Good'ay Mates!
I have not been able to get internet for the last week, and hence no blogs until now. But all is good and well here! I am still happy and healthy!
So here are the highlights!
Last week during my volunteering, I was able to do some teaching of kindergarten and grade one kids at the local school. It was really fun! All of the kids, especially the little guys in kindergarten are so cute and all they want to do is hold your hand. There was one point during play time that I had 6 little girls (all at the same time) pulling me in a different direction. It was just crazy! Finally when I broke free, I started running and this initiated a game of "catch the white girl". I had about 15 kids all trying to catch me by the end of it and inevitably, when I was out of breath, they did just that. I definitely felt the kid inside me come out as we were all playing together.
Then over the weekend it was my birthday and also another guy on my trips birthday, so it was time for celebration. We went to an island off the coast of Kep province in Cambodia, Rabbit Island, to sleep in bungalos and play on the beach! We took a ricketty boat ride, about 20 minutes long, to get there and when we reached the island we had to jump off into ankle deep water with all of our gear on. I felt like I was on the show survivor or something. Saturday on the island was full of surprizes! It turned out that a few of my group members had very imaginatively created the "Birthday Olympics" for all of us to compete in on the beach to celebrate our birthdays! They had organized shot put and diskus with coconuts, a relay, 100 meter beach sprints, and a few other events that were not the stereotypical olympic type, but fun none the less. For the winner and loser of every event, you had to drink from the chalice (ie. a bottle of 95 cent whiskey), which tasted disgusting, but was halarious all in one. This was definitely my favorite day in Cambodia yet. I have many photos to show you from this day!
As for now, I will be spending the rest of the week volunteering and enjoying my last week of beautiful Cambodia. I will have internet again this weekend, so you can expect another post from me at some point!
In the words of the space ranger, to infinity and beyond!
Peace out!
the travelling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
May 19th: House building and a Kampot weekend
The last few days have been really great since getting back from Siem Reap. Not going to lie, but by the end of it, I was getting pretty templed out so it was nice to head back to our base camp, which we now call the Red House. When we got back, our little guard kitty, Tabi, was there waiting for us and was excited for us to be home.
The next few days were spent at our volunteer project. Our goal was to finish the house before the weekend came, but with everyone tired from the long journey back from Siem Reap it was somewhat slow going, especially in the heat. Those two days of working were long and required a lot of hard work, but it was really worth all the blood, sweat, and tears since we were able to finish the house for the family to move into over the weekend! The moment when we finished the house was almost surreal. To see the smiling faces of the family, knowing they now a had their own place to live, was the most incredible feeling of accomplishment. Simply knowing that we just gave this family a new start to their lives brought a lot of tears. As we were taking photos and having a group hug at the end, we all began crying. What a great feeling to start the weekend off with!
Friday evening we travelled to the city of Kampot to the Bodhi Villa where we would be staying for the weekend. The Bodhi Villa was bumpin' when we arrived Friday night! The music was loud and buzzing with Australian accents from the Aussie's who run the place. We decided to celebrate and ate and drank to all of our hearts' content. Even when most of us were partied out, the music continued until about 3 am. Thank goodness for the creation of earplugs! In the morning as we all dragged ourselves out of bed, we woke up to a beautiful riverside and the sun shining on the water making it glisten. Arriving in the dark the night before didn't provide the spectacular view that we had in the morning when all was illuminated by the sun. We ended up going on a trek up one of the mountains in the afternoon where we saw the ruins of a school, a church, and an old hotel. We walked around taking photos and joking together, so it was all pretty fun. Today's adventures include swimming in the river at our guesthouse, laying in the sun, and drinking mango, banana, papaya smoothies on the deck. What a perfect Sunday! We'll be starting to work at the school with local English teachers and the kindergarten class and construct a community latrine tomorrow. Namaste friends!
The traveling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
The next few days were spent at our volunteer project. Our goal was to finish the house before the weekend came, but with everyone tired from the long journey back from Siem Reap it was somewhat slow going, especially in the heat. Those two days of working were long and required a lot of hard work, but it was really worth all the blood, sweat, and tears since we were able to finish the house for the family to move into over the weekend! The moment when we finished the house was almost surreal. To see the smiling faces of the family, knowing they now a had their own place to live, was the most incredible feeling of accomplishment. Simply knowing that we just gave this family a new start to their lives brought a lot of tears. As we were taking photos and having a group hug at the end, we all began crying. What a great feeling to start the weekend off with!
Friday evening we travelled to the city of Kampot to the Bodhi Villa where we would be staying for the weekend. The Bodhi Villa was bumpin' when we arrived Friday night! The music was loud and buzzing with Australian accents from the Aussie's who run the place. We decided to celebrate and ate and drank to all of our hearts' content. Even when most of us were partied out, the music continued until about 3 am. Thank goodness for the creation of earplugs! In the morning as we all dragged ourselves out of bed, we woke up to a beautiful riverside and the sun shining on the water making it glisten. Arriving in the dark the night before didn't provide the spectacular view that we had in the morning when all was illuminated by the sun. We ended up going on a trek up one of the mountains in the afternoon where we saw the ruins of a school, a church, and an old hotel. We walked around taking photos and joking together, so it was all pretty fun. Today's adventures include swimming in the river at our guesthouse, laying in the sun, and drinking mango, banana, papaya smoothies on the deck. What a perfect Sunday! We'll be starting to work at the school with local English teachers and the kindergarten class and construct a community latrine tomorrow. Namaste friends!
The traveling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
May 15th: A Cambodian wedding and Angkor Wat
This trip seems to be getting better and better (hopefully its not just front loaded). I said in my last message that I would tell all about the Cambodian wedding that I attended, so I'll start with that. The wedding was for an employee of our Host Partner, Bridges Across Borders Cambodia. After getting prepared for the wedding in the nicest attire that we brought, we headed out by touk-touk to the wedding. I was a little confused when we turned into an alley and I could hear voices and music playing, but as it turns out, that's where Cambodians host their weddings! Right in the alley way with their neighbours all around! The whole alley was decorated with pictures of the couple and there was a big sign above the entrance with 2 huge swans painted on it; it reminded me of decorations from the 70's. The concept of romance here is strange for me, it seems very cliche and even corny. I think this is because most marriages in the past were arranged and now that Cambodians are able to marry for love it seems like they just want to go all out for their weddings. The actual dinner and dancing was really a tonne of fun. We all had to learn the appropriate way to dance according to Khmer culture. All of the people at the wedding were really inviting and took turns teaching us how to dance. Some of the men even asked us Canadian girls to dance and told us that we were good. The entire evening was an incredible experience that I don't think I will ever get to take part of again. There are so many more details to add, but I can tell you all when I am home.
After the wedding, we packed up and left for the city of Siem Reap where the huge and beautiful temple of Angkor Wat is situated. We bought 3 day passes for the temple and the surrounding temples to be able to explore at our own pace. The place is massive! It was really awesome when I got a chance to sit down on some of the rock with my journal and get to just reflect and write about everything that I was seeing. The temples are made of huge stones with intricate carvings all over. It was a great place to be able to let your imagination wander, thinking of the times when it was all being built and the amount of energy that went into it. I loved one of the temples with the big faces carved into the rocks. I will show pictures when I get home as I've not no way to upload any at this point, but what I can do is tell you that the energy of the place was just so peaceful and though weird to say, you could actually feel the history there especially when I traced my fingers around some of the carvings. I just imagined how many people walked in or touched the exact same pieces of rock as me some thousand years ago. Incredible!
Also, I ate from a street vendor today... start your prayers. Haha.
love, the travelling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
After the wedding, we packed up and left for the city of Siem Reap where the huge and beautiful temple of Angkor Wat is situated. We bought 3 day passes for the temple and the surrounding temples to be able to explore at our own pace. The place is massive! It was really awesome when I got a chance to sit down on some of the rock with my journal and get to just reflect and write about everything that I was seeing. The temples are made of huge stones with intricate carvings all over. It was a great place to be able to let your imagination wander, thinking of the times when it was all being built and the amount of energy that went into it. I loved one of the temples with the big faces carved into the rocks. I will show pictures when I get home as I've not no way to upload any at this point, but what I can do is tell you that the energy of the place was just so peaceful and though weird to say, you could actually feel the history there especially when I traced my fingers around some of the carvings. I just imagined how many people walked in or touched the exact same pieces of rock as me some thousand years ago. Incredible!
Also, I ate from a street vendor today... start your prayers. Haha.
love, the travelling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
May 11th: Falling in love with Cambodia
Adventures continue in my neck of the woods. A few days ago we left the city of Phnom Penh and travelled to the very small village of Chamcar Bei. It is a totally beautiful place, although you can't even find it on google maps, its so tiny. We began our work placement there. With only a few days of work, we were able to put the framework of the house up and put the thatching on the roof. I can't even begin to describe the feelings I felt when we finished the thatching on the roof and saw all of the smiling faces of the family to move in. It was amazing. They shared mangoes with us and we laughed and danced under the roof in celebration.
A couple of things about Cambodia that I have very quickly fallen in love with are the people and the sunrises. Cambodians are the most honest people in the entire world. As we ride to work in the mornings and afternoons on our bikes, tons and tons of kids greet us with frantic waves and hello's as we drive past. They know that they will be seeing us at the school and they are extremely excited to see us as we pass by. Also, any time you are being thanked for something, the Cambodians with their hands in prayer position slowly bow and then often grab your hand and hold it a very long time after. They are so humble and so thankful. As for the sunrises, they are completely fantastic. It is the mildest part of the day, in terms of the heat, and it is also when the land comes to life. Cows munching on grass or being herded to a nearby water hole, water buffalo drinking in the swamp nearby, women washing clothes in the river, and kid's happy laughter in the distance. It is a really incredible thing to just sit with your eyes closed outside in the mornings and listen to all of the sounds. Everything is so alive.
As for me in particular, I keep waking up thinking that I am in a dream world and eventually I will wake up in Canada again. As for now, I'm going to soak up every bit of this little piece of heaven that I possibly can. In fact, I have been invited to go to a Cambodian wedding tonight and will be going to the market today to find appropriate attire to wear for it. I will update next time on just how fabulous it is!
With moon beams and sparkly stars,
the travelling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
A couple of things about Cambodia that I have very quickly fallen in love with are the people and the sunrises. Cambodians are the most honest people in the entire world. As we ride to work in the mornings and afternoons on our bikes, tons and tons of kids greet us with frantic waves and hello's as we drive past. They know that they will be seeing us at the school and they are extremely excited to see us as we pass by. Also, any time you are being thanked for something, the Cambodians with their hands in prayer position slowly bow and then often grab your hand and hold it a very long time after. They are so humble and so thankful. As for the sunrises, they are completely fantastic. It is the mildest part of the day, in terms of the heat, and it is also when the land comes to life. Cows munching on grass or being herded to a nearby water hole, water buffalo drinking in the swamp nearby, women washing clothes in the river, and kid's happy laughter in the distance. It is a really incredible thing to just sit with your eyes closed outside in the mornings and listen to all of the sounds. Everything is so alive.
As for me in particular, I keep waking up thinking that I am in a dream world and eventually I will wake up in Canada again. As for now, I'm going to soak up every bit of this little piece of heaven that I possibly can. In fact, I have been invited to go to a Cambodian wedding tonight and will be going to the market today to find appropriate attire to wear for it. I will update next time on just how fabulous it is!
With moon beams and sparkly stars,
the travelling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
May 6th: First impressions in Phnom Penh
So I have officially made it to Cambodia safe and sound! I luckily skipped out on the jet lag! The flight here was uber long, but it was well worth it. Having never been to Cambodia before, I can definitely say that it has made a great first impression. The landscape itself is beautiful! Yesterday, we went up to a Buddist temple that we hiked 400 some odd stairs to get to. On the way up the hike, I kept looking back down knowing that the view was going to be fabulous. We met up with a bunch of children, some baboons, and monks on route to the top. At the peak was the absolutely incredible temple with gold doors on each of the 4 sides and the 360 degree view surrounding it was just as incredible, everything so green! We also went to one of the markets in Phnom Penh called the Central Market. There were loads of stalls with different items to be sold, everything was there from clothing to rambutan's (a fruit with a hairy peel) to electronics. The part that was the "most interesting" for me (being a veggie and all) was walking down the meat isles. The characteristic smell of rancid meat in that area was almost vomit worthy. Gross, but an experience none the less. Today, we will be going to the village where we will be doing our volunteer project. We will drive about 5 hours to get there this afternoon. But for now, I am going to sit in this comfy wooden chair and drink my cold coconut milk and then go for a $5 Thai massage... I love it here!
Peace always,
the travelling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
Peace always,
the travelling gypsy
Maggie B
DWC Student Participant
Cambodia, May 2012
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