Wat Opot Orphanage - Part III

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A typical day at Wat Opot - what I observed during my 10day visit.

0630 - everyone is awake

0630 to 0730 - Kids take their medicine, breakfast then off to school.

0730 to whenever - Volunteers have breakfast
After breakfast til about lunchtime - Us volunteers would do some work or play with the kids that dont go to school yet. Me, Carmen & Marijke worked on the craft shop - cleaning up, sorting out beads, making jewellery. Hank would work on Mr Chhang's coffee shop. Mark would work on some mechanics or other repairments needed. Wayne.. well I really dont know what he does. I hardly see him outside meal times.

At 0900 we would have Khmer lessons with our neak crue (teacher) Srey Aun. And some playime with the little ones doing some colouring in, english lessons, reading or just hanging out eating green mangoes.

1130 to whenever - Kids are out of school for lunch. Volunteers have lunch.

1400 to 1600 - Kids go back to school and volunteers and the rest of the Wat Opot residents have a long nap. During these times its too hot to do anything. So we all reside in our rooms in front of the fans and sleep, read or have "another" shower .. i mean bath with a bucket. Love it !!!

1600/1630 to whenever - Kids are out of school and have dinner. All other Wat Opot residents come out of hibernation. The older boys / adults have a "serious" game of volleyball. Volunteers have dinner. Then its lots of playtime .. lots of tickling matches, chasing, hiding etc. FUn FUN FUN!!!
After dinner its prayer time at the crematorium to pay respect to the people that have passed at Wat Opot. We say 3 x Buddhist Chat and sing 3 x "Thank you, Thank you Jesus, Thank you, Thank you Jesus, in my Heart"... then we walk around the crematorium 3 times and do the Buddhist sign and the Sign of the Cross.

1900 - Then its medicine time for some of the kids. Then more playtime and hanging out with the kids at the dorm. They get a snack and watch TV before bed. Sometimes we watch this Cambodia show which is very similar to Monkey Magic. Though I dont understand what they are saying you can work out whats happening through their actions and the kids reactions. Or sometimes we watch the music channel and the kids get up and dance & singalong. The kids are loving the Cambodian version of "Hotel Room".. its funny listening to it. And they also love Akon's song "I wanna make love right now na na".. LOLzz... The boys are great dancers. There is a bamboo type bed/sofa in the TV room and that one night the boys were breakdancing on it and they broke it into half... they laughed it off and said "now we have 2 beds/sofa's to sit on"..!!! Or sometimes Wayne puts a DVD on, an English movie. And we all sit down like one big happy family watching TV.

What tugs my heart is that there are times you are just sitting there and some kid would just come up to you for a big hug then just walk away. Some kids stay for longer hugs and eventually fall asleep on your lap or in your arms. There is one particular 14yr old boy ... though his a teenager he looks way much younger for his age, he looks about 9 or 10 years old. They all look younger than their age, so what ever age you think they are you must add 2 or 3 years to get around their real age... anyways this 14year old still wants a hug every now and then. This to me is sweet because my son RJ who is also 14years old wont even sit near me or watch TV with me let alone want a hug. So at least i can give my hugs to a child that my own child has rejected.

Then from 2200hrs its bedtime - well for some. Lights go off around 2230hrs but you can still hear some kids running around. And sometimes you can hear Wayne playing the piano or Chandara playing the guitar and some older boys singing. Its a pleasant sound to fall asleep to... including the gecko's and frog sounds!!!... Us volunteers hit the ZZzzzz'ss by 2230. I get so tired each night.. dont know why though coz I dont do much and I sleep for like 2 hours during the day. Wish I could live like this every day!!!.. It would be bliss.

These kids are not only in of need medication, funding, schooling, clothes, food etc.. but most importantly they are in need to feel loved, belonged, safe. They want playtime, hugs, kisses, tickles, wrestling matches, being chased, to be listened to, to be watched and praised even for something doing really silly , being poked fun at or just someone to sit with in silence. All these things, we take for granted here and is no longer required or longed for. Instead we respond as "grow up - your not a baby anymore" or "I'm too busy"..... or if its not your own kid then any form of contact with a child is classified as sexual ... nothing is pure or innocent anymore.

The kids are very independent, they look out for themselves and for each other. There is not 1 guardian for each child. In fact there is only Wayne whom they look up to as their own father. So Wayne is the father to more than 70children. The staff at Wat Opot includes 3 cooks, 2 cleaners, a night watcher (he stays at the dorm with the kids at night), i think 2 maintenance men, Wayne & Vondine (the co-founders/directors), 2 kindergarten teachers, an English Teacher and a Art Teacher. I think thats all ??? And then you have the volunteers. Wat Opot is never without a volunteer. Within the last 5months there were 30 volunteers that have came through. Majority of the volunteers are regular visitors. I now know why people keep coming back to Wat Opot and to Cambodia. I'm definately coming back. Volunteers stay for a few hours to a few months even a year sometimes. Wat Opot do not do any advertising so all the volunteers and donations are all word of mouth. I found out about Wat Opot through my friend Inga -- Thanks Hun...Big kiss to ya!!!

In Wat Opot, or in Cambodia in general... there is no such thing as time. Everyone is so laid back, no one is rushing to get to somewhere or tooo busy for anyone. You get to your destination when you get there.

There was one incident - one of the days me & Carmen went into Takeo city and on our way home in a communal van... we were more than half way to our stop when one lady realised she forgot her phone at home. So we stopped... and the lady then hitched a moto (motorbike) ride back home to get her phone, while we waited for her. If this was back here in Australia... we would all be cussing and complaining about the lady for holding us all up. But instead every other passenger did not complain, instead we all got out of the van to stretch our legs and just emerged into our own conversations. 15mins later the lady was back with her phone and we were on our way. Due to this delay, me & Carmen missed out on our lunch.. but it was OK. There is no time restriction in Cambodia. Love it !!!

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Photos

Wat Opot
The letters above Wat Opot spell "Sahacom" or Community. The large Eye represents the Guardian, who watches over the free spirits of the children, which are represented by the White floating objects. Behind the Eye is the Red Heart of Compassion. The Green Leaf represents Life and within the Leaf is a Skull, representing the death of our family members, however, it also has a Mother feeding her newborn child, which represents the health and vitality of Wat Opot today. Below the Eye is the Pink Lotus Flower, which symbolizes purity of heart and mind. The Dove represents Peace and the partial symbols of Christianity and Buddhism in the background, emphasizes our search for Spirituality, through the acceptance and understanding of all Faiths. Pls visit this website for more info on this design.
http://partnersincompassioncambodia.com/index_files/bigevent.htm

First Dinner
Mmmm... fresh natural fried potatoe chips.

Khmer lessons @ the Craft Shop
Our teacher.. Srey Aun is in the purple. Top right hand corner.

The Children's Dorm
This is the girls side. They sleep on the right hand side. On the left hand side there are 3 private rooms for the older boys and the bathroom is in the middle. Check out all the orbs around... pass family members watching over the kids.