Phnom Penh Volunteer Adventure

Trip to Kratie Province and Koh Preah

crnash — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:37:00 GMT

One of the main reasons I selected Conversations with Foreigners as the organization to volunteer with is because of the link they have with a program called CRDT, Cambodian Rural Development Team. As i've mentioned previously, Cambodia is such a poor country, and in my short time here I have seen so many heartbreaking things and situations that no words can describe. While the city I live in has toilets and access to clean drinking water, most of the country doesn't. CRDT sponsors projects that bring clean drinking water among other things to the provinces and areas of countryside that currently don't have these basic needs met. All of the profits from the school that I teach at go to support these projects.

As part of the volunteer experience, we took a four day trip out of Phnom Penh, into an area of Cambodia called Kratie Province. We also spent two days on an island that has no running water or electricity and were really able to experience the life that so many Cambodians live. I will try to tell this story, but I truly feel that there are no words that can begin to describe what was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The volunteers all piled into a van early on Tuesday morning to begin a long, 10 hour journey. Very few of the roads here are paved, and those that are have huge potholes and other damages from the rains and flooding they get during monsoon season (which is now). So what could have been a four or five hour ride was understandable much longer. We stopped along the way at a roadside market for drinks and bathrooms etc. This was the first place we were introduced to some of Cambodia's delicacies. On tables along the road were fried crickets, tarantulas, cockroaches and other unexpected treats. The most surprising thing to see were kids playing with live tarantulas that were in a bowl waiting to be fried. These spiders were HUGE, but apparently a favorite of many natives here. Of course some of the guys in our group had to give them a try, and bought these fried tarantulas for about $0.40 each. Apparently they taste similar to bacon and aren't that bad but i'm not sure i'll be finding our first hand!

After all the excitement, we were back on the road and finally arrived at the guest house we were staying in for the night. We got a little rest and woke the next morning to head to the island, Koh Preah. We had to pile into a small fishing boat to make the journey, but stopped on the way to try and see fresh water dolphins that the area is famous for. We actually did get to see several, which was both lucky and amazing! Later that afternoon we arrived on the island and I think most of us were more than a little apprehensive.

One family on the island prepared all of our meals while we were there, and we were divided up among other houses to sleep in a homestay. The main objective of the trip was to see CRDT's projects and experience life in the Cambodian countryside first hand. Toilets have been made at most houses on the island, although they aren't western toilets like most of us are used to. It's more of an out house with a hole that you squat over to do your business. Since there is no running water, you obviously can't flush the toilets, but there are buckets of water that you thrown into the toilet when you finish to flush your goods down. This would have been pretty doable if some of us, including me, were suffering from our first bout of southeast asian stomach problems...bathroom emergency at least every hour. I can honestly say now that if I can be sick in Koh Preah, I can handle it anywhere! That night the island had a party for us with music from a special generator and drinks. It was amazing how simple the lives of these people are, but how happy and giving they were as well.

Almost all of the food they cook and eat is produced on the small island. There are fruit trees and vegetables growing everywhere, and almost every house has pigs and chickens. The animals are usually taken to market on the mainland and sold or traded for other things.

While on the island, we stayed with local families. The houses were little more than huts raised up on stilts to avoid being damaged by flooding. We slept on the floor with a blanket and tiny pillow, and mosquito nets to prevent bites. Definitely not the most comfortable night's sleep ever, but we survived and had an amazing experience.

The next day we visited the elementary school on the island, which was a basic wooden building with no lights, and the floor was covered in bat droppings. There are no windows or any luxuries for that matter, but the kids were just so excited to meet us. We played some games and sang some songs with them, and also left them with school supplies that we brought from Phnom Penh. Such little things to us made all the difference in the world to these sweet children.

Little did we know, that afternoon we were in for some back-breaking work. We were to help the islanders out with a project for sustainabilty. Our lucky chosen work was to help them set up an area where they produce fish sauce. Between the volunteers, we had to shovel and haul mud and drop it in a designated area, others had to pound the mud down with hand made tools that weren't easy to use, and others were scraping and flattening pieces of bamboo. I'm not sure exactly how the fish sauce is made, but the work was enough to appreciate the factories and machines we have to do the work in the west.

It was really sad to leave the island and the people that we had formed such bonds with in such a short amount of time, but I can speak for most of us in saying that seeing a normal toilet and a shower was heaven! I will never forget my two days on the island and I have so much admiration for CRDT and all that they do to make the lives of rural Cambodians more livable.

First week

crnash — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:37:00 GMT

So I arrived at the Phnom Penh airport just before midnight on August 30th, after my flight had been delayed for a day due to a typhoon hitting Korea. What should have been a five hour flight turned into about 15 hours of traveling due to layovers and such, and for some reason i'd been extremely nervous about the trip. The idea that I was coming to a third world country without having someone I knew with me was a little intimidating. Erin, the volunteer coordinator for our program, met me at the airport and I was immediately shoved into the fast paced Cambodian culture. We rode in a tuk tuk to the volunteer house, which is a scooter with a wooden cart hooked to the back that you sit in. I've ridden in them in various asian countries and knew to expect them here.

The traffic was unbelievable. There are cars, motos (scooters) and bicycles absolutely everywhere, driving on both sides of the road and in whichever direction they choose. We arrived at the volunteer house and it was nearing one in the morning. Everyone in the house was extremely jet lagged from their travels, so only one other housemate was awake. I was so excited about arriving that we stayed up late in the night talking about the few days she had already been here.

After a night's rest, I met the rest of the housemates. There are fifteen people currently volunteering at our school, but only seven living in the house. The others all have separate accommodations, and preferred not to live with such a large group. We lucked out in this sense, by all getting our own rooms, which are normally shared by two people. In the house, there are six girls and one guy. There is such a range of cultures and backgrounds, which makes the experience even more unique. Our house has a girl and a guy from England, a girl from Australia, one from Canada, one from Italy, one from Denmark, and me. We all bonded really fast and it has made living here even more wonderful.

Our first week was so busy with orientation classes. We were at the school just about all day every day, learning about the Khmer culture (Cambodian), what to expect in the city and safety precautions we should take. We also had classes from past volunteers who taught us about classes and what to expect at the school. We all learned so much but were exhausted by the end of the week and we were all grateful for a day off to explore the city on our own.

As part of the program fees, all of our meals are cooked by a Cambodian girl and served at the house. We knew from the first day that the food would be amazing. Rice is always served with every meal, and the main dishes always include some type of meat (beef, chicken or pork) and veggies. The seasoning is mild but delicious. We also went out for a few meals, which were just as amazing.

I thought I had experienced heat before I came here, but nothing compares to the weather here. We are all sweating 23.5 hours a day, minus the half hour we're in the shower. There is no hot water in our house, but I've quickly become used to cold showers and actually crave the coolness. There is also no air conditioning, so the heat is never ending. Just after stepping out of the shower, you are immediately sweating again. Past volunteers have told us that we will adjust to the heat so I guess we'll wait and see!

We have a trip planned next week with all of the volunteers which sounds amazing, so I will write all about it upon our return!

Photos: Our Island Adventure

crnash — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 22:50:00 GMT

All of the volunteers took a trip to see some of the rural development projects that our school profits support. We visited Kratie, Stung Treng and an island called Koh Preah.

Photos: First Week

crnash — Sat, 8 Sep 2012 02:17:00 GMT

My first week getting settled into Phnom Penh, Cambodia and pictures of the volunteer house I'm living in.

A brief history of Cambodia

crnash — Mon, 3 Sep 2012 01:52:00 GMT

As most of you know, I have decided to volunteer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for three months. I had an unexpected break in my work in Korea and in the three months it will take me to reapply for all of my paperwork, this opportunity arose. I have travelled around Asia, but never extensively in Southeast Asia, and Cambodia has intrigued me. Before moving to Asia, I knew almost nothing about the history of Cambodia, especially the horrors that went on in the 1970s and 1980s. As I prepared for my trip, I read books and did more research on the Khmer Rouge and this brutal time in Cambodia's history. Not many people know anything about Cambodia and I wanted to share a brief overview.

As I learned more about the the Khmer Rough and their regime, I was shocked to discover that the horror was—if anything—worse than I had previously imagined. In the four years that “Red Khmer” controlled Cambodia, over two million people died from starvation, torture, and brutal killings—a full quarter of the country’s population at that time—making the period deadlier on a per capita, per nation basis than the American Civil War or the Rwandan Genocide.

Pol Pot’s communist “revolution” was the most radical ever attempted, making the Soviet and Chinese programs look sensitive and gradual by comparison: in 1975 all foreign ambassadors were evicted, schools and hospitals were closed, banking, currency, and private property were abolished, and religion, romance, and family loyalty were outlawed in one fell swoop without any kind of gradation schedule. Cities were turned into ghost towns as residents were driven into the countryside to perform fieldwork, where they were expected to produce incredible rice yields on meager rations (though many of them were lacking the most basic agrarian knowledge). Power was placed in the hands of the “pure” peasants and children, who were taught to obey all orders and use force indiscriminately, while former city dwellers and “educated elite” were considered corrupted beyond redemption, and thus expendable (excepting party leaders like Pol Pot, who were generally the best-educated of all).

This was the high point of the regime. As the city dwellers failed to produce great quantities of rice, everything got worse. Rations were decreased below starvation level while work hours were prolonged, and violence escalated. Pol Pot, unable to believe that his revolution could fail, suspected corruption within the party. Cadres and lieutenants were arrested and sent to Security Prison 21, where they were tortured until they confessed to working for the kgb, cia, or Vietnamese government. Then they were asked to name fifty more conspirators (who were predictably brought in next) before they were taken to the killing fields. Their wives and children, charged “guilty by blood,” were also killed (the children usually by beating their heads against trees). These killings were mostly carried out by "pure," barely adolescent teenagers. In the countryside the educated were asked to step forward for “forgiveness,” then beaten to death, while everyone everywhere starved. If the Khmer Rouge had not antagonized Vietnam to the point that the Vietnamese army invaded in 1979 to topple the regime, it is likely that the Cambodian population would have been totally exterminated within a matter of two or three more years, Pol Pot left alone in his utopia, atop a monstrous pile of skulls.

Since the deadly regime was toppled, things have been infinitely better in the sense that people aren’t dying by the thousands, but in many ways Cambodia is still in the early stages of recovery. It took decades to rid the country of the last Khmer Rouge insurgents (whom the American government supported gainst the Vietnamese into the 1980s, and who were active into the mid-90s), and the country is still littered with millions of land mines laid to keep those insurgents at bay. Despite a un attempt to promote fair elections in 1993 the current government remains an offshoot of the one installed by the Vietnamese in 1979, rather than the people’s choice, and is largely irresponsible and unresponsive, making little attempt to meet its nation’s basic health and education needs, relying instead on foreign aid (much of which seems to vanish as it enters the country). Corruption is rampant and widespread (with Transparency International ranking the country in the bottom 1% in their worldwide corruption index). Many former Khmer Rouge leaders and cadres are in powerful positions in the current government, and many more live ordinary civilian lives, having never been asked to account for past deeds. In 2006 an international tribunal was established to try the most senior kr leaders, but it has met with numerous bumps in the road, and only one person has been convicted to date, with their sentence now being appealed.

So now I will get to become a part of this culture and give everything I can to make even a small difference in the lives of Cambodians. I am so excited to begin my journey and hope many of you will keep track of my experiences.