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Bamboo School
The children of the Bamboo school enjoying arts and crafts time! Pnom Phen proved to shed light on a different side of Cambodia, one that too often we don't get to experience as tourists. Word of mouth in the backpacker circuit can be a powerful tool, on the adviced of two french girls we met in Laos we decided that the capital city was the place we would look into volunteering.
Over the course of the past few weeks we were already starting to learn more about the countries history. I think it's important to inform you what we've learnt as we were unaware of the genocide that occured here but only some 35years ago. Unfortunately Cambodia got caught in the middle of the Vietnam war, some seeking refuge, others coming from northern Vietnam to attack the south and America. Essentially destaballizing the country and the Cambodian government. With the king already having fled to China and the appointed President loosing power and popularity, it took little time and effort for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge Army to capture Pnom Pen on April 17, 1975. Forced out of their homes and shiped out to the countryside to live in the village and work the land, they brutally executed and
Village celebration
Celebrating the new year with a pinata full of treats! torchured doctors, teachers, anyone educated and all those with political ties particularly those against the views of the Khmer Rouge. Forced to work 12-15hour days in the fields, disobedience of any sort often brought immediate execution. In the effort to make Cambodia rich in exporting rice, unifying the country by creating an equal working class of slaves, the regime's mentality was that it was better to kill an innocent than to keep an enemie alive. Finally after 3 years, 8 months and 20 days Vietnam stepped in and took over the country. Cambodia loss is still unknown, suspected somewhere between 1 and 3 million lives. Pol Pot and his Regime fled to the jumgle near the Thai border, from where they spent the next decade launching attackes of government positions on Cambodia. Civilains living in fear as the damage had been costly as families were torn apart and left to wonder who was remaining.
In Isaac's case, he was one of few that were fortunate enough to escape.
Isaac runs the volunteer project we worked with over the week. An interesting Cambodian-American, at the age of 7, after loosing his father to the Khmer Rouge, Isaac,
morning pick up
Volunteers ready, Isaac picks us up with 2 of his kids as we head out to the bamboo school! his mother and remaining siblings seeked refuge in Thailand. From there, like many families in the camp Isaac and his family moved to America, the Bronx of New York. Driven by his lose and motivated with oppertunity, Isaac studied hard. Looking back at the difficulties his family endured, he focused on those that made a difference in his life and with that in mind he wanted to return to his country and provide those oppertunities in his community. He's lived in Cambodia for the past 7 years, adopted 3 kids and strongly belives that the key for kids in Cambodia is access to free education and good medical treatment. So the ongoing project we've helped Isaac with is to help build the school and medical clinic in a village just outside the city. The school is functional and the kids in the village really seem excited to have a place to come and learn. English seems to provide many oppertunities over here.
Spending time with the children was heartwarming. A few days before we arrived the kids made pinatas and being there over the Cambodian New Year we filled up the pinatas with candy and celebrated with the
day in the pit
Looking good after a hard day of digging..... kids. The smiles and laughter coming from the vilage, you could understand what motivates Isaac. The week at the village and capital city was busy playing and teaching the children, but it wasn't all fun and games, we got dirty!!! In preperation for the rainy season we helped huild up the ground around the clinic, digging and moving dirt for 3 hours in the heat of he day. We deffinately have more respect at how labout work is in Cambodia.
Leaving after the week was filled with mixed emotion, but with our visas counting down we had to get on the road and head owards Vietnam.
Up in the mountains, Tyler and Jenny tempt fate with a walk in the jungle, hunting for tigers...but dissapointed in learning since so much poaching and logging happen in the area, it's very rare to even see monkeys in the jumgle. So as luck would have it, we made it to the beach town of Sihanoukville in time for a thunderstorm. For the first time in my life I watched as lightning cracked down and struck the restaurant hut accross the road!! Luckily no one got hurt and the heavy
ocean candy....
This might have been the best seafood platter, sitting on the beach enjoying the sunset and it was only 3$ !!! rains prevented a fire, it was pretty incredible to see lightning strike! Finally the sun shining we enjoyed the beach, ate lobster tails, shrinp, squid and fresh fish, a taste for ocean candy,a party in my mouth!! As always with only a few days left we hop on a boat for a day of island hopping and snorkelling.
It was a great place to end what we decided was an emotionaly confusing time in Cambodia.
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