Trip of a lifetime
On the 29th of November Meg and I left Thailand to make our way into Cambodia where we were planning to spend the next few weeks in Siem Reap before continuing our travels around the country. From the very first moment we arrived in Siem Reap, we immediately loved it. The slow paced traffic in comparison to Thailand, the friendly people, and the culture that is obvious on every street you travel through. After meeting up with Clare for dinner we organised a time to visit the Chres Village Orphanage where Meg and I were planning on spending a lot of our time teaching English through the day. Since we arrived on a Wednesday, we decided we would wait to start the new week by taking our first class on the following Monday which therefore gave us the opportunity to spend some time with the boys at the Stepping Out halfway house, an opportunity we were later very grateful to receive. We immediately felt comfortable around the boys and became great friends. They were always very entertaining to be around, whether it be explaining English words or sayings to them, letting them show us their sporting or singing skills, and even just telling us about school that day. Never a dull moment!
As Monday came and we had begun teaching classes at the orphanage, Meg and I shared a morning class and then could leave in the afternoons. This once again gave us time to spend with the boys. This involved a lot of activities such an afternoon at Barray Lake swinging in Hammocks by the water. This is where the boys introduced us to some local cuisine such as frogs, and ‘sea shells’ which were like small pipis and even showing us an alternative way to eat a mango, not ripe and dipped in chilli salt. After the boys took a swim and dried off we went back up the poorly built dangerous pathway (which we soon became used too spending some time with the locals, personal safety isn’t really thought about as much as in Australia). We also went to the boy’s favourite place to be on a Sunday afternoon, the roller skate park. The boys were more than happy to show us their skating skills which they were very good at getting up the jumps, but coming down was a bit of a laugh. Meg, Clare and I also had a go and soon stopped laughing at them when we starting have a few crashes ourselves. This was a very entertaining afternoon and became a regular activity. They look forward to Sundays so they can go back and learn some more tricks. We also took the boys, Clare, the house parents and Shremom to dinner in Pub Street, followed by a fun night at temple club where we witnessed the great dancing skills of some of the boys.
As the time crept closer that Meg and I were originally planning on continuing our travel, Clare got some terrible news from home and therefore had to rush home unexpectedly. In order to help Clare and her family as best we could, Meg and I decided to cancel our plans to leave Siem Reap and travel south, as well as extending our flights out of Cambodia giving us an extra few weeks to help look after the boys while Clare was with her family back in Australia. A decision that we were more than happy to agree upon and one that we had great support from both our families at home as they organised everything that needed to be done for us to stay, even though it meant missing Christmas.
As soon as Clare left we were tested as Sei, one of the boys living with Clare at the halfway house, became very sick. After trying a few traditional Khmer remedies, it was decided that we would try and find him a hospital. I got the news that he was taken to the Reaksmey Ankor Clinic, not far from Clare’s house. Once I arrived at the clinic I was greeted by a translator that did not understand what I was trying to say (thank goodness I had So with me). I was told that he had appendicitis and that in order for it to be removed I would have needed to pay a $550 fee to cover the cost of the surgeon and drugs. I was also told that is something happens to him while in surgery such as an allergic reaction or worse, that the doctor is not responsible. Not the best confidence boost after being stressed enough as it was. I told the doctor that I couldn’t afford to pay him $550 and to give me some other options. The second option was that I could leave it and wait for him to get better, but if his appendix ruptures there is nothing he can do, but if I choose surgery he will drop the price to $400, so I chose surgery. After spending every day and a few sleepovers with him in the hospital, Sei was finally discharged from the hospital and we all became his nurse at home. The biggest challenge was keeping him home and stopping him from going to school (not an issue I expected to have).
After we knew Sei was better and at home, we were once again focusing our time towards the orphanage as the other volunteers had now left and Meg and I had a morning class and an afternoon class each. We would ride our push bike 20km each way to the orphanage from siem reap and then head straight back to the house to spend as much time with the boys as we could. We enjoyed just being with them, learning the Khmer language, Khmer songs and reading English books with the boys to help with the pronunciation of words. Some afternoons if Meg and I were lucky they would bring us some Khmer snacks to try. These mostly included insects from a stall up the street such as crickets and beetles (not very nice at all but they loved them) as well as Khmer cakes (always included rice somehow).
The last treat that Meg and I decided to shout the boys was a hot air balloon ride which overlooked the Tonle Sap, Barray Lake, Ankor Wat, Siem Reap and surrounding rice farms. The boys were very excited but nervous about going up in the air as they watched the balloon take up to the air for the people before us. They all just sat on the ground or on chairs watching up in the air with fright as the balloon went higher and higher. It came to our turn and we all climbed into the balloon basket. At first we were all hanging on and looking at the ground, although as we got higher and started to see all the amazing sights around, they all became much more interested in seeing as much as they could moving around and getting photos. It was very fun watching the boys enjoy it as much as they did, and the sights were fantastic.
Meg and I decided that we would try and bring Christmas to the boys this year. Was also something to keep their minds off Clare as they missed her a lot, and worried for her family. We bought them a Christmas tree which we decorated together and they all made their own decorations to place on the tree. We also bought them all enough presents so they each had one to open, although they had to share the gift they opened with everyone. Gifts included things like a soccer ball, volley ball, UNO cards, monopoly and other board games and roller skates. The biggest thing for them to understand was that the presents were not just empty boxes wrapped up like under the tree in lucky mall, but actually had presents in them. This got them very excited. Once Christmas day came it was very exciting watching the boys opening their presents and testing them out. The roller skates were a great hit. We then took them out to the orphanage for Christmas lunch which Clare had organised to hold. The day before we had some of the boys go down to the markets with Shremom to buy the ingredients and they spent the entire afternoon making kebabs and preparing the vegetables for the Curry. The orphans loved the food and especially the soft drink we brought with us, and learning how to use the bon bons. It was a very fun day full of games, food and laughter. A little different to an Australian Christmas, there was no ham, turkey or potato salad, but it was very fun spending the day playing with the kids rather than teaching them. We ended the day by playing a friendly game of soccer in a nearby rice field, ‘Stepping out’ vs. ‘Chres Village’, a very entertaining game!
Unfortunately Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) was the day Meg and I had to make our way to Phnom Penh to catch out flight back to Thailand and then back home. This day was very sad, as most of it we tried to get as much fun out of it as possible, playing soccer, volleyball and roller skating around the house, trying not to think about having to leave that night. When midnight came and our night bus was leaving, all the boys and the house parents came to say goodbye as we got picked up and after a lot of crying and hugs, we were on our way to Phnom Penh and already planning our next trip back to see them again.
Our time spent at both the orphanage and especially with the boys was life changing. The boys are all so uplifting and so much fun to be around. It has made us both very proud of the work Clare does with the boys in Cambodia and she has found herself her two biggest fans. Now to planning our next trip in the near future to do it all again.
Jaydam
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