Man what a week! Its been very busy leading up to our christmas party we had on Sunday and im absolutely shattered! I just want to go to sleep for a week!! on top of teaching our classes we had been organising the food for the party as well as getting last minute gifts for the kids! On Saturday we headed into town with Srey Lat ( to translate and get us the good prices) and Israel (An amazing guy from Spain who has been here for a couple months or so and calls into the orphange every week). We headed to a market first which not many tourists visit ( We saw one foreign couple in the 4 or so hours we were there!) This place is massive like a covered carpark several stories high. For Christmas we had promised to buy Srey Lat a dress to wear to her god brothers Wedding in January as she had nothing to wear and was so sad she wouldn't be able to go. This took a couple hours to come to a decision! The Fashion here is really not cool! Everything we liked she thought was to plain and everything she liked we thought was tacky haha ( Barbie doll style with lots of shiny things sewn on etc). In the end we gave up suggesting and let her choose her own! After finding some other bits and pieces for the kids and far to many trips through the food section ( It really is disgusting and a smell i can not explain other that you are nearly throwing up and when you add the smell to the sights you are seeing its not an experience you want to encounter again unless you really have to!
our market trip ended in a bad way when while we were leaving Summer noticed Israels Front pocket of his bag was undone and of course his wallet was missing! Nearly every person we have met had had this happened to in one form or another and it is quite upsetting. We really felt for him as he left Yesterday for Spain and he had no money or credit cards, Fortunately He didn't have his passport in his bag!
After the market it was time to hit the food markets! Gahhhhhh.I was starving so on the way to an ATM i made a dash for the nearest western food joint and stocked up on food for everyone including our driver who waited all day for us while we shopped! I stayed with the tuktuk to guard the bags of gifts we had ( and munch out on the food!) while the others braved the markets to get the vegies! Im glad i didnt have to go as they came back with there feet covered in black gunk and god knows what else they had to walk through! While waiting for them i had my first offer of someone trying to give me their baby! A lady walked up to me holding the baby out saying " ÿou take, you take" I tried to explain i wouldn't be allowed on the plane and she just replied " no problem". It was really heart breaking and i would have taken that child in a second if i could have! Instead i gave the kid some french fries i had, porbably the first and only time she will try such a food!
After that another market to buy fruit and we made it back home just after dark!I think we were wrapping presents for our 19 kids ( oh we acquired two more a couple weeks ago from the Thai border where there is still fighting and a lot of conflict. 1 is a full orphan with no idea about his family and the other has a father who lost his leg to a mine. They are beautiful boys who came to us with no english and already they are speaking the basics and they try so hard to learn! they fall asleep reading the alphabet with their books lying on their chests!) until about 1am with two of our older kids (Ngorl and Srey Lat who both actually now call us mum! hehe) laughing and joking around.
Sunday was xmas day for us here and in the morning we put all our presents under the tree and then handed them out to the kids! It was such a good feeling to bring some joy to these kids and have a day where they can actually just be kids! Unfortunately Li Mai ( 6 year old) did not like her present so she stole two that were left on the table for some adults and proceeded to scream for about an hour and hid in a corner! I finally got the presents back about 3 hours later! Baby long ( 2 1/2) also decided to hide some marbles which were for everyone and he eventually showed me that he had hidden them in a draw under his clothes!
It was a big day for everyone as we were having a xmas party for all our students( about 140) where they were all fed including treats of bread and fizzy drink and given a toothbursh and toothpaste. Some of the centre kids performed a song and dance ( I will post a video of it!) and also we had taught all our young students we wish you a merry xmas which they all sung as well! It was a great party and everyone danced and enjoyed themselves well into the night! ( some of the older kids a little to much drinking a whole bottle of whiskey!).It was so amazing to be apart of and see the kids all so happy and excited and i think this will be as close as we get to it feeling like xmas!
We never really caught back up on sleep this week and with not getting a day off to rest We have been feeling pretty exhausted! Thankfully we have had some amazing volunteers helping us to take some of the load off and giving us a break if we need it! We even had a great Aussie couple who when they left on Thursday gave us $50US to "continue spoiling the kids". We also welcomed another French man we call Manu who will be here while we take a holiday! He's a great guy who has been traveling for the last year and even spent a few months up North working in Ahipara! such a small world, he was so funny saying "yeah i know pak n save very well!"
Sadly Israel left us this week which we all cried about haha We got a ride with him into town yesterday to renew our visa and the poor guy was really upset he had to leave! We can't imagine what we are going to be like when our time comes to leave!!!
I got offered another baby while getting a drink at a shop and also had a kid nearly pass out in class! Which two of the other volunteers and ourselves have been visiting each afternoon to perform acupuncture and massage on him to hopefully help him come right but unfortunately he will just get sick again as the health care system here is crap and very expensive.
Tomorrow night we are going out to dinner with the other volunteers( nearly all french!) to celebrate xmas and begin our holiday!!! We are so excited to be having a break and are heading off to the southern coast of Cambodia for a week hopefully to get lots of swimming in and lazing on the beach and recharge the batteries ready for another month at the orphanage!
We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas day and wish we were there with you all celebrating! Its a very hard time for us both at the moment as Christmas is not celebrated here really and it is such a time for family. Live it up for us and think of us while you enjoy your feast while we eat our daily ration of rice!!!! hahahahaha
Be safe and love to you all!!! Will be thinking of you all!!
Love Amy and Summer
