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Published: March 13th 2010
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Brul - missing
Brul - 14 years old (according to records.) Looks about 10 years old. So it has been a pretty intense few days. Firstly little Brul (child I have spoken about a few entries ago that stole my heart) has disappeared. He has been gone for 16 days now. I am going to put his identity on here encase anyone from the area happens to stubble across it on this site. It is very, very frustrating because although it has been reported it obviously isn’t handled the same way as back home. Anything could have happened to him but I am trying to stay positive. We have been working with the family who are very worried and putting up ‘missing’ posters. Speaking to a Khmer teacher at the school I was told that children can be arrested like adults and all shoved in a prison together. Apparently no one is informed if that happens. The police say they haven’t seen him but I am trying to work with some Khmer people who have links with the police to find out that way. It is all very corrupt out here.
So I went out last night with some other volunteers. There are all these little kids out in the early hours selling books, flowers, bracelets
or just begging There is this one kid I see out in particular. He sells books and just has this exhausted face. I always try and talk to these kids just to show them some friendliness. Anyway there I was with another volunteer talking to this little boy who must have been about 8 and these ignorant tourists sat on a table started making all these comments about how I shouldn’t bother with the child because he is ‘a downer.’ I ended up having a right go at them. It makes me so cross how Westerners just rock up here to see the temples or just get drunk and treat these poor kids as though they are not human. Its not their fault they are sent out to beg or sell things. There is a live band which plays in the street of the tourist area every Friday night and the westerners all come and dance in the street. The little kids last night were just running through the crowd trying to sell flowers before they could go home.
I went pony trekking for the first time after school this week. It was an interesting experience. I found the
whole thing pretty scary as I was pretty intimidated. My pony wanted to be second in line but so did two others. They ended up racing and then the horse in front was pretty vicious and kept turning around and trying to bite. Having not ridden before I was holding on for dear life as I felt as though I was about to fall off. It was so funny because as we rode through the villages to the paddy fields we literally had to bend right down on the horse to avoid the electric cables dangling dangerously low.
I went to an engagement party last Saturday. It took about 40 minutes to get there by tuk tuk and was in a little village. It was an Australian guy and a Khmer girl. The party started at 7am because of good luck. The bride to be had been up since 4am having her make up done. She had these huge false eyelashes on and had 7 outfit changes. There was only a few westerner people there and about 50 Khmer. It was in the mother in laws house and we all in there kneeing whilst a ceremony took place and
a Khmer man spoke over a microphone which was blasted out over the village. This lasted 2 hours and then the rings were exchanged. Then we went outside into this colourful marquee type tent and ate curry.
There is a Khmer girl who volunteers in my class. She wants to be a teacher but her family cannot afford the money for her to study so she just comes in for the experience. She works from 7-12 at a tailors, then volunteers at the school until 3pm and then goes back to the tailors until 6pm. For all that work she does at the tailors she gets paid 2000 riel a day (50 cents.) I went with her to the tailors and bless her she offered to make me a dress for free if I buy her the material. I said that I couldn’t possibly do that and she said as her way of repayment maybe I could help this old lady. So yesterday after school she took me to visit this old lady living behind the market. She was living in the smallest hut I have seen (literally the size of a sofa.) She is 75 with no family
and partly blind. The lady had a bowl of plain rice but it had ants crawling all over it. She told me she has had a bad neck for a year. I felt her neck and there were all these hard lumps - it was like her glands were all infected and had swollen right up. I think she is seriously ill as she keeps being sick. She needs to get to the hospital but I think she is too weak. It would involve her waiting for days to be seen on the other side of town and then they might not have the facilities to help her. I bought her some mangos to eat and said I’d come back on Monday with some rice for her. I said I would contact some people I know in the medical field and find out if I can buy her some medication (you can buy any medicine you want over the counter here.)
So this afternoon I am going to a Khmer 18th birthday party. The invitations are large with a photo of the birthday boy on them in various shots. It starts at 3pm but apparently you don’t have to
turn up until after that because Khmer people don’t always show on time. When we get there we will be handed an envelope with our name on it. We have to put money in the envelope. It is this money that covers the cost of the party. Apart from that I don’t know what else to expect.
Hope everyone is good.
Lots of love Ellie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Simon
non-member comment
Missing Grace House!
Oh my goodness Ellie. What a moving entry. You will never forget this trip. Don't give up hope whatever you do, and keep up the good work. You were made for this!