Cambodia is Life-Changing

If you ever get a chance to go to Cambodia take it! Emily and I only spent a week visiting but it was one of the best week’s of vacation we’ve ever had.

After crossing the Thai/Cambodia border at Poipet we hired a taxi to take us to Siem Reap. There we checked into the New Millenium Guest House and spent the next few days visiting the Angkor ruins including Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, the list goes on and on and on. Seriously, the ruins are extremely extensive and while we only spent three days exploring them it would have been easy to make it a week. They were beautiful and so interesting because each ruin had uniqueness to it. One very sad thing though is that the Cambodian government sold the rights to an out-of-country company who charges way too much for entrance, compared to the local economy. For example, an entree at one of Siem Reap’s more decent restaurants runs around $3 USD while a day-pass to the Angkor ruins costs $20 USD. Kind of frustrating to see all those profits leave Cambodia isn’t it? In any case, we really enjoyed the ruins and also Siem Reap the city. It is quaint and smacks of French colonial influence, at least in my opinion, and very able to accommodate tourists. When I learned it was Cambodia’s third largest city I was shocked because it is by no means large.

After we finished in Siem Reap we caught a bus to Phnom Penh where we met up with Samnang Thouen, the director of Our Friends Orphanage & Schools where we were going to volunteer. Samnang met us right at the bus station and took us two hours south of Phnom Penh to the orphanage, located in a rural village deep in the rice fields of Takeo Province.

I could literally go on for hours describing what happened for the next few days as Emily and I taught English and talked with Samnang and met with families there and all of it. It was truly life-changing. The need is so great and all the funds that the world is sending to Cambodia seem to be bottle-necking in Phnom Penh to pay for fancy offices and SUVs because what Emily and I saw was extreme poverty and serious need. For example, we met a family who had nine people living in two small rooms and made money by weaving baskets. Four baskets fetched $1 USD and took 1-2 weeks to make. The man of the house had one real leg and one prosthetic and rode his bicycle more than 20km per day just to get drinking water for the family.

Samnang found out that Emily and I new how to design brochures and so he had us make him one for Our Friends. You can read it below. If you would like the pdf file to print them out to distribute them please let me know because the orphanage has serious need and no long-term funding. Last year Samnang sold his car because he ran out of money and food. Seriously people, the need is huge and all of us have something or some amount we can part with.

FRONT/BACK/MIDDLE

CENTER

We also took a lot of video footage with our camcorder and hope to make a short video for Samnang as well.

Samnang is a super inspiring guy. He is my age, 27, and after growing up in one of these poor, rural villages put himself through university in Phnom Penh by learning English well enough to earn money tutoring. Then he turned his back on career opportunities to return to Takeo Province’s rural villages to start after-school English classes for poor children. The orphanage came about when grandparents who couldn’t support their grandchildren (the parent’s had run-off to find work and never returned) came to him crying and begging for him to take care of their children. Like I said, it was life-changing. I feel like Samnang should be nominated for the CNN Hero award or something you know.

He was so kind to Emily and I. Before helping us catch our flight in Phnom Penh he even showed us around the city a little bit.

Cambodia was a great trip. We are in regular contact with Samnang now and wish we could do more to support his work. We were able to give him a little bit of money that we had saved and hope to make more donations in the future. We also are excited to introduce Our Friends to others and return to assist further. We encourage everyone to give whatever they can and go and volunteer for him. He is a great host and completely dedicated to his work.

Like I said I could go on for hours.