A bit of Cambodian Trivia

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In the first 24 hours this is what I saw in Cambodia and later what I learned about Cambodia.....


what i saw
there are few paved roads, but mostly dirt, dusty, uneven, pothole filled roads

what i learned later
those roads that are paved were only done so in the last 2 years!!

what i saw
there many many luxury hotels which many tourist come to stay at. Bono rented the whole hotel of this one that cost $1200 a night. Which is just awesome for the Cambodias, whose economy must be getting a kick-start from all this tourism

what i learned later
NONE of the luxury hotels are owned by Cambodians, and most of the big resturants are owned by foreigners. Koreans and Japanese have litterally taken over Siem Reap, the town next to Angkor Wat and have transformed it, building lavish hotels and charting the guests around to the temples and their hotels, sovery, very little money actually goes back into the pockets of the average Cambodian resident. The concessions at the temples are run by a Korean company......

more too come, but I must go meet friends for dinner....

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Photos

Coconut game
Jacinta, a fellow globalteer volunteer and ice cream lover, teaches the kids at ANOTHER (we have been to many) ophrange.

Lunch time
Lorraine, Jacinta and I helped....or watched these girls who live and go to school at the orphange, cook lunch.

Help wanted
We wanted to ease the "shock", so Jacinta and I detoured our volunteering a bit for some good, old-fashion blood donation

Race to the finish
Keeping with the standard I set for myself at UD, I successful beat Jacinta in pumping out a pint of blood the fastest....and then proceeded to faint directly after....jk

Orphange # 4 (I think)
This kids were cramped into this small room for class, meals, playing, and sleeping and the building was stuck in the middle of many others. They are about 5 mintutes from the famous Angkor Wat temples, which people pay thousands of $$ to come and see.

Orphange # 4's new home
This will be were the kids will move, it is just down the street and after some money delays, will be finished this week. Now the kids will get to sleep and eat in different rooms. Cost about $2000....Cost of one night at hotel about 10 minutes away ....$1200. Go figure

some Soul...in cambodia
gotta love this girls t-shirt....she was officially too cute.

Land Mine Museum
Far down a dusty road, and then further down another dusty road is this makeshift museum created by a former Khumer Rugue and Vientamese soldier and run with smiles by children who are all victims of landmines.

Score 1 for those trying to stop the use of land mines
Disassembled parts from unsuccessful landmines. The U.S. is only one a few countries who has still not signed the Treaty to Ban the use of Landmines. Way togo USA!

Fresh water...what next?
We delivered...well watched others deliver and set up, i carried the lid, a water filter for Orphange number 3. When we left the director asked Sam, our volunteer coordinator, could he work on getting them a toilet

Proud Owners
of a new water filter....and sam, our globalteer volunteer coordinator

Bedroom
12, yes 12, orphans sleep in this tent like area. Makes me feel real bad about complaining about the orange carpet of my bedroom growing up....but these kids were happy with what they had (what??)