Final orphanage

The team visited its final orphanage yesterday. After the long drive to Siem Reap, we made a quick stop to check back in at Smiley’s Guest House before heading to the Siem Reap orphanage. We showed up around 3:00 and the kids were still at school so we made ourselves scarce for a couple of hours. Since we weren’t building bunkbeds there was little reason to hang around a largely deserted home.

With the extra time we had, we drove out to a local village in need of some help. We stopped right along the road and met the residents a short walk back. It’s hard to call what is largely a dirt path a “main road” but a sprinkle of traffic did pass and it was the main avenue in and out. We asked all the residents to form into three lines and we started to hand out fruit. We had made a quick stop beforehand at a local market to buy what we distributed.

It’s worth explaining the significance of the fruit that we have been distributing at the orphanages, slums, and villages. Cambodia is a jungle climate but fruit is still very much a luxury item. That is especially true for fruit that is not native to Cambodia. Many of the kids we interact with have never seen an apple or orange and even if they have, both are rare treats. Durian seems to be a favorite but everything is appreciated.

The team headed back to the home and found the kids back from school. We worked through our normal, albeit slightly abbreviated, program of face painting, games, and warm reunions. The kids had a service of their own and we all got to hear several songs. Everyone was touched and more than one caught themselves crying. We hung around until shortly after 6:00 when the kids were getting ready for dinner before saying goodbye and heading back to Smiley’s.

Having visited the final orphanage of the trip, the door has been opened for the team to split up and explore as they will. That started last night with everyone eating dinner on their own and an open evening. Some of the team ate at the guest house and some of the team grouped up and headed to the night market.

The most amazing place

We have visited several orphanages over the past few days and all of them have been wonderful. The kids are a delight and seeing the growth and progression of the facilities has been fantastic. Each orphanage is worth special attention but the days have been so full I haven’t had the chance to update the blog. We’re on the way to Pursat right now and rather than speak about a specific orphanage, I want to write about the country. Now that we have been here for a week, I feel safe saying that my impressions are no longer based purely on the novelty of the experience.

This country is hot, humid, economically depressed, and the most amazing place I have ever been. The people are kind, humble, and genuine; the scenery comes straight out of a fantasy world. Knowing the history of the country—the very recent history—combined with our mission to work with the orphanages puts everything in an even brighter light. There is a spirit here that infects everything you see and experience with a positivity and joy I have never seen before.

One experience stands out for me. Pailin was the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge. As such, the country is peppered with active and unmapped landmine fields. Some have been located and are marked off with razor wire but there are an untold number that haven’t. Despite the ubiquitous fear, Pailin is one of the most beautiful places in the world. How can you explain the overwhelming beauty and joy of one of the most dangerous place in the country if not the world? That unexplainable contrast is exactly what Cambodia is.

Maybe it can be whittled down to simple cause and effect. The geographic location results in the perfect environment for beautiful jungle foliage. The optimism and positivity could be attributed to a pendulum back from oppression of the Khmer Rouge. Maybe everything has come together in the perfect storm to create this magical place. Or maybe there’s something else. Whatever it may be, we can all stand testament to how amazing this country has been.

Slums

I’m having a hard time finding the words to explain what we saw. Everyone has at least seen pictures of poor areas around the world but the slums of Siem Reap give “poverty” a new meaning. It’s a level of hardship beyond western comprehension. The people that live there are beyond explanation. The pride and strength is awe inspiring and the desperation is heart breaking.

The first thing that hits you is the smell. The slums are built on and next to a garbage dump where the residents search for things to sell and food to eat. The slums themselves are little more than tents cobbled together out of whatever people can find. Row upon row of tarps propped up on sticks and lean-tos made out of discarded metal sheets. The people are simply beyond explanation. The swollen bellies and hard-set faces paint a clear picture of the pride and desperation.

After the team arrived and piled out of the vans, we were quickly instructed not to take any pictures. Lots of “volun-tourists” come through the slums to snap pictures and then turn around and leave. The chief asked us to not take any pictures as a sign of respect to the people who lived there.

Once we got permission to enter, we started handing out candy and bracelets to the kids. Both were gone almost as soon as we opened the bags. After that we walked a bit further into the slums to start handing out donated clothing and the sandals collected by the kids back at Mount Arrarat. The initial plan was to only hand out some of the clothes and save the rest for orphanages later in the trip. That decision was quickly changed as the crowd grew and the team saw the level of need.

We did the best we could to fit everyone to the correct sized clothing but even after giving out everything we had, we didn’t have enough. As heart-warming as it was to see the smiles of people who received a pair of sandals, it was heart-breaking when we ran out.

The slums showed everyone a new extreme for what poverty can mean. Everyone left with a different understanding of the level of need some people experience.

Spider town and Kampong Cham

After the hard work yesterday, it is hard to think of the roosters outside as anything other than breakfast potential. Yesterday was an amazing but physically draining day at the Kampong Cham orphanage.

The team left Phenom Penh at 8:00 and made its way to Kampong Cham. I didn’t mention visiting the Russian market the day before because I felt S21 and the killing fields were better worth note. The stop at Spider town today is a different story.

Spider town is an aptly named town/market halfway between Phenom Penh and Kampong Cham. The team pulled in with the goal of buying food and candy for the orphanage but everyone streamed out of the vans to take in the experience. The shop stalls sold everything from bootleg movies to freshly butchered meats to, you guessed it, spiders.

I had made myself the promise that I would take in everything this trip presented as an opportunity. I wouldn’t say no to anything (within reason) and would grab the bull by the horns and dive straight in. That promise earned me a “delicious” snack of tarantulas in Phenom Penh and I continued my streak in Spider town with water beetles, cockroaches, and a whole scorpion. Mercifully I was also able to buy a freshly picked pineapple to wash down the meal.

Pastor Jerry took the name of the town to heart and bought the new team mascot. Everyone was a bit hesitant at first but most have since warmed up to Tami the tarantula who spends most of her (its?) time living on the bill of Jerry’s hat. She’s friendly enough and was supposedly de-fanged so she’s a welcome, or at least tolerated addition to the team for most of us.

Once we got to the orphanage everything start progressing without much trouble. Unfortunately, that good fortune didn’t last. Rachael was setting up bunk beds in the boy’s dorm and badly cut her foot on a metal trunk. Her foot was promptly wrapped up but the cut took her out of commission for the rest of the day. The other problem also cropped up in the boy’s dorm. The team came to the orphanage expecting to find all 25 beds that had been shipped. Only 15 beds made it.

There is an arrangement with the Cambodian government to allow passage of the beds through customs without the standard taxes. However, after verifying the contents of the shipping containers, the government realized the quality of the beds and asked if they could have 10 for a government run orphanage. They were allowed to take 10 and since the boys dorm at Kampong Cham already had beds, the 10 were taken from their allotment.

After getting all the bunk beds set up, the team drove a short way up the road to the orphanage parent’s house for lunch. The food was delicious and the hospitality was overwhelming. Everyone happily scarfed down their food and then made the quick drive back to the orphanage.

The afternoon was filled with programs with the kids and playing in the yard. Pastor Jerry gave his creation story presentation, the Louisiana team led their tambourine craft, all the kids had their faces painted, and Justin and Rachael gave their overcoming obstacles presentation. Everyone went out to play in the field with the parachute and the balls we had brought. Around 5:00 everyone, kids and all, headed back up the road to to eat dinner.

Based on past experiences the team has a strict rule that no one eats until all of the children eat. That was no problem with dinner and everyone enjoyed a meal of rice, veggies, and chicken.

After tearful goodbyes and promises to see each other soon, the team climbed back into the vans and drove to a nearby guest house. The original plan had been to spend two days at Kampong Cham and to sleep there. Since the beds went up so quickly, the team decided to stay in a local guest house and spend the today at Siem Reap instead.

Remember your history

The team didn’t visit any orphanages today. Today was about remembering history to better understand where Cambodia is now. Cambodia has a tremendously upbeat and optimistic culture but not 40 years ago, Cambodia was home to the vicious dictator Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

After a quick breakfast, the team piled into the vans and headed out to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum at the former site of Security Prison 21 (S21). The site was originally known as Chao Ponhea Yat High School located in the center of Phenom Penh. The Khmer Rouge converted the school to an interrogation and detention center in August 1975. Between 1975 and 1979, the prison housed between 17,000 and 20,000 prisoners but the exact number is unknown. Life in the prison was inhumanly brutal and over it’s 5-year existence, only seven survivors ever escaped.

The site has been kept much the way it was when discovered by the liberating Vietnamese army in 1979. Everything from the beds prisoners were strapped to for torture to the gymnasium turned gallows have been faithfully preserved. The team followed a tour guide through buildings A, B, and C with building D still under renovation. At the end of the tour, the team had the honor to meet the last 2 living survivors of Security Prison 21. Seeing the wretched conditions and sickening interrogation tools was hard for much of the team.

After S21, the team loaded back into the vans and headed to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. Seeing S21 was hard to stomach but the Killing Fields hit like a ton of bricks. Choeung Ek was the end of the road for an unknown number of victims because officials have simply stopped counting the bodies. Even today you can see bones and clothing strewn across the property as rain continues to uncover the graves.

The team followed a guided audio tour across the surprisingly small property. The tour covered everything from the truck drop off to the former sites of administrative buildings to the uncovered grave sites to the killing tree. The tour concludes with a Buddhist stupa near the center of the site. In Buddhist religion, a soul cannot rest if the head is separated from the body and Cambodia is a predominantly Buddhist country. The stupa is filled with over 5,000 human skulls whose body was never recovered.

The Killing Fields were hard to handle for many on the trip. The sheer scale of cruelty is hard to comprehend and the sight of bones and cloth uncovered by recent rain is overwhelming.

Security Prison 21 and Cheung Ek hit everyone hard but seeing where Cambodia has come from is important to understand where it’s going. The Khmer Rouge was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of roughly 1/4 of the Cambodian population. The genocide ended in 1979 but an overwhelming majority of people alive today were directly affected but that reign of terror.

Seeing the horror but also seeing the hope and optimism at the orphanages and across the country paints the picture of where we are. This is not a defeated people. This is not a charity case. With those images and memories fresh in our minds, the team gets back to work tomorrow and leaves early in the morning for the next orphanage.

Day 1

Yesterday (July 17^th) was the first day for visiting orphanages and bunkbed construction. The team is staying at the Golden Gate Guest House in Phenom Penh for this leg of the trip and despite the major time change taking its toll, everyone was up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a 7:00 breakfast. After eating and the morning devotional, the team piled into the vans at 8:00 for the drive to Takeo orphanage.

The drive was hardly short and the roads leave a lot to be desired but the trip gave a lot of the team their first real exposure to Cambodia. The roads are lined with rice fields, emaciated cows, and a mélange of sights from a different world. Everywhere is clogged with tuk-tuks and mopeds, traffic laws and road markings are mere suggestions, and you hear the constant polite honks of people zipping around claiming their lane. Despite what seems like a free for all, there is almost a feeling of kumbaya and the disjointed chaos of traffic comes together and works.

The first orphanage was in a more rural part of the country. The kids were in school when everyone arrived and team piled out of the vans and got right to work. Beds were built for the boys and girls in separate rooms. Twelve beds were put in a relatively large room for the boys with four beds going into a small, cramped room for the girls. Fitting all 4 beds into the room was like a giant game of Tetris but things were moved around to allow for some modicum of comfort. This blog is not meant as a critique of social inequity but the differences in size between the living spaces was notable.

The kids started returning from school a short while in and plenty jumped into the project intent on helping in whatever way they could. All twenty-two beds went up without much trouble and the team headed into town for a quick lunch.

Lunch itself was an adventure. The team was treated to a communal meal at a local café. Many of the meals for the trip will be handled this way with one dish split family-style for the whole team. Food was a traditional Cambodian meal with soup, rice, noodles, and a collection of other meats and veggies. Everything was delicious and a welcome reprieve from a demanding morning.

After lunch, the team headed back to the orphanage to spend time with the kids and see where else we were needed. The team was swarmed right off the bat by happy, energetic kids running around saying hi to past friends. Pastor Jerry led a brief service about creation, the Louisiana team led a craft activity making paper tambourines, and everyone helped pass around apples and oranges the team had purchased during lunch. Neither apples nor oranges are native to Cambodia and many of the kids had never seen either one. There were smiles all around and after a tearful goodbye, the team piled back into the vans to head back to Phenom Penh.

The team went straight to dinner near the hotel with everyone breaking up to either head to an early bed or enjoy some R&R. Shawn. Rachael, and Justin headed down to the river to meet up with Pon, a long-time friend. Pon deserves some special attention and history but I’ll delve into that later tonight.

Instead of going to an orphanage, the team is spending today visiting S-21, the killings fields at Choeung Ek, and the Russian market.

And they’re off!

Rachael and I met the group from Mt. Arrarat Church at Dulles and got on the plane for the first leg of the trip to Cambodia. This will be the George’s tenth trip but the first time inviting Mt. Arrarat Church and co. to join on their mission trip to Cambodia. In 2008, Rachael joined a school-led mission trip to Cambodia to work with New Hope for Orphans. While on the trip, Rachael called her dad with an idea for a personal mission. The bunk beds at the orphanages were in deplorable condition and desperately in need of repair or replacement. Over the past 10 years, Rachael and her family have made it a personal mission to bring new bunk beds and sustainable projects to orphanages around the country.

After hard work from all the volunteers, the wood for the beds was cut and shipped to the orphanages back in April. Now the team is off to lead construction and help as needed. Rachael, Sean, Jerry, and I are leading the group and meeting Cheryl-Lynn and Julius–the heads of the mission–in Cambodia. The team will visit 6 orphanages around the country and work with hundreds of kids for a two-week mission.

The first leg of our trip took us to Doha, Qatar for a 10-hour layover. Our flight to Cambodia leaves at 2:15 AM local time and we’ll meet Cheryl and Julius at the airport in Phenom Penh, Cambodia at about 4:00 PM.

We get right to work on Monday with 25 bunk beds at Takeo. Everyone is excited and ready to get right to work.