The Goodacre's: Cambodia October 2008

Cambodia
WARNING….THIS IS VERY LONG MORE FOR STEVE AND I LATER
SECOND WARNING…PCTURES ARE ALL OUT OF ORDER>>>VERY ANNOYING!

Hmmm…where do I even begin…this week away was unforgettable, it was a full on week, it was amazing, horrible, emotional, educational, rewarding, and inspiring. We went from one amazing thing to another, blowing our minds each time.

We were traveling with 25 people in all.
We began in Siem Reap, We landed in the early morning and we had time to have some breakfast and then explore the city a little bit. In the after noon we went on a boat to see floating villages. We were able to go through another village (not floating) to see some local people.
The next day we woke up early (a recurring theme for the trip) we went to see Angkor Wat and three other major temples. These temples were built in the early 12th century, a huge temple that is an architectural marvel. It was about 40+ degrees in the sun and we were out from about 9-4 so it was hot, but really awesome to be there.
The next day, early in the morning, we flew to Phnom Penh. We went to S21, which is an old high school, but in 1975 was used as a torture chamber. Cambodia , we learned, has had a horrible and recent past. During the Vietnam War the US bombed Cambodia and secretly dropped more bombs on Cambodia than any other country in the world (except for Laos), which was when the problems began. Basically the countryside was bombed so the leader (Pol Pot) of the Khmer Rouge took advantage of their bad situation and easily mobilized them into his army. After the Vietnam war ended this man named Pol Pot created a political party and took over the country, he was as horrible as Hitler, and yet so many say they never heard a thing about it at the time…or since. Pol Pot wanted a classless society, so everyone who was educated was killed and cities evacuated to have everyone work in the rice fields. From 1975-1979 approximately 2 million Cambodians were killed, probably more than that. It is astonishing to think that this happened only 30 years ago!
At S21 we saw pictures and evidence of the horrors that were endured in this building. It was reminiscent of when we visited the Concentration Camp in Austria.
Strangely enough we then sat down at the nicest little restaurant just across the street from S21, went from a hell to a haven.
After lunch we went to the PIO school. We thought that S21 was shocking being that it was only 30 short years ago, but then we drove about 20 minutes in a Tuk Tuk and arrived in the Garbage Dump, where we found a school…what a mix of emotions…we are greeted by an unimaginable smell and then by hundreds of hugs by beautiful children who attend this school. We got to play with them and then walk a bit through the dump…bare foot through ‘dump sludge’ to be greeted by more children who have practiced three dances to perform for us. The thoughts that were going through our minds were at such odds with each other “this is disgusting, this is unbelievable that people must live this way, and yet the kids are so happy and obviously feel safe and look fairly healthy”
The children were full of smiles and love, it was all very overwhelming. I decided to venture out of the school to see the surroundings and check things out, I looked around the corner and saw some “homes”..in the first home I met a baby, only 23 days old, not even properly washed off yet. The baby’s mother was at the hospital as she was not well, so breastfeeding was not possible, so this baby was eating formula, that the family could not afford. One of the people that we traveled with gave the family $20, an interpreter came with to explain what the money was for. We know that $20 will feed that family for perhaps a month.
A very emotional day. We went for dinner and debriefed a bit, but were so exhausted we went to bed early.
The next day we went to an Orphanage run by a couple from Texas who have been doing work in Cambodia for 9 years. They house over 200 orphans that are HIV positive. They have done an unbelievable job at creating an atmosphere of love and providing everything these kids need. Through donations and ingenuity they provide medicine for each child from the Clinton foundation that puts their viral count at so low it barely shows up on the test. The kids are healthy and happy. But as well as that we saw what they have been doing, they are creating bio-fuel to fuel their kitchens and raising pigs to sell, they farm to be almost completely self sufficient.
They made us lunch and we were able to play with the kids for a short while.
Then we made our way to Tabitha, this is the organization that builds houses. We were sat down by a woman named Janne. She is an older lady who is originally from the Ottawa area in Canada . She has been in Cambodia since the mid 90s. She told us a bit of history and then shared a bit of her experience and motivation. She told us that when she arrived in the 90s everyone was inside by 5pm because there were still Khmer Rouge who came into the city and shot their guns at whoever dared them to. She slept in her bathtub every night…the 90s!!
Then she laid out the rules for our build the following day. We sort of expected a “thanks for coming, you are doing so much…blah blah” spiel, not what we got. We got a bit of a harsh lecture, she was pretty much like, if you are hear for gratitude or to feel like a hero, don’t build. She made us say out loud “this is not about me”. She wanted us to know that when we offer a gift, any gift, with the expectation of being ‘owed’ even a thank you, it is not okay. She wanted us to know That these people have been through too much to feel like they owe us anything. She told us we were not allowed to hold their babies or eat their food, even if offered, because they would think that we were exchanging the house for their kids or food…no pictures unless we asked..a whole list of rules!We were pretty taken aback by her harshness, but knew that she was saying what she said because she had seen it all before. She is a lovely lady who has devoted her entire life to helping Cambodians, so despite her not being ‘warm and fuzzy’ we walked away with a better understanding and a great respect for what she does and for the Cambodian people.
She does much more than just house building, she also employs many people, mostly woman, to do handi-craft work and then they sell it in their shop. The product is mostly silk and it is all beautiful. She told us that most of her employees lived through Pol Pot and still will not wear glasses, even if their vision is terrible, in fear that he will return and kill them (all people who wore glasses were thought to be educated..)
Anyway, we then all hoped into a few vans and headed south to a place called Kep, near Kampot, where we stayed the night and built our houses.
We woke up and got going early, the longer we waited, the hotter it got. When we got to the village we were greeted by most people that lived their and some Tabitha staff. The village consisted of about 150 people and we were building 10 homes. The Village was asked to decide who should get these homes. So as a group they decided who needed the homes and who would go without…a huge task.
We quickly broke into teams of 5-6 people and began. The house building itself is not back breaking work, or even intense labour, it is just hot. Tabitha already had contractors come in and build the frame. Each house sits about 6.5 feet off the ground, this allows a second floor of sorts and keeps the family off the ground while sleeping, it gets very wet and being in the wet creates a lot of illness. So when we arrived the frame was done, as was the roof. We needed to secure the floor with nails and then nail on the tin walls. Our team was Steve and myself, and our friends Ben and Carrie, Lisa and Melonie. We had such a FABULOUS day!
We were surrounded by the family who would live in the home and it was so nice to interact with them and see them as they watched us work. The men helped and that was great. Of course with Steve on the team, our homes turned out fantastic, he was in his element, hammering away and putting us all to work!3 hours later we had built our first home. We then stopped for lunch, we brought bread and peanut butter and stuff, so that was good. Then we set off on our next house. We were greeted by the family who would live there and there was a woman who was pretty old and who you could tell had lived through some horrors. She cried when saw us and was so thankful, it was very humbling. Her husband helped a lot and took a lot of pride in his home, making sure we doing a good job and helping where he could.
Three hours later we were done our second house, and the rest of the groups finished up as well and in one day we had made a huge difference in 10 families’ lives. When the day was done the whole community gathered around and we/Tabitha gave each family a home made quilt as a house warming present. They were very grateful and so happy. We got pictures with all of them.
We left and drove the three hour drive back to Phnom Penh , the drive was great to de-brief and discuss the day. There was very little complaining about the heat or hard work, knowing that we ‘suffered’ very little in comparison.
We arrived and got showered and went for dinner.
The next day was our last day in Phnom Penh, our only day to explore. So Steve and I set out with Laurel and Sam and we went to the Killing Fields, which was another horrible experience, fields of where the bodies were put, there are many fields that have been found since 1979. This one was the closest to S21. Thousands skulls were recovered and put in a Stupa at the killing fields. As we walked with our guide he pointed out clothing that was coming up from the dirt…very disturbing, literally seeing the clothing from the dead that were beneath our feet. It was a quiet walk while learning more of the horrors from our guide…he pointed out trees that blared music so no one would hear the screams. He told us the weapons that were used to kill the people, not bullets as they were too expensive (the Chinese were providing guns and bullets in exchange for rice).
From the killing fields we went to the Palace to see the Silver Pagoda and from there we went to the Tabitha store to buy a few things then to lunch at a place called ‘Friends’ which is a restaurant that hires street kids and teaches them how to run a restaurant. The food was incredible…we bought the cook book!From there we went to the Russian Market and then we went to Craig and Angela’s house. They are teachers who used to work at CIS in Singapore but moved to Cambodia to teach so we went to their place and then out for dinner at the FCC.

Saturday morning we got up early and got our flight home. We were very glad to arrive and spend lots of time with Madi, we missed her so much!