Reward

These last couple of days have been really cool. On Saturday we got to sleep in a little because we had all been up late friday, and we went to a Khmer cooking class. At the cooking class we made fried spring rolls and fish amok. I liked the spring rolls and now have a new appreciation for them seeing how much work goes into them. The fish amok was fun to make but I personally was not a huge fan of the taste. The whole thing was really cool. After that we went to see the Royal Palace, which was incredible. It is really well built and has many amazing things inside. There is a big Buddha statue made out of over 90 kilo's of solid gold and massive diamonds.

Then we were instructed that due to the group's hard work we were getting the privilege of going to Angkor Wat! So we packed up and drove the 5 hours to the Siem Riep province. We got there late with just enough time to eat and head to the Night Market to buy souvenirs.

Monday we woke up at 4:00 am to go see the sunrise over Angkor Wat, unfortunatly it was a little cloudy so the sunrise wasn't that great, but I'm glad we did it because it is cool to watch the whole structure start to wake up in the sun light. We came back to the hotel for some breakfast then headed off to another temple, Angkor Tom. This one is one of my  favorites as it has 54 massive Buddha faces that face the coordinates, north, west, east, and south. It's incredible to see what these people did using only wood and rocks. We saw most of the temples in the city of Angkor Tom, which were all cool. Then we headed off to another temple which is the one that Angelina Jolie used in her movie Tomb Raider. This is also crazy. It has 200 feet tall trees that have grown into the structure. The roots are out in the open and they have completely consumed entire structures. Then we were headed to one of the original 7 wonders of the world, Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is the tallest building in Siem Riep, the largest temple in Cambodia and one of the biggest in the world. Every square foot has something spectacular about it and it was great to get a refresher and pick up the little things that I missed when I went last year.

I do not think that any of us went through the weekend without having the kids in our minds several times. But we did our job and got an amazing treat of going to Angkor Wat, and changing our lives as well as the orphans at CPO. We did it. We completed the mission, and we did it as a team. It would not have been possible without all of your help and support, thank you!

The Final Day

Again, I had to go into the day knowing that goodbye was in a couple of hours. Instead I tried to focus on the fact that we were making these kids a dinner that they would never forget. We paid for chicken, corn, vegetables, sauce, dessert, the whole meal. Then the crew at CPO prepared it. Each kid got to have two full pieces of chicken, a full cob of corn and a handful of vegetables. Most of them have never had chicken before, and if they had, it was only a scrap. By the end, most of them were full which I don't think has ever happened to any of those kids. Then we brought out dessert which was a bowl of Twinkies, covered in chocolate sauce. Most of them could not finish because they were full from dinner but they all loved it. And the party began.

I have never really been a big dancer and I would not say that I am good at all. But I danced harder than ever, I dance for 2 hours straight trying to dance with every kid and trying to get every kid to dance. It was incredibly hot having 50 people on one small stage dancing like there was no tomorrow (because there was no tomorrow) It was 110% worth every second.

I had a glance at my watch and saw 7:45 it took me a couple seconds to realize that that meant 15 minutes, I broke the news to everyone and the next 15 minutes of dancing were incredible. Everyone in the the group gave it their all. Then like it felt like only a few seconds and the music stopped.

Only a few kids had started to cry, I don't think that everyone had registered what was happening. I started to hug some kids when everyone caught on. I had two kids hugging me bawling into my shirt when one looked up at me with his eyes full of tears and said with a sound of desperation "Please come back" and that wasn't the worst part. I could not say I will. I had the amazing opportunity of coming once, Then an unthinkable of coming twice, I don't know if three will be possible. Last year was easier, all I had to say was "I will come back" this year was "I will try".

For the first time in my life I saw a 25 year old bawl his eyes out. His name is Roy he is the oldest of 9 kids and completely healthy. For once in his life he did not have to worry about his family, because we were doing it for him. We gave his family a break and made them happy. He knew that it was back to before. I think his cries were more as a thank you to us and a little of the goodbye. He hugged me soaking my shirt for a solid ten minutes. The room was filled with the worst sound that a human can make, sheer cries of desperation, from kids and adults like Roy.

At one point I had about 8 kids all hugging me at once, and all soaking my shirt with their tears. It took all of my power to not cry for as long as I could but it only lasted me about 5 minutes. The whole night all I could say was "I will try"and "maybe" to the question of "Will you come back next year". This was harder than last year and I was not expecting this one to be so hard. But we did it, we accomplished our mission! Thank you everyone for your help and support, because it helped change the orphans, and our lives.
That night I received a letter from my dad that included this quote that I feel worked really well.

"Don't weep because it is over,
Smile because it happened"

Day 9

Only one day remains with my new family at CPO, and I do not think anyone is happy about it. Today we spent most of the day playing and sharing our love with the orphans. Our work consisted of cleaning one of the spare rooms, cleaning out the glass display case, and cleaning the corners of trash. While cleaning the corners, I went to check for trash in one spot and while walking I stepped on a piece of wood with a nail sticking out, the nail went straight through my flip-flop, and into my foot, it felt amazing. It really was not that bad but the director went voodoo on me and started hitting around the wood with the drum stick. Then they rubbed something, I think it was garlic, on it and then something else and I have no idea what that was.
Oh well, good thing I got a tetnis shot. We all had a fun day but are now just starting to realize that in 24 hours we will be gone. This is something that none of us want to talk or think about. We have all become so close with the kids, just like last year. I know how hard it was last year and it is not something that I am looking forward to tomorrow. I know that everyone has done a great job this trip and I am excited for the party tomorrow! 

Days 6, 7, and 8

The last few days have been amazing, we have spent everyone of them at our main orphanage CPO. I now have found my two favorite kids at CPO, Lavin 15, and Lavid 9. They are brothers. They are not orphans entirely. They still have a mom who lives in the slums, which is about a 5 minute walk away. The slums are basically living the worst it gets, The homes are made or scraps of wood thrown togeather to make a "house". There is sewage running through the streets and garbage everywhere you step. My friends mother is HIV positive and has four kids, two boys and two girls. Both boys live in the orphanage and one of the girls, The other girls is just a baby and will probably live with her mother until she can eat, then will probably live in the orphanage because food costs money and that is something the mom does not have.

Lavin is 15 and very smart, he speaks good English and we can have a small conversation. He is also kind of shy. I had not really met him before we went to visit the mother in her home. Then I started to pay more attention, I felt for the family and how hard it must be to be the kids, being given away by your mother who is still alive, and for the mother who had to give up her kids because she could not support them, it is horrible to think about. But the kids are some of the happiest at CPO. I then noticed him again when we were having a sort of dance party and neither of the two boys wanted to dance. I asked them why and they said "I am no good, no like to dance" so I tried to get them to dance a little but they really were against it so we went out and played some volleyball. Volleyball is the big thing here, soccer is cool, but volleyball is number one.

Lavid is 9 and he is amazing, he is just like his brother in every way, shy, smart, and incredibly generous. Both boys have spent their own money to buy me bracelets. The director gives each kid a little money for a snack for school and they both, spent theirs to buy me 2 bracelets. The family has a little black dog that i think is fed by trash but Lavid loves the dog, the dog will walk over just to hang out and snuggle with him. He is also a big fan of volleyball like his brother.

The sister and the baby I do not know much about other then, the older one is HIV negative and the little baby needs to take three tests to confirm, and she has only taken one and it came out negative.

For work, we have cleaned out the chicken coop and scraped it clean of grass. Then we cut the lawn... I know take lawn mowers for granted. Picture cutting a lawn 50ft by 40ft... with a knife. We cut the whole thing down to the dirt which is awesome because it will provide a good living space to the chicken and makes the place look good. We did this over the queens birthday which is a holiday and told the kids that they could not help because it was a holiday but they did not let us they were constantly trying to help, I wish my siblings were like them ;) (love you guys).

The  last couple of days have been really productive, but I am starting to worry about the goodbyes in two day. It will be so incredibly hard to do have to say goodbyes again. This time is different, I will not be able to say "I will come back" with confidence, I have been here twice and another will be difficult. I wish the day would never come.

Day 5

Seeing as it is the weekend, we started the day of by sleeping in (which was really nice). We left the guest house at about 10 and went to the orphanage PIO. This orphanage is in a trash town, as we drove to get there we could see mountains of trash on eaither side and the houses were scrappy wooden shacks. We arived at the orphange and were greeted well. We spent until 2:00 there as we played soccer, volleyball, drawing, origami, and puzzles. When it was time to go they put on a few dances. Then they had us dance, dancing is definitly not my specialty but we all danced and had a good time. As we are leaving the kids all ask "see you tomorrow?" it was hard to say no as we will not go back again this trip.

After PIO we went to another orphanage CCH, we went to the all girls part. We played some basketball as well as monkey in the middle. My friend Lilly also tought me some "patty cake" themed games, one was an intense virsion of Rock, Paper, Scissors which was way more complicated then it needed to be. It was fun and we had a good time. Then when it was time to go, again, we had to say that we would not be coming back.

After that we went to the boys section and the school. there was only a couple boys at the time but both the school and the home was nice. Then we drove out to the SFODA orphange which was a ways away only to find out that they had taken the kids on a field trip and would not be back for 2 days... oh well.

In the end, it was a succesful day, we gave lots of supplies and clothes to people who needed it, and we all had fun. I will write again soon.
Thanks!

Day 4

I hurt... everywhere, but not from anything I did physically. In the afternoon, we went ot see the orphanage we tended to last year. Of the 75 amazing kids we met, only about 30 are left. The kid I sponsored for private school, Bonti age 13, left about 5 months ago, not to be heard from or seen since. He had no family left. The fire in the kids I knew is gone, not just in some of them, all of them. No one seems happy. When we asked if they had eaten today, this was at quarter to five, the initial response was "we ate this mourning, we will eat tomorrow". All of us wiped our bags clean of food and candy, and the orphans all ate it without hesitation. The owner is driving the Cambodian Hope Association into the ground. There is a little girl, about two, who is mentally disabled, she should be in the government run orphange for the disabled where she could be getting medications. Instead the owner keeps her there where he can show her off and ask for money. We left at about ten to five and we asked the owner what was for dinner and who was making it. Our answer was fried fish, and when the rest of the kids get back from school, which was at 5. Nothing we being prepared, and they were suppose to eat in ten minutes... I know he was lying and those kids did not eat dinner. I do not know yet if we will go back before I come home so I had to say goodbyes like it would be forever. I only spent an hour and a half with them in the past year and I had to try and say my final goodbyes. I am out of words and do not know how to describe my pain and feelings right now .I feel sick to my stomach and need to get some rest. Thank you all for your support, I will write again soon.

Day 3

Today started off  as a rush for Creek and I, we have been keeping our alarm on my watch and after yesterdays big day... We slept straight through it. About 20 minutes before we were suppose to leave Creek yelled "Jack I don't think your alarm went off!" we ended up being able to eat and make the departure time, Thank you Creek!

We started off the day with half of us going to the market which was Creek, Gena, Aj, Jen, Jamie and I, and the rest went to the orphanage. I was excited because I knew what to expect where as the others, I'm not so sure. We were going to get 3 full size trash cans, 3 brooms, 20 trash bags, 11 pairs of work gloves, 3 trash scoopers, and a couple rags.All with $50 to work with. In the process, Gena told me that she had discovered some..."interesting"... smells. We did well as we finished only using about half of the money. Then we were off to the orphanage to start our work.

 With some of the money we fundraised we are paying for the orphanage to have another part of roof put in so that way when it rains the kids don't end up soaking wet like they were. When it rained about half of the sleeping area would get soaked so kids would either get really wet or sleep on top of one and other. This new piece of roof will cause the rain water to drip away from the sleeping area. This is a major production and we were told that they would start today, I thought this meant get a little bit of the structure completed but I was way off. When we arrived the structure was built and they were already starting to work on the roof structure, they did this without holds, ropes, drills or screws. An ax, and nails is all they used. the ax was dropped a  couple of times so it is good that no one was walking through at that time. Then as we were hanging out with the kids waiting to start, I heard that they were trying to chop down this tree that was on the telephone wire. This tree was on the orphanages land and was about 150 feet tall. One of the workers climbed the tree about half way and started hacking with a machete while the others pulled on a rope trying to get it to come down. It did come down which was awesome to see. We ate and then it was time to work.

Half of the group went to pick up all of the trash which was everywhere, mainly in the field. There was so much of it. In the back corner of the field was trash that looked like it had been there for years... with food in it. I lifted the first bag up to find about 50 full size maggot worms and covered in mold. That was pleasant and so was the smell. I have smelt many things such as rotting fish in the market but this was a 100 times worse. We all held down our lunches, taking all our will power. but after about an and hour and a half in the sun, it was done. The other half of the group was de-licing all of the kids. Some were really bad and some had very little it was odd. But, the group did well with very few complaints and no negative attitudes. That was awesome. After all the work we went back to the kids, playing volleyball, soccer, frisbee and just giving them love. At 4:30, half of us had to leave early to get the translator back. I think we are all very tired which is awesome. It means we left it all out on the field.

Time to go get some rest, another big day tomorrow. Thank you all again for the support and donations. Just remember that the next time it rains here in Cambodia, your donations helped give some orphans a dry bed.
Thank you!

Days 1 and 2

We arrived in Phnom Phen at 12 am and were taken to the tatoo guest house. I am rooming with Creek which is no suprise seeing that we are the only two boys on the trip, but we started out right by making sure we were both organized and had everything ready for day 1.

 We woke up at 7 and went right to Star Kampuchea which is the organization we are going through. This was an orientation where I got a refresher on the language, rules, culture, and "do's and don't's". It was quick and easy and took up the first half of the day.

The second half of the day we went to the S21 museum which was a high school that was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge. 20,000 people went in and only 7 came out, we had the amazing opportunity of meeting one of the two survivers left. All the rest have passed away of old age. The museum was also a refresher, this was very helpful because I could pick up information that I missed durring my last visit. It also reminded me of why the country is in such a poor state, and why there are so many orphans. Then we went to the Killing Fields which is where the prisoners from the S21 were taken to be exicuted. This was my second time visiting the Killing Fields and this time we got the audio tour guide which gave us all the information, which was nice because I learned a lot. I think that it was a very good idea to see these places first because it showed the students right off the bat why things are the way they are. I now feel that my fellow students really get the whole situation.

Today we woke up at 6:30 to make sure we were all ready fot the orphange. The orphanage I attended last year (CHA) only has 20 kids left. Many kids found homes, others were transfered to different ophanages and others we don't know. Having 11 people at an orphange of only 20 is not the most effecient so we decided to head out to the rural areas about 40 minutes away to an orphanage of 40 kids. When we first arived we were immediately greeted with hugs and complaments. I pumped up the soccer ball that I brought and we immediatly started a game of soccer, but this was not on a field, this was on a patch of dirt using bricks and flip flops for goals. This orphange makes a lot of their money off of the plays they do. The orphange was made with a stage which is where the kids live and practice. At lunch they showed us their acts and dances which were amazing. They even had their own music which used the drum which was played by  the 16 year old and the xzilaphone which was played by a blind 23 year old. This was one of the coolest things ever to see. He was increadably talented. His story is that he was born with sight but when he was about 1 and a half he got an eye infection and he was taken to the doctors where they gave him drops, the drops caused him to go blind. This does not stop him as he is also amazing at drums and a violin looking instrament. There was another blind boy who is about the same age, he was also born with sight but when he was four he and a friend found a land mine, they were playing with it when it exploded, killing his friend and leaving him blind and with scars covering the front of his body but he is also talented, he speeks very good inglish.

Today was all about getting to know the orphanage and all of the kids. Tomorrow we will start our work whith de-licing and cleaning up the trash which lies all around the orphanage. I am excited to start to improve the living conditions of the kids and to get a first impresion of the work ethics of my fellow students. I was upset to leave today which didn't happen for the first few days last year which is good and bad, I want to be with them, but it also means I am already becoming attached which will just make for a harder goodbye in two weeks. 

All of us need to get some rest for the work tomorrow in heat, I drank 2 1/2 leaters today by myself, and 'we weren't even working, going to have to pack more for tomorrow! Everyone is doing great here and there hasn't been any issues (MOM!). Again I thank you all for you kindness and support! I will update again as soon as possible.  

Follow the others!

Make sure to follow the others!


Jen- http://gutmanncambodia.blogspot.com

Lisa-Marie- http://childrensglobalalliance.blogspot.com

Haley- http://www.haley2012cambodia.blogspot.com

Nicole- http://www.flyingthroughasupernova.blogspot.com

Shariar- http://www.shariar.blogspot.com

Aj- http://www.adavies1825.blogspot.com

Keavy- http://www.keavylovecambodia.blogspot.com

Creek- http://www.cambodiacreek2012.blogspot.com

Gena- http://www.cambodia-owns-my-heart.blogspot.com

Jamie- http://www.jamiedahlquist.blogspot.com

Departing Tomorrow!

Last may I made a promise... A promise to 75 Cambodian orphans that I would come back.
Tomorrow mourning I am headed to fulfill my promise with 9 other amazing people. I will miss everyone back home but this is a promise that I must keep and I am incredibly grateful and lucky to have the opportunity I was givin. I want to thank everyone for their support and donations for making all of this possible, Thank you!