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!