Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm

Sunday 13 November 2013

Up 0430, tuk tuk to Angkor Wat to see sunrise – overcast. Never mind. Then to Bayon and Ta Prohm temples (where they filmed Tomb Raider) – very moody, atmospheric. Awesome. The tumble-down feeling has deliberately been retained to maintain the derelict feeling. Apparently Angkor, Bayon and one other local temple will be refurbished over time.  Breakfast at a nearby restaurant - rice and chicken - get used to it! Back to Angkor to walk round. 

Bayon Temple

Bayon Temple

Bayon Temple

Bayon Temple

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta

Ta Prohm

I Leave Work and Fly to Cambodia to Visit the New Hope School, Siem Reap

Thursday 7 November 2013

Last day at work. I did a quick walk round the building saying goodbye to a few people - everyone was so kind. Some of them said I was being very courageous. Really?? What do they know that I don’t?? Beginning to worry me. Left the office at 1600 and drove to Tina’s in SYD.

Friday 8 November 2013

Up at 0430. Drove to airport arr 0500. Said goodbye to Kate. Checked in. Flew Singapore Airlines to SIN - full - middle seat of 3. Watched 2 films and slept for a while. Fed twice. Flight late leaving SIN due to thunderstorms. Arr Siem Reap and was met by two of the New Hope directors. To Golden Village Guest House ($15/night).  Had some supper with the directors and volunteers.

Mr Sot Kemsour, founder of New Hope sat with us and told us his story. A very impressive tale of a boy struggling to become educated, to make a living and then to make a difference. He spent about an hour going over his life from his first job at the age of 12 collecting rubbish to sell. He wanted to be a tour guide because he wanted to work with foreigners and learn other languages. He found a school where he could study whilst working. Bear in mind this was during the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge when educated people were being massacred in the killing fields. He managed to buy a tuk tuk and developed the business so that he eventually owned 4 tuk tuks and 4 motor bike taxis. At about age 27 in December 2006 he decided to start a school to help children gain an education as a way to get out of poverty. He sold part of his business and, with the funds, started a school in 2 grass huts for 35 children.

http://www.newhopecambodia.com/index.php

Soon they moved into more permanent buildings (see photos below) in the village slum where he lived.

Old 'permanent' school classroom for 35 primary kids

Old classroom for 35 intermediates

Siem Reap slum

Siem Reap slum

They quickly outgrew those 'permanent' buildings into the present 3 story building allowing 1,000 children to attend in 4 shifts each day.

Along the way (February 2007) he met a lady from Australia who wanted to help and the New Hope Charity was formed and used their drive to allow children access to education. Everything is geared towards education. The old buildings were turned into an out-reach centre for mothers on the understanding that their children attend school. More purpose-made out-reach ‘dwellings’ have been built. 

Out-reach Centre

Medical Centre

A medical centre has been built next to the school to give the children medical attention so that they can benefit better from the education. A restaurant has been built to teach the kids how to prepare food, food hygiene, how to make cocktails (it is a tourist area).

Bike Repair Shed

Some children come long distances so the charity buys bicycles and gives them to the children. However, when the bikes break down the children stop attending. So a bike repair shed was built to repair the bikes but also to raise money. The New Hope bikes are repaired free but others pay. The children learn a skill in repairing bikes.  Volunteers need to get to work so they buy bikes which are then donated when they depart.  In the poorest areas children aren’t permitted by their parents to come to school as they have to work - the girls, often, as prostitutes. Sponsors are found to pay for rice for families - they sign a 'contract' that the children come to school as they are no longer required to work for money to pay for rice.

New Hope School

Everything New Hope does is focused on the education of children - each project is designed to leverage off the next with the same ultimate goal - education to break the grip of poverty. Kemsour mentioned his next idea which is to develop an employment agency so that the children will be better able to get a job when they leave school.

Classroom for Intermediates

Computer Room

Sewing Room

Classroom for Primary

Famous 'Pub Street" in Siem Reap

I decided to volunteer overseas

I have done some volunteering in Canberra and enjoyed it. However, I often thought I wanted to do more. While Thomas, my son, was working at a country hospital in Mseleni in South Africa I looked at their website and saw an advertisement for a hospital manager. It occurred to me that I could probably do that.

On Saturday 27^th October 2012 when was lying in my hospital bed in Melbourne the day after my heart operation I was looking at the Voluntary Service Overseas website on which there were example jobs. One was manager of an orphanage in Bangladesh. I thought that was really the sort of thing I wanted to do so I put in a ‘short’ application. Almost by return I received a request to fill in the long form. There were two questions I couldn’t answer. “Are you healthy?” Which I couldn’t answer ‘Yes’ as I was only just off the operating table! The other was, “Do you owe any money?” Well, of course I do! So I had to get healthy and I had to decide what to do about paying the mortgage while I was away. In January my cardiologist told me I was cured but I had to wait until March to come off the Warfarin. I decided that I would rent the house and any difference between the mortgage repayments and the rent I would pay out of my savings.

I was prepared to resign from CASA if I had to but I really wanted to be able to come back to a job - any job - after my year away. I am too old to be unemployed. I asked John if he would give me a year’s unpaid leave and an administrative post of some sort when I returned. He said that if I wanted to take a year’s holiday then he wouldn’t but if I was going to volunteer, then not only would he keep a job open, he would keep my job open for me. What a fantastic boss!

Strangely I struggled to find suitable projects. Most were of the voluntourism type that required volunteers to pay for the privilege of working for them. I was going to give up a year’s salary and a year’s payments into my super - I was damned if I was going to pay on top! After digging around a bit and following various contacts I was directed to the RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) website where there were lots of projects.

I didn’t want to work in countries where I needed to be under armed guard so I sent my CV to several organisations in Kenya, Tanzania, Cambodia and Laos. A former colleague very kindly contacted friends of his in Ghana on my behalf.

The first to reply with a professional response was Mines Victims and Clearance Trust. I met with two of their board members and felt that this was a project where I could make a contribution and also get something out of it myself. I was after a challenge for myself as well as wanting to help people directly. I wasn’t sure whether any other suitable organisations would come up so I committed to MiVAC for 6 months and then month-by-month after that.

http://www.mivac.org/

Shortly afterwards I was approached by New Hope Cambodia who run a school in Siem Reap. I asked them if I could use them as a back-up in case the MiVAC project didn’t work out. They were happy with that arrangement and asked me to come to Siem Reap to see the school on my way to Laos. I agreed.

I’m not sure when I made the final commitment but it was around the beginning of September 2013. I decided to leave work on 7 November but I had already booked and paid for a holiday with Kate in the UK followed by 2 weeks on business in Montreal between 4 September and 7 October. So in about 5 weeks I did the following:

Passport photos

Visa for Cambodia

Visa for Lao PDR - 3 visits to embassy

Letter of introduction from MiVAC for visa

Vaccinations - 3 visits - Typhoid, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B #1, #2 and #3, measles, mumps, rubella, Japanese encephalitis and malaria tablets.

Claimed back vaccs from Medicare

Engaged an agent to rent the house.

Arranged insurance - overseas for a year, landlord’s, car in the shed (if not sold), house contents in a shipping container and shed - not as easy as it sounds.

Advertise car for sale car - put on website and got quotes from garages.

More passport photos - just in case

Arranged for mail to be forwarded

Stopped gas, electricity, broadband/phone

Took spare clothes to Salvos

Visited neighbour - got knocked over by Alpaca named Frank who wanted to play football (really!). Hurt wrist. Harden up!

Repaired track at the top to allow truck to deliver container. Repaired track lower down so that it would last a year of rain/erosion. (Aggravated wrist)

Took old computers to tip.

Rented container and took delivery.

Visited Sydney to see close friends.

Bought new phone, bought sim card, ported phone number from work. Got Contacts out of Outlook and into phone

Cleaned gutters (fell off ladder and hurt wrist again - worser)

Visited hospital for x-ray of wrist - ok - toughen up princess.

Sprayed all noxious weeds (3 sessions)

Wrote instructions to tenants on water tanks and pumps and aerated water treatment system.

Doctor for check-up - ok

Blood tests - ok

Dentist for check-up - ok