Sosedai! (Hello!)
We have had an unforgettable, touching and productive past few days in Kampong Cham working at an orphanage. We bought trucks of sand; sparkly, new swingset chains; blue, red and yellow paint; metal tubes and wooden beams for the monkey bars; a wooden board to reinforce the see-saw; bricks to keep in the sand; and tires to bury as child-friendly trampolines, all to improve the playground. In addition we made a food donation and provided for four truckloads of soil to improve the quality of the garden, where the orphanage is beginning to grow food to feed to its residents.
Our first day was eventful and we had the instant gratification of seeing a complete transformation with the addition of sand. The playground was dilapidated and had practically become a swamp. Buried tires are common in Latin American playgrounds but somewhat of an anathema in Cambodia, so imagine the looks we got when we proposed to dig holes in the sand for tires! Once they were in, however, we couldn't keep the children off of them!
We had help building the monkey bars and painting the goal posts, working side-by-side with everyone, big and small, from the orphanage. At the same time we found an opportunity to teach a pair of English classes to a group of the younger kids and a group of the older kids. All of our girls volunteered to teach and did a fabulous job without needing much of any direction from their leaders. On our last day we took a field trip with all the children who weren't in morning classes to Nokorbachey, an Angkorean era temple that houses a modern temple inside.
That same night we had a huge party with discoteque-sized speakers blaring Cambodian dance music (popular now are substituted Cambodian lyrics to the tunes of "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston and "Maria" by Blondie!). Our girls shared tears with the local children as they said goodbye, and continued to shed tears on the tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel.
In one of our discussions, our students revealed that while they expected to teach the kids, they had not expected to learn so much from them. Khmer words and phrases are slipping off their tongues now, and they are sporting gifts the children made such as rope bracelets, and insects and spectacles made of grass. We also examined the effects of short-term visits (such as ours) to places where loss has been experienced by the residents already, but all unanimously believed our presence had been overwhelmingly helpful and valuable to the kids.
Today, we have arrived again in Phnom Penh, dubbed non-governmental organization (NGO) capital of the world, where we have visited the Royal Palace and met with ChildSafe, an organization that works to protect children who beg or work on the streets by providing social services and educational opportunities. We will continue to talk with and learn from many organizations under our umbrella of "Challenges for Children." Tonight we will ask our students to identify their individual projects which they will get to develop in the coming weeks.
Cambodian monks and dance party funk,
Nate and Jenn
