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Published: March 8th 2012
After a good night's sleep in possibly the most luxurious lodging I'm ever going to stay for my entire trip, we woke up very early the next morning for breakfast and to prepare for our very first missionary trip. The objective of this first mission is to interact with a group of young children in a village some kilometres outside of Siem Reap. After about an hour on the chartered bus, we came to a village named Phnom Krom. It was a sizeable village with houses on stilts scattered around, domestic animals wandering around and children running around. Parts of the village resemble a marshland from the seasonal flooding that occurs annually from June to November. Stepping gingerly around the huge piles of cow turds, we came to the school, a large house with stilts.
Kids, kids, kids!!! When we entered the building, we were greeted by the 'principal' of the kindergarten, Laura, a Canadian who had been volunteering for many years in the village school. She ushered us in and we were immediately surrounded by little children. We were asked to play and interact with them while the teachers prepared for their lessons. The children were not the
The children
Photo credit: Prabinvery least shy and took to all of us immediately. They became quite rowdy, each trying to fight for attention. They also got quite clingy and very possessive. I was playing with a boy, Munny and piggybacking him (omg, he's so skinny and light for his height and age). After handing him over to my friend, another boy, Nhean came up and while I was carrying him, Munny came back, saw me with Nhean and they started fighting (!), with Munny trying to pry Nhean away from me. It's a little sad to see, as it seems that these kids were deprived of the attention and physical love normal kids should have (note that this is only my perception). I had to juggle with both to be fair to the children. I felt like a mother koala bear! It was fun playing with the children but also a relief when the bell rang and the kids had to attend their lessons. We were invited to join them. They were revising their English alphabets today and had to recite the letters and sing the ABC song. After a while, the teacher came and got us to stand in a row in
Juggling with two
Photo credit: Prabin front of the children, saying the children wanted to sing us a song. I had no idea what the song meant, but it was such a touching moment that I wanted to cry so badly. Some of us had tears in our eyes. In return, we also sang them a song. I felt a little sheepish singing to them but then got into it after a while.
Then it was lunch time. We helped the children with washing their hands and then to sit down in rows to wait for their meal. I was impressed with how Laura and her staff managed the children, in a kind but no–nonsense manner. Laura kept reminding the local teachers that they shouldn't fuss around the kids too much if they threw any tantrum. Once the children were ready, we helped out with the serving of lunch. Lunch was soup rice with bits of pig's blood and vegetables. Laura explained that it was a simple and nutritious meal with the pig's blood providing essential nutrients that the young children needed. We were encouraged to sit down with the children and have the soup rice together. I was at first squeamish with coagulated pig's
blood but I wanted to eat with the children and taste what they were eating. Coagulated pig's blood is not a rarity in Chinese cuisines, but I have never wanted to have anything to do with it, so this was the first time I tasted it and it didn't turn out that bad. Despite its simplicity, the soup rice was actually quite delicious.
After lunch, we cleaned up the leftovers and decided to leave the children with their lessons and explored the village. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
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