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.
