Day Two...

Wednesday 5/10/11

Day Two in Cambodia

What an amazing day I have had today… Today was our orientation day, settling into our new Cambodian lifestyle, culture and the people. We walked around Siem Reap all morning with Vanarith and saw all the hot spots, all the amazing sites and interacted with all the local people. We learnt some more of the local language and am slowly picking it up… which is good because tomorrow we are going to the school to meet the students and begin our teaching adventures. After walking around we had lunch at a local Khmer Restaurant and ordered some more local foods. We are also loving the way of eating here, you order your meal, they bring you out some rice, and then the food is served in the middle of the table and you all share. Great aspect of this culture, sharing really IS caring and it only cost us $5 for lunch and drinks.

 After lunch we braved the local markets, began our bartering and bought some really great things… to name a few… A beautiful painting (painted using spoons), T-shirts for $3, AMAZING local Cambodian pants for $9 and many other great things. Oh my gosh, we also had a ‘fish foot massage’ , which if you don’t already know, is where you put your feet into a massive tank of different fish who then proceed to eat all the dead skin off your feet. You are suppose to sit their for a 20 minute massage for $3, we made it 5 minutes for $1 because it was tickling us so much… we were in stitches laughing, screaming even because of how ticklish we were. Great Fun. Vanarith also got in on it… had a good laugh.

After talking with Vanarith about being a teacher (as he also aims to become one one day) he informs me that teachers in Cambodia get paid the equivalent of $25 a month in public schools and $50 a month in private schools…WOW… we thought we had it bad…

From here we were met by Dayvy who took us to the Siem Reap public hospital.  This… was truly an eye opener and an absolute heart wrenching experience for me and I would imagine the other girls as well. This hospital, although having buildings to cater for a diverse range of illnesses, the facilities and availabilities of staff, medicines, and the proper equipment was limited to say the least. Patients waiting area was the mud and grass on the ground outside the building. Whilst the sick and injured were being attended to, their families needed to buy food and water to provide for them, pay for their medication and pay for a bed to sleep in (if necessary). The major aspect of this hospital though was the HIV unit, full of men, women, and children all needing serious medical attention for one horrific disease.

We then went to the Children’s Hospital of Siem Reap. This hospital also took my breath away… but for the opposite reason. This hospital was donated and supported by the USA and much hard work from volunteers. This is a beautiful hospital that treats millions and millions of children a year. Over 400 children pass through those doors on a daily basis. Some too sick and too far gone that they are no longer able to be helped and die. 1 in 12 children die every day in Cambodia and this hospital is aiming to reduce that. There were so many instances that made me want to cry… so many beautiful people and the children… all smiles no matter what.

All in all I had an amazing day, met amazing people and fell even more in love with this amazing culture and country.

I must be off now to my night out at the markets and dinner and drinks for $1 each all night at our hotel.

Until tomorrow

Kim xx

HIV centre

Fish - foot massage

Vanarith, Me, Ericka, Karina