Well the last post was about all the touristy stuff I got up to in Siem Reap, while this one is about a different side to not only the city but to Cambodia in general. A couple of the photography students I met up in Halong Bay had given me contact details of a charity organisation - a school - they had visited while in Siem Reap so I decided to see if I could spend a couple of days also volunteering while I was here. I dropped the guy, Matt, an email and he got back to me saying that while I couldn't become a volunteer for their school (as they require a minimum of two weeks so as not to mess the children around) he would be more than happy to have a chat with me about their program and show me around.
I met up with him on the Sunday night and found out about the projects he is involved with. One of the main ones was the school and rice program "ABC's + Rice", which was set up by a Canadian woman called Tammy. It's quite simple: the parents of incredibly poor children sign a contract to say they will not send their child out to work and in exchange their child gets free education (in both Khmer and English) at their school and also get rice to take home on a regular basis to feed their family. Matt also teaches at another NGO school in the afternoons while Tammy teaches English in the mornings at a private school so she can earn enough money to keep the project running. Matt introduced me to Mr. Lao that evening and agreed to take me to visit the schools after a morning going around the temples.
So that's what happened! After my tiring day at the temples I visited first the school where Matt teaches in the afternoon and had some of the staff there show me around. They were particularly proud of their library, in particular the children's favourite books which were story books written in both Khmer and English. They only had about three or four of these and when I asked why I was told because they were too expensive - $1 each! From there I went to ABC's + Rice which has only been open fully a month and already has about one hundred children - fifty in the morning classes and fifty in the afternoons. At the moment the classrooms are just bamboo huts but there's a pump in the yard where they can have fresh, clean water and the children are in a safe environment. Almost as soon as I arrived (at playtime!) I was swamped by children. They were just lovely, very friendly and happy to show me their work and try out their English on me. Matt said he would be happy for me to visit again the next morning so Mr. Lao agreed to pick me up bright and early.
Before heading out to the school the next morning I visited one of the local bookshops and picked up three of the Khmer/English storybooks. They were $1 which doesn't seem like much to us but is a lot over here. I gave the books to Matt for ABC's + Rice and he said their library had been increased by 300% (yep, they'd only had one book up 'til then)! I spent the morning sitting in on the littlest kids class with them learning their vowels and numbers. A couple of girls attached themselves to me and kept trying to sit on the chair with me and show me their work. So cute! At the end of the morning they have assembly and this time the teachers turned to me and said "What would you like to do with them?"!!! Do? With fifty children? They wanted me to sing a song (ha ha, no!) so in the end I did a few minutes of star jumps and stuff. Got them very confused with trying to circle their arms different ways! I had lunch with Matt and Tammy and met the men that the two of them tutor in their lunchbreaks. After lunch Matt went to his afternoon classes while I stayed to chat to Tammy.
She is an incredible person! Having saved up for a couple of years to do a trip through Asia she lasted all of a few days on the tour before deciding to stay in Cambodia. She went home briefly to sell all her stuff - furniture, jewellery etc. - in order to move out here permently. She set up ABC's + Rice from scratch and is working almost every moment of the day to make sure it keeps running. She also runs a breakfast club for another school, for those children who are too poor to afford food. She took me for a look around the local village and then back to the school that afternoon so we could sing some songs for the children. Yes, I joined in. No, I wasn't laughed at! We also did the macarana! I spent that evening with Tammy and sat in with her on a meeting she had about the running of her NGO and about setting up a website. It was fascinating to see the behind-the-scenes as it were on just what's needed to work out here.
It was also an eye-opener into the much sadder, shady world of some of the projects out here. Especially in terms of volunteering and I'm very glad I never signed up to any of these 'pay-to-volunteer' companies. I won't go into the details but if you are thinking of doing something like volunteering make sure you sign up with a registered charity, as they are held accountable for any money they recieve so it does go to where it's meant to. A lot (not all) of gap year companies often do not pass the money they recieve from volunteers onto the organisations you volunteer at. But then again, this is Cambodia and corruption is so widespread here it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise.
Tammy offered to show me around another school she worked for the following afternoon and I agreed to meet her at her house. Found a moto driver to take me there, only we got lost! Luckily I found a nice lady who lent me her phone so I could let them know where I was and Matt met me at the market. Phew! I borrowed a bicycle off Tammy and we cycled back through the local market to the other school that she knows and arrived at break time - so complete madness. I got 'kidnapped' by a group of about five little girls who dragged me around the different classrooms and played some spinning game in the playground that left me very dizzy! I also met the loveliest twelve year old girl who sadly was only rescued two years ago from the sex trade. Looking at her it's hard to believe it but it's so sad. The children had to go back to their lessons so Tammy and I cycled back to Siem Reap for dinner.
We all met up again on the Saturday night and said our goodbyes. Tammy and Matt have said I can come back and volunteer whenever I want and Mr. Lao told me 'when' I do come back, he'll take me around and find me a paid job teaching English so I can afford to stay longer!
Sunday lunchtime was interesting. Charlie (boy), Charlie (girl) and me were sitting at one of the cafes on Pub Street when I recognised one of the street kids that came up trying to sell us stuff. His name is Phy and he attends one of the schools I visited. We got chatting and found that he works from 6am - 11pm on the weekends and, as he only takes home 25 cents from every dollar he makes he often doesn't eat. The rest of the money goes to his 'boss'. Well, we all felt exactly the same so we took him and one of his friends to a restaurant by the Old Market to buy them lunch. He ordered some chicken wings and I can honestly say I have never seen a plate cleared so thoroughly in my life. I even gave him the rest of my rice because he was absolutely starving. I wanted to feed all the kids that were hanging around but sadly I couldn't afford to :( There were quite a few I wanted to take home too but I didn't think I'd get them through customs.
I loved Siem Reap, both sides of it and though there's a lot of bad stuff happening there, there are also some really good people trying to make a difference. So just a word of warning - I am already considering raising money for ABC's + Rice when I return so I may be bugging you guys to donate/do stuff! :D
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