The Orphanage Experience

When Tourism Goes Bad

hanna_and_sarah — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:12:00 GMT

After 2 days of being on the backs of trucks, tuk tuks, buses, slow boats and speed boats I have finally made it to Thailand from Laos in one piece. Bung foot in stride looking like a leper due to my barefoot meandering around backwater Laos, was quite handy though as I am sure i got better prices at the market with a limp that even the hardest seller felt sorry for.

Fancy and flowery verbs are not needed for nor cannot explain Laos. Got there do it and see it, especially before the tourism really turns bad, and hence the name of this blog, today folks I would like to briefly discuss "Resposnible Tourism".

Responible Tourism as the name suggests is about being a respnsible tourist. In the last 2 months I have met enough losers to last me a life time, fat old men who have to come to the other side of the world to get a shag with a girl have his age for $2, people who sit in Vang Vieng, Laos and watch Friends reruns high on happy shakes, oblivious to the stunning scenery outside, girls who sunbathe topless on beaches and at rivers where local people wash full clothed, idiots who complain about having to pay 20 cents for using a bamboo bridge that a local has made, that they wear out from using, filth who drop there rubbish into streams and seas, I could really have a moan, but I guess you get my picture.

What is Responsible Tourism?

learn key words in the local language
be aware of religious and social customs
visit the visitors centre on arrival for local information

Know the appropriate cultural behaviour

respect the dignity and privacy of others – ask before taking photos
dress and behave respectfully especially in villages, religious and cultural areas
be careful giving gifts or money to children and beggars

Protect the Enviroment

do not buy products made from coral, endangered plants or animals
do not stand on, touch or remove any items from the enviroment

Support local initiatives

purchase local products, arts, crafts
eat local rather than imported food
support local tour operators and stay in locally owned accommodation

Pay a fair price

50 cents may not mean much to you, but it may be a meal for the vendor
pay a price that reflects what something is worth to you

Minimise environmental impact

dispose of rubbish carefully, recycle where possible, reuse your drink bottles, and say "No" to plastic bags
minimise water and power use
choose environmentally responsible tour operators

Think about your impact

remember you are a guest – don't do anything you wouldn't do at home
practise safe and responsible sex
make your trip a positive experience for both you and the people in the country you visit

Responsible travel was really magnified for me in Vang Vieng in Laos. Vang Vieng was a tiny village on the Mekong util about 5 years ago when tourists started to notice its beautiful natural scener. Vang Vieng is now a so called backpacker haven where you can float down the Mekong on a tube beer in hand past traditional fishing villages. Evenings can be spent dining in TV lounges choosing from menus, sporting weed, mushrooms, and opium any which way you like. Tourists love it. But why come to Laos if all you are going to do is drink, smoke and watch TV??? Cant you jsut do that at home, its not like taht is what the traditional Lao people do.

Thankfully 3km down the road we found a breath of fresh air at the Organic Farm, where Mr T runs a organic farm, and resturant from which proceeds go to support the local community. You can work, stay or just dine at the farm, and we spent an evening teaching the kids a bit about NZ and helping with thier English. Finding an orphange in Laos turned out to be a fruitless endevour as the development is just starting to happen and a lack of infrastructure made communication hard. Instead we donated money to help run the school bus for Mr T for a month. If you are ever in Vang Vieng head down to the farm, ceheck it out see what you can do to help. Give something back to yoru destination that gives you so much and remember you being there is not your right. www.loafarm.org

A couple of years ago when I was looking for a volunteer job overseas I looked into working for the Grenheart Foundation in Laos, and low and behold the world being a small place I ran into it up in Northen Laos and met the people that run the show. The founadtion is another great example of how as a tourist you can give back to the community. Check it out at www.WowLao.com

As always the internet is slow and painful, and we are now off to spend a week with the Akha Heritage Founadtion in the very north of Thailand, but i will be home in 2 weeks, wohooooooooo. Get the Vegimite ready.

Love Hanna

Gallery: Laos - sightseeing

hanna_and_sarah — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 23:29:00 GMT

Phouc Phouc

hanna_and_sarah — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 02:20:00 GMT

'Nothing to see here, doing to do', is what the Lonely Planet describes Quang Ngai the beautiful city in central Vietnam as. Due to most travelers being by the book, as in the bible book LP, Quang Ngai remains to this day as a path off the tourist trail - Thank God. Tourists however miss out on the insatiable charm and welcome that we got in this place with nothing to see or do.

Quang Ngai is about 200km south of Da Nang, just off the coast and can lay claim to being right in the middle of the action during the war, notably the worst massacre of women and civilians by American troops at My Son.

Lack of tourist attractions aside, the Quang Ngai Social Protection Centre was the draw card for us and the 75 amazing kids that lived there.

After a hot couple of weeks in Cambodia, arrival in Quang Ngai was a freezing cold shock to the system, it was COLD. Most of my clothes came out, fleece, thermals, (X2), socks, hats, and jackets - and that was just for sleeping. I was cold and I am from New Zealand, not the most tropical country on the planet, but damn the Vietnamese must be really feeling this cold snap... and they were.

Turning up at the orphanage on an icy Vietnamese morning, powered only by a thick Vietnamese coffee laced with condensed milk (which my thighs are loving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) we were greeted by a team of incredible kids. The orphanage is home to 75 children without families and 3 are severely mentally and physically disabled due to the Agent Orange used by the Americans in the war.

I got in touch with the orphanage through my work at Global Volunteer Network, as it is one of the centers were we send volunteers, so Deirdre from Ireland and Nick from Sweden gave us a fab welcome, and let us into their Vietnamese life for Christmas.

We slipped into routine with the volunteers, were they split their days between lessons at the orphanage and at an English language centre for adults. At the orphanage we spent time with the kids when they weren’t at school, hanging out, English lessons, arts and crafts and of course a spot of soccer.

The volunteers dedicate a lot of time to the 3 disabled children in the orphanage, who tend to fall between the cracks for care. Loi the oldest, is a 14 year old girl, her lack of hair and words is made up by her infectious smile and laugh. The other 2 boys both aptly named Phouc - Vietnamese for happy. Big Phouc is 11 and loves movement and is usually found either at the gate as a self appointed security guard or on the potty where he sits for a few hours each morning singing twinkle twinkle little star - well his version. Little Phouc is 4 and has water on the brain, is blind and cannot walk or talk. Phoucs day, week and life sees him lying on a bed with no mattress, with only interaction and movement from volunteers and of course Loi.

I have had moments in my life, some might call me romantic and clichéd but watching Loi and Phouc was one of these moments. I see people all the time really shit people, but Loi holding Phouc in her arms and rocking and kissing him, was a moment of TRUE love and humanity forever framed in my mind. The 3 share a room, - cum dungeon/cave, days and nights are spent in here, no mattress or blankets as they wet the bed, nothing to do, no stimulation, nothing.

The other 70 odd kids are equally amazing and I have never met a bunch of boys who just want a cuddle. My hair being long and blonde and full of beads and bits proved to be a big hit along with my camera which they wanted to be on the taking end of.

Our visit at the orphanage coincided with good old Father C coming down your chimneys, so we thought we would bring a bit of that to Vietnam. As I have already said but will say again it was COLD in Quang Ngai, I had thermals but what about the kids?? I hear you asking??? Some had jumpers, and long pants but not all, and most were well past it and around elbows and knees. Getting the wee poppets warm was obviously our first and immediate priority. So to the market, to the market to buy a fat pig we went and decked out all in hats, socks, gloves and polar fleece. The shipment arrived magically at the volunteer house on Christmas morning and in the afternoon we rocked down to deliver the threads with lollies and balloons. The kids where on there best behavior and Lois face when we gave her an extra spesh Jumper and hat was Christmases all at once for me.

So folks that donated to the OE, you gave me the best Christmas present ever, the faces of these fab kids, as it was your money that paid for the insulation ensembles for the nippers. THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other notable bits from the week was the news that little Phouc is off to Hue to spend at least 3 months having physical therapy, this made possible to the wonderful Irish lass Deirdre who through her fundraising can make a HUGE difference in his quality of life. Long term I would like to see this therapy continued for Phouc and also for Loi and Big Phouc, as how are we meant to explain especially to Loi that her Phouc - her Happiness is gone. Loi is an untapped resource, someone just needs to get into her brain, as she knows what is going on and is a champion snap player.

As you will see from one of the photos (apologies for not being in order or captioned as I am having issues) there is a photo of Loi and Phouc in their room with big posters in the background, which are the result of our artiste -ish skills. Management wouldn’t let us paint the room possibly due to an often manic look in my eyes, so we put paint to paper. The room now has 6 massive bright posters, and already the stimulation is obvious - so simple but so effective.

I could write forever about my week here, but it would still not do it justice. If you want to hear stories about humanity, love and humility where there is what we would say nothing, I will tell you about the kids there who smile more than most of the people I know, and yet they really are in a situation where they have little to smile about.

If you want to donate to the Quang Ngai Social Protection Centre please contact me.

Hanna

Serendipity to Genocide

hanna_and_sarah — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 22:43:00 GMT

Wow! we finally managed to leave Serendipity behind today - catching the 7.00am bus out of town by a cat’s whisker. Serendipity is like the Hotel 0f California - such a lovely place, but a complete vortex - making it really hard to leave. As most of you know we ended up satying in “free accomodation” at the beach - the only catch being that we had to buy at least one of our meals at the restaurant a day. We made so many friend - particuarly “the aunties” who are the proprieters and working girls of the coco shack where we stayed. Coco shack transpired to be a quasi brothal and no. 1 hangout for seedy old fat men. These disgusting old losers have been code named “the predators” or “the preds” for short. But the women were amazing they completely invited us into their home and lives without any hesitation. The children in serendipity are also incredible. Many of them speak almost fluent english and are very keen and effective salespeople - which of coarse can be trying at times. We made particuarly good friends with a group of three children; Votey (girl - 13), Channa (girl, 10) and Darryl (boy, age?). they were such spunky fun kids. We did so much with them, e.g. swimming, swimming lessons, did their hair, maths and just hung out. It seems to me you can be involved in a town like serendipity on a really superficial level - by staying in a cuchy restaurant, always eating at fancy places, and essentially ignoring the local people. Even with the preds in the equation - I am so glad we went and stayed at the coco shack and hung out with everyone - as it makes the experience infinitely more real and memorable. Our Khymer is getting a little bit better - we are able to say hello, good bye, thank-you very big big much (which everyone thinks is really funny), good, bad, you are beautiful, I want to kiss you (very helpful I’m sure) etc etc.

So we arrived in Phnom Phen at 12 ish after having a frantic start, having failed to correctly set out alarm clock and sleeping in!!!! But we made it and decided to tackle the Killing fields and S21 today - before the first orphanage in case we ran out of time………………….. Holy @!#*! was perhaps the most intense and emotional afternoon of my life….
We started at the “Killing fields” which is just outside Phnom Penh and is where the Khmer Rouge conducted mass executions of men, women and children. The skulls of the found victims are preserved in a monument in the centre and surrounding this are pits where excavations in the early 80s uncovered thousands upon thousands of remains. Apparently (I learned upon overhearing someone elses guide) that it was found by the vietnamese because of the terrible smell. Anyway the place is so airy its unreal. For some reason amongst all the pits are hundreds of butterflies - more than I have seen anywhere else in Cambodia.
From there we went across town to S21 or Tuol Sleng - the largest Khmer Rouge prision. Prior to the regime the complex was a school. Out of the thousands of people held captive in the prison - less than 10 survived. Many were taken from the prision out to the Killing fields for mass execution - without discrimination as to age or sex.
The place is utterly horrible. Much of it is now dedicated to exhibitions of photos, including mug shots taken by the Khymer Rouge upon inprisonment, then photos of torture, death etc. I started to feel pretty crazy and clostrophobic after a while. The individual cells are old school rooms divided by both wood and brick and used for interrogation. Many still have the shackles, and other equipment that the prisoners had such as bowls, a mental case (I’m not sure what for) and what looked like a metal petrol can - I think for water. In other rooms the prisoners were held all together and the mutiple shakles and the numbers for each prisoner are all still there. One of the buildings has barbed wire over all the varandahs - to stop the prisoners committing suiside over the edge. Overall it was extremely gruelling and sickening. It is utterly amazing that this all happened in the 70s - the inaction by the UN and the indirect support by the USA blows the mind and eliminates any trust I ever had in an international legal system. I have just read over my words on this and it just completely fails to give any justice to either place or my reaction to it. I would thoroughly recommend everyone to one day see it - or even do a google search on the subject.

I’m back at our guest house now which is appropriately called “okay” actually its more than ok it’s great - complete luxery after the coco shack - complete with running cold water and a flushing toilet!!!! Tomorrow we are to be picked up by the main guy from the Cambodian orphanage - everything is happening very fast! I feel totally unprepared for the next week - but I’ll have to just go with the flow.
Anyway thats all from me for now. Lots of love to you all.
xxoo
Sarah

Susaday from Cambodia

hanna_and_sarah — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 13:24:00 GMT

We are about to embark on the first orphanage, The Peaceful Childrens home just out of Phnom Pehn in about 2 days, - nerves, excitment and just really a slight feeling of the unknown. Our week travelling in Cambodia has been amazing, and the people increibly friendly. Its been hot, crazy, new and. Arriving in Siem Reap we of course went to the ruins of the Angkor Empire - of course we looked just like Angleina Jolie when she fiulmed tomb raider - as i am sure she too was marinading in her own sweat, covered in mud and delirious due to the heat. The highlight was however the kids, and hanging out, dancing and learng Khmer off them in thousand year old temples was very special and a perfect introduction to Cambvodia and especially the children.

For anyone that has been to Siem Reap, or to any developing country for that matter will know about the wierd contrast of wealth and poverty that arises especioally in tourist areas, and the need for travellers to be aware and responsible. Siem Reap is a perfect example, with the main tourist street lined with contential resturants and bars. If you where blundly dumped there i really doubt whether you would have much of an idea where you where, i think i would have even said France. Just out of this small lane with restuarants are corners filled with starving kids, mothers, and just really the majority. We really noticed this inequality, but yet found that most of the other tourist where quite oblivious to it, or even annoyed with having been harrased for a $ or some food. Something to think about,

For the last few days we have been down the coast at Sihanoukeville, sandy white beachews yet to have been exploited like most around Asia. The only problem i have here, which i have found is quite an issue, is the hoardes of disgutsing old western men coming here for a good time. The men hang round fat and hairy, obvioulsy only for one thing. am stil;lc oming to terms with this, although i dont think that i need to.

Must go the internet is slow, expensive and there is one of those men next to me that just make my skin crawl. Will let you know ASAP about the orphanage!

PS : very sorry about the spelling the font is really small, and i am in a hurry!

Hanna

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Help- Road to orphanage washed out!

hanna_and_sarah — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 12:39:00 GMT

With only a week to go, there is still much to get done, but i think we are ready, got the booster jabs, the visas, so now just got to get there.

Part of the long terrm plan for The Orphanage Experience is to build a trust to act as a safety net for the orphanages, a body they can approach when something unexpected happens which they then need funding for; for urgent medical car for a child, new water pipes, wages for a staff member.

Last night I received an email from the coordinator of the orphange in Cambodia with an appeal for help of this nature. The road to the orphanage has been washed out during the monsoon, and needs fixing to ensure a clear and safe route. This request is much sooner than I anticipated, but these things cannot be predicted. With only a week to go I could not assure them that I would be able to fully fund this, but as I have found through setting up this project, there is no harm done in asking, and you have to ask in order to receive. So if you havent alreaddly got my hint, here is it, if any one would like to or knows someone in a position to sponsor the fixing of the road - let me know.

We need five truck loads of laterite to mend the road: one truck load cost US $ 130 x 5 = US $ 650.

Thanks,

Hanna

Gallery: The Orphanage Experience

hanna_and_sarah — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 09:59:00 GMT

Quang Ngai

Welcome to The Orphanage Experience

hanna_and_sarah — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 09:40:00 GMT

Remember making pirates hats out of old newspapers?

Flying a kite made from sticks and magazines?

I bet you do.

But thousands of kids don’tNo matter where in the world, kids are kids.

Working with children in India I was making trains and crocodiles out of old shoe boxes, a part of my childhood that I had taken for granted, I soon realised that these were totally new concepts for the children, they had never made a kite, a hat, or played hopscotch - fun, simple, free and effective! There are millions of children in orphanages across the world, who never actually have childhood, the orphanages receive little or no funding, are understaffed and result in the children being unstimulated, uneducated and unloved. You cant even begin to imagine the conditions they live in and what they live without. The term ‘orphan’ has become obsolete and forgotten , but the reality is that an orphan is someone with no family, no ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’…

So a few months a ago my flatmate and greatest pal Sarah suggested that we head overseas for a couple of months, great idea, but I wanted to do something else. After spending time both as a tourist and as a worker in foreign counties, I have found that the best times come from off the tourist track, with the real people, the real tastes and culture and from giving something back to places where you are a guest, and that give you so much. The Orphanage Experience was born as a way to combine our passion for travel with our passion for social responsibility.

Next week we leave for our OE,but this is not the typical Kiwi Overseas Experience, but an Orphanage Experience - in orphanages across Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos to teach the kids of South East Asia how to make shoe box trains… plus more!

- sports days / sustainable arts and crafts

- dance, drama, and music / functional education: hygiene, environmental etc

- passing on innovative, effective & sustainable teaching methods to the teachers

- and just giving the kids some of the love and fun that they deserve!!

Through various media outlets including this journal, we are raising an awareness of the plight and the issues facing children without families in institutions across the world. Ignorance amongst people in developed counties just perpetuates the conditions they live in, and the attitudes held of thier situations.

Over the last couple of months Sarah and I have been fundraising for financial donations that we can take to the orphanages to buy resources that they need. The support has been unbelievably overwhelming and generous. People have donated money, balloons, paint, and even the proceeds from sheep sold off a farm! I would like to give another HUGE thank you to you all!

You will be hearing from us on a regular basis, and we would also love to hear from you - feel free to get in touch with any comments or questions.

Hanna