So Many Stories!

Where to begin...

Today was the first day that a site visit actually made me cry...usually things don't phase me or I don't feel an overwhelming need to do something RIGHT AWAY, but today was different. There is a massive garbage dump site outside the city, where families and orphans actually live on the garbage, to collect cans and recyclables, which they sell to a middle man, that gets sold to Vietnam, because Cambodia has no recycling plant here. We visited two organizations that work with kids & families from the dump. The first was a school actually on the site, that was free for kids. Their funding was cut in April, so all the teachers have been working there without pay since then (which first of all, is amazing of them). The woman has even allowed other children that are just poor in general to come to the school, and not just children from the dump site.

Basically it just slapped my "privilege" in my face. As I got out of the van with my hygenic mask to avoid breathing in god knows what, and bitching about the smell and nasty muck im walking in, here are kids running barefoot through it, flies everywhere and on them, sitting in a dumpy old make-shift building, learning math and khmer. Behind me was a bulletin board of pictures of the programs they run, and one is first aid. The pictures were terrible...so many kids get hurt, or even killed (yes there were pictures of that), by being run over by the garbage trucks. If any organization or group of people desperately cannot afford to have their funding cut, it is this one. The whole thing was heartbreaking and painful, sometimes life just isn't fair.

Thankfully, we visited another organization on our way out, which was absolutely amazing. A HUGE school/orphange, free for children that have lived on the dump for at least one year. There is a hotel on the grounds, a resturant, and a gift shop, that the students all learn to operate. Chefs from switzerland even come in to help with the cooking skills. The kids stay from 6 am to 6 pm, but then go back to their home on the dump. It's $124 per student (not sure if thats for one session or a month), but to operate the electricity for the facilities for just ONE month, it is $7,000!! I can't imagine how much fundraising they have to do...but it was a really great balance to a very rough start to the morning. It is good to know that at least someone has a great operation going to help them.

Overall I'm becoming more and more impressed with this program as well. No other way would I have been able to get to know everything I am about the social work side of this country...so thanks to all that helped get me here!

And I'll end on one silly story...I have a shirt that says "I love Mom" on it...okay well apparently this shirt causes a lot of comotion. We went to the waterfront for dinner, and the streets are PACKED. and this moto driver sees it and goes, yoouu, loovvee, wo, wo, WOMEN? "Haha, YOU LOVE WOMEN!" he starts screaming in the middle of the street! Oh my goodness I was so embaressed! Then these little girls that were selling books, postcards, etc, came up and again tried to read my shirt, and some other moto driver standing next to them (all just trying to practice their english), but it soon became some sort of impromptu show or something...haha, very akward, but then I started talking to the girls, they laughed when I tried to speak Khmer, and they practiced their English phrases and Australian accents on me, which entailed "Whats up Baby?!", haha, I'm sure some tourist taught them that.

Anyways, who would of thought a shirt could be so entertaining?!