the forrest to the first cave, where we were completely alone with a small flashlight. It was extremely big, dark and silent besides some dripping noises, and we were clamped to each other tip-toeing a half a mile into the darkness, with our hearts beating pretty fast, but of course pretending like we weren't scared at all. It was awesome!! The second cave was even bigger and crazier, and there were other people there, so we were a lot more confident about exploring it, but it wasn't as thrilling. There was a blue lagoon at the base that we jumped off a really high tree branch into and swam around in. There are dozens of caves in the immediate area: some with lagoons in the middle, some bigger or deeper than others - they're really magnificent and very different from the type of scenery I'm used to, that's for sure... Central Park is on Ambien next to this stuff.

After the caves, we finally went to check out the 'tubing,' which turned out to be at the base of the first cave we explored. What a crazy place!! When we got there with our tubes, there were basically a ton of Western kids getting drunk at various bars along the water, tubing down the river, jumping off swings into the water, going down zip lines, slides... it was a big kid's DREAM PARK. We had such a blast... we did some whiskey shots from bottles that had snakes and killer bees in them, got our bodies tatted up with immature sayings, swung off really high zip lines and swings into the water, acted like morons and laughed our asses off. It was a GREAT DAY.

Vang Vieng is a strange town. It pretty much just caters to the Western tourists with its weird water theme park and amazing caves. When we biked out of the main center area, we found more interesting local life, but the town center feels like Ibiza or somewhere and is full of young travelers looking for a funny time.

All in all, we had an awesome last day in Laos and tomorrow morning I'll be busing back to Vientiane to catch my flight back to Siem Reap, Cambodia...

Sapa and Halong Bay

2010-03-12T02:29:00.000-08:00

At 8pm on Sunday, I waited in the lobby to head to Sapa through Lao Cai. To my luck, two German kids from the hotel and another small group from another hotel were also going on the trip with me. We took two separate taxis to the train station and when three of us waited there for over 15 minutes for the other taxi, we realized something was probably wrong. The other taxi finally rolled up and our tour host ran out of the car, urging us to jump into the taxi - we were at the wrong train station and our train was supposed to depart in 10 minutes. Except, what no one realized, especially me, is that only MY train was departing in 10 minutes. I had no clue I wasn't going to be in the same train as the others and when we finally got to the station, all I knew was that I had to RUN. Literally as I jumped on the train, it started to leave the station and I was... all alone. I had no idea what was going to happen once I arrived in Lao Cai, if I were supposed to wait at the train or wait in Sapa, but I thought I heard the man who ushered me into the train say "something about someone with sign," so I was hoping I'd see someone with a sign at the station with my name. A little flustered, I walked up and down the train at first trying to find some Westerners and hoping my sleeper car would be a "soft sleeper" (4 very nice beds) filled with smiley Europeans, but instead, the car hosting my number on it was a "hard sleeper" with a very bright halogen light and stale stench, filled with five aggressive-looking Vietnamese people. It was definitely an experience, especially when the women would not stop screeching loudly for hours in Vietnamese, quite unfamiliar with the term "WHISPER-BECAUSE-OTHER-PEOPLE-ARE-TRYING-TO-SLEEP-IN-THE-7-SQUARE-FOOT-ROOM-WITH-YOU"!!

I fell asleep to Balmorhea in my ears and the night went by fairly fast, considering. The next morning at 5:30am, the train arrived in a small town called Lao Cai. Indeed, a man holding a sign "Erikia Leeds" was waiting for me and showed me to a bus where other Westerners were sitting, which thankfully ended up taking off once the rest of my group arrived 40 minutes later. The bus took us high up into the misty mountains, to Sapa town where we were to begin our trek. It was quite cold in Sapa, and my smart self had no real jacket, no warm pants, a pair of granny Ped socks, some slippery water shoes, a little sweater, bought in Hanoi and a little linen jacket - definitely NOT hiking gear and little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. Unfortunately, our guide didn't seem to realize or care that some of us needed to get some goods before we went hiking, so we set off into the mountains pretty unequipped. The first day of hiking was BEAUTIFUL. The mountains in Sapa are INCREDIBLE, with rice fields rippled along the sides of the mountain, waterfalls and rivers running through creeks and crevices, small homes where tribespeople live and farm, animals such as buffalo, pigs, roosters, chickens and dogs roaming the fields. The scenery was magnificent, even with the cloudy mist that reigned all day. We trekked for six hours straight on and off of paths, accompanied by a group of tribeswomen who helped us get through the difficult parts. They were super adorable and smiley and spoke very good English, learnt from all the foreigners they trek with. We didn't really realize however that at the end of the trek they were going to totally harass us to buy all of their goods. Ahhh, got to love Vietnam....

That evening, we slept at a home-stay in the middle of the mountain with a group of other Westerners, including another American girl, Nikki, who I got along with really well and who ended up traveling with me to Ha Long Bay and to Laos. We all had great fun that night, drinking "happy water" (a.k.a sake), playing stupid games, eating yummy food (cooked in the kitchen below), joking around with our tour guides who were among the funniest people I've met this trip. One kept wanting us to "'recommend' a Swedish or other foreign woman to him to marry so that he could move to Italy. He claimed someone 'recommended' him a woman in Saigon that he had been sending messages to, but never met and one other woman who he told 'I love you' to, started to cry..." all described in a very funny Vietnamese accent. I loved that dude.

We all slept, slumber style, on the floor on a very thin mattress under a mosquito net, shivering because of the cold. It was not the most comfortable sleep ever, but it was decent. Except, when I woke up to pee in the middle of the night and literally could not see a thing. It was so pitch black that after 3 minutes of rubbing my eyes hoping to see SOMETHING in the distance, I thought I had gone totally blind from the "happy water," because I could not make out ONE thing in the room. My heart actually sunk to my stomach and I rummaged my bag in a hurry to find my iPod to make sure my vision was still functioning. Paranoia will destroy ya...

The next day, we woke up to the rain. It was cold and wet and we were to spend the rest of the day trekking through the mountain and bamboo forrest. I was very worried about this considering my shoes were completely permeable, so I tied some plastic bags around my socks and hoped for the best. The three-hour trek was still quite beautiful, but extremely dangerous. We were all slipping and sliding off the rocks, sometimes so close to the edge of the mountain that we thought it was going to be our last day on earth. Within 30 minutes, my shoes were completely drenched in watery mud. Nikki and I couldn't help but laugh the whole way through the mountain, trying to dispel the fact that we were freezing, frustrated and fearing for our lives. But overall, it was a lot of fun and the scenery was quite breathtaking. Once again, we had a group of Black Hmong tribeswomen guide us through the mountain, catch our falls and harass us at the end of the trek to buy stuff, one who actually lied to me and ripped me off when buying "silver" earrings from her. These Vietnamese people are really starting to piss me off. Sorry, but, it's pretty crazy how dishonest they are, and always done with a smile. All the other travelers I've met all have similar stories to accompany mine. One Canadian dude got into a taxi who tried to convince him that the taxi ride was 8,000,000 Dong (about $400), when it should be only $10. Thankfully, the Canadian knew how to count....

That evening, we caught the overnight train back to Hanoi, luckily this time in a nicer soft-sleeper, shared with two Norwegians from the group. We arrived at 4am and negotiated a taxi ride back to the hostel, which was among the scariest I've ever taken - the driver PLOWED through every single red light, honking like a madman. He did not stop at one single light, and barely gave the right of way to the people who actually HAD the right of way. Thank God the streets were almost completely empty at that time of night! I was in the front seat, at first hysterically laughing, asking him who the FUCK gave him his driver's license, sort of bummed out that I failed my very own for indecent parallel parking, and then fright came into my eyes when I realized it WASN'T ACTUALLY THAT FUNNY. Anyway, I'm here and alive, so... that's good.

We got back to the hostel and were to leave for Ha Long Bay only a couple hours later, so I charged up my camera, took a shower and waited to board the bus to the coast. It was exciting that Nikki had booked the trip with me, because we really hit it off - it's so much better to have a fun buddy to hang out with when traveling alone! In the four hour bus ride, we were praying that the weather alleviate, because Ha Long Bay is the ultimate destination in Vietnam and known for the booze cruise, sunny kayaking and swimming fun. Of course, the weather Gods didn't quite hear our prayers and decided to keep the breezy mist hover over the rocks all day, but we didn't let it stop us. We were a good group of twenty travelers and spent most of the day laughing and drinking among this amazing scenery, which is totally out of the movie Avatar. Hundreds of giant rocks bulging out of the water make up this other-worldly landscape complex, somewhat comparable to Lake Powell in Utah. It's quite impressive and I could see where spending some time on a private island here, basking under the sun would be phenomenal. Unfortunately, the weather did not permit such an experience, but we did still jump off the side of the boat to prove our manhood and kayak to a secret cave, which was a true highlight. The guide's flashlight wasn't working however, so the group didn't get to trek to the center where the lagoon was, except for Nikki and I who decided to sneak off and go anyway - she had a little light on her watch, which allowed us to see just enough in the dark cave to find the lagoon. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun being dumb 'teenage' Americans, sneaking off from the group, doing dangerous things we should not have been doing! At night, while all the others were playing drinking games downstairs, Nikki, another nice girl we had met, Zahra, and I were so exhausted from our trip to Sapa that we decided to chill under a blanket on the roof and share funny stories. It was a great time.

I'm now on the top deck of the ship finally catching up on the blog, watching the rocks and boats in the water pass us by, while heading back to the dock to catch our bus back to Hanoi. Tomorrow I shall fly to Vientiane, Laos and hopefully catch a four hour bus to Vang Vieng to go tubing and caving with Nikki, which is what the town is famous for. Only a few more days left before heading back to Paris... Ahh, the trip is quickly coming to an end, but of course I'm already planning next Winter's season travels to Thailand, Philippines and maybe Malaysia!

Hanoi, Vietnam!

2010-03-11T05:00:00.001-08:00

After an easy flight, I arrived in Hanoi Saturday night around 11pm and went straight to the Backpacker's Hotel, a recommendation from a couple of travelers in Siem Reap. Upon arrival, there were a bunch of kids with dreadlocks sitting outside drinking and smoking, it seemed like a friendly place... For $18, I got a decent little private room, the "Penthouse," and passed out to wake up early to visit Hanoi the next day.

The following day was spent in a bicycle rickshaw touring the city. I started off visiting Ho Chi Minh's dead body, which was probably the weirdest tourist attraction I've ever seen. The line was longer than five Six Flag Superman rides combined, winding all around the official buildings in the area, but it went extremely quickly. I was lucky enough to be waiting in front of two Danish people (the only white people within a 50 meter radius), so we got to chat the line away. Once we got inside the building where Ho Chi Minh lay, the "ride" was literally less than a minute - we just walked around the body which lay under an orangey light, surrounded by four very strict looking military men. We weren't allowed to talk, take pictures or - God forbid - laugh, and Ho Chi Minh basically just looked like a dead wax figure.

The rest of the day was fairly nice, I just laid back and took pics from the rickshaw, got out occasionally to check out markets, ate at this huge local restaurant on the lake and voila! Compared to Siem Reap, Hanoi is much more modern and clean. To my surprise, neighboring country Vietnam is WAY more developed: the streets are paved, there is hardly any trash in the streets, the buildings are all made of durable materials and it's much, much cleaner. However, so far, I'm honestly not impressed with the people. They aren't inherently nice, they don't particularly like to smile, they don't speak English at all and they LOVE to rip you off. Multiple times already, once agreed upon a price, if I didn't have exact change, they tried to get more money by not giving the correct change and then trying to con me into spending more. They try to sell you everything, all the time and do not accept "no" as an answer, they are the most relentless people I've ever met. It has now become ridiculously frustrating and has put quite a damper on my feelings towards the Vietnamese as a whole. I miss Cambodia.

What I find most interesting about Hanoi so far are the outdoor restaurants where people sit on these little tiny plastic stools and hover over bowls of Phô. It's the traditional meal here and when lunchtime hits, everyone flocks to these midget tables to fill their tummies with warm noodle soup. The markets are also quite interesting in Hanoi - some of the shopping streets seem to be organized by type of product, for example, there will be a full street full of toy shops or a full street full of tin products or fabrics. It makes competition pretty fierce.

When arriving back at the hotel, I realized Hanoi was nice but hadn't really impressed me that much and wanted to spend the rest of my Vietnamese days somewhere else, so I ended up booking a last minute trip to Sapa, a mountain town 9 hours away by overnight train... To be continued...

Bye Bye Cambodia

2010-03-07T02:59:00.000-08:00

Today, Anette, Stine (pronounced Stina btw) and I traveled to the silk farm, located 30 min from Siem Reap by tuk-tuk in a beautiful, secluded area in the middle of a small village. It was really interesting to see the process from start to finish of how the biology of silk worms are turned into scarves. Everything was displayed: from the worms to the moths to the cocoons to the silk threading to the dying process and then to the weaving and we were also allowed to touch anything, including the worms, which made it more fun. With the culture of the silk worms, it takes a week or two from start to finish to produce one scarf, and the weaving can take three full work days as the patterns can be vividly intricate. This definitely makes me feel strange about having only spent $4 on a scarf from the market, because this means that some of the village women who physically weave them only make about $1 or $2 on each scarf... do the math, that's like 75 cents a day income, if even.

When we got back to town, we had some lunch at my favorite little market restaurant for a whopping $2.50 each and that's including the meal and Coca-Cola we bought for this adorable little street kid who was selling postcards. He sat at the table with us to eat his rice dish and we tried our best to communicate with him, but his English was very limited besides his proud knowledge of the capital of Norway. I would not have guessed he be above the age of ten, but he was 13! I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky the NGO kids are to have been taken off the streets and how much this kid deserves to be saved as well.

And, finally got a quick shot of the batmo-tuk-tuk.

As I sit here at Siem Reap airport waiting to board the flight to Hanoi, surrounded by a large group of middle-aged Japanese tourists, highlights from this past month are flashing through my mind, with already a bag of nostalgia. I'll be back here next week for the night, but the 'real' trip to Cambodia has technically ended.

In just a month, I will have travelled from one side of Cambodia to the other, spent five days in an orphanage, visited a half dozen schools and NGO projects and a hospital, met hundreds of beautiful children, taught some, made art with others, hung out with a Buddhist monk, visited many temples, including catching sunrise at the magnificent world wonder, Angkor Wat, splashed around in a gorgeous waterfall in the heart of a sacred forrest, had a drink at a really bizarre Cambodian nightclub, sung karaoke with 15 drunken Brits, eaten kilos of shrimp fried rice, drank dozens of fruit shakes and made some really awesome traveler friends, who I dearly hope to see again in the future.

The experience has been unreal and yet so incredibly real. The people of Cambodia are among the most kind and lovely people I've ever met. Their ways have not only taught me many life lessons, such as patience, forgiveness and positivity, but to appreciate the life that I lead back home and to not take little things for granted, such as a clean shower or even a bowl of salad. It was wonderful to have spent some time here and to have immersed myself into the culture. I was starting to feel quite at home and comfortable here, and hope that I shall return someday soon, very likely with the goal to build a small school. The kids are so magnificent, inside and out, and I would do anything to help them in whatever way I possibly could. It's been a beautiful month and I would like to thank all of you who donated to my project - your help has clearly changed my life and that of many adorable Cambodian kids!

And now, I shall be waking up in Vietnam and then traveling to Sapa and Halong Bay... The blog may be on pause for a few days...

The Last Day at Anjali and the Floating Villages

2010-03-05T19:08:00.000-08:00

Sadly, today was the last day at Anjali. It has been a wonderful experience that will always be remembered and I hope to some day come back to visit. I didn't really tell anyone that it was my last day, I don't like goodbyes, so I just kind of said "See you later" to keep the spirits up. Out of everyone, I'll miss my little Sompeas girl the most, with her shaved head and big smile. If anyone is interested in sponsoring a child at Anjali, you may do so for $20 or $40/month. Visit www.Anjali-House.com for more information.

After class, Stine, Anette and I went to visit the Chong Khmeas floating villages in the Tonlé Sap lake. It was such an amazing, yet bizarre sight. First of all, the village where we docked out of was extremely poor and depressing and the landscape all around the initial entrance to the Tonlé Sap lake is filthy, rundown and smelly.

In the middle of this lake, there are dozens of small homes simply floating in the water, which all make up a small water commune. There are a few restaurants that welcome tourists, people trying to sell beer from other boats, beggars with small children who boat by. One small kid rowed up to us in a tiny aluminum bucket, carrying a python around his neck and begging for money. (Which reminds me, the other night I had python for dinner! Tasted just like chicken - except, way more chewy.)

The visuals are really fascinating, but so truly weird. It's hard to understand how these people live like this and how they deal with monsoon seasons. They apparently eat the fish from the lake, which is the most nauseating thought ever considering the lake is dirt brown and the home of the sewage dumps.

We caught a gorgeous sunset on the water's horizon and headed back to town to catch the last evening with the volunteers.

The villages at night have a very different vibe than they do during the day. It's amazing to ride the tuk-tuk at night and stare into people's homes. Most of the time, there is one overhead light that lights up the whole shack or a TV that people are sitting around. Cambodians don't close their front doors, if they even have one, and so it's hard to help being a voyeur into these people's lives. I kept wanting to get off the tuk-tuk to go into homes to photograph them, but unfortunately that would only be possible if I were invisible. People just seem to be killing time in their homes at night. Sometimes mothers are just sitting on the floor or their straw beds with a baby, staring outside. Others, a kid may be trying to pick out lice from a grandmother's hair. Men sitting around playing cards or children trying to occupy themselves with whatever toys they can find. Women could be cleaning up their shops, cooking or washing. It's so intriguing to see the diversity of culture and how people live here, especially in the small villages, which are of course nothing like the town center.

A huge group of us went for some dinner and then back to New Star for some crazy karaoke, which was a total blast!!

And now, off to Vietnam in a few hours!

The Spitler School and the Other Projects

2010-03-04T03:34:00.000-08:00

As kids have been the main focus of my trip to Cambodia, I've been trying to visit as many schools and projects as possible while here.

A certain Danny Spitler got a hold of my blog a few weeks ago and contacted me to come photograph the school that he started a foundation for in a village near Angkor Wat. This morning, one of the developers of the school, Dorn, picked me up on his motorbike to go pay a visit. In the middle of this tiny village, down thin dirt roads, past small dilapidated shacks and trash landfills lay the Spitler School Foundation, composed of three nicely built school rooms and a Cambodian flag in the center. The school is a true blessing to the children of this village and without Danny Spitler and his wife, Pam, most of these children would not have had the opportunity to receive a good education. The school hosts 8 teachers or so who teach about 350 children. The classrooms are very clean and comfortable and the children all wear uniforms along with great big smiles. Dorn took me around the school to take photos and to meet the children. It was another wonderful experience, these kids are so incredibly joyful and beautiful, yet most of them come from very rough or poor family environments.

In one classroom, a boy was singing a Khmer song to the class, which I luckily caught on video. In another, I became the honorary audience to a classroom of ten year olds singing a little song in English, which I didn't quite understand or recognize until I heard the lyrics "I get by with a little help from my friends," sung in a dry, monotonous tone, proving they had never actually heard the song and were just repeating the words off a script. It was quite a genius moment I must say, and that too was caught on video!

We took a school photo, which was much easier to orchestrate than any other class photo I've ever seen taken, although undeniably chaotic. The children here are all completely obsessed with peace signs. I have no idea how or why, but every time you ask someone to smile for a photo they make a peace sign. I'm not even sure they know that it means peace or what it means to them for that matter, but it's definitely a widely used photo op expression, one that has gotten me many cute shots, but can also sometimes be redundant. I've been trying to get them to do other expressions in the short amount of time that I have to shoot these kids, like make silly faces and such, but they are extremely shy.

On the ride back, I asked Dorn how much money is needed to start a small school here like that and he seems to think that with $10,000, a nice little school could be built over a three month period and could sustain itself for 6 months-1 year. This is quite inspiring and I'm hoping to start a fund upon return. If $10,000 could educate 300-400 kids and keep them off the streets, it would be amazing. Just think, the price of a few Chanel bags could save 300-400 children!!! If anyone is interested in donating or helping me start the fund, please let me know!!

In the afternoon, Stine, Anette and I went to tour the other Globalteer projects: Grace House and the Green Gecko.

Grace House had more of a resemblance to Anjali, the ambiance was similar. When we got there, extremely loud wedding music was playing next door to the school, so some of the volunteers were just goofing around with the kids instead of teaching, because there was no way they could focus. In Cambodia, the loud Khmer music is a tradition during weddings or funerals. It usually starts at the crack of dawn until sundown and is... intrusively loud.

Then we visited the Green Gecko Project, which seemed like Orlando compared to the other projects. It was beautifully set up on a large piece of land with a nice jungle gym, a big soccer/sports court, seven lunch/rest huts for each group of children (which were divided by a given animal name and colored t-shirts), bedrooms and lots of trees and greenery that made the place seem like a resort. It was amazingly organized and the children seem incredibly happy. The director gave us all of the background information on the project, a truly inspiring story. Started by an Australian woman a few years ago, the Green Gecko project transformed from a little place where children could go to learn some English and get off the streets for a few hours during the day, as well as to get washed and fed, into a full blown live-in school, where the kids not only get a good education, food, a place to live and play, but they are also given food to bring back to their families over the weekend. Beyond helping the kids, the Green Gecko has put together a project that aids their families by educating them (on topics such as healthcare, nutrition, parenting, etc.) and giving them micro-loans and ways to help them start their own small businesses to bump self-esteem and create jobs. The director explained that most of the kids come from families of land-mind victims, addicts to drugs or gambling, illness or disease and such. The children were all taken off the streets, where they were mainly begging at night to sustain their families or themselves. Visiting this project was a true eye-opener and vivid inspiration to help save these kids lives. If you would like to donate to any of the projects, please visit The Green Gecko Project or Grace House Cambodia or The Spitler School Foundation or Anjali House.

In the evening, it was quiz night, which is usually fun, but the quiz was WAY too hard this time. Thankfully, we forced an old man, Bernard a.k.a. Bernie Mac, whom we met last week to sit at our table so that we could get more history questions right. He ended up contributing to the strong majority of answers...

Tomorrow is my last day at Anjali House and then Saturday evening I'm off to Vietnam!! (And by myself... my friend had to cancel her flight last minute...)

Another Day in Siem Reap

2010-03-03T17:23:00.000-08:00

Today at school, one of the Khmer teachers, Savann, had a toothache. At recess, she was bent over a table crying softly - she didn't want attention, but Naomi and I couldn't help but interrogate her. I asked to see her tooth, and at first she was too shy to lift her head, embarrassed to show her tears. Her tooth was black. Us teeth-hygiene-American-freaks should feel luckier than a leprechaun in a pot of gold, because when I saw what was really going on in this girl's mouth, it made me feel so incredibly bad for her. Even if she could fully afford a root canal, it's not anywhere near certain that the dentist would do a good job or even totally know how to deal with it. She would have to see a really good doctor/dentist of Western standards which would cost a LOT more. This could very well put her in a really bad situation, considering she only makes $50/month and supports her family in the process. Naomi was almost positive that Anjali House takes care of the teachers when things like this happen, so I'm pretty sure Savann should be seeing a doctor today to take care of her tooth, which basically needs to be extracted and medicated immediately.

Dental hygiene is definitely not something that Cambodians hold great pride in. People do not have good teeth, which is mainly because they don't really brush their teeth and can't afford to keep them up, and dentists are not very efficient or knowledgeable in general anyway. Many of the kids at Anjali have missing or broken teeth, and that's not because they're 7 years old. Something that I've also noticed is this strange existence of an upper middle tooth or upper teeth that look like they've been sharpened on purpose. I still haven't figured out the whole "why" factor about this, but someone will hopefully enlighten me on the subject soon, which shall be relayed.

School was somewhat uneventful, besides learning how to make a snake out of a paper plate and the water fight, and most of the day we spent complaining about the invasive heat.

After class, I met back up with Jake, the lovely monk, to talk about Buddhism, religion and meditation. He had some really interesting music he wanted to offer me and lent me his amazing 'vajra,' which is a Buddhist wand made of crystal, copper and magnets that he uses in meditation. The second I picked it up, its energy shot straight up into my arm. It was a trippy experience. After holding it in my hand for a while, I could feel that there was something extremely powerful about it. I couldn't describe it, but it was for real. I like Jake. He's a very sweet, caring man who has traveled the world, in and out of monasteries, learning and teaching about Buddhism as well as other religions. He is always trying to help people, he is a true selfless, lover and giver to the world. I definitely feel we were meant to meet and the story of our meeting, described in a previous blog, is quite interesting. Hearing him talk was very inspiring and the more I'm here, the more I am learning to let go of things in general - to be more patient, forgiving and giving, and not particularly in a Buddhist way, but just in an overall... way.

Jake and I discussed lots of interesting topics like out of body experiences, which I've been interested and researching about for a few years now, and he had a great story of his own. We discussed the notion of reincarnation and incredible stories of small children who have vivid memories of past lives, which have been confirmed as true events - a topic I've also been quite fascinated with. And finally, on a lighter note, he is the first person who equally believes that the movie "Avatar" was channeled by the Universe and how "God" uses Hollywood to educate the world. Now, I'm assuming many of you reading this are going to say "Oh my, Erica, what in the world are you talking about, that's a bunch of BS" And that is COMPLETELY fine. Just please don't let my 'Woodstock' brain of a self stop you from reading the rest of my blog. :-)

In the evening, 15 of us went for dinner for $1 tapas night to celebrate Sabrina's last day at a really nice hotel around the corner: everything on the menu including cocktails cost $1. I love Cambodia.

Oh, and I had forgot to share my proud "I-ate-a-cricket-photograph" from the other night!

Cheers :-)

Karaoke, the Hospital and the Countryside

2010-03-02T03:43:00.000-08:00

Last night was quite hysterical. Slightly against some of our will, a group of ten of us went for some sober karaoke at the New Star karaoke "castle." As four of us rolled up in a tuk-tuk, we were confused about what we were really getting ourselves into. The New Star karaoke spot is a huge building close to the guesthouse with a big neon sign at the entrance, a fountain and a stage set up outside. As soon as we walked past the stage and into the door, we were greeted by a dozen made-up, dressed-down Khmer girls. It was pretty much assumed that they were some form of "worker." At first, I was wondering if we were entering a brothel under the "karaoke" alias, which is very common around here, but as soon as they ushered us into a padded room with a giant screen, a big book of songs, a few ice buckets and only two Khmer girls - we realized that we were indeed REALLY there for the karaoke.

At first, it was awkward. There were only four of us: three Brits and moi, plus the two Cambodian girls. We didn't truly want to be there, I was exhausted and we were all completely sober, which are pretty much the main antithetic feelings for a karaoke night. We were wondering how in hell we were going to be able to get the blood flowing into our brains and raise the adrenaline to get our song on. One answer: beer. However, unfortunately I couldn't drink because I've had a cold for the past few days and no karaoke in the world is worth getting more sick for.

By the time the others arrived, we had selected a few songs, downed a beer and then suddenly, the overhead lights went dark, the neon strobes turned on and we had our very own padded karaoke disco room, hookers and all! Instantly, we got into it, including me, who had been complaining about wanting to go home all night, and jokingly I sang the second song: "Heal the World," by Michael Jackson. It was a blast. We sang some Beatles songs, Hotel California, Madonna and even some George Michael, which Simon and I collaborated on, quite terribly. Many of the songs were hysterically misspelled in the book - we were very tempted to sing "Buggy Wuggy." In any event, it was a good night and we're planning to return on Friday with more people, more alcohol in the system and less work in the morning for more proper karaoke madness.

Today, class was uneventful - the two Australian women who were here last week came back to teach the workshops, so I was basically out of a job. Lunchtime begged me to take a couple hours off so I finally got over to the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital to donate some blood, which was a funny experience. It only took thirty minutes, a smile for a photo and a pint of blood and I got the best reward in the world - to know that I could very well save a kid's life, a t-shirt, a sticker and some crackers! And of course some photographs, which the assistant doctor seemed very excited about taking with my camera. The experience itself was fairly comfortable and almost to Western standards, besides a slightly lower level of hygiene, but that you can come across anywhere. Passing the waiting room was pretty intense, hundreds of children lay there on a mat on the floor cradled by their mothers - all very sick, some crying. I wanted to get out of there as quick as possible.

In the evening, Anette, Stine and I went on another long tuk-tuk ride to see the countryside. It was beautiful.

We stopped to get gas at the local tank by the side of the road, passed a solid gaggle of geese and another outdoor gym class, dancing to some funny beats and of course had to stop for a photo op, which made them all slightly uncomfortable.

Five of us went for some dinner and $2 watermelon-vodka drinks and played a few rounds of drunken funny pool. It was a great night!

The Countryside

2010-03-01T03:32:00.000-08:00

After school today, I was in the mood for a little alone time and asked the Globalteer tuk-tuk driver to take me out into the fields and small villages to catch sundown. The best time, besides early morning, to take photographs is between 5pm and 7pm, and it's a magnificent time of day in general as the light gets much softer, the air cooler and the humidity more relaxed. Kids leave school around that time, so there are flocks of children all over the streets and there is an overall feeling of excitement that the work day has ended.

With Balmorhea instrumental music in my ears, we set out onto a long dirt road surrounded by magnificent green fields of rice, palm trees, ponds and other greenery. The land is flat and the horizons are far, it makes for stunning visuals, but unfortunately those whose true beauty is impossible to catch on film. Besides children on bicycles and teenagers on motorbikes, there were cows, buffalo, families of chickens and dogs traveling the dirt road with us in search of food, water or maybe just a little play. In the rice fields, men and women were working the crops in the short distance, many times stopping to stare at us driving by.

We went through several poor villages which were mainly composed of small, straw homes, perched on top of wooden pillars, sometimes dangerously on only four, and many of the time were decomposing or slanting to one side. Dirty toddlers were running around naked. Older, shaved-headed women were sitting out on their porch contemplating life, men gathered around a game of football or cards in a café, children washing up or working, monks burning incense and praying at their shrines, others rocking back and forth in hammocks. There were many empty shacks where five or six hammocks were set up, possibly for some sort of co-habitation. Although I've been here a few weeks now and am almost completely used to the landscape and the people, there was something out of the ordinary about this one village - its energy was different, it felt much sadder.

As we entered into another field void of houses or people, the landscape and the music I was listening to became overwhelming and I actually started to tear up. What a beautiful country, with such amazing people, such gorgeous landscape, and yet such poor resources and little hope for a well deserved healthy lifestyle.

The tuk-tuk driver brought me to the base of a temple where there were filthy food stands selling barbecued snake or whole birds. These people were the least friendly I've come across so far. Most of them had these bitter, depressed, sometimes sick faces that really got to me. I couldn't take more than a few photos and urged the driver to take me somewhere else. The energy there was unnerving, I wanted out.

Overall, it was a wonderful ride, I was very happy to get to see another side of Siem Reap that I hadn't yet experienced and tomorrow the driver will be taking me to another area to visit. These little tuk-tuk rides alone around town have become my favorite activity.

A 10 Hour Trek and the Waterfall

2010-02-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

By 9:30 am, ten of us were waiting outside Globalteer to be picked up by a minivan with a mysterious destination whose three hints were: mountain, temple and waterfall. Excitedly (especially after two cups of Cambodian coffee a.k.a. crack cocaine), we piled into the van and began our lengthy trip to the countryside. We had no idea how long it was going to take or where we were actually going, besides the fact that a certain French Marc had booked the trip and it involved a trek. The journey to the mountain seemed slightly interminable and once at the mountain, significantly bumpy to the top.

As soon as we arrived and before the entrance to the temple, there were little shops selling all sorts of random goodies, including animal bones and horns, jewelry, unappetizing meats, scarves, prayer beads and coconuts. They were all selling the same stuff and I was wondering how they survive with so much competition in this place that feels like the middle of nowhere.

Along the steps up to the temple, a line of beggars, mainly women and children, as well as land-mine victims were very happy to receive a few hundred riel from the "barang" (white people). I managed to snap a few shots and Tim, the doctor who speaks Khmer, talked to a man who explained that he lost his leg due to a land-mine explosion and begs to be able to feed his family of four. It was definitely a sorry sight, but they were all quite smiley and sweet despite their misfortune.

At the top of the steps, in a little wooden shack, perched on the rock and on wooden pillars, there was a giant Buddha lying down and various shrines surrounding it. It was nice, but we were more impatient to get to the waterfall. Not knowing how, we managed to acquire a nice tour guide lady and a few small children who took us around the forrest, showing us different photo op sites, such as the elephant face in the rock, which we could not understand for the life of us until she took a photo of it and showed us how the rock formation looked like an elephant. It was slightly awkward when she was pointing to the boulder repeating "elephant, elephant." We thought she maybe had confused the word "elephant" with the word "rock."

In the forrest, we passed many small Buddha shrines in random pockets and eventually met a Buddhist monk who was sitting in his little shaded area, offering blessings for a little money. He agreed to let me take his photo and then blessed me with beautiful words that Tim translated later on. Apparently, I shall return to the US and meet my husband... It was a very peacefully spiritual moment and later on in the day when I slipped off a rock in the waterfall and fell flat on my back, I was convinced the blessings of the monk had saved my life, because not one bone had been scratched.

We swung off a branch, Rambo-style, tripped over a couple twigs, noticed some gorgeous butterflies fluttering by and excitedly made our journey to the waterfall.

By the time we got back to the small market area, we were all starving and had of course not even thought to bring any snacks. The only food there were the botulism-infested meats, coconuts and some sort of egg dish. Most of us decided we had absolutely no intention of getting sick, so some stuck it out, I had a coconut water and others went into the risk zone. However, we arrived in a small village area where I spotted some bananas hiding behind a man sleeping in a hammock. Instead of thievery, which we were jokingly considering, we asked our tour guide to find us a bunch of bananas. We were saved!

After the long trek in the sun, we finally arrived at the waterfall and could not have been more in awe. Down hundreds of slippery wooden stairs that could have broken through at any point, and across big rocks that we had to carefully climb, the distant sight of the waterfall turned us into giddy little creatures. It was magnificent! The waterfall ran from a few hundred feet into a small area of clear, clean, shallow water, surrounded by rocks and huge trees. It felt like a special secret that only the locals knew about. Kids were splashing around in the water and everyone was swimming in their clothes. Cambodians are very conservative and as soon as they saw us "barang" take off our clothes to reveal skimpy bikinis, they all started to stare and laugh. I was wondering what they would think if magically plopped onto a nude beach in Greece or Spain.

We quickly jumped into the long awaited water and swam to the waterfall where we took a hundred photos with Tim's underwater camera and had the time of our lives. It was seriously amazing.

The kids we had accumulated stuck with us all day. We weren't sure why or where their parents were, but they were so adorable and we wanted to take them home with us.

At the waterfall, Anette and Stine, my favorite Norwegian buddies, coincidentally ran into a Khmer woman they had spent the day with in Phnom Penh at a birth clinic. Out of ALL the places in Cambodia, it was a seriously bizarre re-encounter - what a synchronicity!

After a couple hours enjoying the magnificent scenery, we trekked back to the area where our minivan was supposed to be waiting for us. He... wasn't. Anxiously, we waited for over an hour and a half. The only person who had the driver's number had a battery-less phone and could not retrieve his information. Only two of us even had cellphone reception and Tim and his girlfriend decided to walk to the other parking lot hoping the driver would be there. He wasn't either. So we sat there for an hour and a half relishing sundown, cracking jokes about who was going to sleep in the wooden hut for the night, playing with the kids and being thankful that there was one shop in the entire forrest area right where we were, randomly selling beer and Pringles. As soon as two of the volunteers suggested we walk to the other parking lot area where Tim and his girlfriend were, my intuition told me that our van was going to show up as we were walking down the road. Sure enough, it did and we were saved!

As the minivan took off, the children started to run after it, waving and smiling. I wanted to cry it was so adorable and somewhat sad. I was really wishing we had given them more money, but no one seemed to have small bills. I wish them as beautiful of a life as possible, they were so sweet.

The ride home seemed a lot quicker and I spent most of the time with my head out of the window taking experimental photos of the moon and the sights along the road.

What an amazing day. I'll always remember it.

The Giant Puppet Parade!

2010-02-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

There always seems to be something going on at the big school down the road from Globalteer. Today, there was a massive amount of people outside of the school and it seemed like the school itself was hosting three times more kids in its courtyard than usual. Yesterday, however, was the highlight. The volunteers all decided to check out the evening aerobics class where the loud dance music is always playing. For 1000 riel or 25 cents, we each got in, along with our groove on, and had a blast dancing along in the school's courtyard with about 80 other Cambodians, trying desperately to follow the basic steps. It was a riot.

Then, as the market was closing, I decided to wander around to snap a few shots.

Finally this evening, after two weeks of preparation by about 10 participating schools, including Anjali House, the annual Giant Puppet Parade took place! This wonderfully creative parade that concluded the celebration of the Chinese New Year was an utter BLAST for the kids, the volunteers and all the people who got to witness it in the streets. From a circle around the Old Market to a long walk to the Royal Gardens, hundreds of kids, their teachers, administrators, volunteers and family all paraded the streets and riverside wearing masks, hats, wings or holding these extremely well crafted giant papier maché puppets. The spectacle was colorful and mighty cheerful: the children were more excited and energetic than Elmo at a renaissance fair. It was definitely beautiful to be here during this time, to have followed and documented a substantial artistic project, to see its realization from start to finish and to attend the joy its completion brought tonight. These children are all so fun and happy and the volunteers, including me, were all very proud of the project as a whole. To some of them, the students are like their own kids by now and its wonderful to see the drive they have for these children to succeed, even when it can be difficult and frustrating at times. I filmed Pech, one of the older kids, sticking his face in the camera and yelling "I am SOOO happeeee tonight!!!" It's hilarious.

At the end of the march to the Royal Gardens, in the brutal heat and humidity even at sundown, they showed the slideshow we had been working on with the photography group. It was so much fun to finally see it on the big screen and to know hundreds of kids and adults were watching it, being able to witness for themselves the process of creating the puppets as well as the creativity of the photography of the Anjali kids. I had about ten photos in the slideshow, so it was an honor to participate some of my own work in the show as well.

After the show, all the Anjali volunteers went to get some dinner. Two business-like American men were sitting at the table next to me - literally one of only a few Americans I've met so far on this trip (It seems like everyone is either British or Australian). I asked them where they were from and what they were up to and it turned out one man was one out of seven head executives at Voice of America in Washington: real life government agents! The other man was a journalist who covers mainly Cambodia. It was interesting to talk to them as well as homely - some good old American conversation was starting to lack in my little world over here.

After dinner, the Khmer teachers from Anjali took us to a nightclub, Pyramide, out of the center town about fifteen minutes away by tuk-tuk. What a place! At the door, guards checked our bags and a big sign with a bunch of "don't symbols," such as "no hand grenades, guns, cameras or tank tops" intimidated us a little before we got in (I managed to sneak a few shots anyway), but once inside, we instantly became enamored with the live show that was playing. The first four songs we were lucky to catch were super slow, mushy songs sung in Khmer by these funny emo kids with crazy hair do's - Khmer style mullets - in front of a giant screen that played episodes of Tom & Jerry and Mr. Bean. I'm sure these kids thought they were super hardcore. The pace picked up after that and other singers consecutively sang some more old school pop music before the DJ put his records on. Then, the club hit the dancefloor, including all the volunteers, and we danced our butts off in the laser light beams. It was a great evening!

Workshops

2010-02-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days have been pretty laid back and HOT. Yesterday, it was my job to run four craft workshop classes and origami seemed like the way to go. Of course, I only know how to make one thing out of folding paper, learnt when I was a kid: a Japanese paper crane - so that is what we made. Some got it really quickly, others were having lots of difficulty following the steps. I never completely realized how much patience you need when dealing with a bunch of children at once. Kids are amazing, but wow - it's crazy work, especially because of not being able to communicate with them properly...

The other couple of hours were spent getting the older kids to shoot portraits of each other for their credits in the puppet slideshow. Here's a shot one kid, Pech, took of me.

After class, I went to the travel agent in town and bought a ticket to Vietnam and Laos. After Cambodia, my friend Carolina and I are planning to spend a week traveling - two days in Hanoi, two in Ha Long Bay (if you don't know where this is, google it, it's out of the movie Avatar), and two days in Vientiane, Laos. We're PUMPED.

For dinner, my two Norwegian buddies from Anjali, Stine and Anette, and I went for Indian food and some fish pedicure/massage. We were giggling for a half hour while these weird fish were eating up our feet next to these two burly tatted up Dutch guys. They went home before me and I decided to go for another $4 massage, which was... terrible. The masseuse literally scared me.

Today was math day and so for workshop, we played bingo with the kids, who used rocks and grass as tokens. I also printed out those magic number cards, where you can guess someone's number from 1 to 100. This was way more difficult to teach them - some of them didn't really get it and were having trouble adding. Challenging the kids maybe isn't always the best idea. Tomorrow should be more artistic.

For lunch, I got to witness 18 children rolling up to the school, crammed into one tuk-tuk. When they started to descend, it was JUST like in that circus magic trick where 50 people crawl out of a tiny car one by one. As they arrived, they were like a choir: "Hello, hello, hello."

We finally finished the slideshow for the puppet show on Saturday. I'm really excited about it and am hoping everyone will enjoy it. We're expecting about 500 people to show up and there's a big line-up of entertainment happening. The music we're going to play is hysterical - Khmer people have very funny taste in music. The kids' favorite song so far is "You know I want ya" by Pitbull... It's... funny. They go nuts when they hear that song. So, we've decided to accompany it to the slideshow!

Tonight a bunch of the volunteers who have been working on the puppet project went out in the streets of town to hand out flyers about the puppet show to tourists. We had fun harassing them and forcing them to show their faces on Saturday. I can't wait to take pics tomorrow at the show!

After dinner at a local spot, we went to the Funky Monkey for quiz night. Despite having a very large, geographically and age eclectic group of ten people at our table, we came in 7th place. Those quizzes are hard, man! But nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and we got to realize that we need to explore new things in life such as the capital of Oman.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means the weekend is approaching and I will be looking very forward to some R&R at the pool and exploring waterfalls!

New Hope

2010-02-23T07:49:00.001-08:00

Today after class, I went to visit another Globalteer project: New Hope.

What a day.

New Hope is located much further than the Anjali House and in a small village within Siem Reap. The village is extremely poor and many of the students there are sick with tuberculosis and some with AIDS as well. There is a small clinic at the school where volunteers try their best to help and the love that pours out of them for these kids is infectious.

I snuck into Simon's class to snap a few photos of the kids.

After visiting the school, Tim, the friendly Australian doctor took me on a little motorcycle ride into the deep village behind the main village. It was probably one of the most rural, poor sights I've ever seen. He knows most of the families all over the village because he treats them so I got to meet and take photos of them. I honestly have no words to describe how overwhelming it was - most of the women in the village have AIDS because there is an extremely high prostitution level, therefore a lot of the children have AIDS themselves. A big number of them have tuberculosis and other deadly sicknesses. They haven't got much to eat and they live in filth. The kids are extremely dirty and many of the smaller ones run around with no clothes at all. There are dogs everywhere, sometimes cats, chickens, roosters, emaciated cows, lots and lots of flies and mosquitoes.

Although sickness is rampant, the children's smiles are contagious and they were extremely happy to see the doc and I come visit them. The kids were tugging at my clothes and my arm - they wanted to hold hands and especially wanted me to photograph them and show them the photos. They laughed and ran with us everywhere we walked and they huddled around us every time Tim would stop to treat someone.

Knowing this type of poverty exists is one thing, but seeing and living it is like a swallowed bowling ball. The life expectancy is around 40 and the infants with severe illnesses probably won't live beyond a few years. One small child had both tuberculosis and AIDS.

They live in straw shacks that are gradually falling apart and the earth around them is covered in trash. It's not uncommon to see kids playing near fire, barbwire or other hazards and there is no sense of safety at all especially when it comes to riding on bicycles, even with 3 kids on the back.

On the tuk-tuk back to the guesthouse, all I could think to myself was "Wow. Life is insane. And I'm one hell of a lucky person." I feel very privileged to be able to witness this type of environment, although very harsh and somewhat dangerous, and the awe that I have towards the strength of these people who struggle for their lives day by day is mountainous. I feel great sadness that the world offers so much pain and sickness, but I embrace humanity for putting up a fight. I feel blessed that I live the life I do and if you're able to read this, you should about your life too.

The children in Cambodia are magnificent in every way. Their hope and happiness shine through their adorable little faces and it's extremely frustrating to assume that without a drastic change of political regime, there is little hope for them to flea this type of poverty and sickness.

It was quite a memorable day.

The First Day of the Week

2010-02-22T02:53:00.000-08:00

Today was slightly intense... and hot.

This morning, I took over Karen's beginner class for her as she's traveling. The first hour I sat in on the English class and helped out the Khmer teacher who spent the hour teaching the kids about the alphabet, again. One full hour repeating over and over questions about "What letter comes after B?," "What letter comes before G?," "What letter comes before K?" The kids answered these one by one until they could no longer possibly make a mistake. I was kind of torn between wondering if the kids really needed to learn this type of lesson or if they could have avoided it entirely, considering that on the wall there is a huge chart labeling everything you could possibly need to know about the ABC's. It's sort of unclear how these lessons should be crafted and what they really need to know to get by. Should they be learning strict grammar? Punctuation? Pronunciation? Vocabulary? Or should they be learning to communicate on a basic level, such as "Hello how are you? Where do you come from? What do you do?" type of stuff. I'm undecided about how they should learn, and it seems like every volunteer or teacher has a different method. Plus, the kids tend to not pay much attention and forget it all the following day anyway. Repetition seems to be the answer, whatever the lesson actually is.

During workshop hour, two Australian women dropped in to help out this week and made little cars running off balloon engines with the kids, who seemed very excited about them. In the meantime, I gave a lesson on photography to the older kids who I've been working with for the puppet show. It was quite a beneficial lesson for them this time, because we got to analyze each one's images and shooting preferences. We got to focus in on what their unique photographic style is, which I'm hoping will really help them narrow down for tomorrow's shoot. One kid loved to take pictures of kids' silly faces that we then put into black and white. The only girl in the class, Sreyline, likes to do natural close-up portraits of people who are smiling or laughing. Another smaller kid, Rattana, likes still life and is much more creative and abstract with his shots. It's very interesting to see the array of pictures these children all took in the same locations. I'm hoping that having discussed their current work with them will help them in their future work. We also took a look at some travel photos and portraits of other great photographers, such as Steve McCurry, to give them more inspiration and show them what's actually possible to shoot in their immediate environment. They loved going through the photography, I think it definitely inspired a few of them. One kid told me the other day that he wanted to be a photographer like me. It was really sweet - I would be honored if he actually did become a photographer one day - the likes are scarce around here.

The third hour, I discussed pronunciation with the smaller kids, mainly focusing on the difference between "CH" and "SH" sounds. We read a text that I wrote, "The Animal's First Storm," that I'm pretty sure they didn't understand much of, but were pleasant about learning anyway. My favorite little kid in the class is this little bitty bald girl who I first thought was a boy: Sompeas, who has recently lost her hair to a razor due to excessive lice issues. She is super adorable and shy and is always staring at me for recognition. She totally melts my heart.

I biked to the Peace Café for lunch to get a little rest in their big round cozy chairs under the fan in the middle of the pretty garden and had a super healthy fruit juice I had been craving since New York. On the way there, I got lost. And more lost. And then found! I had decided to take a different route, hoping that my iffy sense of direction would lay off this time, but it didn't and I ended up biking through a little village within a village, in and out of dirt roads that didn't seem to take me anywhere that I recognized. Thank god, after winding around for another 10 minutes, all of a sudden I stopped at the corner where the loud pop music is always coming from, just down the block from Globalteer. On the way home earlier, biking down the chaotic street from school having just let out, I passed that same corner again, and this time to the tune of a Gloria Estefan classic... It was definitely out of context and made me think about my mom who people used to say looked like her in the 80's.

In the afternoon, the same lessons were repeated, but with different classes. The second group of beginners were extremely rowdy and could not sit still or focus for the life of them. I was losing a little patience and had to whip out my mean authoritative personality to get them to 'chillax'. That didn't happen at all and I think the pronunciation lesson I had planned was slightly too advanced for them as well, which I hadn't realized. Now I know - repetition, Erica, repetition. "Chair/share," "This/Sis," done.

At the end of the day, I was rewarded with the kid's singing Queen's "bicycle" song, which was written on a large piece of paper on the wall for some reason. I have no clue how that actually got there or who decided to slip in some classic American rock in this very antithetic culture, but hearing the kids recite "Bicycle, bicycle, I want to ride my bicycle" in a strict monotonous manner made me totally chuckle inside. All I could think about was the actual melody to that song - which is already pretty funny to begin with - and wanting to sing or play it for them because they of course have actually no idea what the hell that song is. Wasn't that song about being high? Or maybe it was just written when they were was high? Maybe I'll bring in my iPod tomorrow...

Tonight, one of the volunteers, Gavina, is celebrating her departure tomorrow to Australia. It shall be a fun evening, I'm assuming.

Pool Parties

2010-02-21T20:57:00.000-08:00

Naturally, Sunday could be for no other than a day in the sun!

Today, a group of volunteers and I hit up the nice saltwater pool at the Prince d'Angkor Hotel and got to do a little relaxing, swimming, drinking cocktails and most of all I was excited to get a little yoga in at the gym. While I was working out, I was slightly distracted by the TV, or the "MyTV," which was playing Korean pop music videos. I'm not sure if you've ever actually seen a Korean boy's band music video, but this one that I was lucky to catch was probably one of the funniest things I've ever experienced in my life. The song sort of sounded like something Justin Timberlake could have rocked, but with WAY less talent and WAY cheesier lyrics (it was sung in English, which made it even funnier because of the accent). I definitely don't mean to be harsh, but THAT WAS HYSTERICAL.

It was nice to finally lay back in a more 'upscale' environment to get some sun and at 3pm we made our way out to an outdoor pool/bar near the guesthouse called Aquid where Trixie, the ever funny British lady from the staff at Globalteer was celebrating her birthday. We stayed there til the sun went down, swimming, drinking cheap beer, getting to know more foreigners and cracking jokes about the cornucopia of English accents.

At night, we hit town for an ice cream and I called in for an early night to get some rest for the upcoming week, expected to be full of fun, heat, rambunctious kids, dangerous traffic and fried rice!

The Day Off

2010-02-20T08:10:00.000-08:00

Today, like any good ol' weekend - the volunteers had the day off. Most of them woke up pretty late because they stayed up getting drunk last night, but I came home early because I was falling asleep at the table (I was practically dreaming). So instead, the day started at 7am. After tooling around on internet until 12, I decided to treat myself to a nice spa massage. For $48, I got a two hour gig - massage, scrub, moisture stuff... was pretty fab, I must say!

Then I rode to the film shop to get some prints done for the school I visited in the Themy village last week, I had promised to send some before I left Cambodia. On the way there, I passed KFC and had to stop for a photo op. The manager had four workers on the floor outside doing push-ups. For what reason? I have NO idea, but it was pretty hilarious. I'm sure they deserved it...

After, I stopped at the U-Care pharmacy to pick up some Xanax for a few dollars and other meds that you can get over the counter here... Figure some buddies will appreciate the easy pharmaceuticals chez Erica. For lunch, I ate at my favorite cheap spot for $3 and had the best fried rice and vegetable dish I've ever had and then stopped by my silk scarf vendor friend to pick up some more scarves. Her baby was sleeping away in the back of the shop...

Before I left New York, I was at a bar with my friend Tony and as I was telling him about traveling to Cambodia, a man at the bar overheard the conversation and turned around to ask me if I was going to Siem Reap. He told me a little story about a man named Lama Jake that he was sending money to in order to sponsor a child in difficulty here, Owl Rose. He asked me to bring Jake $250 and of course, I gladly accepted. So today, I finally met Jake! He's a really nice man originally from London, who has been living in Asia for a while now and in and out of monk-hood. He's very sensitive to the problems children face here and seems like the kind of guy who is always giving up his last dollar to help out.

In the evening, I was really excited to go see the Beatocello (Beat + cello) concert at the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital. Beat Richner, a Swiss pediatrician has dedicated his life to saving children in Cambodia. In a little less than 20 years, he's managed to raise enough funds, mostly from private donations, to build six hospitals all around Cambodia to help save children's lives, including one specifically for pregnant mothers with HIV. His story and that of the hospitals are incredibly inspiring and moving. If it weren't for this man, Cambodia would have had hundreds of thousands of children lost to the heavens over those two decades. He has built facilities that are up to the standards of Western hospitals and provides incredible care, which is completely free for the patients and their families, most of which are extremely poor and wouldn't be able to afford any sort of healthcare at all, let alone just transportation TO the hospital. He even created a medical school within the hospital to empower and build his medical staff. Every Saturday night, he plays the cello and shows a short film in order to raise money from the foreigners and tourists for the hospitals. The film was really incredible, it gave a real idea of the diseases and problems these children face - anything from tuberculosis and HIV to dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis - and many of the problems are still due to the consequences of the war, and hand-me-downs from sick mothers. This week, I'm planning to go donate some blood, crossing fingers that it could save a life. If you are interested in donating any money, even small amounts, please visit: Donation. For more information about Beat and the hospitals: beat-richner.ch. Any little bit goes a VERY long way and know that all the money is well spent: he is extremely driven on keeping a no-corruption policy in his hospitals, which is quite unique to the Cambodian healthcare system. Apparently $240 pays for a child to be hospitalized for 5 days and could very well completely save his/her life. I felt awkwardly wrong for treating myself to the spa today...

The night is young and it's a Saturday, but of course I'm in bed like a granny ready to ZONK OUT. Sianora!

A Friday in a Tuk-Tuk

2010-02-19T16:45:00.001-08:00

Today, the two male volunteers, Richard and Lawrence, and I brought both group of kids to Bayon in Angkor to take photos of the other puppet project - once in the morning and then in the afternoon. It takes 45 minutes to get to the project, so we basically spent 3 hours of the day riding in a tuk-tuk back and forth, but for me it was really lovely because I LOVE Angkor. Angkor is the big national park where all the temples are: it's very green, clean, the roads are nice and the air is fresh. I could wander around there for hours. We only spent about 30 minutes shooting at the project, but enough time for the kids to take some nice shots and not get too bored. I'm starting to really see the difference in the kids' work and each' unique style is starting to shine through. I'm hoping next week's workshop will really help them out some more.

For lunch, I still didn't feel so comfortable about eating the food at Anjali so I sped to the city on my bike and had some fried rice, which I ended up eating next to a really cute French guy who was traveling through Asia by himself for 2 1/2 months. I would really love to do that next time, to go for a longer period and get to see more of Asia - everyone I've talked to who is on that sort of trip is having the time of their life. And it's so incredibly cheap here, that it's very easy to do with some extra cash. I mean, I had a really yummy vegetable rice dish dinner with a liter of water for $1.50, and before that I had a foot massage, back massage and ear candling for $8 total. Yep!

I've been in Siem Reap for a week now, and I'm starting to feel quite cozy, which the Cambodians make very easy to do. I have my little routine, my new friends, my typical food dishes and smoothies I like to eat and drink and I even have a little gecko I share my room with. Geckos are everywhere, and giant ones too. You see them climb up walls and ceilings all over restaurants, stores, they roll in hundreds everywhere you go. One thing that I'm having a little difficulty with, but am trying to just deal with is the dirt and the mosquitos. By the end of the day, my feet are completely filthy, my skin is covered in an inch of sweat and dust and I feel like I'm constantly on the defense from mosquito bites. I even have one of those electric tennis rackets in my room to kill them with. I used it for the first time the other night and as the mosquito hit the wire net, it sparked and fried - it was pretty cool and somewhat sadistic, but better to feel a little bad about freakishly murdering a bug than catching malaria!

Although the center of Siem Reap is very touristy and nice and comfortable, there is still a TON of poverty inside and outside of it. There are a number of beggars who work their way down the restaurant streets - little girls, invalids missing limbs, blind people - it can sometimes be really sad, but one has to somehow immunize against it. On the way to Angkor, you see plenty of single mothers or fathers just sitting on the side of the road with a water bottle and a toddler - I never really know what they're doing or planning to do with their day, they just seem to sit there for hours. The children's hospital we pass every time also always gets to me - the huge line of mothers and children and the big sign that says "warning, huge epidemic of dengue fever" is pretty disturbing. The best thing you could do for yourself is wear a hospital mask. A lot of people wear them when they're on their motorbikes or bicycles because of the dust, but it's also a good preventative thing to do from getting any diseases.

Every Saturday evening, the Swiss pediatrician Dr Beat Richner plays a selection of pieces by JS Bach on his cello in order to raise money for the Jayavarman VII Hospital to provide free healthcare to the children. There are a huge number of organizations and NGOs working in Cambodia to help the children, refugees, sex worker victims and invalids, which brings a large number of Westerners to live here year-round. A lot of the work done here is very important and Cambodians are consequently quite appreciative of the foreign aid and dollar it brings to the country. I could definitely see myself living here for a few more months and getting involved with other projects, there's so much to be done. I'm quite regretful for not being able to stay longer.

The line at the Children's Hospital:

The view from the lounge upstairs:

Tomorrow, maybe I'll have a relaxing day at the spa and the saltwater pool at the nice hotel around the corner - I deserve some downtime! : )

Preparing for the Puppet Show

2010-02-18T01:25:00.000-08:00

Today was a lot of fun and I got to teach what I love teaching about most: photography! Today and tomorrow, kids and volunteers from several different schools and organizations are preparing giant puppets for the annual puppet show. In a few different locations, they set up areas where they mounted these puppets with straw and tape as bodies and tomorrow they will apply the outer layers, which are made of papier maché. Next Sunday will be the big show.

The advanced kids at the Anjali House are responsible for taking photographs of the process and then we're going to make a slideshow with music to present after the puppet show. So, today I gave a few lessons on photography to the kids. Initially while going through their images, they didn't have many good shots. They all seemed to be taken without much care or artistic sense. They were usually just pretty general shots of what was going on, a lot of back of heads, uninteresting scenes... So, I really enjoyed talking to the class about how to take an overall better picture: how to get in people's faces, get them to smile and laugh, composition, finding subjects, etc etc. It was really amazing to see that after just giving them a 30 minute introduction, their shots INSTANTLY got better. I was super proud of them and I'm excited to see how they do tomorrow. Next week I'll do some more in-depth classes and have them work on a different project with more freedom.

Canon donated about 10 G10's to the Anjali House so they have a great start with learning about digital photography. A few months ago, they had a big photography project where a few international photographers came to teach the kids about photography. One kid has an exhibit up at a hotel nearby. I'm looking forward to eventually go to see the show, I heard it's really good.

Tonight 15 of us went to get some yummy Indian dinner and then I stopped by "Quiz Night" at the Funky Monkey bar where Thursday nights they do pop quizzes, drink and raise money for the different projects.

Random shot - this is what a more local gas station looks like!

The First Full Day at Anjali House

2010-02-17T03:39:00.000-08:00

This morning, Naomi and I rode our bikes to the Anjali House for 8:30am. To get there, we have to follow two and a half long dirt roads that pass a diversity of sights: small straw homes, sometimes selling food or candy and water out front, empty lots where the grass sometimes reaches up to two feet, three private schools, including one "USA International," the photocopy shop with the 80's machines where some of the teachers get their hand-outs done, a few really nice double story gated homes (probably NGO workers'), guesthouses, a pharmacy and a little bridge that goes over the smallest body of water you've ever seen.

At the Anjali House, there are five other girls and two guys teaching the kids and a few other volunteers helping with administrative work. All the girls are really sweet and easy to work with, I love the atmosphere. They are mainly European from Belgium, Norway and Germany and one is Australian. It's wonderful to see so many young women travel alone to the other side of the world and most of them are traveling around Asia or staying in Cambodia for months, even a year. Travelers who do things like that always tend to be really fun, down to earth, cool people. For the moment, I've been training with Karen, the Belgian girl who escaped her marketing job back home for 6 months, and eventually I may take over her class or move to another one.

Although the lessons are very basic and easy, teaching the kids is a pretty intense - they have hardly any attention span, are quite rowdy and don't really pick up that quick. It can get slightly frustrating and I can see that patience is definitely a virtue around here. That goes for punctuality as well - Cambodians are rarely on time. Patience is actually a very important word to Cambodian culture, they NEVER lose their cool or get angry. They believe that if someone loses their temper, they are no longer deserving of respect and therefore they are always trying to find a fair agreement during a debate or an argument. I haven't seen one person actually get angry, demanding or be rude to anyone else (something the French should learn from).

Overall, these kids are definitely not of the same species as the ones from the Greater Hope. Some are very sweet and adorable, others seem much more out of control. It's not the same vibe at all, but I'm hoping to get to know them better soon.

The first part of the day I helped out with the workshops. I brought along the rest of the art kits Arterro donated and the kids loved them, especially making bracelets. I made a crazy bookmark that I'm still pretty proud of. Then, we had general studies class, where Karen taught the kids about the features of the face and head. A really funny part of class is at the very beginning when traditionally, the teacher says "Good morning class," and the kids all stand up and reply in sync singing with a very awkward melody "Good morning, teeeeacher, how are you toooday?" And the teacher answers "I am good, how are you." Typically the children reply with "I am ha-ppyyy, thank youuu."

After repeating the features of the face a billion times, the kids were still having trouble, but that's mainly because they weren't really paying attention. They kept getting out of their seats, playing with other things, talking to each other. There is limited obedience in the class, and authority doesn't seem to work as well as it should. I'm excited for my turn to teach, it will definitely be a challenge. Monday, Karen will be in Battambang, so I will replace her in her class. I've already made my lesson plan and I've chosen to discuss the topic of pronunciation.

For lunch I decided not to stay at the Anjali House and to ride 15 minutes to the old market by myself for some "morningarony" a.k.a. morning glory. On the way there, I passed the hilarious "batmobile" tuk-tuk, which I'll eventually get a photo of, a family of 6 on a motorbike and a couple of waifey cops who definitely would never have made it onto Miami Vice.

In the afternoon we repeated the same classes but to another group of kids. By the end of the day, the dirt, sequins and glitter on my hands made for great finger puppets and we were all burnt from the heat.

After class ended at 4pm, I rode to the old market again to pick up some new hippy pants. On the way back to the guesthouse, really loud bad trance techno music was coming from the school down the road so I stopped to see what was going on - a group of 30 women were doing some sort of aerobics tae-bo dance class in the courtyard. Super random.

Tonight, a few girls from Anjali and I went out to Pub Street to get some food and cocktails. The scene is very Western, which takes away from the local landscape, but it's fun and cocktails are $2 - can't beat that! I rode home in the back of a tuk-tuk driven by a certain guy by the name of James Bond (the 2nd one I've met so far!).

I love Siem Reap!

Siem Reap and Globalteer

2010-02-16T03:20:00.000-08:00

This morning, eight new friends and I parted paths. As I sat in the hotel room waiting for 9am and Nick from Globalteer to arrive, I listened to some Bonnie Raitt, which for some weird reason always makes me feel at home. I was sad to say goodbye to my buddies but excited to start a new chapter.

Nick arrived, a native Londoner who has been living in Cambodia for 2 1/2 years, and took me to the Globalteer guesthouse to get settled and prepared for the next few weeks. The guesthouse is just a few minutes bike ride from the center of Siem Reap and is very comfortable. There are two double beds in my room, a nice shower, a good view and storage space - it seems very cozy, besides the fact that it doesn't have air conditioning, but with an extra $4/night I could get a room with air conditioning, but I want to try it out first without and put my needy New Yorker personality to test. The house seems great - there's a café/lounge at the top that serves $2 and $3 Khmer dishes and all sorts of Western dishes, as well as fruit shakes for $1.50, with wifi connection. The sweet man who runs the café, Mac, reminds me sort of of my dad mixed with Gerard Depardieu in that movie City of Ghosts.

Volunteers of all ages live in the house and work in different projects around Siem Reap. I was immediately introduced to Simon and Naomi who arrived today as well. Naomi, a really nice 22yr old girl from Australia, and I will be working at the same project, the Anjali House, which is luckily only a 5 minute bike ride away.

Nick took us into the city to show us a bit around so we would have our basic bearings. I LOVE Siem Reap. It's a very clean, modernized, civilized town that has obviously better developed than the rest of the country thanks to its catering to tourists. The streets are paved, there are plenty of comfortable and clean restaurants, a Westernized pharmacy (where you can get anything over the counter), and tons of boutiques. There are lots of bars and a bigger nightlife and apparently you can get a beer for 50 cents in a lot of places. It's more expensive than Phnom Penh, but well worth it. Compared to the capital, it's another world completely. I am thrilled to be here and very excited about the next three weeks.

Naomi and I were then taken to the Anjali House for some basic training and to meet all the volunteers there. To my surprise there are many young women volunteers from all over the world, even as young as 19. Most of them have been there a while and are staying a while - they seem to love it and be very comfortable. We discussed our schedule and sat in a couple classes to see how it goes. There are two sets of classes: one in the morning and one in the evening - they are alternated with the kids' Khmer schooling. The kids have an English class, a general studies class and a workshop where they get to do arts and crafts or games. There are three different levels: kindergarten, beginner and intermediate, and I think there are some advanced too, but it will take me a couple days to really understand how it all works. The kids all seem wonderful, some unruly, but others very tame and good. It's a mixed bag - they all come from different backgrounds, but all from struggling ones. It's no wonder some of the kids act a little out of control, I'm surprised they don't more so.

I spoke to a guy from the Netherlands named Richard who is helping with the puppet festival and working with the kids who are photographing the "behind the scenes." He was excited that I wanted to come help out, because he doesn't have a background in photography, so that will be a perfect job for me!

Anyway, so class runs from 8:30 - 4:00 every day with lunch in between and the rest of the day is up to us. I'm looking very forward to being here with the kids and meeting new people, it seems like a great set up. And I'm definitely looking forward to the $5 hour massage in town that I've been longing for....

Sorry, no photos today - I took a break, the tendonitis in my thumb is starting to kick back in from all the intense shooting last week. More soon!

Angkor Whhhat!

2010-02-16T01:45:00.001-08:00

The shower I just took was probably the most sensational shower ever. The water was cold and the towel was rough, but can I just say THAT WAS THE BEST SHOWER EVER! I scrubbed so hard, the puff fell apart.

Today we started at 4am and ended at 8pm, with only one real break in between and a couple of resting points. The sunrise at Angkor Wat was pretty sensational despite the huge amounts of tourists that seemed to LOVE getting their hats in my shots, but overall I obsessively took about 250 photographs, trying desperately to capture the temples in a unique way. Too many people had too many cameras, and it seemed discouraging when trying to find a different angle or capture, as there was always someone doing the exact same thing. Hopefully my fish eye lens upstaged a few dorky tourists.

From Wikipedia (because I'm lazy):

"Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត) is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early South Indian Hindu architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas (guardian spirits) adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City Temple"; Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit or Tamil word nagara meaning capital or city. wat is the Khmer word for temple. Prior to this time the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok, after the posthumous title of its founder, Suryavarman II.[1]"

Almost equal to the size of Manhattan, we travelled the labyrinths of the three major wats high and low, around and back, ooing and ahhing over the Tomb Raider-famous rock carvings and tree formations. It was an incredible hike and felt so special to witness, touch and walk all over these temples that have existed for thousands of years and that I've been dying to visit for the last five. You would think that a site so special, and equally falling apart with bricks, statues and carvings slowly making their way into big piles of rock, would be much better preserved, but there seems to be no particular care in keeping it more protected. As I expressed my temptation to bring a few rocks home, Kit warned me of a 20-year jail sentence that could await at the airport. Sweet.

The foreigner entry fee is $20/day, which is a great daily Khmer salary, and 4/5ths of it go directly into the hands of the biggest gas company here, which "leases" the spiritual site from the government who would rather reap the financial benefits without having to work for it. Ream says the government does that with a lot of other monuments and institutions. If only the government took back the country's most prized possession, it could significantly help its economy and quality of life with the tourist dollars it lures in, and believe me - the country needs that kind of help.

In the city of Angkor Wat, there is much to do besides the temples, like get the dead skin on your feet eaten by fish, ride elephants or take pictures on horses in front of the temples. People are constantly harassing tourists to buy guidebooks, postcards and there are plenty of souvenir vendors all over the park.

We spent hours in the scorching heat and humidity traveling Angkor Wat to the point where we could no longer go and we then went to town to get some food at the most modern restaurant I've stepped in so far in Cambodia, the Blue Pumpkin. If someone could enlighten me on what a "blue pumpkin" actually is, I would be appreciative.

On the way to town, we passed the Children's Hospital, which I have been in contact with and was planning to photograph. As we drove by, there was a line of mainly mothers with sick children, probably 300 deep waiting in the brutal heat to eventually be seen by a doctor. It was a pathetic site and one that has me sort of anxious to eventually photograph. Ream says the doctors are quite corrupt as well, and that with some extra cash, anyone could literally buy a doctor's license.

We were all pretty tired, but it was time for the 2nd stop: the Cambodian Cultural Center, which was a highlight for the kids, but more of an overwhelming experience for me. Because it's Chinese New Year, the crowds are rampant and seemed to all want to squeeze into this Cambodian theme park, whose main attraction were the wax museum and the traditional dance performances which ran all day. From stage to stage, people were literally RUNNING to get seats. It was very hot and very crowded and towards the end (7pm), I felt like I was going to pass out. The shows started out very mellow and kind of funny actually, and got more entertaining as they went along, until Courtney and I were completely exhausted and went to find a bench to talk about home and how good Sprite tasted at that moment. We were the only Westerners in the park - I felt like an insider experiencing traditional Cambodian quality family time.

It's now 9:30, we've never been so ready to fall asleep, and of course I have 600 photos to now edit. Tomorrow, a certain Trixie from the Anjali House will be picking me up to take me to the next destination where I will be living for three weeks. I'm hoping for a beautiful next experience.

On The Road

2010-02-16T01:25:00.000-08:00

Sadly, today was my last day at the Greater Hope Orphanage. After saying my so-longs to this beautiful group of kids that I could only hope the brightest future for, we headed back to Phnom Penh to pick up a 2pm bus to Siem Reap.

Phnom Penh is fairly overwhelming - it's dirty and chaotic and the traffic is quite rebellious. If you've ever seen that movie City of Ghosts, its depiction of the capital is not exactly that intense, but it gives a mild idea... We sat at the bus stop for an hour under a water mist, whose source was probably questionable, watching the groups of locals and tourists flock to the various buses with destinations such as Ho Chi Minh, Sihanoukville and other smaller towns within Cambodia. A few mothers and their small children seemed to just be hanging out at the bus station - one, whose infant boy was underwear-less and climbing all over the dirty bench, he could not have been more covered in filth and I couldn't help but feel violated for him. At least three were breast feeding, one who was walking and talking at the same time. A monk was chatting away on a cellphone, a few old lady beggars came up, reminding me of how sad it would be if my grammas were living like that. A few riel or a dollar (both are official currencies) go a very long way here, and so it's easy for Westerners to lend a helping hand, most beggars are excited about getting the equivalent of 25 cents.

We finally boarded the bus, which came fully equipped with air conditioning and mosquitos, but no toilet - it would be a six hour journey with two rest stops in between. As the bus drove off, I watched the craziness of the city turn into an ironic peacefulness of the countryside. With my head glued to the window the entire time, I was carefully observing and analyzing the way people carry about, trying to understand them a little better and how they live. We passed several of what seemed like the same villages, the same houses, the same street vendors and the same fields. Along the road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, there is not a whole lot of diversity and apparently all of rural Cambodia looks pretty much just like that, with variations in the landscape greenery. Houses are extremely modest, mostly made of straw and perched on top of pillars (I'm assuming to protect them from floods), and most people have some sort of small dirty pond in the front yard. I caught many occasions where kids were playing in it, and most of the time the yard surrounding it was covered in trash. There is no waste management of course and people don't seem to understand the concept of containing trash, or they just don't care.

People are very, very poor and will work an entire day under the scorching sun for as little as a few dollars, sometimes selling coconut juice or other fruits, dried frogs or crickets, meat, candies, water, and other local products. There is an incredibly limited supply of food and merchandise in the rural areas and people definitely struggle to survive, especially due to the dirty water situation. Rice is the main dish and fairly abundant, but clean vegetables aren't as much and consequently Cambodian diets are not greatly balanced. Meagre slices of meat will sit out in the sun for hours and hours, and all I can think to myself is botulism. A pharmacy pops up here and there and hospitals are very scarce - a few of the children at the Greater Hope Orphanage now have crippling disabilities because their families could not afford or were not able to get to a doctor, and this happens very often to many, many people in these areas.

We stopped at a rest stop only to get attacked by mosquitos, especially in the bathroom - it was a lovely experience. But not as lovely as coming across stuffed turtle to eat. Yum. NOTTT.

After a long, but fascinating journey, we finally arrived in Siem Reap. Siem Reap instantly seemed much more modern, clean and Westernized, which was comforting. Nine of us were traveling (Courtney, Kit, Ream, their son, Sam, Ream's brother, Ra, Ra's friend, Kath, two kids from the orphanage, Chow and Rachana and me) and we hadn't booked a hotel before hand so we stopped at a couple spots before finding a decent, not full hotel, and for $15/night! Half reluctantly, half excitedly, we set our alarm clocks for 4am, early enough to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat the following day...

An Easy Saturday

2010-02-13T01:40:00.001-08:00

The kids were off from school today so we basically just spent the whole day playing. In the morning, after shooting a few shots of the kids working in the garden, Ream took Courtney and I on a little walk around the village - past the local barber, the weird scarecrow and the dude on the motorcycle selling eggs - to meet a few people. She showed us the little pond where the villagers get their water from (see below) and also showed us where the sewage line is drained - basically directly into the pond, hence the muddy teal color it exhibits. During dry season, many villagers die from diphtheria from drinking the dirty water, but during the monsoon season it's not as bad because the water is slightly cleaner. Ream's dream is to get a water filtration system installed for the village, but this would cost a couple million dollars. She is very passionate about her village and about getting the people help. I wish I could do something to help too, it's a very sad situation, and what's even more disrupting is that most of the country has the same dilemma.

The orphanage is very lucky to have their own water treatment system, electric generator, internet satellite and other self-sufficiently run necessities - they are probably the only villagers who have this fortune. Kit spent $70K and built the entire house bottom up. It sleeps, nourishes and bathes 35 children. They rely on foreign sponsors to keep up the welfare of the orphanage and its kids (if you would like to donate or sponsor one of these adorable kids, visit http://www.agreaterhopeorphanage.org). These children mainly come from families who could not afford to keep them or from families who were sick, passed away or abused them. They are extremely lucky to have been sent to A Greater Hope where they now love their life and have a brighter future than most of the kids in the village.

We talked to a man who was making sugar out of palm tree. It tasted delicious! Apparently you can also make beer out of a palm tree... I suggested Courtney and I get wasted later, but it may not be such a good look. If you see the palm tree on the photo, there's a ladder going up - that's how they get the goods.

After we got home, we played in the garden, did some more headstands, played some more foot tag, handed out some more toys - the kids especially loved blowing those toxic bubble things you get in party favors when you're a kid. Then some of the kids put on a show - they got dressed up and did two traditional harvest dances and sang for Courtney and I, while Te-a, the musically gifted boy, played keyboard. It was SO sweet, we felt honored to be the special guests.

I finally finished my photo shoot project and the second part of it which was a lot of fun. I laid out about 20 different fabrics or so and each kid chose different ones for me to photograph their hands and feet on. One boy had pink nail polish on his toes, which made some of the girls chuckle.

It got so hot, so all the kids rushed upstairs to have a water balloon fiesta (as opposed to a fight, because they... don't really fight) and splashed water all over the floor and played slip and slide. They were having a BLAST, it was awesome.

Tomorrow we're heading to Siem Reap by bus, it should take 6 hours or so to get there. Sadly, I'll be saying goodbye to these amazing children who have taught me so much about appreciation, humility, love and kindness. And then, a new chapter shall begin...