An Education (Part 1)

The following is a series chronicling my travels through Cambodia and Vietnam:

Su-wee-sah-day (not how you spell it, but similar pronunciation for "Hello" in Khmer). Right now I'm staying at the Golden Village? Guesthouse (i think that's right) in the touristy part of siem reap. We got into siem reap late last night, found a hotel and passed out. We woke up at 6am this morning and headed straight to New Hope to start working at 8am. we are working in Wat Bo Village, it is everything I anticipated- an imporverished area with dirt roads, huts and dilapidated houses, chickens and stray dogs running around everywhere.

The tourist-y parts of SR are beautiful and extravagent, but when you go 3 blocks away you realize that the beauty is just a mask that hides the impoverished areas. working at the school has been an amazing experience thus far, and its only my first day. i have a feeling these children will be teaching me far more than i could ever teach them. in my last blog post i talked about the importance of resilience, and my god some of the stories i've heard makes you wonder how these kids are smiling, but they are. Just think about what you have bought with $15 lately, because that's how much money it is to buy a Cambodian baby here. There's lots more, but for the sake of not turning this into a totally depressing email i'll stop there. We've rented bikes so we can now bike ride around town and to the school (our shift is from 2-6pm) and we work with a lot of people around our age from all walks of life. I just got back from a night out with people from New Hope, a couple of the doctors, psychiatrists who work in the community outreach program, teachers, and travelers who just want to help. Chris, Michael's dad, made it out to Cambodia despite his house being flooded. It was good to be greated by a friendly face.

Let's see, what else? Oh, Mom - yes, the Singapore airport is completely amazing. I am already in love with these children - you're like an automatic light in their world so when they see you they just run up to you and hug you. Don't worry Joe, i promise i wont bring back a Cambodian baby. They are learning to call me Jilly or JB (whichever is easiest for them), they've been through enough without having to pronounce my full name. Felicia - you would be proud of me i'm teaching the kids how to pronounce words properly. right now we are working on the "th" sound as they tend to make it an "s" sound. Tomorrow morning i am going on a mad dash around siem reap for sidewalk chalk cuz it's fun and educational and i think the kids would love it! Any advice on working with kids is appreciated (ages 4-13 in afternoon and 14-21 in the evening) but they are so well behaved (most of the time) and very respectful.

Since we have no set itinerary (and we are kind of all really loving it here) there's a good chance we will extend our stay/ volunteer longer.

Khmer words i've learned thus far:

La`o - good

Sa-at - very nice

Te - no (this one is important for kids and tuk tuk drivers)

akun - thank you

cha - yes

sa-an - beautiful

not too shabby for my first day, right?

Pic 1 - the girl on the other side of the fence
Pic 2 - my class
Pic 3 - little footprint in the sand (near school)

Much love!

Jillian aka Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-bones, J-Dilla, and sometimes Crab Cakes