Our First Month In Cambodia

It is hard to believe we have already been away a month. While the time has gone quickly we have managed to see quite a lot and have really enjoyed our time away as a family. And to think we have another two months away is a great feeling... sorry for those reading this at work! We know this is a once in a lifetime opportunity so really are trying to enjoy it day by day.

Clarissa's class - they love the camera!

We have established a good routine with teaching at Anjali House from Monday to Friday. I usually get up early and go for a 30-40min run (almost a local now as the dogs have stopped chasing me!) and then me and Jazz, occasionally Ben when he isn't playing Angry Birds, go for a swim in the pool before breaky. Then we either head over to buffet breakfast or have baguettes in our room. 

Our pool!

Baguette breaky on the balcony

We started riding to school this week and will do this for the remaining 2-3 weeks at Anjali. After school we hit the pool again for 30mins or so, then head out for dinner. Have a few favourites now which we go to each week (Pizza Tues, Tapas Wed and Soria Moria rooftop Sat) otherwise try a new place the other nights. Unfortunately I am still losing my battle with the 50c/$1 beers but at least the running is keeping me in balance, as is the soccer at lunchtime with the kids!

Sunset from Soria Moria rooftop

We are all enjoying the school though it does have it's moments for the kids. Having to repeat the lessons we have taught in the morning for the afternoon kids is a bit tedious, especially for Jazz and Ben. In saying that they have both been a great help in class, especially Jazz who has loved helping with the English lessons and they have been able to make some good friends at the school.

No surprises for guessing that Ben is always on the footy field and loving it, though as he is the youngest kid playing he can get a little frustrated at times as they don't go easy on him (even the 15 year olds who are pretty good!). Jazz has really made a good friend in Sovann the kindy teacher. Sovann has been great, last weekend she took us all roller blading where the local kids go and her and Jazz went roller blading again this afternoon which Jazz loved. Sovann also took us to the local fair where the locals go for dinner and entertainment. They had the usual games you get at all fairs as well as some basic rides and was a great experience for us all. 

Rolling blading with the local kids last weekend - if you look in the middle you can see Ben about to go down!

The local fair and Ben throwing the darts

It will be sad to say goodbye when we leave as the kids we teach are great kids. They really are keen to learn English and when you read to them they hang on every word. As they are not use to being read any stories (as most books were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge reign) hopefully more books will find there way into the life of Cambodian kids. 

Kindy kids with Clarissa

Hopefully our relationship with Anjali will continue once we leave here and I have a feeling we will stay in contact with Sovann through Jazz. 

Sovann, Jazz and Clarissa

On the weekends we head off to the temples and also watch the Anjali kids play soccer on a Sunday morning. We have also now had 5 days at the temples and last weekend was perhaps our favourite day so far. I know we have said it before but the photo's don't do the temples justice. We went to Ta Prohm which was amazing and we will return here on our last day. It had a great feel to it with trees growing out of some of the ruins - hopefully you can see from the photo's below how good it looks...

Ta Prohm - this part had fallen down and has been restored over 3 years

Tree roots taking over...

Still loving the tuk tuk rides and will miss them once we get home. Clarissa's Mum (Jenny) has made a last minute decision to head over and will arrive in Siem Reap next Friday, so will be good to have her over for 10 days or so (might even give us a night out on the town!). Will show her our favourite temples next Saturday as well as our favourite places to eat.

Jazz in our tuk tuk

Anyway, that's all for now and our next instalment will come from Ben...

Another week flown by!

Hi it's Jazzie here and it's my turn to do the blog, I hope that you enjoy reading this.

On Monday we wake up ready for another week. Dad and I go down the steps to the pool. Dad jumps in I dip my foot in and think it's so cold. Then I jump up in the air and land in the water. It is cold. After we dry ourselves we head up to our room to get ready for breaky. We have baguettes ($1 for 5) then go on the tuk-tuk. On the way I think about how lucky we are and how expensive Sydney is compared to here. We arrive at school. All the kids are lined up. The day goes by and before we know it were back eating dinner somewhere nice.

The room I share with Ben

The days go quickly. On Tuesday one of the teachers who I am really good friends with (her name is Sovann) let me have a ride on the back of her motorbike. Sovann is about 20. The ride is great. Before we leave I asked Dad if I needed a helmet he said I'd be alright (Mummy was horrified) so off we went. It was awesome and Sovann said that everyone was staring at me. She took us around town and showed me some places. Then we got back I wanted to keep going but we had to go back so we went back for lunch.

The road to the front of the school

Ben, Mummy & me out the front of Anjali

Ben and I enjoyed the week playing, helping and laughing with everyone. We have already made great friends. Everything changes everyday and I enjoy listening to different stories we get told about the culture and the families. It is awful what some of the kids have to go through. Ben's cut has gotten way better and it's not infected anymore. Nanny is coming up in a couple of weeks for about 10 days. We are very excited. This week I was feeling a bit homesick and missing home and everyone. But Dad always says that home will always be there.

Me in the playground

It's funny because some people told us about an amazing Italian restaurant and when we went there it turned out awful. But there is a really really nice Indian restaurant. We also found out that on Monday it is Chinese new year and there is no school that day.

Today we went to a silk farm that we heard was really good. It took about half an hour to get there and we saw some great sights. Along the way there were these massive amazing hotels and then next to them were these tiny little shacks. Then we finally arrived at the silk farm. It was AWESOME!!! :) It was free and you had a tour guide that showed you around. The machines were incredible and it was just amazing to know the long process. We saw hundreds of cocoons and caterpillars and there was a ginormous field of mulberry leaves that they feed the caterpillars. Then you went into a big room with lots of wooden machines that they made the silk in and we were shown how they dyed the silk. At the end they had a big shop were you can buy silk stuff.

We bought some cool stuff. Then we headed back to the tuk-tuk. It was so hot out side. We got in the tuk-tuk and started making our way back we saw some cool stuff we saw some kids jumping of a bridge into water. Dad got dropped off at a travel centre to find out if we have to go to the border of Thailand to extend our visa's but we can just do it at the travel centre we found out. We are just about to go a fair.

Here are a few of my favourite photos so far...

Cool pic of Angkor Wat

Great view from up in Angkor Wat back to the entrance

Will add more photos next blog.

The week has flown by!! ;)

Living the Dream!

Clarissa here and my turn for a blog. A few of you have commented how good the blogs and writing skills have been and so I feel the pressure! I am someone who tends to write as I would speak to you and my english is not wonderful so bare with me. I do however write with a lot of feeling and emotion so get ready for the ride!

Our first week at Anjali house felt long, tiring and yet enriching. The children take you into their world of laughter, mindfulness, and pure creative play. We feel engaged with them already and know it will be hard to leave. They come from poor families where the parents drink, and/or gamble a lot, living in one room homes. The children have not had good role models and get very little or disturbed sleep. I find their concentration and social skills surprisingly good considering all of this.

Front of the school

Rich and I have managed well taking the classes and love seeing the responses of the children to our workshops and games. Ben and Jasmin have been an amazing asset and help in the classroom. The way they interact and engage (despite the language barrier) is fantastic, they have such fresh ideas and the Anjali kids love them, all you here in the playground is "Ben 10, Ben 10, Ben 10".

Ben playing Badminton with the kids

The big kid with the little kids

The Khmer teachers are very nice, especially the young Kindy teacher Savonn. Savonn is very funny and I love speaking to her, learning about the culture and way of life here. The Khmer people are still so very traditional and are mostly Buddhists. They wake early and get busy with aerobics, dancing, cooking or preparing for their day, I'm talking about 4-5AM! As families and friends they do not show a lot of affection. Savonn found it funny that I would hug Jasmin, they only show affection to babies. You do see the children at the school being affectionate with each other and us. To greet one another they bow and put their hands together in prayer. We are still getting used to this and learning a different respect for one another and our personal space.

Local fishing and the reason why we are not eating fish till we get to the coast!

Our Tuk Tuk driver, Poe had an accident (not with us on it) during the week and was quite hurt. He had to have a friend pick us up and drop us off one day. Poe has borrowed a Tuk Tuk for now and I feel so sad for him. When I asked him about the accident and would the motor bike who hit him be responsible I was shocked at his response. He explained that because the motor bike rider is rich and he is poorer the bike rider payed the policeman off to say he was right and Poe was wrong. Poe has told us he has a daughter and his wife is pregnant with a son. Poe also talked about how expensive it is for him to go to hospital, $8 a day! I wanted to give him some money straight away and help him out. We feel by using him for the 6 weeks we are here will be a big help.  I have realised living here the short time we have money does not always solve everything and it is definitely the survival of the fittest!

We feel happy that all we have invested in with Anjali House is going to a great cause and thank all of those who donated their creative ideas, items, money, support etc. To see the kids able to learn life values, respect, education, relationships, care, fun, receive clean water, healthy food and a nice shower is so rewarding.

To top off our first week we decided to get up early on the Saturday morning, not quite Khmer style yet but it was 6am! We got some baguettes, added butter, jam (true backpackers with 5 baguettes for 75c) and in the Tuk Tuk with Poe to see Angkor Wat.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

People were just leaving from the sunrise session when we arrived and so it was great timing. It was reasonably quiet and incredible. It was like being in another universe where time had stopped. I could go on forever and took lots of photos but you really need to experience the energy of this magical place to appreciate its journey. As some of you know I am a very spiritual person and loved being there. To think about the history of this beautiful place, the detail, architecture and how it took 30 years to build is so consuming and creates a desire to go back in time and learn from them.

The view from the temples to the front of Angkor Wat

The amazing detail of the carvings

Photos don't do it justice!

After spending a good 3 hours at Angkor Wat we asked Poe to take us to a local secret behind Angkor Wat, The Treehouse. It was a HUGE tree with steps winding right up to the top (about 50m up). I began the climb and did not last long, became dizzy and my heart was pounding fast. For anyone who does not know I am extremely scared of heights. Rich, Ben and Jazzy took the climb thou, I was so proud of them and happy to see them safely on the ground.

The beginning of the climb

The treehouse

We came back to our room, had a swim and rested. After lunch we went into town and had a fish massage. You put your feet in this fish tank and they nibble all the dead skin off. It was sooo ticklish at first and then it felt good. They give you a beer and the kids a soft drink to sit and enjoy for 1/2 hour. It was a good laugh.

I promise I am enjoying it.

Too funny

Are you sure about this

They liked Rich's running feet

We were all tired and so went to our local roof top restaurant, buy one drink, get the next free and 50% off all food, for dinner. Came back to the room and Ben's foot was badly infected from a cut earlier in the week at Anjali. I had been doing my nurse thing using Betadine, alcohol swabs, band aids etc for a few days but he had a red line starting to travel up his leg and it was very swollen. Rich and I decided to give him the local antibiotics we had for the kids and see how it was in the morning. Luckily woke up, could walk better and a lot of the redness gone, phew! I will finish the dose and keep it covered and clean for a while now.

I will leave you with a quote of the week from Ben. We were talking to one of the staff at Anjali about how the Khmer gamble a lot on card games when Ben asked "what is gambling?" After explaining he replied " Daddy what sort of games do they play, Go Fish?"

Jazz and Rich

Jazz enjoying dinner!

Back to School

Woke up this morning feeling like the new kids at school... which we were! Poe - our tuk tuk driver who we met a few days ago and have since said we will use for the next 7 weeks or so - picked us up at 8.00am and off we went to Anjali House. Was great to finally start and meet the staff and kids at the school.

The school is a few km's out of town and down a dusty road. It is very basic, dirty and dusty and the kids now have an appreciation for the facilities that they have at their school in Australia compared to what is here. The local kids are in bare feet all day until they get on their bikes and ride home in sandals or thongs! Will put on a few photo's of the school in our next blog but didn't want to take any photo's on our first day.

Clarissa will be helping in the kindergarten class (kids range in age from 5 to 10 years old) and loved it. She said the kids were so cute, well behaved and really liked the 'teacher' she will be helping. Savan (the teacher) is 20 years old, has no training and started out helping with the young kids that turned up with their brother or sister. Since she did a good job with the young kids she was offered the role of the kindy teacher - guess there is nothing like on the job training!

Jazz was in Clarissa's class today and loved it as well. It is great to see Jazz so excited about Anjali House and has settled into life over here after her first few days away.

I will be in the beginners class (8 years old to 14 years old) and really liked the kids in with me. They were great with Ben who was in with me and are such good natured kids. As most of the kids come from extremely poor families a few of them are very short for their age due to the lack of nutrition. This meant Ben was taller that some of the 10 years olds in the class! As you can imagine Jazz was a giant amongst them. I'm sure there will be some challenging times ahead of us but compared to the challenges these kids face we will be fine.

Lunch is provided by the school and was interesting looking so I'm glad Clarissa went first (not so brave after all!) It was actually pretty tasty and Clarissa being a hairdresser was very happy to have an hour lunch break and didn't know what to do with herself.

We have been enjoying eating out every night at a cost of between $15 up to $30 - not to bad for 4 people! The food has been pretty good for the most part and is hard to complain when it is soo cheap! Had a great dinner the other night on the roof of a hotel 50m from us.

Me and the kids in pub street

Dinner on the roof of Santa Maria Hotel

The bad thing is that the beers are either 50 cents or a dollar which has made saying no impossible so far. I better be careful otherwise I'll end up like my brother.

Before we started at Anjali we went to some of the temples of Angkor which were amazing. We started with the smaller temples on the first day, then went to some of the bigger temples on Saturday. Hard to describe how amazing they are, even the picture don't do justice so would certainly recommend them to anyone.

The Bayon temple

The Baphuon temple 

Clarissa and Ben resting 

Otherwise we have been enjoying the pool which is great in the afternoon and after a day at the temples is just what you need. The kids have had us playing games most nights after dinner that they were given which has been great - thanks Heath!

I'll finish with a paragraph from Ben's diary that he was happy to share -

"On Monday morning we woke up at 7.00am to go to a buffet breakfast and I had 3 or 4 mini pancakes and a bowl of cornflakes. Then we had to be at Anjali House at 8.15am. When we got there we met another volunteer who showed us around. The day was so fun I can't wait till tomorrow."

The Bayon - our favourite so far

Doorways - lots of 'em

The adventure has begun!

After much discussion about if we would take the kids through Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos it is hard to believe we are finally here! As you can imagine we were all very excited on the plane trip over and the kids were great. We had organised to stay with a friend of my brothers in Phnom Penh who has been living there for the last 3 years with his young family. We were picked up at the airport and taken to their place. The trip through Phnom Penh was an eye opening experience for us all, especially the kids. The amount of mopeds is unbelievable and the craziness on the roads is amazing, yet it somehow works. We even saw a young Mum riding her moped with a kid under 2 asleep on her lap and a kid around 3 holding onto her back also asleep... I guess we will get use to it!

Nicolas and Susan were amazing in the hospitality, advice and help they gave us with regards to life in Phnom Penh and Cambodia in general. We had some fantastic meals both at their home (Nicolas is from the south of France!) as well as out and this was the best way to help the kids get accustomed to life over here. They had a great place over the river from the city and we were able to relax when we wanted to or go exploring.  Jean Lui (their 5 year old son) and Ben got on really well and had a great time playing, especially in their pool which was great to swim in after a day of exploring.

Susan, Nicolas, Clarissa & Rich

While in Phnom Penh we had a few tuk tuk rides and visited the Royal Palace, the National Museum, the Russian markets (very crowded and busy) as well as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which was very moving. It is hard to believe the depths to which humanity can sink to.

The Cambodian Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

The Russian markets - Jaz was a little overwhelmed by it all

Jazz & Ben's first tuk tuk ride

For New Years eve we stayed the night at the Intercontinental which was great (thanks Glen and Gab). Kids loved the pool and staying in a nice hotel. Since Clarissa and the kids were still tired from the flight we just had dinner in after all having fun in the pool and a nice big bath! We watched the Sydney midnight fireworks (8pm our time) and were all asleep before midnight! The kids were very excited about the buffet breakfast the next day and we all felt refreshed, relaxed and re-charged.

The kids being quiet in the room while Clarissa sleeps and I read!

Clarissa and Ben enjoying the pool

It was about the third day of our trip that Jazz decided she wanted to go home as she was missing home, the rest of the family, her friends and was struggling with the poverty and the little street kids begging. We certainly questioned ourselves about if we were doing the right thing but after a few chats, lots of hugs and another day or two of getting use to it Jazz is looking forward to the next 3 months! It will be a great experience for all of us, especially the kids as they learn about other cultures, lifestyles and themselves!

local kids looking after their cows

We decided to get the boat from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap as it would be a good way to see life on the Tonle Sap river and lake. It was a great day, we sat on the roof for most of it and looked at life along the river, as well as on it. There were numerous floating villages and all the kids would wave and shout as the boat went by.

Houses on the river from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Glad we were on the bigger boat!

We finally arrived at the port 7hrs later only to be greeted by 50 or so locals keen to get us on their tuk tuk. We looked for our driver as our hotel said they would meet us but since no one had turned up we were left to haggle and eventually organised a tuk tuk for Clarissa, the kids and our bags while I jumped on the back of a moped. Was an interesting trip into Siem Reap to our hotel.

Where's my helmet?

So our home for the next 7 weeks is the Shadow of Angkor 2 which on first impressions is great. Nice and clean, has a swimming pool and we have 2 interconnecting rooms so we can all keep our sanity! We are a 5min walk to pub street where all the cafes and bars are and not too far from the old market, night market and only about 5mins in a tuk tuk to Anjali House. Start there on Monday so looking forward to that.

Best things that have happened so far:
Ben - sitting on the roof of the boat going from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap with the family
Jazzy - dinner with all the family and Nicolas & Susan at a Japanese restaurant in Phnom Penh
Clarissa - riding in the tuk tuk taking in all the sights
Rich - sitting on a roof top bar at sunset (Le Moon) in Phnom Penh with Nicolas, Susan, Clarissa and the kids taking in the sights (boat trip was pretty good too!)

That's all for our first blog, will try to update on a regular basis and will also get the kids to write as well.

Happy New year and hope 2012 is great year for everyone.