this is our last night in siem reap. we came up for a visit over a week ago. wanting to explore the temples of anchor wat while grandma was visiting from sweden. of course only seven of us didnt seem quite right...so we invited Any and her two sisters, Srei-deap and Srei-dut. And of course Srei-Net had to come as well since we practically dont leave our house without her.
weve had a good time up here. its a very different feel to where we live. in fact, a whole different dimension of cambodia that we arent used to. the city swarms with tourists. the guest houses dont really need to do much in order to get many visitors. and lo and behold there is actually a night life. its been fun to do novelty touristy things – and having people trying to figure out how we all fit together. one suggestion was that we are a very nice family who have adopted four cambodian orphans. another that we have four cambodian servants.
after six days of playing tourists, grandma had to head back to sweden....and steve had to head back to australia to earn some much needed money so that we can keep doing what we are doing over here. he’s committed to a six month contract as an engineer for Holden car company in adelaide. i decided that i wasnt ready to face Kampot yet minus steve...and wanted to spend a few more days in Siem Reap. so Any and her little gang headed off on a bus at the same time as steve...and we moved into a different guest house so we could be closer to some new friends. i think the bugs waited about 20min after everyone left on the bus and then decided to show their ugly little faces. in the few days in cambodia as a single mum my kids have had a long list of ailments that i wont bore you with – but lets just say that i need to buy quite a few more undies for the kids...and stock up on pain killers.
thing is...with all this stuff....as in...the parenting and looking after kids stuff....i really just cant get over how absolutely spoiled we are. ive been thinking about this for a while now. been trying to get my thoughts out so that i can make some sense of it all. this crazy reality of some of us having way too much while others dont even have the basics. how with a little bit of perspective we would see it so much clearer....but most of us are so busy with our own stuff that we forget whats happening around us. dont get me wrong. even living here in cambodia i cant seem to find that balance...so i know its just so much harder when surrounded by the greed and consuming cravings of the west.
i cant say that ive arrived at an answer. but ive been mulling over an idea which i hope enough people will take on board and hopefully something good can come from that. it doesnt require much really....just some initial setting up and then a slow but steady change.
ive been holding off writing about it until i have some ways of getting the idea to work properly...but after tonight..i just cant hold it in anymore. what happened tonight you ask. well. one of the many ‘what to do while in siem reap’ options is going along to a nightly performance at an orphanage. they put on a traditional khmer dancing show for free and we had heard that it was worth going along to. despite being low tourist season there was actually quite a few people there. maybe 25 or so. the place itself was very basic but had a stage and cover. so the show started with kids ranging from age 4 – 16 being dressed up in traditional khmer outfits. (think funny looking pants and tight gold tops for the girls and ugly masks for the boys). along with the dancing there was also some music being played by the kids. big wooden xylophones and drums. you’d think that something like this would make me appreciate the hard work they had put in. or make me feel all warm and fuzzy about how sweet cambodian kids are. but no. i was sitting there absolutely horrified. its six thirty on a monday night. where would your kids be at that time? just sitting down to eat their dinner? plonked infront of the tv? finishing off their assignment? in the bath ready for bed and stories? what sort of world do we live in when there are these sixty kids who every night have to perform some cultural dances in order to raise some money for rice and fish? after a long day of school and chores...they then have to get their makeup and hair done so they can perform some novelty dances for westerners who can then tick off another list on ‘Doing Cambodia’. aaaaaarrrgghh...it honestly was the last straw for me when it comes to this whole topic of kids going without just because they happened to be born into this country.
i spent a morning a couple of weeks ago handing out toys to a rural preschool. pretty pointless really since the funding to six preschools have been pulled out. why you ask. well. some generous charity who had initially set up these preschools a couple of years ago...decided that the victims of the Haiti earthquake needed the money more. so whoops! there goes six preschools in rural cambodia. or what about these kids that i keep harping on about? the kids from the village next to the salt lake. five dollars a day and all the kids from the village can get on a truck that will take them to school. im not talking big money here. $70 a day to feed an orphanage. $40 a month to pay for a preschool teacher. another $30 a month to feed the preschool kids some protein every day. and then $5 a day for the salt village kids to go to school. of course i could go on and on with other places that also need money. point being though...that they arent huge amounts...BUT...every place that i talk to...they all say the same thing. getting sponsors at the moment is pretty much impossible. global financial crisis? too much paperwork? too many charities competing for attention? who knows. thing is. its actually not big bucks thats needed. its small change. money that for most of us just trickles away on a daily basis for those of us that live in the west.
so here is my suggestion. (and thanks to those of you that have kept reading until this point)...
since the topic is kids. lets at this stage limit this to those of you that have some connection to a daycare center, preschool or school. you take this idea to the person who is in charge of the institution. if you think it will help im happy to provide you with photos and stories to help paint a better picture. ask them if they feel like they can get involved. all thats needed is a letter in the newsletter explaining the idea. how as a school they want to have more of an outward focus...teaching the kids about those less fortunate blah blah blah. then asking the parents of the children if they would be willing to commit to donating two dollars a month. TWO DOLLARS A MONTH!! ridiculous amount i know. but the thing is.. if lets say 300 kids get involved...thats $600 a month!!! a HUGE amount over in this part of the world. no one needs to be dancing for their rice if that money was coming into an orphanage every month from a few different schools. the key is that the money gets automatically taken out of the school fees...so that no one needs to get chased across the school yard with a tin. i have thought about this idea for about a month now. my friend emma came up with it by the way. and i cant see any holes in it. of course emma thought it would be great for her school in sydney. while i lie awake at night picturing talking to the head of the education department in australia about taking this concept to every single school. and of course then there is the rest of the western world to think about as well. anyways...before i give away too many secrets to what i think about before i fall asleep at night – let me just say this. if any of this has rung a bell with you. and you think that yes...thats something you can suggest to the place your kids spend a lot of their time. then please contact me about how to take it from here. im more than happy to help with whatever you think you might need to get the school to capture the dream so to speak.
back to the show tonight. not sure how many of you have had your kids take part in school production before. but if you have you would be familiar with the tired kids from days of practising routines. how after three nights of having to have the right outfits ready...and the makeup put on and all the other little things that go along with the tortu...i mean performance, you are just so grateful that its another year until the next one. well. now try to picture these kids doing these performances every night. some nights in the city...then they swap with the other group and go into the country side for a few nights. night after night. just after dinner. just that time when kids just want to zone out and do nothing. oh man. as i sat there with my kids around me. i was again reminded of how incredibly luxurious our life is. my four kids are completely cared for. they lack nothing. (except possibly a few clean pairs of underwear). i dont want to take it for granted. and i definately dont want them to grow up thinking that what we have is universal. cause it really isnt. we are a minority. a very very lucky minority.
weve had a good time up here. its a very different feel to where we live. in fact, a whole different dimension of cambodia that we arent used to. the city swarms with tourists. the guest houses dont really need to do much in order to get many visitors. and lo and behold there is actually a night life. its been fun to do novelty touristy things – and having people trying to figure out how we all fit together. one suggestion was that we are a very nice family who have adopted four cambodian orphans. another that we have four cambodian servants.
after six days of playing tourists, grandma had to head back to sweden....and steve had to head back to australia to earn some much needed money so that we can keep doing what we are doing over here. he’s committed to a six month contract as an engineer for Holden car company in adelaide. i decided that i wasnt ready to face Kampot yet minus steve...and wanted to spend a few more days in Siem Reap. so Any and her little gang headed off on a bus at the same time as steve...and we moved into a different guest house so we could be closer to some new friends. i think the bugs waited about 20min after everyone left on the bus and then decided to show their ugly little faces. in the few days in cambodia as a single mum my kids have had a long list of ailments that i wont bore you with – but lets just say that i need to buy quite a few more undies for the kids...and stock up on pain killers.
thing is...with all this stuff....as in...the parenting and looking after kids stuff....i really just cant get over how absolutely spoiled we are. ive been thinking about this for a while now. been trying to get my thoughts out so that i can make some sense of it all. this crazy reality of some of us having way too much while others dont even have the basics. how with a little bit of perspective we would see it so much clearer....but most of us are so busy with our own stuff that we forget whats happening around us. dont get me wrong. even living here in cambodia i cant seem to find that balance...so i know its just so much harder when surrounded by the greed and consuming cravings of the west.
i cant say that ive arrived at an answer. but ive been mulling over an idea which i hope enough people will take on board and hopefully something good can come from that. it doesnt require much really....just some initial setting up and then a slow but steady change.
ive been holding off writing about it until i have some ways of getting the idea to work properly...but after tonight..i just cant hold it in anymore. what happened tonight you ask. well. one of the many ‘what to do while in siem reap’ options is going along to a nightly performance at an orphanage. they put on a traditional khmer dancing show for free and we had heard that it was worth going along to. despite being low tourist season there was actually quite a few people there. maybe 25 or so. the place itself was very basic but had a stage and cover. so the show started with kids ranging from age 4 – 16 being dressed up in traditional khmer outfits. (think funny looking pants and tight gold tops for the girls and ugly masks for the boys). along with the dancing there was also some music being played by the kids. big wooden xylophones and drums. you’d think that something like this would make me appreciate the hard work they had put in. or make me feel all warm and fuzzy about how sweet cambodian kids are. but no. i was sitting there absolutely horrified. its six thirty on a monday night. where would your kids be at that time? just sitting down to eat their dinner? plonked infront of the tv? finishing off their assignment? in the bath ready for bed and stories? what sort of world do we live in when there are these sixty kids who every night have to perform some cultural dances in order to raise some money for rice and fish? after a long day of school and chores...they then have to get their makeup and hair done so they can perform some novelty dances for westerners who can then tick off another list on ‘Doing Cambodia’. aaaaaarrrgghh...it honestly was the last straw for me when it comes to this whole topic of kids going without just because they happened to be born into this country.
i spent a morning a couple of weeks ago handing out toys to a rural preschool. pretty pointless really since the funding to six preschools have been pulled out. why you ask. well. some generous charity who had initially set up these preschools a couple of years ago...decided that the victims of the Haiti earthquake needed the money more. so whoops! there goes six preschools in rural cambodia. or what about these kids that i keep harping on about? the kids from the village next to the salt lake. five dollars a day and all the kids from the village can get on a truck that will take them to school. im not talking big money here. $70 a day to feed an orphanage. $40 a month to pay for a preschool teacher. another $30 a month to feed the preschool kids some protein every day. and then $5 a day for the salt village kids to go to school. of course i could go on and on with other places that also need money. point being though...that they arent huge amounts...BUT...every place that i talk to...they all say the same thing. getting sponsors at the moment is pretty much impossible. global financial crisis? too much paperwork? too many charities competing for attention? who knows. thing is. its actually not big bucks thats needed. its small change. money that for most of us just trickles away on a daily basis for those of us that live in the west.
so here is my suggestion. (and thanks to those of you that have kept reading until this point)...
since the topic is kids. lets at this stage limit this to those of you that have some connection to a daycare center, preschool or school. you take this idea to the person who is in charge of the institution. if you think it will help im happy to provide you with photos and stories to help paint a better picture. ask them if they feel like they can get involved. all thats needed is a letter in the newsletter explaining the idea. how as a school they want to have more of an outward focus...teaching the kids about those less fortunate blah blah blah. then asking the parents of the children if they would be willing to commit to donating two dollars a month. TWO DOLLARS A MONTH!! ridiculous amount i know. but the thing is.. if lets say 300 kids get involved...thats $600 a month!!! a HUGE amount over in this part of the world. no one needs to be dancing for their rice if that money was coming into an orphanage every month from a few different schools. the key is that the money gets automatically taken out of the school fees...so that no one needs to get chased across the school yard with a tin. i have thought about this idea for about a month now. my friend emma came up with it by the way. and i cant see any holes in it. of course emma thought it would be great for her school in sydney. while i lie awake at night picturing talking to the head of the education department in australia about taking this concept to every single school. and of course then there is the rest of the western world to think about as well. anyways...before i give away too many secrets to what i think about before i fall asleep at night – let me just say this. if any of this has rung a bell with you. and you think that yes...thats something you can suggest to the place your kids spend a lot of their time. then please contact me about how to take it from here. im more than happy to help with whatever you think you might need to get the school to capture the dream so to speak.
back to the show tonight. not sure how many of you have had your kids take part in school production before. but if you have you would be familiar with the tired kids from days of practising routines. how after three nights of having to have the right outfits ready...and the makeup put on and all the other little things that go along with the tortu...i mean performance, you are just so grateful that its another year until the next one. well. now try to picture these kids doing these performances every night. some nights in the city...then they swap with the other group and go into the country side for a few nights. night after night. just after dinner. just that time when kids just want to zone out and do nothing. oh man. as i sat there with my kids around me. i was again reminded of how incredibly luxurious our life is. my four kids are completely cared for. they lack nothing. (except possibly a few clean pairs of underwear). i dont want to take it for granted. and i definately dont want them to grow up thinking that what we have is universal. cause it really isnt. we are a minority. a very very lucky minority.
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