Don't stop believing

5 June: Siem Reap 5.45am

We LOVE tuk tuks!

We’re gradually getting the hang of the new timezone… no time to sleep in today anyway as our tuk tuk will be ready to take us to school at 7.30am.  Assembly starts at 7.45, and classes at 8!  So no rest for the tourists!
There  have been so many sights, so many impressions, even in just one day in Siem Reap it is difficult to know where to begin.  Yesterday Colin from Globalteer picked us up from the Golden Mango inn.  Colin is a Brit, and has been officially working for Globalteer only a couple of months.  He started off as a volunteer 3 years ago, and caught the bug.  Globalteer House is a converted hotel and is used as an office and hostel for the volunteers.  At the moment there are 5 other volunteers (all Australians) but we don’t see much of them as they are at a different project during the day.

Very cute local

This morning was our orientation, going through the expectations, guidelines etc, important things to know.  Shoes off inside, don’t point, heads are holy, feet are dirty, don’t touch people on the head, never ever lose your cool and nut off about anything – evidently Cambodians are a very laid back culture, basically whatever happens was meant to happen so there is no point getting dramatic.  As Colin put it, if there was a traffic accident and everyone was ok they would think that was a lucky day. If someone was injured or killed then that was the day it was meant to happen for them.  Either way it’s no particular drama.
He told us about the main tourist traps – the little girl or lady holding a baby and a bottle, telling tourists “I don’t want money I just want food”. Then they take you into a nearby store and buy a tin of formula.  After you leave they go back into the store, return the tin and split the money 50/50.  And she goes back outside with the baby.  During our tour of the town that followed we saw this three times in a very small area.  He also recommended to us that we don’t support beggars, especially children, as their best hope for the future is education and begging is not sustainable.  The current phrase for educating people is “Adults earn, children learn” .  But it’s very difficult to ignore.  On the other hand, for the mines victims who have lost limbs etc, begging is often their only income, so supporting them is not frowned on.  Colin warned that Peter could also expect to be offered drugs, and also girls, especially young ones.  There is a lot of corruption too, sometimes the girl’s mother would be paying the police $12 a week to let her work in the street (the police are supposed to keep beggars out of the main centre, but alternative arrangements can be made for the right price). (To put that figure in context the average income here is about $20 a month.)
We then met some of the Khmer staff at Globalteer House, they employ cleaners, tuk tuk drivers, security etc.  Sita, one of the cleaners, has a (very cute!) 6-month old son who spends most days at Globalteer House with her.  There are basically no preschools in Siem Reap, so working parents have to take their children to work.
Colin also described the various programmes in Siem Reap that Globalteer support, about 6 or 7.  Mostly they are independent projects set up by people who came here and wanted to do something – one lady has set up some houses in a remote village and basically offers respite care and long term care to children from families with difficulties.  One person offers vocational training in an area of their expertise.  The projects are quite specifically directed, and have no shortage of interest from the locals.  Globalteer is very down-to-earth, no fancy offices or glass towers here.

WHY????

We then went on a tour of Siem Reap, visiting the main tourist centre (Pub Street).  One of the popular tourist attractions is Dr Fish, where you put your feet in a tank of fish who then eat the dead skin off your feet.  Sounds delightful.  But the children are desperate to try it and we have agreed that we will before we leave.  There are fish tanks every 50 metres and the business is obviously quite competitive, as they are the only people that really tout for business, except for the tuk tuk drivers.

Yum? Not brave enough to find out

We went to the supermarket to get some breakfast supplies.  Western food is available but it’s quite expensive even compared to NZ, but other things are very cheap.  We also went to the central market – now that’s an assault on the senses.  People and stalls are crowded in with just enough room to squeeze down between them.  The women sit on the tables with their wares stacked tight around them – one woman is surrounded by clothing and material while on the table next door the lady is making noodles, another woman sells fried cockroaches (or something!) on a large platter, fruits, vegetables everywhere, over the next aisle are some freshly gutted ducks or chickens…. The smells and sights are overwhelming.  Nothing is priced, everything is by negotiation.  Evidently the fish section (where we didn’t go) is something else.  And over there you even have to watch for catfish trying to escape through the aisles.
After the town tour we had a break and decided to walk along the road to find somewhere for lunch.  Once we were about 10 minutes away there were a few spots of rain, followed by a few more, and then within about a minute, a tropical rainstorm that dumped an incredible amount of water in minutes.  We took shelter under a verandah along the road and waited it out, luckily it didn’t last very long.  On the upside, getting a little bit wet did help cool us down!
We found a nice place for lunch, very yummy food, but a bit more expensive than other places ($5 a meal!)  In the main touristy part of Siem Reap the prices are a bit higher, though still cheap.

We made it!

3 of the classrooms

In the afternoon we went out to ABCs and Rice which is about 15 minutes away by tuk tuk.  Now here’s another novel entirely.  We met Tammy, who set up ABCs and Rice about 2 years ago.  Tammy was an English teacher and was supporting other projects but was challenged by a Khmer friend to be helping the locals.  Beginning with a bare section she spent her next paycheck on building a bamboo hut for a classroom, then her next paycheck employing a Khmer teacher. And similarly for the next two paychecks. (Paychecks for Westerners teaching English are higher than the average Khmer wage.)  Two years on, they have 5 permanent classrooms, run a breakfast club feeding 50 children, and teach English to about 151 children over two sessions.  In exchange for perfect attendance at school, and not having a job, the children get to take home rice for their family, along with whatever donations Tammy can get together – this month the children will get some sugar and tinned mackerel. Last month it was cooking oil.  They are expanding their kitchen so that they can feed all the children in the school (and anyone else who comes past), and the latest idea is a productive farm on the empty section next door.  There are plans for a fish farm (to provide fish for feeding the children, and hopefully enough left over to sell some at the market to provide an income), a chicken farm (studies suggest that the protein in an egg a day for these children would make a huge difference to their health) and a vegetable garden.  Tammy is young and enthusiastic, and as well as working at the school during the day, she works two night jobs teaching English so that she can support and pay for the school’s operation.  Her partner/husband? runs a restaurant and I think some of his income goes towards the school as well.  Now that ABCs has come under the Globalteer umbrella they get some financial support but there is a lot of pressure on her personally.   ABCs and Rice now has a waiting list, so they have worked out an entry points system: if you have two parents you get a point, if your parent earns $20 a month that’s a point, $30 a month is 2 points.  If you have electricity that’s a point. And so on. Under a certain points total means you can come.  She said it’s heartbreaking to turn anyone down but they just don’t have the capacity. Once the children qualify to come to ABCs they can stay as long as they like, even if their circumstances change.
When we meet the children in the classroom they sang a song to greet us…. “Don’t Stop Believing”. Later in another class they sing a Beatles song (taught by previous volunteers).  We spend the afternoon split between classes, Linley and Caelan singing songs in Room 2 and Peter, Katriel and Alyssa doing craft in the ‘monkeys’ room (mostly the littlest children). The classes are divided by English ability so there is a range of ages in the classes.  But it’s very difficult to tell the children’s ages as they are so small. Alyssa is bigger and taller than girls aged 16 or 17, and Katriel is similar in size to 8 and 9 year olds.  Everyone here thinks Alyssa is our oldest, which she doesn’t mind and Caelan hates!

Adventure playground

There are regular breaks during school and the children play improvised games with the barest minimum of equipment.  The playground equipment consists of 3 seesaws, 2 swings and a couple of soccer balls … and 70 imaginations.  The boys here love football and some of them are really good.  The girls mostly play a game that is some kind of strategic tag along lines drawn in the dirt with a stick.  I’m still working out the rules!
The school sessions run from 8-11 and 2-5, plus there is an assembly before the first session and another after the second session.  The children normally only come to one session but a small number are there for both sessions.
After ‘school’ we headed into Pub Street for tea and returned with some very tired people ready for bed.  The aircon here is optional and costs extra, but it only took us 5 minutes in the room to make the decision to get it, and the night was far more comfortable for it.