I arrived in Cambodia almost 2 weeks ago. This is a very important trip to me, I have been thinking about it for the past 6 months, right after my father died...
I actually have some Cambodian in me, my father was born in Phnom Penh from a French father and a Khmer mother. He lived there with his mother Soya and 2 little sisters Alice and Irene until 1961 and due to the political problems emerging in the country, he was sent to France to live with his dad.
My dad and I were never close and I do want to connect with him through his trip, know my heritage, I actually want to connect with myself if that make sense.
Anyways, I have planned to spend 2 months in Cambodia : one month in Phnom Penh working as a volunteer teaching English in a school / orphanage and trying to find what happened to my relatives, maybe some are alive... And the next month traveling through Cambodia.
I started to teach at CCHU last week, unfortunately the school closed yesterday, the donor has decided to stop supporting the school, due to some disagreement with the
Management. I am moving to another orphanage : CCH1, and the children as well. I have given a few classes of English in collaboration with their Khmer teacher but being at the end of the year, it appear that it was a lot of playtime so I am looking forward my classes.
On my time off, I started to discover the city and have been to a few interesting sites such as The Killing Fields, the Genocide museum, Wat Phnom, etc...
Today I actually went to my new school because I was supposed to work on a schedule with the office mangaer, however for some reason he didn't show up. Fortunately, I was able to work wit a student and we did my schedule. I will teach grade 1,2,3 and 4.
Afterwards I decided to go to town and take a walk, I asked a moto to drop me at Psar Orussei in order to check with a bus company day trips offered. They have a few interesting ones but it requires a minimum of 4 to 6 pp.
I have always loved to walk so I walked to Psar Thmei and check if Sorya bus company goes to Mondulkiri and yes they do ! I am quite excited because the Mondulkiri province is quite wild and I really want to go there, visit some Bunong Villages, waterfalls and spend a few days at the Elephant Valley Project.
I am now walking down the riverside hitting towards the Royal Palace but they are closed between 11am to 2pm, not a problem, I'm gonna stroll in the streets nearby. Interesting things, on street 240 there are a few wineshops... Of course I cannot stop myself and enter one, good selection, they even have Cote Rotie, let's not talk about price, not a good deal...
I see a little gallery and stop by, the lady asks me if I am French and we start to talk. She told me she and her family left Cambodia in 1974, they were refugees, they lived in France and then came back after 1980. I asked her if she had some sort of advice of how I could find my family, she mentions putting an ad on TV (apparently it's common) but also tells me to come back later to talk to her husband. I am excited and decide to go to this place I discovered last week, during my first exploration of Phnom Penh : Daughters of Cambodia, it is an organization who has programs for girls coming from sex trafficking and rehabilitates them, they have a spa, shop, cafe, the website is www.daughtersofcambodia.org. I had a wonderful experience getting a pedicure and having lunch there, I highly recommend it, it is also possible to help from abroad by supporting one girl or buying some products from their catalog.
I have to say that sex trafficking is something I despise and originally I wanted to volunteer in this sector because a lot needs to be done. I have seen a documentary called Red Lights and it really shows why sex trafficking is such an issue : CORRUPTION, if you have money you can get away with anything, it is sad but unfortunately so real. Until an international organization can implement a system to enforce the law, it will keep go on and on... I wish I could do something andd so far what I can do is supporting places which help victims... Like Daughters of Cambodia.
On top of that, I had a delicious lunch : a crepe filled with pork and mango, chnang nah (delicious in Khmer!)
After that great treat, I am going back to the store and meet the whole family, they all speak French. They advise me to go to the Interrnational Red Cross or put an ad on Tv so I think I will start with the Red Cross and we will go from there. They are so nice and we had a great laugh because the last name of this Cambodian family is, you will never guess : Fernandez, sorry but I found that hilarious, seriously !
Back to the Royal Palace, it is finally open, it is really beautiful, there are several buildings and stupah and of course the silver Pagoda... I was walking around in the beautiful garden when I looked at the sky, dark clouds on the way so I am running back to the Silver Pagoda. Thanks god, I made it on time before the thunderstorm,so now I am waiting inside until it stops.
