Day 26...

Last night was our celebratory night… it was crazy… We went out for dinner which was really nice again, same place as we already have been to, with the traditional dancers… got some more photos with them. Ericka has a slight crush on one of the boys who we have actually decided is like 16 years of age, but anyways… she desperately wanted a photo with him so we went up on stage, dragged him away from the group of dancers and got a photo with him… The look on his face was priceless, he didn’t really know why the heck these 3 white chicks were pulling him aside to get a photo with him… hilarious!

Afterwards we went to the “Angkor What?” club. This club was amazing… they had graffiti over the whole club and everyone who visited would write on the walls in niko… Then when the lights went off, all the paint glowed and it was pretty great. Here we started our heavy drinking, ordering a bucket each… A bucket is just that… A bucket filled with alcohol. It was pretty great!! If you got one you also got a shirt… woop woop hahaha.

We then left to go to another bar called the “Warehouse” where this beautiful Norwegian girl (semi famous apparently) was singing her songs… She was amazing and I plan to download some of her stuff when I get home.

This morning was like any other, even though we were hung over and tired, we still got up at 6:30am and started our day… slowly… We got packing again and then went to our Quad Biking adventure. This was fairly great. I haven’t really ridden a Quad bike on my own before and I can now tick it off my ‘To do list’… We also rode on the roads of busy Cambodia. This was insane… not only because we had to drive on the right side of the road but because in Cambodia… there are no road rules… basically you drive as fast or slow as you want AND overtake anyone who is in front of you… this is what we did. After this we went down the back roads. Because of the flooding, these roads were full of bumps and puddles. Ericka and I made it our mission to ensure we got ourselves and our Quad bikes as muddy as possible. And this certainly happened. Was a great 2hr ride J

After the Quads we had a speedy lunch and head to the markets to buy Vannarith all the things he needed for his new fish pond. We went to his place and got stuck into it… 30 minutes it took to dig a 1.5m deep by 6.5 meters long and 2m wide hole… He was speechless that 3 Aussie girls managed to get into it and finish it. While here, I also gave his son and the other little orphan boy who lives with them, some Smiggle stuff. The boys were so excited about this and were too eager to draw in their books and use their pens.

After finishing all the pond, filling it with water it was time for us to get changed and ready for our horse riding. It has been many years since I went horse riding and I was really excited about doing this. I had a beautiful grey horse called “Ollie” and we had a great ride, walking, trotting, and even cantering occasionally. All was going well until all three of our horses and the guides’ horse decided to start RACING… all of the horses wanting to be the winner… Poor Ericka’s horse slipped in a puddle and fell over… sending Ericka flying, getting her leg caught under the horses’ body and then rolling out. It was THE FUNNIEST thing we have ever seen (only because neither Ericka nor the horse was hurt)… Ericka got up, her first reaction “Is the horse okay?” and getting back up on that horse like a trooper to continue the trek.

We finished the last part of the trek, everyone in stitches because we just couldn’t believe it happened. HAHA… always happening to Ericka. She was very lucky it didn’t end worse but it is such a great story which she (and Karina and I) can forever tell people and laugh about.

Getting ready for tomorrow… Leaving Cambodia… L I am not looking forward to more goodbyes. I wasn’t good at the school and I know I won’t be good tomorrow with our guides who have become a major part of our lives whilst here. I believe I have made some new friends for life and I know they think the same. Today Vannarith said he wasn’t looking forward to saying goodbye to three of his best friends… made my heart melt!

Speaking of goodbyes… Tomorrow will be my final blog for my Cambodian trip… Wow… a whole month has flown by… so many memories, so many photos and even more laughs. Wish me luck for the shit house plane ride back to Australia.

Until tomorrow…

Kim xx

Digging Vannarith's fish pond

My and my horse 'Ollie'

Giving the boys the Smiggle stuff

Look how excited they are... such cuties

Me and Ollie in action

Day 25...

Today was frigging AMAZING… It was our last day at the school, the presentation and the official opening of the library. This morning we got to the school early and set up everything for the ceremony.

The kids were so excited, came to school with their hair done, clean uniforms and happy faces. I said our speech which was beautifully written by all of us. It was rather intimidating speaking in front of all of these official men and women. But it all went well… we then had to do our presentation with the kids… They were FANTASTIC!!! They did so well considering they had a very important audience. The military men also really enjoyed it and we even had them laughing at a few points in the presentation. I was so proud of my kids! I was smiling throughout the whole thing. Other than that… it was time to officially open the library and show some of the Military men for the first time. They were amazed and very very thankful! J We were so proud, the kids were proud and the centre was excited to have such an asset to the school.

On another note… it was time for everyone to say goodbye… So many cuddles, kids crying, ME crying, Karina crying… it was the hardest thing to do, say good bye to these beautiful students. I had children telling me they loved me and they wished I could stay… Girls bawling their eyes out… hiding in the corner. We got presents… a scarf, flowers, a bracelet. I couldn’t help but cry when saying goodbye… some kids saying “goodbye Kim, see you tomorrow”… (Because they didn’t know any better) L so sad… I just had to say yes because they couldn’t understand.

My favourite part was one of the military men asked me for my email address saying that they boys (when they know more English) really want to email me and keep in contact with me… My heart melted. I gave him my email, got his as well and I plan to email him regularly with photos I have taken while here and definitely making sure I keep in contact… for life!

We finally said goodbye, went for lunch and then left the centre for the very last time… We decided to fit in some quick sight seeing of one of the small country side temples with all the other people. It was beautiful, we took pictures and then went to get a Monk Blessing. I don’t know about anyone else but this was such a beautiful experience for me… I am not a religious person really but I went in to this blessing wishing all the things I could wish to change, fix and hope for. This monk blessed us with holy water, we prayed for strength and happiness and he chanted to … well not sure who… to take care of us, guide us, protect us and offer us love and happiness. Leaving the blessing I felt, I don’t know… free. I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders, I felt liberated and like I was ready for the next chapter of my life to begin… J

I am ready for happiness and love J bring it on I say!

Tonight is a big night for us… our goodbye dinner, our celebratory drinks and some good times. We are going out with Vannarith and Dayvy and we have been told that we will be getting drunk, drinking “a bucket” which is a shitload of alcohol and a small amount of soft drink… for $5…

Wow…

Anyway I will post again tomorrow (if I am able) hahaha

Until then

Kim xx

Blessing from the Monk

ready for my speech

Some of my kids

Some of the officials

Day 24...

Day 24…

Well today was a massive day filled with a great deal of photos, sweating, setting up and practicing. As you know, we are doing our presentation to the whole of the Military centre and the students are so excited.

Firstly this morning we stopped at a few places to get some great photos of the country side and some families. We got some amazing photos and stopped at a local traditional country side hut and had a beautiful photo taken with the family who live there.

After this, we got to the centre and stopped to help the locals do some rice picking. It was amazing… all done by hand with some amazing killing machine like knives. It was some serious hard work and these people managed to do it from 7 am till like 3pm… it was insane. We gave it a good go but nothing like they do, they are quite speedy.

The morning was used to set up the library (thank god, we all thought we were going to be shovelling more sand)…Finally, it looks AMAZING… I am so proud of our efforts, the pictures don’t even give it justice.

During my class today, I handed out all the stuff donated by Smiggle and man, did the kids love it. They thought it was Christmas… they were so excited to smell the erasers and the pens and open everything, play with everything and plain and simple… have fun. So this is what we did… I gave them the stickers and we drew pictures using stencils and funky gel pens. I told them that all of these things will be placed in the library and thy can use them whenever they like… One student spoke to one of our guides in Khmer, who then translated to me that he said… “I wish Kim could stay here forever cause then I would stay here forever, I love to come to her classes everyday”. My heart melted on the spot and all I could think was how can I arrange to stay here forever..? I am going to be so upset tomorrow when it is our time to say goodbye… I’m not ready nor do I want to leave just yet…

We had a great time today and I can’t wait to have the students get up and be proud of what they have learnt with me… Tomorrow is the official opening of the library as well and this is going to be so exciting for the whole community. I looked at the finished library today and couldn’t help but be proud of us three Australian girls. We put so much thought, effort, money and hard work into this project and it truly is something that we should be so proud of… Woohoo go us!!

Anyway… I am wrecked so until tomorrow…

Kim xx

pretty picture... all the girls

Local family home

Rice picking with the locals

Greatest picture I think... what a cutie

Some of the finished library

Me preparing some pig food...

 

Country side photo

Day 22, 23

Day 22, 23

Well, I don’t really have much to say about the last two days… Teaching is continuing… everything is going really well in that department and I am having a blast. Day 23 and there is only 2 more teaching days to go. I have to put on a performance done by the kids to showcase what they have learnt since I have been their teaching and I am really excited about this. They are doing it Friday morning in front of all the Military and all of their families. I did a practice today and the kids did amazing, at some points it was hard with the language barrier but we got there in the end. They are so excited about this presentation and I am too. One of the other girls is going to film it for me so that will be great.

Other than that, this morning we spent the morning shopping for last minute supplies for the library and tomorrow we will be setting it all up. It is looking really fantastic.

Tomorrow we are also donating a lot of clothes and supplies to the children and will be taking that to them tomorrow as well. There is A LOT. A major donation to add to the library and playground, we decided to buy each class (7 classes) a water filter to ensure the students have clean drinking water every day at school. This is such a big thing in Cambodia and now these children will finally have filtered CLEAN water to drink daily.

This afternoon was great… Dayvy took us swimming at her sisters hotel… It was just what we needed. We ate food and drank cocktails for a few hours in the pool and just relaxed… which is something we haven’t really taken the time to do yet. After this we went out for dinner to a local Suki Soup restaurant where we had THE freshest, delicious soup. Basically there is a hot plate in the middle of the table with a bowl on it. You then order a range of different plates filled with ingredients and you cook them in the boiling water… It was the best tasting soup. Veggies galore, fish and beef, CORN (I have been craving) and topped that off with a watermelon shake… then…we went to the Blue Pumpkin… again and had a lovely pastry dessert.

I am now just finishing packing my suitcase ready to head home L (very sad) not ready to leave yet…but only 3 days left…

We just started watching the Khmer Rouge film so I better dash…

Until tomorrow…

Kim xx

  

Day 21...

Day 21…

Monday 24^th October, 2011

Today we had a MASSIVE day at school. Because we have finally finished our library, we are now starting on the construction of the playground. We have been so excited about this project as the kids are going to love it. Due to the rain it was unable to start until today… As you can imagine, resources being so scarce a lot of second hand things are being used… e.g. bricks, iron poles etc. With this, we had to sand down the iron poles, and transport sand into a pit… Let me tell you, I have never sweated so much in my life… The more water we drank the more we would sweat… Our weight loss regime… now in full swing (thank goodness)! We were transporting sand using cane baskets no bigger than 10cm by 10cm… back and forth, back and forth we went for a good 2 hours in the HOT sun. Exhausted I can honestly say.

Tomorrow we will be doing some more sanding and then painting the poles. YAY more painting (sarcasm)… After this, more shovelling and then well, more teaching. We only have 4 days left L I am so sad about this. I am not ready to leave, there is still so much that I could be doing.

After a rather exhausting day we thought we would continue on our FINAL trip to the night markets to get a few last minute gifts and in Ericka’s case… Another 50 T-shirts and pants… AND Ericka and I made THE greatest purchase of our new hats… I shall upload a photo for your enjoyment.

I think I am completely shopped out and I hope I didn’t leave anyone out and if I did… well it is my holiday so I don’t care :P hahaha

Not long now before I come back to Australia and I am not looking forward to it… Back to work, finishing uni, interviews… HOLY MOLEY!!!

Anyways… It is getting very late and I have another massive day of sand and painting tomorrow.

Until then…

Kim xx

shoveling sand in cane baskets

Getting ready

Hard at work... Nice ass Ericka

The best hats ever... they even have flaps

Days 18, 19, 20

Day 18, 19, 20

Friday 22^nd October, 2011

If we were going to die at any point during our adventure in Cambodia, this weekend would have been it. It started Friday afternoon after a great morning at the school and an excellent lunch with Dayvy and Vannarith.

We were getting ready to go to Phenom Penh for a bit of a weekend away. We go on a small courtesy bus which cost us a small $13 both ways… Well we certainly quickly found out why. When hiring the bus driver, I am convinced that the job interview went a little like this…

Interviewer: “Do you drive like an absolute maniac and speed at least 3 times the limit?”

Prospective Driver: “Yes!”

Interviewer: “You’re hired”

I have been in the car with a few speed demons in my time but nothing comes close to this… I felt like I was in a car in Grand Theft Auto where the rules are:

·         Drive as fast as you can at all times

·         Constantly beep your horn to warn people, cars, bikes, motobikes, animals and basically anything in your way to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY

·         And, making sure no one is ever in front of you… over take at all costs (even if someone else is over taking someone… overtake them both at the same time…)

We honestly feared for our lives and even if we made it to Phenom Penh… we still had to make it back to Siem Reap on Sunday. There was no sleeping on this 5 hour bus trip, just constant gripping of the chair, closing our eyes and praying for a good outcome, ongoing gasps of disbelief and horror and never ending “close calls”.

Once looking past our fear, we began seeing the funny side. We witnessed THE funniest things outside our windows. We saw…

·         Hundreds of vans with their front wheels barely touching the road because there was too much wood shoved in their vans – back doors had to be removed and rope tied around the whole car to try and support. Just to add to that, there would be 2 or 3 people perched on the roof.

·         MANY chickens nearly died.

·         There were motorbikes carrying the largest amount of bread, baskets, pig pens, you name it and they were transporting it. Sometimes bulging so much at the sides other cars needing to pull over for them to fit.

·         There were road works in the middle of the highway, no sign, us driving through at 100 km/h closing our eyes because we were coming head on to a massive bus, basically playing chicken to see who would swerve and break first… It wasn’t us. We were so close to the bus, if I had my pinky out the window, I would have lost it. There was a lot of holding our breath throughout this trip.

The worst part for me though was half way through the driver hit a dog, we heard the yelp and felt the bump, a started tearing up and the driver didn’t even flinch… just kept driving… I have no idea what happened to that dog but I just hope it is no longer in pain… L the saddest part…

We did make it though, we got there in one piece… barely… and got in a tuk tuk, went for dinner and got completely ripped off hahaha. But oh well, the joys of it all…

Saturday 23^rd October, 2011

The following day, Saturday… this is the day we were doing all the important stuff… the history. It started at the Genocide Museum – S-21. I must admit I went with some sort of expectation of an experience that is depressingly heart wrenching and unforgettable but this exceeded that. This history, this museum, so recent and fresh, alive today in the small but beautiful country… something you can hardly imagine, something I will never forget, images permanently ingrained in my brain.

20 000 civilians have passed through these doors – 7 survived. We were lucky enough on our tour to meet one of the last survivors. While standing there talking with him, I had to hold back my tears… he said although it was hard to come back to this place, he wanted to tell people how lucky he was and tell the stories of the other soldiers…what an amazing and beautiful man. He told us of his torture… 8-11 then again at 1-4 and again at 6-10. Throughout this torture he had shocks to the brain, had his toenails pulled our and a range of other horrific brutalities inflicted on him. His wife and 3 children were also captures and killed.

Walking through S-21 prison formally a school in Phenom Penh, we saw thousands of photographs of prisoners and soldiers. During the Khmer Rouge, similar to the NAZI’s they kept records of everything, every victim, ever soldier (who later became victims themselves). We saw mug shots through to horrible and confronting images of the dead victims after they had been tortured, throats slashed, stomaches on the floor… anything you can image.

Victims who died during their interrogation or in S-21 due to the wild spread of diseases, were randomly buried on those grounds, however the majority of those captured were tortured and then taken to Cheoung Ek (also known as “The killing fields”), where they were stripped, blindfolded and belted over the head with a mental pole. After this they had their throats slashed and kicked into a large pit… full of other dead bodies. One grave containing as many as 450 peoples remains…

After going to the museum we made the trip to “The Killing Fields” and this again was a major heart wrenching experience… Signs showing where they found the majority of the bodies… identifying the pits where the women were buried… No graves have been dug up, simply the ones that had surfaced were retrieved. It also said that sometimes when it floods, bone fragments and teeth resurface.

The most horrible aspect for me and the girls though was next to a large pit which they had identified as women and children was a large tree. This tree was the tree where the children were killed. The most horrifying part of this is that later a Khmer Rouge officer admitted that they would kill the babies and children by holding them by their legs and smashing their heads on the tree before throwing them in the pit. As you can image… these images have been playing on our minds… dreaming about them at night and constantly thinking about it… Another aspect of these events that affected me was the fact that out of the thousands of Khmer Rouge soldiers, 5 were arrested and held accountable… of these 5, 1 has admitted and apologised for his malicious crimes and the others… deny any involvement and are being ‘detained’ in a lovely suburban house, together while the trials continue. What a load of shit… AND the one who admitted to his crimes, ones being the baby and children killings, only got jailed for 35 years… even bigger load of shit if you ask me.

After this… our mood was rather glum so we decided to go to the markets and get some food… this cheered us up a little and we managed to find some amazing places to eat and drink. On the flip side, we were sitting at a nice restaurant eating dinner and drinking cocktails and happened to glance out of the window to see a massive Elephant walking down the main road… hahaha I don’t think I will ever get tired of this place. Nothing shocks me anymore. We went from place to place, drinking a range of cocktails, got rather drunk and went home to bed.

Sunday 24^th October, 2011

Sunday… Today we went and saw the Royal Palace and more shopping and more eating… I do believe I will be returning to Australia a very obese individual. All we seem to be doing is eating like pigs and I must admit, I am enjoying every last bit of it.

The Royal Palace was amazing, Gold, Diamonds, Silver… you name it and it was here. There were so many different buildings… buildings that the King stays, where shows are put on for the king when he comes… statues, many many different Buddha’s and all of them containing diamonds, gold or silver or a combination of all 3. It was crazy beautiful and well looked after.

Needless to say, as you can tell I have had a massive weekend, full of a range of emotions and experiences. The highlight of my month away so far. Although such a shocking and horrible thing that has happened to this country no more than 30 years ago and now look… slowly but surely this country has rebuilt itself and it is such an amazing experience to be a part of at the moment.

More school tomorrow… I think I will be struggling to get up in the morning…

Until then…

Kim xx

Our finished blackboard painted area

Horrific images of how the people were killed and tortured

The tree that the Khmer Rouge use to kill children on

royal palace thing...

Our FINALLY finished mural...

Day 17...

Day 17…                                                                                                                                       Thursday, 20^th October 2011

Today was another good day of teaching…

We learnt about ‘J’ and ‘K’… and made Kites…

We had such a good time and the kids are really learning what I am teaching them and well… it feels good to see that.

There is only 6 teaching days left and I am so sad about that… being the sook I am, I am thinking that on the last day I am going to be so upset…

We also managed to ALMOST finish the mural today. The final details will be added tomorrow and then… Set the room up ready for the kids to use it as a LIBRARY. Hahaha… I am so proud of what we have all done… we have worked so hard, never sweated so much in our lives and managed to create something amazing that is going to brighten the students lives.

We have some excellent pictures but I don’t even think they give it justice… The second thing which we have completed is the blackboard paint section. We managed to finish that and got all the kids today to put their hand prints on the outside… this is one of my favourite parts and I think the kids are going to LOVE this once they find out that they can draw on it and rub it off… WOOHOO

We then went home, more planning, showering and scrubbing ALL the paint off our bodies and then went out for dinner to somewhere new… we tried this place called pizza and pasta (rather Westernised we thought) But… it was the worst meal I think I have ever eaten… I got a pizza which normally I would love, and have been craving, but this pizza wasn’t cooked properly, so the base was me eating mouthfuls of flour and they had put mint leaves on the cheese and boy were they strong… Oh well… Back to the crazy weird Cambodian food that seems to taste a lot better.

Tomorrow we will be heading to school and teaching early in the morning… we will then be heading to Phenom Penh and doing some shopping and a massive amount of culture seeing and history visiting.

We will be going till Sunday and visiting S-21 and the killing fields on Saturday (major Cambodian History – which I am thinking is going to be really sad and a bit of an eye opener), then the nature park on Sunday. At this “Zoo” it houses and rehabilitates animals that have been rescued from poachers and taken off the black market. I am really looking forward to this as I am a big animal lover, as you all know… and I am keen to see some animal compassion to be honest…

Anyways… I won’t be able to write a blog till Sunday when I have my computer and I will definitely have a lot to tell.

Until then

Kim

xx

Some of the Mural

hand painting for the blackboard painting

More of the Mural

K is for Kite

 

Us and our Guides