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Published: January 9th 2010
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The hotel I went to for swimming
As you can see it is the complete opposite to many of the Cambodian's lives. 4th day in Cambodia and thankfully the humidity has dropped slightly. I was lucky enough to go on a home visit yesterday with one of the Cambodian teachers. He is currently carrying out a survey to all the families to see if they are eligible to attend the school. Because there is so much poverty the school I am volunteering at can only take the poorest children. I went on the back of the teacher’s scooter (no where else in the world is it so cool to own one!) with no helmet down some red dirt tracks to one of the houses. The family I visited was classed as a rich family so the little girl will be allowed to finish her studies but her younger sister won’t be allowed to attend. Their house was on stilts and made from wood and tin, it is only one room and they share both a water pump and toilet with one other family. They use this room for everything. We went into the house up a wooden ladder and sat on the floor because there were no chairs. There was a big shrine in the middle of the room. The thing
Me outside one of the classrooms
Because decay is such a problem here and most the childen either have teeth which have fallen out or gone black the school provides toothpaste and toothbrushes and the children clean their teeth before lessons begin. that amazed me though was how clean the house was. The ground is very dusty and it coats the palm trees but there was not one single speck of dust in the entire house. I had to read the questions for the survey and the Cambodian teacher then had to translate.
The food out here is fantastic (although I am keep well away from those fried spiders and ducks foetus on the menu.) So many times I have been out for meals in England and it has been mediocre but here you are guaranteed good quality food (even though the potions are about half the size of ours.) At lunch time (we have two hours) a local lady comes and cooks for us. She collects $2 from everyone and then goes to the market to buy the food. She cooks the food on a little fire in the school grounds sat on the grass. I don’t know how she does it without the equipment but she manages to produce the most incredible dishes (there are normally 4 or 5 to pick from.) Yesterday during lunch I went cycling with a couple of the other volunteers. We went to this
ancient temple tucked away (the school is 4km out of Siem Reap in the villages.) It is not a tourist area so no one knows about it. It was built around the same time as Stone Henge and just makes it look like nothing in comparison. There are lots of monks walking around. I met this boy there who was an orphan. He lived with a monk and did jobs for him to get his keep. He was 15 years old and spoke fantastic English. He goes to bed at 12 and rises at 4am. Despite the fact he is being treated as a scivy he was so appreciative of the fact he was taken in by the monk and only spoke the highest terms of him.
Every day I cycle the 25minutes to the school. At 8am the weather is a at a lovely temperature. I have this old rusted bike complete with a basket on the front which is a bit too big for me which I ride. It is completely unsuitable for the pot holed roads and tracks but the only option. All the volunteers have them (the sort of bike you wouldn’t be seen dead
riding at home.) I cycle down all these red sandy tracks to the school. A lot of poor people live there and there are hundreds of huts made from palms leaves or tin or whatever the people can lay their hands on. A lot of these people have little stalls outside their huts selling drinks or fruit cut up. Apparently the people don’t actually own this land (although they claim they do- there is so much corruption here with people selling plots of land to others when they don‘t actually own it in the first place) and are obviously living there illegally. Anyway it is so heartbreaking because the government want to rip all these huts out and turn it into a big park so it will attract tourists. The government has given these people another plot of land to live on but it is 40kilometres away. It is so upsetting because these people have lived there all their lives. Very rarely to they leave their village and there are very tight knit communities. The people make their few pennies to survive through selling the odd drink or fruit to passers by but this will no longer be the case.
Me by the temple
The temple has arches and doors running parallel to each other perfectly - amazing what they achive thousands of years ago just by hand! The other issue is they will have to build their huts again (some which have stood there for years and years with bits being added to it if the roof caves in etc) also the people will need to get to the new plot of land and they have no transportation.
After cycling around for ages trying to find it I went swimming today in one of the hotels in town. Because I am a volunteer I am allowed to use the pool, spa and gym for $5. This particular hotel is very impressive. There is a huge contrast between the tourist trade and the ordinary people that live here. If you came here as a tourist you see some poverty but being here as a teacher is completely different as I am seeing the country as it really is. A lot of the tourists I believe have no idea how poor this country really is because they only see the tourist spots. The government almost seems embarrassed to admit the real state of it. It is very impressive how far Siem Reap has come though since the Pol Pot regime. They really are pushing the tourism. I met
Me outside the temple
The temple has perfectly parallel doorways and arches - amazing what they could calculate thousands of years ago with equipment! a guy called Lim today who kindly offered to watch my bike whilst I was swimming. The Cambodian’s feel totally honoured to meet an English speaking person especially if you actually come from England and will offer to do anything in assisting you. They don't do it to make money but genuinely do it because they want an opportunity to practice their English (the only way to get a good job) I am overwhelmed by how lovely they are.
Anyway I must go, lovely to hear your comments! Hope you are all well and the snow dies down (you must be getting fed up of it now)
Lots of love
Ellie xxx
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Littlebean
Ellie Jefferies
Sorry about the photo being repeated - I can't seem to delete it- happy reading :) xx