The orphanage

  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Monday, May 26, 2008

Yes, the orphanage ! I have been volunteering in an orphanage for the past week and it is awesome, amazing, brilliant, fantastic, great. The trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap was an adventure on its own : A good 6 hours from Bangkok to Aranya Pathet in Thailand at the border of Cambodia,

Poipet border

then 2 hours going through customs, bargaining your visa with corrupted officers and going from Aranya Pathet in Thailand to Poipet in Cambodia with a tuk tuk, then here you are, in the kingdom of Cambodia. And 6 more hours to go to get to Siem Reap on sand and mud. Poverty, poverty, poverty, it is more than one can handle. It is really striking. The people, the kids, the roads, the means of transportation, no electricity, no water, no houses, it is just unbelievable.

Roads in Cambodia

The orphanage is the best place to be while in Siem Reap. The place itself is absolutely amazing. It is in the Angkor wat park and you drive through temples to get to it. You have to argue every morning with the security guards as to be able to be in the park, you need to pay $20 a day. Unfortunately, this money is going straight to Korea as Angkor wat is not owed by Cambodia. The orphanage itself is no more than a couple of table cloths laid on the ground, some wooden open panels as walls and bamboo for the roof. There are 3 "houses" like that : one for the classroom,

The classroom

one for the playroom during the day/ sleeping room at night and one for the kitchen. Mind you, most of the cooking happens outside. The place has no water and no electricity. They sometimes turn on the generator, like tonight when we brought in a TV and the movie Toy story, the kids were ecstatic ! For drinking water, they have a well outside the house with a hand pump and for washing, they just go in the muddy lake out front.

The kids are absolutely amazing though.

The kids 3

They are all cuter than one another, I have just fallen in love 50 times : there are about 50 kids in the orphanage. They do not have school, hence the reason I am here teaching. To play, they simply use everything and anything they can possibly find. Four bottle caps for the wheels, an empty can for the body and a wire to put them together and they've got a brand new car to play around all day. They come from such a poor background that this made-up car makes them as happy as one can be. In Cambodia, the kids are simply considered miniature adults and as such, they take care of themselves on their own. Kmers staff are on site at all times but they are completely laid back and if it was not for the volunteers, the kids would be on their own all day. 

The kids 2

Just being with the kids is such a great experience. It is so rewarding. Those kids have so much love to give and they give you back 50 times more than what you can possibly give them. They are just fantastic kids, they are so bright, so open minded. Every smile is a reward, they are so eager to learn, they just ask you to teach them all the time, new things, new languages, new games, they want to know more and they always ask for more. They follow you around everywhere, they are just happy to see you in the morning and I get more hugs in one day at the orphanage than I've had in my last 30 years !

Please look at the pictures and see how wonderful the kids are. Just looking at their eyes, their smiles, their happy faces will make you love them. Those kids barely have enough food to eat every day. They sleep on the ground, altogether in one room, they have no clothes to wear and there is no way for them to get out of there without your help. Donations are needed. We need everything you can possibly spare and money is the main issue as the food needs to be bought everyday for 50 kids to eat 3 times a day. The place needs a new roof and if all of you were to give a couple of dollars, it would be a benefit to all those kids and to the future ones to come as orphans are all over the streets struggling to survive in a city like Siem Reap.

To make it easier, I have created a direct link from my travel blog for you to make donations through paypal. Simply select the "Support My Travels" tab on the far right of the screen (next to the guestbook tab) and click the donate button. Once I have collected enough money, and I will keep you all up to date on the fund raising, I will be able to wire the money straight to the orphanage. I thank you all in advance for your help.