Poipet: carpets, clown cars and carnivals

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Day trip to Poipet with Carpets for Communities today. Met MarKo at e bus station a bit before 8am and it was about a three hour trip from there. On arrival we walked to the local office. On the way, Marko convinced me to buy sugar cane juice. They have long lengths of sugar cane, put some ice in a plastic bag, in goes the juice from the sugar cane, plastic bag has a straw inserted, then it is tied up. All for the tiny sum of about 25cents. Very sweet though.
At the office we met Bunchoun, the office manager. Poipet is essentially a border town and where people cross into Thailand. The city itself didn't seem like much, although apparently it is known for its casinos, being that Thailand bans gambling. Needless to say I didn't see a lot of the city anyway. Had a tour of the Poipet office and the carpets they have in stock (a lot of pink) before we headed out on scooters to grab some lunch. Very much a local place, no English speaking staff and prices to match. Had a very tasty fried rice. After lunch we headed out on scooters to meet a few of the families that are being helped by the project. Essentially it was set up when the founder, Dave, noticed a lot of children begging at the border. He wanted to do something to help the families and get the kids back in school, and so founded Carpets for Communities. Essentially it provides immediate intervention, and then works with the women and families to make them self-sufficient by helping them to set up their own micro enterprises. By joining the project they agree to send their children to school rather than sending them to the border to beg for money, which only helps to create a further cycle. The first family we visited was a lady who had seven children and two grand children. While she is still making some carpets, she also is raising pigs, which once fully grown will be sold. When we arrived she was helping the kids to cook waffles. The second lady we found sitting with several of her children (I think she said she had five) cutting up some of the t-shirt off cuts, which is the first stage in making the carpets. Like the others, she had also been helped to buy a sewing machine so that she could start making money that way, although she did say that she preferred making carpets! Our third visit was to another lady, again with about four children, who had two completed carpets ready for pick up, but had also been helped to set up her own shop. It wasn't extensively stocked, but had just a small selection of items. Marco and I both bought a cold drink (a strange watermelon soft drink which I definitely wouldn't have again!!). Our fourth and final family visit was to a family, this time with five children,mine of who was at school when we dropped past. They had chickens running around, but the father had bought a scooter/moto which he was using to make some money. We also visited the warehouse where I got to see where most of the stock is collected prior to being shipped to Australia. It also had a lot of the cotton off-cuts that were waiting to go out to families. My biggest impression of the day was probably how much of a difference something simple, like making a carpet, can make in these children and families lives. It was also good to see that the families are not just relying on making carpets, but are being helped on their way to stop them making carpets and set up their own business, whatever it may be. One interesting thing that Marko said as well, I think when we were at the shop, was that many of the families were not initially tracking income and expenditure, so had no idea if they were even making money. They have now been provided with some basic training to help them with this. After visiting the four families, none of whom spoke any English, it was back to the office while we waiting for a 'taxi' back to Siem Reap. There are no afternoon buses at all, although I don't really know why. The taxi can only be described as a clown car. It was a standard Camry I think, and it ended up having nine of us in it. Two in the drivers seat, MarKo and I in the passenger seat and five in the back. It was a rather uncomfortable drive back to Siem Reap, although this is the way that Cambodians travel! On the way back we also passed several pick up trucks that were a lot worse, with maybe 20 people and bags of stuff in the back, at times people even sitting on the roof!! Drive back took a bit longer than expected, and I got dropped off at about 6:30pm. Time to pick up laundry, have a quick shower and start to re-pack my bag before meeting Marko for dinner. Headed out on another scooter to the 'carnival' which is completely non touristy. It happens every night, food stalls set up along with places selling clothes and shoes and toiletries, along with a range of rides. It is all rather makeshift in an open field. Khmers love to go there for picnics, and there are mats set down that you hire to eat. We got BBQ chicken (which was delicious) along with mango salad, rice (of course) and a beer and sat on a mat to eat. We had been finished eating for about 10 minutes when some local kids came around trying to get the food scraps. They took the empty cans, the bones from the chicken legs and the rice that I hadn't finished. When it started raining a little while later, there was a massive frenzy to get out of the place before it stated bucketing down. It never did though, but we had already headed back into town by then. Then it was back to my guesthouse where I got ready for a midnight bus. More on that in the next entry... And for those of you who want to find out more about Caroets for Communities, visit www.carpetsforcommunities.org.

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