I am sat next to Michael Jackson...
So, internet cafes breed weird people (I am not including myself in that)...the guy next to me "heee heee"(or however you would type one of Michael Jacksons squeals), is apparently having a great time watching him (and singing along to his favourite bits) on youtube, complete with a few of his favourite moves...wow, I am pretty much living the dream right now...if my camera wasn't so obvious, I would attempt a picture.
So, last night I got back from my adventure in Svay Rieng, which is where I went to visit some of the projects which are run by 'Kone Kmeng', a charity based in Phnom Penh. There were 6 of us that went, all squished in 1 car (that's normal protocol here, seatbelts, seats...no big deal for Cambodians). We were staying at a pastors house who lives in the local village where we were going. The province (area) where we went is apparently the poorest province in Cambodia. I saw and did loads of stuff, but won't bore you all about it here, if you are interested then just ask - I'll give you the highlights...
The bathroom was different. I'm all up for a bit of basic living, but it took a little getting used to, but wasn't long before I was in the swing of it - I'll try and put a pic up if this computer lets me. The 'bath' was a trough filled with water and the toilet was a hole in the ground, some people don't have this, they literally have nothing.
We ate 3 meals of rice a day, even for breakfast (I have already had an e-mail to tell me that we eat 3 meals of rice a day on my volunteering in Thailand too) - rice for breakfast was weird, there was meat and fish too and some soup type things...this is dinner Cambodia style, and Ti-ta, a girl from the Kone Kmeng office...we all sit and eat on the floor with a bowl of rice and then help yourself to the other bits to go with the rice.
The pastor we stayed with runs a school for the local children. There is a school in the village, but the teachers are paid so little, that they don't really care about their work so the kids don't get a very good education, so the pastor runs extra lessons for them to come to so they can get a better education - this work is funded by the charity I went with. They also run health training classes for the local people, so they can learn how to keep themselves healthy and not spread disease.
Beacuse the place where we were was so rural, tourists don't go there and so quite a lot of the people we visited had never seen a white person before - it was quite a strange feeling, being stared at like you are an alien, and then people coming up and stroking you to see if your skin feels the same as theirs. One lady said the reason I am so white must be because I bathe in milk everyday (this was translated for me, I just smiled politely), someone else was surprised to note that my laugh and cough were the same as hers.
The Cambodians (in my experience), love a bit of karaeoke (suddenly forgotten how to spell this?) - so as we ate dinner one night, the tunes kicked in and I was serenaded by some 6 year old kids, it was pretty cute.
So, as well as the schools and health training projects that 'Kone Kmeng' support, they also have a well building programme - quite a lot of the people in the villages don't have clean water and have to travel miles to go and collect water every day. Kone Kmeng employs 3 staff in this area who can go and fit wells within the community - we went and visited a few of the familes/communities that have benefitted from the wells, and got to see one being installed at a school. This is the machine they use to dig the well, and the staff that dig the wells and the staff from Kone Kmeng I went with...
I met some really nice people and feel privaledged to have been able to go on this trip.
Michael Jackson has just left with a little 'who's bad?!' as he departed.
Thinking of going to the coast this week, but need to sort myself out, and then plans are to travel to Thailand on Friday ready to go and do my volunteering at the weekend, however there are some riots there at the moment so will have to see whether this will affect me or not, you can probably read about it in the news. I was hoping it would have finished by the weekend but it still seems to be going on at the moment.
That is all to report for now, keep in touch with what is going on where you are!
Hey Hazy, sounds like you are enjoying Cambodia as it comes! Love it that you are getting so involved! Miss you xxxx