Christmas in Cambodia

Though I always want to do good and help people, I'm skeptical by nature. Used to massive government waste in the US I raise an eyebrow when I'm asked to donate to a charitable cause, particularly one far away. I recall my junior high school raising money to buy land in the rainforest to save the world. As nice as it sounded, I couldn't make myself go out and sell magazines to raise funds because I really felt like it was a scam. Who from Bonneville Junior High School was going to hop on a plane and go verify we actually bought land and didn't just give all that money away to a scam artist? No one.

The kids school here has a very close and involved relationship with Caring for Cambodia. I liked what I saw and felt that donating items instead of funds made lots more sense to me. There is lots less chance of a scam when you are giving bars of soap and toothbrushes instead of $10 bills. Then I found out that the way they get the supplies to the people there is to ask people traveling to the area to bring along extra luggage. I loved the idea so when I put two and two together and realized we were booking our last minute Christmas holiday trip to Siem Reap Cambodia I was excited to see just what Caring for Cambodia was all about.



I contacted them and got the details, then paid the airline for two extra bags on our departing flights so we could haul 30 kg (60 lbs) of hygiene kits to the Cambodian people, all donated by the families at Singapore American School and other local community groups. This being our first true exposure to a country with poverty I took the opportunity to get the kids involved and we set up a time to serve the children at one of several of the Caring for Cambodia Schools.
 

Bright and early at 5:30 am a tuk tuk driver showed up at our hotel to take us out to serve the children breakfast. They arrive as early as 6:00 am to eat the free breakfast provided by the school.

 

Maddie with one of the cooks at CFC School. The children wash their own dish and spoon after eating so the next child can eat because they have only about 60 bowls and spoons and 500 kids though we didn't see that many come this morning so I think that number might be a total for all the kids in all the schools.

 

Jacob playing peek-a-boo with the cooks, a game that seems to cross all language barriers. This is the entire kitchen with two huge pots of rice porridge for breakfast, a gas burner to cook with and a shelf to put the full bowls on for serving.



Maddie serving the children. When the school first opened they found that the children got restless and couldn't concentrate well in school. The learned that most children didn't get breakfast before they came to school. To help the children be ready to learn, they began providing breakfast and the children did better in school.



Two rows of five or six long picnic benches for the children to eat breakfast and lunch.



Jacob loved serving breakfast. He was so wildly excited to get the next bowl and deliver it that he had to have an adult help slow him down and steady the bowl so it didn't end up all over the floor.



The entire time we were there the monks were chanting next door. The man in charge of the school that greeted us explained that they were doing a ceremony while they cremated the bodies of people who had died.

There were constant drum beats and chanting over loud speakers and traditional worship music. It set quite the authentic mood and made me feel very much immersed in Cambodian culture as I looked at the children, the school, the temple and listened to the music.



The kids were so cute. They were excited to have their pictures taken, but so shy around my older kids.



Finally some of them warmed up enough to stand near Ben though they were obviously daring each other to do it first and playfully pushing their friends close to him.



Jake, of course, had no trouble with the kids. He knows just how to play with everyone and made loads of friends easily. The kids loved his light skin, blonde hair and thought it was so funny to see glasses on such a little baby boy.




These boys were smiling and friendly from the time they arrived at breakfast. Since they are not wearing uniforms we know they weren't students attending class, but breakfast is free to any children that come. Notice how one boy has two jackets but no shirt. He didn't seem to care. He was happy to have a full belly and a swingset to share with his buddies.




This guy couldn't have been much older than Jacob, my three year old, and he was a tiny little guy. I thought he was so sweet. He had uniform shorts and short sleeved shirt with mittens that had holes in them. It is winter in Cambodia and the people feel cold, though we wore shorts, t-shirt and flip flops the entire trip. We would often see people with scarves, gloves or jackets, sometimes even coats I wouldn't have considered wearing until it had dropped at least 20 more degrees. I suppose when you aren't used to snow, their winter could feel a bit nippy.




These guys were our tuk tuk drivers. They picked us up at 5:30 and waited for us to finish before returning us to our hotel. A tuk tuk is just what you see there and they pull it with a motorcycle. It's a pretty fun way to travel and the kids loved it! The sweet guy on the left hung around our hotel the entire five days we were there hoping to be hired for any of our trips downtown or out for dinner, etc. He was really a nice guy.




After breakfast we were ready to go, but were asked to stay so as not to disrupt the morning flag ceremony. The older children lead the younger children. The manager explained simply that they teach of the history of Cambodia and the horrible death and destruction in the last 30-40 years so that the children know the history and can make sure it is never repeated. Most of the adult population lost family members that were murdered during that time.

An average home just outside the school gates. Most the children probably come from homes like this.



More average homes in the school neighborhood.



Man fishing and repairing his net to catch food for lunch or dinner that day. The fish were so small it would have taken a long time to catch enough to feed a whole family.



In October we were asked to donate supplies for hygeine kits. We sent in toothbrushes, toothpaste, washclothes and bars of soap. A week or so later I noticed as I passed the soap box in Maddie's school lobby that it smelled so strong!  I peeked into the big box and noticed the children had unwrapped all the soap. I thought it was a bit odd to spend the time to do that.

Ben's class actually did the assembly of the kits for families and he reported that his class had done the exact same thing. They unwrapped everything! When I asked why, he explained that the people just threw the wrapping on the ground and it made a big mess in their cities. My first thought was totally American, "Why would you do something so irresponsible? What a mess!"

Once in their country, I began to understand. It's so simple to think they should just throw it away. But where? There is no garbage man to haul stuff away. We feel inconvenienced and over run when the garbage man misses because of Christmas Day. Imagine if they never came at all. There is simply no where to put the trash in Cambodia. I saw a woman walk to the shallow, nearly stagnant stream behind her home and literally dump a big bucket of trash right in the water. I couldn't believe my eyes, but in her defense, the water would take it away eventually. What other good option did she see?



Next time I want to complain about laundry, I will try to remember this guy. Two buckets and a string. That's all he had.

Finally, since we knew we were going to be in Siem Reap, Cambodia on Christmas Day this year, which fell on a Sunday, I searched for a Christain church to attend for worship services. We ended up finding one or our own denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We were invited to their congregation Christmas Party on Thursday afternoon. Of course we couldn't understand the language. They had a short speech/lesson then the youth group acted out the nativity story. My friend Gretel put it best, "At least we knew the plot of the story so we could follow along."

Our friends left on Saturday, Christmas Eve but apparently bought the last tickets out that day. We stayed on through Sunday evening. We forgot to ask when services began so after no success calling the empty building on Saturday decided to just show up at 9am. If it was later, we'd come back. We were greeted at the door and quickly realized the service had started at 8am. The only seats left in the building were the very front and center five seats so we attempted to sneak in an hour late. Again, we couldn't understand the language, so maybe it wasn't all bad that we didn't have a long service. We listened about seven minutes, sang a traditional Christmas song to close the meeting and then the fun began.

They had purchased a Christmas present for all the children. Each child was given a Coke and one small piece of candy. It was a fantastic treat for all the kids there and they were all smiles to have been given something so delicious. I felt bad allowing my children to get anything at all but they were so eager to make sure our kids were included that I couldn't turn them down such genuine kindness.

This is nearly the entire LDS ward primary with our kids included. Such a happy bunch on Christmas morning. Their open arms made it a Christmas to remember.

Who would have ever thought a little girl from Utah would spend Christmas in Siem Reap Cambodia? Not me but here I am living my dream of travel and sharing the world with my children. I hope they remember what they saw in this gorgeous, lush green country and felt in their hearts the difference they can make when they give and serve people who have less than they do. It was a fantastic trip.