camgoebya part 5. (this is no longer a daily journal...i knew it wouldnt last)
well we are now well and truly part of the action here at narin 2 guest house. in fact...i cant really imagine how they will cope once we leave. the little girls spend most of their time chatting to the workers..playing in the parked tuktuks or making conversation with the travellers coming to stay for the night. they have made up this game with the two little sisters that live here...where they hold hands and spin around in a circle calling out "mango mango STOP". its an ideal game since it doesnt require a great amount of language skills as well as burning off excess energy at the same time.
im enjoying getting to know the characters here at narin 2. there are these two older men. up until yesterday i only knew that they were american and that one looks like mr.burns from the simpsons and the other has a frame around one of his legs. as it turns out...mr.burns is actually Roger...from hawaii. he lives in cambodia because "in america i would only be able to afford an apartment...here i can at least afford cigarettes and beer as well". he is 67 but looks a lot older. ready to die he tells me. mainly from the boredom. never thought he would lose interest in life..but he says he now has. john on the other hand is 77...but looks a lot younger. "young women keep me young". turns out his leg is crippled from polio but that doesnt stop him from flirting with the cambodian girls. he organised a big birthday bash last night..to celebrate his 77th birthday as well as Lek's 27(it was too late to change the number on the cake after i told him she is actually 26). im sure our invite was based on the popularity of the kids....but either way...we were happy to come along for the celebrations. john paid for three chickens to be made into a soup (turned out to be a curry), two massive cakes...and way too much black panther beer. everyone seemed to enjoy themselves....especially once the cake was served and everyone started smearing eachother with the frosting. it was probably the smartest things to do with the stuff because it sure wasnt edible. being one of the few sober people...as well as wanting to give the staff a bit of a hand...i started clearing the tables as the food part of the night slowed down. you wont believe the protests i had!! they just couldnt seem to handle a visitor at the guest house doing the work. i kept going for a while longer until i realised it made them so uncomfortable..
im pretty sure that john got what he wished for last night as a cambodian girl 50 years younger than him was seen coming out of his room this morning...and has sat with him all day giggling at his 'jokes' and holding his hand. steve is finding it really hard to handle and sits and glares in their direction.
the sex trade is alive and well in cambodia and we are going to be confronted with it as long as we are here. tomorrow im heading off to check out a shelter thats been set up for teenage girls rescued from the sex trade. 14-18year olds that were either sold into the the trade by their families...or who ended up there desperate for money. the shelter is run by an organisation called 'transitions global'. i met up with the directors the other day and we discussed the option of me working for them as a counselor.
steve has just stepped out of the shower and realised that there is lightning going on outside. "what the hell am i doing" were his parting words as he pulled on some shorts and headed outside. i cant tell you how excited he is about the chance to see some lightning. im sure its one of his main reasons for wanting to move to cambodia...and so far one week in...we havent had any. despite being told it was a daily affair.
ive become friends with a girl from chicago called heather. she is working here as a teacher. she's been able to fill me in on some of the aspects of living here. according to her vitB is the secret to not getting mosquito bites. one capsule a day and mozzies dont like you! she also told me where to find some organic food...(im still feeling a bit funny about the sprays they use on their vegetables here...not to mention all the fumes from the traffic) i was invited out for dinner with her and her boyfriend Gan tonight. they were going to a soup bar and invited us along. i decided to go alone since they kids have had funny tummies today and need to stay close to a toilet. (ocea asked me later where i had been..when i told her she said "why you need a gun when you go eat soup?")
gan is a tuktuk driver. his family own a rice farm. a few years ago his dad stepped on a landmine...and eventhough he has all his limbs intact...he suffered head injuries and hasnt been himself since. i dont think i will ever get used to hearing the stories of landmines or the khmer rouge. its all so very real here. there are too many people with missing limbs...or with serious burns. for having suffered so much as a nation...they are incredibly friendly and warm people.
there are quite a few volunteers staying here at narin with us. most of them are from england. out here for three weeks teaching english at local schools or orphanages. they are a friendly bunch. cigarettes are ten times cheaper here than england so they seem to be smoking them ten times faster than usual. the pollution inside narin is worse than outside when the poms get back from their day of teaching. they are all pretty impressed by the fact that we are here with kids. when one of them realised today that we had four kids...not two...she nearly hyperventilated and couldnt stop talking about how amazing we are and how brave and so on. seems to be a common theme these days...we find it all very amusing since our motives are far from brave or noble.
im getting a bit worried that steve seems to want to find a place to rent while im really starting to get used to this nomadic life and wanting to extend it as long as we can.
weve had a look at a couple of apartments for rent the past few days. its been good to see whats available and for how much. things are definately not as cheap as we were told...but still so much cheaper than what we are used to. if we are willing to live a few kilometres out of the city center then we could get a 2-3 bedroom, somewhat furnished apartment for about $200 a month. im really keen to travel around cambodia before we make any decisions. at this stage i feel more drawn to the rural areas. not that i have been there yet...but the idea of space and fresher air for the kids appeals to me.
on tuesday we are heading down to the coast. the trip there takes four hours. it will cost our family $40 to take a taxi there. crazy! it will be good to get out of the city and see what else is around.
ocea still has a really bad heat rash...all over her face and shoulders. im not sure how to treat it since the heat doesnt really let up at any stage. so far ive used powder on it which seems to help it a little bit. three of the kids also have diarreah. im hoping its just something minor. they are all handling it well at this stage and not complaining. i have to say they are all being amazing with all the crazy things that are going on. even just spending so much time indoors when they are used to being outside for most of the day. im really really proud of them.
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im really aware as im writing this that my kids are all safe. we might be six people squeezed into a room with three beds and a mattress on the floor. no hot water and only a fan to keep us cool. but we are safe. today i had one of those days where from start to finish i was reminded of how ridiculously fortunate i am. its a luxury that i take for granted daily. i wonder what it would take for me to be more grateful?
this morning we headed of to a cafe near the russian market (dont think fur hats and a bunch of svetlanas selling smoked sausages). steve had organised to meet an aussie guy who lives in the slums with his wife and three year old daughter and six month old son. they are here wanting to serve the poor, live in their community and be available to the needs around them. impressive stuff. he of course was very casual about it all and didnt talk it up in anyway. very down to earth and helpful.
early in the afternoon i headed off to visit the 'transitions' shelter. all the girls that live there have either been rescued from the sex trade or are rape victims. when i say girls i really mean girls. most of them dont look older than 14. when i arrived with about four other people we were greeted with sooo many hugs and smiles.
the shelter is set up in a multi storey apartment. enough rooms for sleeping, counselling, school and more. the whole time we were there we could smell something very tasty being cooked in the very clean kitchen. there is too much to write about this place...but all in all its an absolute godsend for these girls who have been through a nightmare and are finally able to begin to dream again.
all of the girls are encouraged to learn a trade that will then give them the opportunity of work down the track. what i really liked was that these girls are not being locked into trades like hairdressing and basket making which is a very common trade for women in cambodia...but they are choosing things like graphic design and yoga training!
most of our visit was spent listening to the director (james pond) talk about the shelter and what it means for these girls and what the long term impact is. impressive stuff! we then had a lady called helen talk about her organisation which basically oversees a huge amount of NGO's in cambodia that care for the needy. there is such a massive need over here...but as the dialogue continued we ended up talking about how huge the need is world wide. how the child sex trade is a global phenonmenon. so many of us think that our local community is immune to it..and that it only takes place in third world countries like cambodia. sadly the statistics show that kids ALL over the world are being used for cheap sex. i was really struck with what a difference we could actually make if churches and other organisations stopped focusing on building funds and new carpets and invested their energies into protecting our kids.
in the evening we went down to the riverfront for dinner. supposedly we were going with the english volunteers...but they were keen for a late night (surprise surprise) and we were needing to get the kids fed. the river front is known for its western restaurants and bars. cheap alcohol and tasty food. i was finding it hard to concentrate on the luxuries when there were continual beggers coming up and either asking for some money...or others selling cheap dvds. some of them not older than five. as we stepped out of the cafe we saw two little boys - around three years old - sleeping on the pavement - oblivious to the crowds of people around them. then we passed a girl who couldnt have been older than 7 with a two month old baby in a sling. i can see how over time you become immune to these sights...and how the children somehow fit into the setting and it all becomes 'normal' or 'acceptable'. my heart feels really heavy from it all and i really hope that it remains that way until i become part of the solution.
=======================================
we decided to head down to the south coast and visit the town of kep. the three hour trip cost us $40 in a very comfortable a/c taxi. of course there were only four seat and six of us. having the biggest bottom in the family (and possibly in all of cambodia) i got to sit in the front seat...along with ocea on my lap...cambodian style. as long as i kept my eyes shut for most of the trip and used up any faith reserves that i have been storing away over the years...the trip wasnt so bad. im still quite mystified over the driving practises over here. including their use of indicators and lanes. our driver seemed to think that as long as he continually honked the horn it didnt matter how fast he went.
it was great to get out of the city and see some greenery. beautiful mountains and rice paddocks. despite having my eyes shut most of the journey i was able to admire the cute little houses. most of them on stilts. wooden. and painted in beautiful shades of blue or turqouise.
we arrived (alive) and got to our place which on the sign says 'Paraclise'. a pretty amazing location with a gorgeous pool surrounded by lots of bungalows. everything is lovely....and oh so quiet. problem is we are used to Narin where everyone is friendly and genuinely happy to see us. over here in Paraclise we have a leathery french lady with the body of a 18 year old who seems who have been sucking on lemons before every encounter with us. its not that she says anything...but in her ever so silent way she manages to make us feel uncomfortable for existing.
the town of kep is so incredibly small. and so incredibly poor. their income is from seafood (mainly crabs), pepper and tourists. weve managed to score a tuktuk driver who speaks a bit of english. his name is Hahn. 23. with lots of big dreams. and im pretty sure he is the cambodian twin of micah watson. (only my jerusalem friends would get that). he is very keen to make some money and is continually making suggestions of where we could go and what we can do. we let him know that we would love to live in cambodia and help out in some way. he was very keen to show us some houses for rent. as it turned out he only took us to one...that was quite far out of the 'town'. in the middle of rice fields. a tiny little shack. with a tiny little 'room' with a tiny little...'kitchen'...as neshica said "Time and Ocea could do all the cooking". it really did look more like a cubby than a house. either way..the place was so so basic and the guys was suggesting we pay $200 a month. it might have been worth $30 a month. once again i was reminded of how off putting greed is and was happy to get back on the tuk tuk.
we are now back in 'paraclise' about to move to our new guest house for the night since this room is now reserved for someone else. after looking at a couple of different options we found a simple place down by the water. it has a nice breeze from the ocean and the one person we saw actually seemed friendly.
being in kep has taken me out of my comfort zone and im not exactly sure why. it might be the distance from a city. or maybe the fact that we havent made any connections here. or how incredibly poor people are here. i dont know. but i feel a certain uneasiness about being here which is hard to identify. it might be that we have been on the road for a while now and the mother in me is feeling the need to nest a bit. i know that the nomad in me is still very happy to be on the move....
i will try to get these last updates sent off while we have internet. im not sure if our next little place does. thanks for the feedback. it does make it easier to write knowing that people are enjoying the updates.
well we are now well and truly part of the action here at narin 2 guest house. in fact...i cant really imagine how they will cope once we leave. the little girls spend most of their time chatting to the workers..playing in the parked tuktuks or making conversation with the travellers coming to stay for the night. they have made up this game with the two little sisters that live here...where they hold hands and spin around in a circle calling out "mango mango STOP". its an ideal game since it doesnt require a great amount of language skills as well as burning off excess energy at the same time.
im enjoying getting to know the characters here at narin 2. there are these two older men. up until yesterday i only knew that they were american and that one looks like mr.burns from the simpsons and the other has a frame around one of his legs. as it turns out...mr.burns is actually Roger...from hawaii. he lives in cambodia because "in america i would only be able to afford an apartment...here i can at least afford cigarettes and beer as well". he is 67 but looks a lot older. ready to die he tells me. mainly from the boredom. never thought he would lose interest in life..but he says he now has. john on the other hand is 77...but looks a lot younger. "young women keep me young". turns out his leg is crippled from polio but that doesnt stop him from flirting with the cambodian girls. he organised a big birthday bash last night..to celebrate his 77th birthday as well as Lek's 27(it was too late to change the number on the cake after i told him she is actually 26). im sure our invite was based on the popularity of the kids....but either way...we were happy to come along for the celebrations. john paid for three chickens to be made into a soup (turned out to be a curry), two massive cakes...and way too much black panther beer. everyone seemed to enjoy themselves....especially once the cake was served and everyone started smearing eachother with the frosting. it was probably the smartest things to do with the stuff because it sure wasnt edible. being one of the few sober people...as well as wanting to give the staff a bit of a hand...i started clearing the tables as the food part of the night slowed down. you wont believe the protests i had!! they just couldnt seem to handle a visitor at the guest house doing the work. i kept going for a while longer until i realised it made them so uncomfortable..
im pretty sure that john got what he wished for last night as a cambodian girl 50 years younger than him was seen coming out of his room this morning...and has sat with him all day giggling at his 'jokes' and holding his hand. steve is finding it really hard to handle and sits and glares in their direction.
the sex trade is alive and well in cambodia and we are going to be confronted with it as long as we are here. tomorrow im heading off to check out a shelter thats been set up for teenage girls rescued from the sex trade. 14-18year olds that were either sold into the the trade by their families...or who ended up there desperate for money. the shelter is run by an organisation called 'transitions global'. i met up with the directors the other day and we discussed the option of me working for them as a counselor.
steve has just stepped out of the shower and realised that there is lightning going on outside. "what the hell am i doing" were his parting words as he pulled on some shorts and headed outside. i cant tell you how excited he is about the chance to see some lightning. im sure its one of his main reasons for wanting to move to cambodia...and so far one week in...we havent had any. despite being told it was a daily affair.
ive become friends with a girl from chicago called heather. she is working here as a teacher. she's been able to fill me in on some of the aspects of living here. according to her vitB is the secret to not getting mosquito bites. one capsule a day and mozzies dont like you! she also told me where to find some organic food...(im still feeling a bit funny about the sprays they use on their vegetables here...not to mention all the fumes from the traffic) i was invited out for dinner with her and her boyfriend Gan tonight. they were going to a soup bar and invited us along. i decided to go alone since they kids have had funny tummies today and need to stay close to a toilet. (ocea asked me later where i had been..when i told her she said "why you need a gun when you go eat soup?")
gan is a tuktuk driver. his family own a rice farm. a few years ago his dad stepped on a landmine...and eventhough he has all his limbs intact...he suffered head injuries and hasnt been himself since. i dont think i will ever get used to hearing the stories of landmines or the khmer rouge. its all so very real here. there are too many people with missing limbs...or with serious burns. for having suffered so much as a nation...they are incredibly friendly and warm people.
there are quite a few volunteers staying here at narin with us. most of them are from england. out here for three weeks teaching english at local schools or orphanages. they are a friendly bunch. cigarettes are ten times cheaper here than england so they seem to be smoking them ten times faster than usual. the pollution inside narin is worse than outside when the poms get back from their day of teaching. they are all pretty impressed by the fact that we are here with kids. when one of them realised today that we had four kids...not two...she nearly hyperventilated and couldnt stop talking about how amazing we are and how brave and so on. seems to be a common theme these days...we find it all very amusing since our motives are far from brave or noble.
im getting a bit worried that steve seems to want to find a place to rent while im really starting to get used to this nomadic life and wanting to extend it as long as we can.
weve had a look at a couple of apartments for rent the past few days. its been good to see whats available and for how much. things are definately not as cheap as we were told...but still so much cheaper than what we are used to. if we are willing to live a few kilometres out of the city center then we could get a 2-3 bedroom, somewhat furnished apartment for about $200 a month. im really keen to travel around cambodia before we make any decisions. at this stage i feel more drawn to the rural areas. not that i have been there yet...but the idea of space and fresher air for the kids appeals to me.
on tuesday we are heading down to the coast. the trip there takes four hours. it will cost our family $40 to take a taxi there. crazy! it will be good to get out of the city and see what else is around.
ocea still has a really bad heat rash...all over her face and shoulders. im not sure how to treat it since the heat doesnt really let up at any stage. so far ive used powder on it which seems to help it a little bit. three of the kids also have diarreah. im hoping its just something minor. they are all handling it well at this stage and not complaining. i have to say they are all being amazing with all the crazy things that are going on. even just spending so much time indoors when they are used to being outside for most of the day. im really really proud of them.
==========================================
im really aware as im writing this that my kids are all safe. we might be six people squeezed into a room with three beds and a mattress on the floor. no hot water and only a fan to keep us cool. but we are safe. today i had one of those days where from start to finish i was reminded of how ridiculously fortunate i am. its a luxury that i take for granted daily. i wonder what it would take for me to be more grateful?
this morning we headed of to a cafe near the russian market (dont think fur hats and a bunch of svetlanas selling smoked sausages). steve had organised to meet an aussie guy who lives in the slums with his wife and three year old daughter and six month old son. they are here wanting to serve the poor, live in their community and be available to the needs around them. impressive stuff. he of course was very casual about it all and didnt talk it up in anyway. very down to earth and helpful.
early in the afternoon i headed off to visit the 'transitions' shelter. all the girls that live there have either been rescued from the sex trade or are rape victims. when i say girls i really mean girls. most of them dont look older than 14. when i arrived with about four other people we were greeted with sooo many hugs and smiles.
the shelter is set up in a multi storey apartment. enough rooms for sleeping, counselling, school and more. the whole time we were there we could smell something very tasty being cooked in the very clean kitchen. there is too much to write about this place...but all in all its an absolute godsend for these girls who have been through a nightmare and are finally able to begin to dream again.
all of the girls are encouraged to learn a trade that will then give them the opportunity of work down the track. what i really liked was that these girls are not being locked into trades like hairdressing and basket making which is a very common trade for women in cambodia...but they are choosing things like graphic design and yoga training!
most of our visit was spent listening to the director (james pond) talk about the shelter and what it means for these girls and what the long term impact is. impressive stuff! we then had a lady called helen talk about her organisation which basically oversees a huge amount of NGO's in cambodia that care for the needy. there is such a massive need over here...but as the dialogue continued we ended up talking about how huge the need is world wide. how the child sex trade is a global phenonmenon. so many of us think that our local community is immune to it..and that it only takes place in third world countries like cambodia. sadly the statistics show that kids ALL over the world are being used for cheap sex. i was really struck with what a difference we could actually make if churches and other organisations stopped focusing on building funds and new carpets and invested their energies into protecting our kids.
in the evening we went down to the riverfront for dinner. supposedly we were going with the english volunteers...but they were keen for a late night (surprise surprise) and we were needing to get the kids fed. the river front is known for its western restaurants and bars. cheap alcohol and tasty food. i was finding it hard to concentrate on the luxuries when there were continual beggers coming up and either asking for some money...or others selling cheap dvds. some of them not older than five. as we stepped out of the cafe we saw two little boys - around three years old - sleeping on the pavement - oblivious to the crowds of people around them. then we passed a girl who couldnt have been older than 7 with a two month old baby in a sling. i can see how over time you become immune to these sights...and how the children somehow fit into the setting and it all becomes 'normal' or 'acceptable'. my heart feels really heavy from it all and i really hope that it remains that way until i become part of the solution.
=======================================
we decided to head down to the south coast and visit the town of kep. the three hour trip cost us $40 in a very comfortable a/c taxi. of course there were only four seat and six of us. having the biggest bottom in the family (and possibly in all of cambodia) i got to sit in the front seat...along with ocea on my lap...cambodian style. as long as i kept my eyes shut for most of the trip and used up any faith reserves that i have been storing away over the years...the trip wasnt so bad. im still quite mystified over the driving practises over here. including their use of indicators and lanes. our driver seemed to think that as long as he continually honked the horn it didnt matter how fast he went.
it was great to get out of the city and see some greenery. beautiful mountains and rice paddocks. despite having my eyes shut most of the journey i was able to admire the cute little houses. most of them on stilts. wooden. and painted in beautiful shades of blue or turqouise.
we arrived (alive) and got to our place which on the sign says 'Paraclise'. a pretty amazing location with a gorgeous pool surrounded by lots of bungalows. everything is lovely....and oh so quiet. problem is we are used to Narin where everyone is friendly and genuinely happy to see us. over here in Paraclise we have a leathery french lady with the body of a 18 year old who seems who have been sucking on lemons before every encounter with us. its not that she says anything...but in her ever so silent way she manages to make us feel uncomfortable for existing.
the town of kep is so incredibly small. and so incredibly poor. their income is from seafood (mainly crabs), pepper and tourists. weve managed to score a tuktuk driver who speaks a bit of english. his name is Hahn. 23. with lots of big dreams. and im pretty sure he is the cambodian twin of micah watson. (only my jerusalem friends would get that). he is very keen to make some money and is continually making suggestions of where we could go and what we can do. we let him know that we would love to live in cambodia and help out in some way. he was very keen to show us some houses for rent. as it turned out he only took us to one...that was quite far out of the 'town'. in the middle of rice fields. a tiny little shack. with a tiny little 'room' with a tiny little...'kitchen'...as neshica said "Time and Ocea could do all the cooking". it really did look more like a cubby than a house. either way..the place was so so basic and the guys was suggesting we pay $200 a month. it might have been worth $30 a month. once again i was reminded of how off putting greed is and was happy to get back on the tuk tuk.
we are now back in 'paraclise' about to move to our new guest house for the night since this room is now reserved for someone else. after looking at a couple of different options we found a simple place down by the water. it has a nice breeze from the ocean and the one person we saw actually seemed friendly.
being in kep has taken me out of my comfort zone and im not exactly sure why. it might be the distance from a city. or maybe the fact that we havent made any connections here. or how incredibly poor people are here. i dont know. but i feel a certain uneasiness about being here which is hard to identify. it might be that we have been on the road for a while now and the mother in me is feeling the need to nest a bit. i know that the nomad in me is still very happy to be on the move....
i will try to get these last updates sent off while we have internet. im not sure if our next little place does. thanks for the feedback. it does make it easier to write knowing that people are enjoying the updates.
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