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Arriving in Battambang at lunch time dirty, hungover and sweaty we headed straight for our rooms for showers. We booked a hotel called Khemera 1 that had been recommended by Tara from Cambodian Childrens Trust (CCT). For $15 per room a night we had a huge room in a large hotel with a swimming pool, airconditioning, satellite tv and the rest of the modern cons you would expect in a good hotel.... Bargain!!
Once we were showered and feeling semi human we caught a tuktuk to the city centre. Battambang is the 2nd largest city in Cambodia.. and I love it! Great place... not as touristy as the rest of SE Asia, but Tara assures me that it is catching up!
We had lunch at a place called "White Rose" which comes recommended by everyone... we walked in and it was pretty dirty looking with lots of flies around but the rumours are true, the food was sensational. After lunch we decided to find an internet cafe or massage place.. but everywhere we looked it wasnt air-conditioned and it was way too hot... we ended up buying some sugar cane juice from a local vendor, some deepfried donuts from
another then we eventually found a small internet cafe where I blogged away for awhile... by the time we left the internet cafe, a downpour of rain had come along and cooled the day..
We had a massage back at the hotel then the girls went to the pool bar for a few drinks.. I wasn't feeling very well so went to bed by 8pm.... the girls following me not long after...
Wow... Speechless....
The next morning we were up bright and early to head to Cambodian Childrens Trust Orphange. This is where my little boy, Kai, that I foster lives. Most of you may have seen it featured on Australian Story on the ABC network in Australia and if you havent it is a must see. Tara, who runs the Orphanage, is a 24yo Sydneysider who at the age of 21 opened this orphange with the help of her parents and some Cambodian locals. I won't go into her story too much here, but if you are interested here is the link:
Children of a Lesser God Tara picked us up and told me that Kai was very excited that I was coming today... Her foundation is
now spread over 4 locations.. they have the main Orphange for all the younger children, a teenage boys house, a teenage girls house and a young adult house.. all run by Tara with the help of Cambodian 'house parents'. Kai is 14yo so he is located in the teenage boys home, hence that was our first stop... It was very overwhelming to head over and meet him. I was really nervous about what to say, how to act and at that stage I didnt even realise that Kai did not speak ANY English... when visiting Cambodia in 2007, the only children that I had contact with were those at the Temples and in Siem Reap selling postcards and trinkets.. these children all speak fluent English so I had assumed incorrectly that Kai would know English...
After a quick introduction to Kai, Tara and the boys (incl Kai) that lived there showed us their home.. I got to see Kai's bedroom and there was a photo of me that I had sent over when I first started sponsoring him above his bed A4 size.. I didnt take a photo as I felt that was too intrusional. After we looked around
one of the other boys sat down and played piano for us.. He has been learning for 8 months and is SO talented.. when he started playing Hallelujah I started to tear up... it was a really moving experience and the whole time Kai just stood next to me.. I would catch him staring at me and give him a big smile.. to see the smile returned was beautiful... Tara explained her projects and we met a little boy she has just helped get off the glue. She told us that there is a huge glue sniffing problem with the street kids. The boy she introduced us to was 16yo and was the size of a 7yo! Very sad stuff...
We then headed off to the main Orphanage with all the boys piled in the back of the Ute... once there we went inside and had all the little kids jumping all over us... we couldnt peel them off.. they were literally grabbing at us, hugging us around the waist and holding our hands. The whole time Kai didnt leave my side. Kai's little sister, Siumay then became a permanent attachment to me for the rest of the day!
We sorted through all the clothes we had bought for the kids (A big thanks to Sheryl, Chris, Charlii, Sarah and Tim) and it was heartwarming to see the kids getting excited and trying on all the clothes... Tara also sorted some of the clothes out to give to some other families around town... The clothes really were appreciated and it was great to see them running around in the 'new' clothes... very funny to see the little boy in his NOVA radio station Beanie in 40 degrees heat and also the boys with their FORD and Port Power caps... hehe!
Tara not only runs the Orphanage but she has a few different community programs running too... One is where she specially selects families in need to support. Her aim is to keep the family together and help support them to become independant and able to earn money. She is only working with a few select families and will help train/educate the parents so that they are able to earn an income. Great project. She had put aside two piles of clothes for two of those families and said if we liked we could go with her to drop
off the clothes... While doing the clothes I felt Kai grab me on the arm, I looked down to see that he had taken his little beaded red bracelet off and was putting it on my arm! I was so touched.. A little while later he grabbed me again and put a little ring on my finger he had made that I had noticed him also wearing.. so sweet! I so wish we had been able to communicate better than through smiles!
Narelle has been donating to the charity since I showed it to her and Tara had a surprise for her, she had a couple of new orphans and Narelle was able to meet a little boy that would become her little sponsor boy.. His name was Kon and Tara thinks he is about 11-13yo but they are not sure. He was trafficked when he was 2 to Thailand and only recently escaped over the border back to Cambodia. He was found living on the streets (I think that is the correct story).
After feeding the kids all baguettes we decided to head off and visit one of the families to drop off the clothes. On the
way Tara explained that this was her newest family, Mum (Srey), Dad (Bong) and two young girls under 4 (Lee and Lin). Bong has polio and is in a wheelchair so was begging for a living. They lived in a slum area where they rent a room with a tiny bathroom attached. The whole room would be lucky if it was 3 meters by 5 meters... Tara explained that they were going to help set the family up in better accommodation and get Bong a little workshop out the front so that he could repair bikes... as he was apparently able to do this.. I asked if there was anything else we could take them and although she was reluctant to say I eventually convinced her we should take some toiletries... We stopped in at a market and grabbed soap, shampoo, a razor for Bong (which he loved), toothbrushes and toothpaste, a bulk clothes washing detergent and off we set..
The family were very grateful when we turned up. The baby was sick with a fever so Tara promised them she would bring back some medicine later that day. The family had no bed or mattress and were
sleeping on a straw mat underneath an old mosquito net full of holes. I told Tara that we would be happy to buy a mosquito net for them to help out. Rainy season has just started and the mosquitos are everywhere... After convincing her we really wanted to we headed back to the markets... We ended up convincing her that we would like to buy a mattress, pillows and some shoes for the older girl... Armed with a good quality mattress, two pillows, a brand new mosquito net, linen and shoes we turned back up on their doorstep... they were pretty shocked and didnt really know what to say but were so grateful and it felt good to know that we could help them out in such a small way! It cost us less than $130USD to 'change' this families life!
We left there and headed off to have a quick lunch in town, before visiting Tara's shop next to the restaurant.. this is another of her projects where all proceeds go direct to the charity and some of her older girls work in the shop. We bought some little presents and tshirts before heading off back to
the teenage boys home. It was time for the kids to do sports and Kai was very excited to show off his soccer skills for me... The kids were great running around their little soccer field in the searing heat. We sat on the sidelines with the younger kids climbing all over us.. One little girl decided she had a fascination with Jakki and my boobies and kept trying to grab at them.. we were in hysterics and Siumay kept trying to cover my boobs for me with her new Bonds jumper she had just been given! Haha!
After we finished sports, we went out to see another of her families that she is working with to drop more clothes off.. This family was living in a tin shed with dirt as a floor.. it was so sad but there is only so many people you can help! After leaving here we headed back to the main Orphanage where Kai and some of the older children put on an Aspara Dancing show for us out on the front lawn. Kai was very good and kept looking at me through the whole performance.. he is so cute! I wish I
could take him home! When the show finished we said our goodbyes to the kids which was awful, they were all clinging to us and some were crying... There was one girl, Nga, who was 17 who had taken a shining to me during the day... She told Tara she loved me and she cried when I said goodbye.. I promised her I would be back and it is definitely a promise I intend to keep... we then headed off to a local street food area near the river with about 6 of the boys including Kai and Kon for a yummy dinner of duck embreyos and roasted bananas.
The Cambodians love the duck embreyos ( PONG TEA KHON) and while I wasnt sure if I could stomach it, I was willing to give it a crack! In Cambodia duck embryo (or foetus) is a popular snack found at lots of street vendors. Cutting into the egg itself reveals a disconcertingly black veiny streaked innard, and when you open the shell proper you get a glimpse of the little birdy’s forming neck and beck, picked out in dark grey-blue against the wider backdrop. The juices and the embreyo are
put in a small bowl of lime juice and pepper. They sometimes even have feathers! I dont think mine had feathers but I wasnt looking too hard either to be honest. They actually didnt taste too bad and while all the boys scoffed four or five each, I stuck to two. Jakki and Tara are both vegetarians so they just ate the roasted bananas.
I paid for everyones dinner which included fruit shakes all around for 5 adults and 6 kids and it cost me less than $20! Unbelievable! We then dropped the boys home where I said goodbye to Kai and held back the tears. A very heartbreaking day. I spoke to Tara about the impact of having people like ourselves come into these kids lives as seeing everyone so upset had really affected me. She told me that she had a psychologist come and speak to her about it. The psychologist assured her that it was a good thing, allowing the children the process of meeting people and going through the goodbyes. Tara told me that she had moved out of the Orphanage and had her own place close by as the kids had just become too
attached and it got to a point where if she went to Phnom Penh for a day the kids were distraught... she said being away from them has been really good for both the children and her!
Tara dropped us back to the hotel where we said goodbye, had a quick drink at the hotel bar and went to bed exhausted physically and emotionally!
I urge anyone that is moved by this story (even though I havent been as descriptive as what I probably could) please please donate at Tara's website or even think about taking on one of the kiddies as a foster parent or foster aunt/uncle. It is an amazing grassroots charity run soley by Tara, her parents and a friend back in Australia... She needs all the help she can get and is really doing amazing things.. she also works with alot of street kids and does lots of community based initiatives... Her website is:
Cambodian Childrens Trust It changed my life.... and I will definitley be back there to live one day.. mark my words... Battambang has not seen the last of Reety!
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Donna and Neil
Donna and Neil
Small steps...
Fab blog Reet, very moving. We only briefly stopped in Battambang 3 years ago and will probably go back....if we do we'll definitely look up Tara's charity. On a different note, the White Rose is a great restaurant, the fruit shakes were brilliant and the nutella baguettes for breakfast with Cambodian coffee were just heavenly.