Capitalizing on Tourists (why not?)

Tuesday February 12 – Thursday February 14

Thanks to Kim we were fully prepared upon arrival in Siem Reap as to where we wanted to go. I will say this before I go on; when I was in Northern Uganda I became disillusioned with NGOs and local organizations that spouted a great line but backed it up with little action on behalf of the people, so much so that I questioned whether or not I wanted to involve myself in such work for the rest of my life. Oddly enough, I found it comforting once in Siem Reap – I’ve had conversations with people since visiting about whether or not there’s ‘too much’ development going on (not necessarily too much, because you can never have too much attention to issues of poverty and war, but usually questions of how is money being used, are the organizations efficient, etc.) and there are definitely still problems. But I definitely found it a great sign that so much was taking place on behalf of the disadvantaged. There can always be more, there can always be more efficient means and actions, but the base interest is there, and it is nice to see. A huge part of the attraction of Siem Reap is Angkor Wat and with 2+ million tourists per year on record now, so the question has to be raised whether or not the money and aid would be there if Angkor wasn’t, but regardless, it was good to see some great organizations start to take root.

CHRILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Monday, after checking into our ‘flashpacker’ guesthouse, we headed to the Angkor Children’s Hospital – it was opened in 2000 by a Japanese photographer who had been to Cambodia and wanted to do something to help the children he saw in such destitute conditions. What came of it was the Friends Without a Border organization that funds the Angkor Children’s Hospital.

Wednesday I was able to go back and get a tour from one of the PR assistants, and ended up buying a book of photographs and captions from children helped by the Children’s Hospital (what can I say…slight sucker…). The hospital itself is an amazing entity. It’s right now the road from a Swiss-funded hospital, much smaller, but sees a much more disadvantaged population because their services are free. Wait, sorry, they ask for families that can afford it for a 1000riel donations ($0.25).
Not only do they have slightly under-100 beds for children that need to stay overnight/longer, but they have a dental clinic, ER and surgerical wing. They also have a kitchen where families can cook for themselves and extra food for the patient (who are provided with 2 meals/day).

Additionally the hospital has realized that many of the issues they deal with stem from ignorance or not enough education in rural areas so they offer classes for parents on healthy cooking and taking care of newborns.

They’re doing amazing things and you can check out their website at: www.friendswithoutaborder.com

TEACHING ENGLISH
Tuesday night we went and checked out Wat Damnak – it’s one of the central temples in Siem Reap and we’d heard they always accepted English-speaking volunteers to help with their classes with monks.

We were told to come back Wednesday to ask for Savoun, the monk in charge. Wednesday we had a bit of a hard time tracking down this Savoun but, no worries, by the time we found him and got set up (around 5:15), the class we were helping with was just coming in – yes, 15 minutes late. This is additional education in a developing country, just showing up to class is seen as effort.

We told Savoun we’d be more than happy to help with the two older classes at night, 5-6 and 6-7, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tren, the first teacher, had only 3 years of English instruction himself, and had us speak with the class the entire remainder of the time. The class had obviously just learned introduction questions because, in turn, they all asked us, “What is your name?” “What is your age?” “Where are you from?” “How do you find Cambodia?” “How big is your family?” etc.

The second class was far more of a surprise…Ravich, a monk, taught a more advanced set of students and had, himself, more English ability than Tren. He took a different approach when he found out we were volunteering – he literally turned the class over to us. He opened his book and pointed to the page he was going to teach that night, and sat down in the back of the class eating an ice cream that one of his students gave him.

So we went for it. We taught them about writing the date out, as well as with numbers, and the differences between the American way and the European way.

Night two went a bit differently – We sat in the front row with the students and told Tren and Ravich we wanted to see how they taught the students. We took over the last 15-20 minutes of both classes to help students with their pronunciation. The kids absolutely loved have foreigners in class, not only to practice their speech and get their ears used to ‘american english’…but also to chitchat about us and ask us if we were married. The first night we definitely provided more entertainment than education, but we did get some things through – I think.

Thursday morning we sat down with Savoun and Ravich to talk about Buddhism, biology (Ravich was very interested in picking Heather’s brain about certain problems he was having in his classes), and education. We spent a hour and a half hanging out with them, and I learned a lot about the education and political system in Cambodia as a result. We also were able to see the sewing school Wat Damnak runs for impoverished young adults --- they provide room/board/a sewing machine for a semester of classes for the students and they are continually supported after they leave Wat Damnak and return to their villages to try and make their own living.

Heather and I promised to try and send maps and materials…if you’re interested in sending materials, or volunteering if you’re in Siem Reap, the address is:
Wat Damnak 0211
Wat Damnak village
Salakomreuk Commune
Siem Reap, Angkor
Cambodia

and Savoun’s email is:
englishvolunteer@yahoo.com

LANDMINE MUSEUM

One of the greatest stories we heard while we were in Siem Reap was the story of Aki Ra and his landmine museum. We had been tipped off to this wonderful place by Beth and Jason Giersch last summer – and Tuesday morning, on our way to Banteay Srei, saw signs. Our faithful tuktuk driver, Mr. RaDa was only happy to oblige and drop us there on the way back.

Aki Ra himself has an incredible story. He was conscripted by the Khmer Rouge forces, and ended up planting landmines as part of his job. He was then enlisted by the Vietnamese when they were finally able to break through into Cambodia, and eventually fought for Cambodia itself (if I’m remembering all this correctly). Much of his work was to lay landmines throughout the countryside and after finally giving up being a soldier, he began the work that would consume the rest of his life: deactivating mines. Aki has now worked with UN forces and Cambodian government forces, as well as received international training, but says he prefers to go it alone. The photographer who took many of the pictures for his small, but impressive, museum said that in one day Aki could deactivate at least 50 mines.

His dream was to open a museum to show off all the different mines he’d collected over the years, and he did – but the government confiscated much of his stuff and opened their own museum in town. Apparently someone has been able to come in and help Aki, his family, and the additional landmine orphans he helps to provide for and put through school – or Aki and his wife have persisted and beat the system, because their museum is open again and sees a good number of tourists each day.

Again, it’s one of those situations where silence doesn’t need to be asked for – as your touring one of the three small exhibition rooms in the museum, not much talking is necessary. The photographs of the destruction of landmines to people and places is appalling, and for educational purposes and dramatic effect I suppose, they’ve labeled all the landmines in the museum with title, what their purpose is (how far their destruction is supposed to reach) and in which country they were made. It’s incredible that the US has continued to refuse to sign the Landmine Treaty that arose in the late 1990’s…

the website is: www.cambodialandminemuseum.com if you’re interested in more information SLASH heather and I have been sporting their shirts since we went there (we also indulged in the tourist faux-pas of buying, and wearing, Angkor Wat tshirts at Angkor, btw…)