Adventures of Day 4

Yesterday was an interesting day, with the group splitting up for the morning. The Northern Territory team went to the Killing fields, due to having a delayed flight, with the rest of us having a relaxing morning and a good sleep.  The sleep in was not as long as 11 or 12 :(!

The Kerang-Cohuna group walked to the bridge up near the Australian embassy. We went there to pay our respect to the People of Cambodia, who unfortunately lost their lives in the tragedy on the bridge. It was interesting to see the way the Cambodia people payed their respect, it was emotional for some. The walk back was very hot and humid, with Mason and Wooly (Joel) stopping and geting a tuk tuk back.
The group learnt how to cross the busy road, with traffic going and individuals darting through, the key – don’t stop!
We then went to the RUPP, to meet student who were taking English language, to be able to further their education. Nancy introduced herself as a teacher and told the students who we were and why we come to Cambodia. We then had one on one talks with the students to interact with each other and even Wooly took his sunnies off to show his interest. After interacting with students we moved outside for a group photo. The students then took us to the library, and their farm – the large pet pythons were interesting, they are fed “one large chicken” every fifteen days. We said our good byes to the students and got on the bus and headed back to the hotel to have tea and go to bed early for a early rise at 5:00.

Kishere, Justine, Katy and Nancy took the spare time after the uni visit to visit a shop a block up from our hotel for a Dr. Fish Massage! Little fish in a pool ate the dead skin from their feet, it caused uncontrolled laughter for the first ten minutes of the twenty minute “massage.” Nancy has a small bite mark now in her shin from one of the larger fish in the pool. Their feet are amazingly smooth now though!

The Journey North and House Building

Yesterday team A made the journey north to Siem Reap via bus.  We left Phnom Penh at about 9am and looked forward to the day ahead (!!!!????).  After 7 hours on the bus, we finally arrived in Siem Reap.  Time for a chill out and then in to town for dinner.  Mixed fruit shake and noodles and chicken for $2!!!  The humidity was high today and a few of us from down south are begining to struggle.  Couple of sickies but nothing major at this stage (thank goodness).
After a good night sleep (for most of us), we headed off to the building site at 8:30.  Off to Life and Hope Association and to meet Venerable Somnieng (the monk who heads Life and Hope).  He is an amazing man who has recently completed his business degree in the US, living in a dorm at a Catholic University!! He has the most amazing sense of humour and he made us all feel very welcome.  Most of us were eager to get to the building site so after a brief introduction and a tour of their sewing program, we headed off.

Split into 2 teams we tackled the projects.  Learning to use a machete to trim bamboo and smotth the edges, building the frames and starting to make the wall frames for thatching.  To say we were proud of the team is an understatement.  They all worked hard and followed instructions so well and only a few blisters and knicks!!!  Venerable Chaan reported about how pleased the community was with the work that was completed today.  This is great acknowledgement.  We have been unable to wipe the smiles off everyone's faces, even as we head to bed.  Tomorrow may be another day and I can guarantee we are looking forward to it and can hardly wait.

Killing Fields with the West Coast Eagles doing same program :)

Day Three :)

Third day at Cambodia today. We awoke to hear the terrible news of what had happened in the local area the night before as there was a water festival happening, there was huge amounts of people gathered in the streets where over 300 local people where sadly killed from a electrical wire falling on a bridge with water causing a massive stampede we have very huge amount of sorrows and compassion for the Cambodian people’s spirit despise the horrible accident. On the other hand good news we are all well and enjoying the lovely trip. We started the day with a relaxing cruise in a took took to the Russian market where we were allowed to walk around and look at the interesting stores that they had, it was held in a tin shed that was massive and it had so many stores to look through.  We came back to Paragon to have lunch and a bit of a chill session we had lunch at the cafe next door which was a amazing meal and tasted lovely, at long last most of us are getting use to the beggars and the local culture that they live in.  We then went to another market around the block from us and we gathered items for the health packs that we are suppling to the kids from the world food bank program.  This trip has been a very eye opener and emotional trip so far, as the culture is so different from ours in Australia.  We are all looking forward to what’s to come on the rest of our trip :)

                                                     Skye & Mason :)

Khmer Culture Shock

Today saw us getting out and about in Cambodia, learning a lot about their culture and history. We started things off with a trip to the S-21 Museum, previously a high school before it was turned into a prison camp by Khmer Rouge in 1975. Many cambodian people were imprisoned and tortued here before it was liberated in 1979. After this we went out to the Killing fields, the place of over 100 mass graves of those killed during the Genocide.
Whilst at the killing fields we were fortunate to bump into the  West Coast Eagles FC, and get a picture! The boys in particular were very excitied!! They were over here building houses in with the Tabitha Foundation, a foundation that we visited after lunch and donated 4 water wells to.
Yesterday and today have been public holidays, with the street out the front of our hotel closed off with hundreds of thousands of people coming to the river to watch boat races and enjoy the festivals. Once again we were treated to a huge fireworks display.
Everyone is very exhausted after a long day, especially adjusting to the intense heat and humidity.
Tomorrow we split into our teams, with Team A -with a couple of minor changes to the teams- heading up to Siem Reap to start the house building projects, and Team B off to the university to teach english.

We made it!!!!!

Well, we are finally here in Phnom Penh.  Not totally without its dramas, but we are here.  The team from Darwin is not here yet due to an extremely delayed flight!!!!  They will be arriving tomorrow night!!  They are not very happy.
WOW!!! what a cultural shock. We have arrived in the middle of the water festival and there are people absolutely everywhere!!!  Tomorrow is supposed to be even busier.  The team have handled the crowds extremely well and we are now sitting at the Foreign Corresponedent's Club having dinner.  They make the best pizzas here and the rest of the food is pretty good too.  We have already watched the fireworks and for a country that is so poor they certainly put on a great show.  It is being repeated at midnight....although we will all be well asleep by then.  Jet lag is kicking in and we should all sleep well.

Sample house

Here is the team from 2008 proudly in front of one of the houses they built.  This is made primarily of colourbond, whereas the houses we will be building this year will have thatched walls and therefore be a little cooler.