No final thoughts tonight cause I'm too tired, but I wanted to let anyone who happens to be reading know that we are home at last. We had the direct flight from Hong Kong to Newark again.... 15 miserable hours but its nice not to have a layover until you get back in the USA.
More later -
Hugs -
Lisa
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Ten Miles in Hong Kong
Hey Everybody -
Wow - we have ended our trip with another FULL day. We left the hotel this morning and crossed the harbor to go to Hong Kong Island. What a different world. We came out into a beautiful huge mall full of upscale stores, restaurants, etc. It was huge in size and impressive. the girls, who didn't seem to be thrilled at a day of sightseeing, lit up like Christmas trees. We spent some time shopping in the Zara store, a European chain that only has a store in New York City in the states. They were having some good sales so the girls each got a couple of things after trying on about a billion things each. From there, we managed to find our way to an area called the mid-level esculators (after asking many people which way to go.) This series of covered walkways and escalators takes you from the water level to high on one of the hills over Hong Kong. There were lots of little shops and restaurants on the way. Much nicer than over on the Kowloon side of the harbor where we are staying we thought. When we were trying to find our way we passed a couple eating an egg tart...,. our favorite treat from our first day back in Macau - which seems eons ago to us now. They told us which escalator to get off at to buy some...., and they were terrific. We stopped in a starbucks (yeah, there's a million of them here) to have a drink and eat our egg tarts. While we were there the ladies had a special little moment for me where they presented a card signed by all of our traveling group, and a wonderful starfish necklace purchased in Phnom Penh. Those of you who have looked at the Send Rice Send Love website know the significance of that starfish. I was very touched and honored that they showed their love for me in this way. I will treasure that necklace always.
The card was a perfect Asia card. It had glitter on the front, and a verse that read "Best Wishes: I wish you step in the flower like season." Very nice sentiment, isn't it?? I love you guys!!!!
We continued out way up the escalators (and of course the series nearest the top was out of order so we had to mountain climb) and at the top set out to follow the street that should have led us to the peak incline station. As has been our experience over and over again here, the map didn't make sense and we were soon lost. After going up and down many more stairways and streets, we finally hopped in a cab and this time the guy understood and got us there quickly. We rode the tram, much like the Pittsburgh incline up a HUGE hill and beheld what must be the most beautiful cityscape anywhere in the world. It was a bit cloudy today but still a breathtaking view. We poked around in some shops that were of course at the top of the peak and then went to a Japanese restaurant so that some of us could have a drink and Leanne could have the sushi she's been hankering for.
The map that I was using of Hong Kong Island looked like the area was pretty small, so instead of taking the tram back down the mountain we hopped in a cab and asked to go to Stanley, an oceanside village on the island. This was about 4:30. At 6 pm we had dinner reservations at the Jumbo Restaurant, a floating restaurant that is world famous and sits off the coast of Aberdeen, another small village on the island. On the map these looked very close together but since time was getting short we asked the driver if we could just go to Aberdeen. He started yelling at us in Chinese and got very agitated. I had a map on my lap and was sitting in the front seat with him, and he barked at me and motioned to put the map away. Confused, I complied. Half hour and about a $15 cab fare (expensive for here) we were delivered to the Stanley market area. Talk about a weird experience. For the first time since getting to Hong Kong there were lots of people who looked like the the white Americans in our group, but they all had british accents. Seems that this little village is quite a seaside vacation place for the brits. It looked a bit like a small village on the French riviera so I can see where it would be an attraction. It was very interesting seeing this very different area of Hong Kong. Since we weren't sure how to get to Aberdeen, we decided to abandon our dinner plans and just eat in Stanley. We wandered around for a while and finally ended up in a Chinese place (unusual among the British pubs in this village.) It was our last night so we figured we should eat Chinese. Kaley and I are a bit picky about what we eat, and everything on the menu had fish or other weird ingredients in it. For example, one dish was fried noodles with seafood. I asked if she could just get plain fried noodles, without the seafood. No. OK.... why? Not on the menu. We thought about leaving and going elsewhere but since we were already drinking an expensive bottle of water we figured we'd stick it out. She managed to pick the pork our of some pork fried noodles and I had some bean curd with vegetables. Not the best food I've ever eaten, but I'm not sure anything would have tasted that good. We're ready for some good old American Chinese food, which isn't really at all like Chinese food!
After dinner it was time to try to find our way back, so we took another taxi back to the mall where we had begun our day. Marcy & Deb left us there to go look for a foot massage back by the hotel, and the girls and I did a bit more shopping. We road the MTR train to the stop near the night market where we were last night and picked up just a couple more things before coming back to the hotel. It was a long day, with lots of frustrations over not being able to communicate or read maps, but in the end it was quite an adventure (as it always seems to be.)
We're all packing up now preparing to leave the hotel at 7 am tomorrow morning. I think we're all glad to be heading home. The girls miss their friends, we all miss our families, we miss predictable foods, good toilet paper, and the English language. Once we get home, I suspect we will miss each other. Deb flies on to Korea for work, Leanne flies as far as Newark with us before returning to Chicago. We have a tight connection in Newark but if we make it we'll be home by 5. If not, well, who knows when we'll get home.
Once home, and with a few hours of sleep under my belt, I'll write some final reflections. Thanks for reading along and for the prayers that have sustained us.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
Friday, July 18, 2008
Midnight shopping and other crazy stuff
It was nearly midnight when we threw in the towel and made our way back to the hotel from the night market. Business there was still brisk, as it was at all of the shops and even malls that we passed on the way back. This city is crazy nuts.
Deb left early this morning to go give her presentation at a hospital here in Hong Kong. The rest of us got moving around 9:30. Leanne's tummy is feeling better, Kaley's throat is improving, and my chicken pox (as I've been referring to my bug bites) don't seem to be spreading any farther. Excellent.
After a rather strange breakfast here at the hotel which included fried fish and pork dumplings, we made our way outside. We're staying at the Salisbury YMCA which is right near the harbor in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong. It is a great and reasonbly priced facility, in comparison with the rest of Hong Kong. You have to book months in advance to get a room. It's very clean. Anyway, before we went outside I asked one of the security guys where the subway was. He seemed to understand and gave me some directions. Couldn't find it. Asked someone else. Very specific directions in pretty good English. Couldn't find it. Finally after about half an hour had past (and we were still circling our hotel) we saw a sign for "subway." Hooray! Nope. Here in Hong Kong a subway is an underground tunnel that allows you to cross the street. A lot of the streets have railings making it impossible for pedestrians to cross except at certain places, like these underground tunnels. Now that it made sense why we had been misdirected (with such perfect directions) we switched tactics and asked someone where the MTR train was. Eureka!
As the intrepid tour guide for the day, I had put together an itinerary that I thought would provide us with some fun photos stops and opportunities to see different areas of the city. Our first stop took us into one of the older sections of Hong Kong where we walked about 8 blocks to a flower market and a bird market. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and cheap. Too bad we can't bring any home. The bird market was a trip. Mostly men, some of whom were shop keepers and others who had just brought their birds in cages to sit around in the market. Back in Pittsburgh it would be similar to a car cruise where people bring their old cars to a public place to sit around in lawn chairs and have people stop by to check out their vehicles. Here, it was birds. There were LOTS of beautiful birds in all sizes in cages and bird supplies I've never even imagined. You could also buy moving plastic bags of grass and crickets. Yummy. In Cambodia that would have been people food, but here it was bird food I guess.
Unfortunately, dragging Kaley and Leanne through these markets was not much fun. Leanne was just tired, and Kaley of course didn't like the crickets. Or the heat. Or the walking. If you will forgive an "old fart" rambling for a few moments, I have noticed that the younger generation seems to be so overstimulated by technology that just looking at beautiful things for the sake of looking at them seems to be boring. I think they're so used to walking around phones in hand, constantly supplementing what they are doing by texting their friends, that they've gone through painful withdrawl during this trip. Back home they may have better tolerated going to the bird market with mom because they could multi-task and text with friends at the same time. But without that added activity, things like the bird market are just plain boring. Oh well... I've tried.
As we walked along we all agreed that the smells in Hong Kong are to our surprise way stinkier than anything we have experienced thus far. I don't know for sure what these people are cooking in their little restaurants, but it smells really bad. In the older section of town where the bird market was, we didn't see any signs of familiar food, or any places I would have felt comfortable eating. We walked quite a ways back to an area where there was a street market and began to see McDonalds every few blocks again. What a relief. :-) Yep, we had McDonalds for lunch. The french fries tasted just like back home. Now the black sesame seed sundae, however, we didn't try. In the harbor section of the city, there is a starbucks about every 10 feet, too. Besides that, we haven't seen any western fast food. We also had one heck of a time finding any ice cream when that became the evening craving. While this is one of the more english speaking, technologically advanced cities we have visited, at least in the downtown area we haven't seen the western influence on commercializiation like we saw in Bangkok. I will say that the McDonalds and Starbucks were all packed, and not by westerners. Tonight we ate in an italian restaurant for a change of pace and it was also packed. Can't help but wonder if as our fast food and dining styles filter into places like Hong Kong if more Asian people will also wrestle with weight problems and the health issues that we face in the U.S.
After the uninteresting bird and flower markets, we hit a couple of street markets that were of interest to the girls. There were lots of baby clothes, linens (including towels that said "monogram towel" all over them), t-shirts of various makes with messed up english phrases on them, etc. The girls went in a number of shops that are "factory outlets" where clothes don't have labels but the stuff will probably end up in shops like Forever 21 where they like to shop in the U.S. They both picked up a couple of shirts or dresses for around $4 a piece.
After some down time back at the hotel and reconnecting with Deb who had a good but long day at the hospital, we ate Italian at a restaurant not far from the hotel. I had looked at the map to plot our route and led us right through a building/plaza area called the Chun King Mansions. I knew that it was home to a lot of hostels and was supposed to be a seedy area but that was an understatement. It was creepy. After leaving the restaurant we took the long way around. We walked down to the harbor front where we watched the 8 pm light show. The city is divided by a harbor. We are on the Kowloon side and HK Island is on the other side. Every night there is a music/light show that is most viewable from our side of the harbor so that was nice. It is well choreographed with about 20 large buildings on the other side using lasers and lights for the show. There was a bit of cloudy fog that made viewing a little less than perfect tonight, but still it was fun.
From here we walked up Nathan Street quite a few blocks, doing some window shopping at pretty expensive stores. Again, we're struck by the number of people seeming to be dropping huge amounts of money on high ticket fashion items. This while on the local news we've been hearing about how bad economic conditions are throughout Asia, just like back home. Hard to make sense out of the money being spent on luxury items if this is the case. We hopped a cab to the night market where the girls were successful in purchasing the quality of handbags that they had been hoping for. To our surprise, the handbag market here in Hong Kong is not nearly as big as in Bangkok, Saigon, etc. Even the fake rolex guys don't sell right on the street. They hold up pages of photos to get your attention as you walk along and then they take you to a quiet location behind the market stalls to show you their goods and make the sale. It's all a little creepy and we were glad to end the evening and take a cab back to the hotel.
Tomorrow, our last day in Asia, will be a sightseeing day. Hopefully it will be a fun day, but I suspect that the girls will find it a little dull. Since we had to fly through Hong Kong I really wanted to have an opportunity to check out this amazing city, but in hindsight maybe we should have headed on home. It's hard to re-enter a place that is a lot like NYC after spending time in a place like Cambodia. The lights, the people, the money being spent, and the whole sh-bang just seems overwelming. But then again, three years from now when we're watching a movie somewhere and there is a scene shot on the streets of Hong Kong, we will have memories and be able to think, "Hey - I've been there." And there's always something fun about that, even when while you're there you're not sure if you want to be.
Deb left early this morning to go give her presentation at a hospital here in Hong Kong. The rest of us got moving around 9:30. Leanne's tummy is feeling better, Kaley's throat is improving, and my chicken pox (as I've been referring to my bug bites) don't seem to be spreading any farther. Excellent.
After a rather strange breakfast here at the hotel which included fried fish and pork dumplings, we made our way outside. We're staying at the Salisbury YMCA which is right near the harbor in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong. It is a great and reasonbly priced facility, in comparison with the rest of Hong Kong. You have to book months in advance to get a room. It's very clean. Anyway, before we went outside I asked one of the security guys where the subway was. He seemed to understand and gave me some directions. Couldn't find it. Asked someone else. Very specific directions in pretty good English. Couldn't find it. Finally after about half an hour had past (and we were still circling our hotel) we saw a sign for "subway." Hooray! Nope. Here in Hong Kong a subway is an underground tunnel that allows you to cross the street. A lot of the streets have railings making it impossible for pedestrians to cross except at certain places, like these underground tunnels. Now that it made sense why we had been misdirected (with such perfect directions) we switched tactics and asked someone where the MTR train was. Eureka!
As the intrepid tour guide for the day, I had put together an itinerary that I thought would provide us with some fun photos stops and opportunities to see different areas of the city. Our first stop took us into one of the older sections of Hong Kong where we walked about 8 blocks to a flower market and a bird market. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and cheap. Too bad we can't bring any home. The bird market was a trip. Mostly men, some of whom were shop keepers and others who had just brought their birds in cages to sit around in the market. Back in Pittsburgh it would be similar to a car cruise where people bring their old cars to a public place to sit around in lawn chairs and have people stop by to check out their vehicles. Here, it was birds. There were LOTS of beautiful birds in all sizes in cages and bird supplies I've never even imagined. You could also buy moving plastic bags of grass and crickets. Yummy. In Cambodia that would have been people food, but here it was bird food I guess.
Unfortunately, dragging Kaley and Leanne through these markets was not much fun. Leanne was just tired, and Kaley of course didn't like the crickets. Or the heat. Or the walking. If you will forgive an "old fart" rambling for a few moments, I have noticed that the younger generation seems to be so overstimulated by technology that just looking at beautiful things for the sake of looking at them seems to be boring. I think they're so used to walking around phones in hand, constantly supplementing what they are doing by texting their friends, that they've gone through painful withdrawl during this trip. Back home they may have better tolerated going to the bird market with mom because they could multi-task and text with friends at the same time. But without that added activity, things like the bird market are just plain boring. Oh well... I've tried.
As we walked along we all agreed that the smells in Hong Kong are to our surprise way stinkier than anything we have experienced thus far. I don't know for sure what these people are cooking in their little restaurants, but it smells really bad. In the older section of town where the bird market was, we didn't see any signs of familiar food, or any places I would have felt comfortable eating. We walked quite a ways back to an area where there was a street market and began to see McDonalds every few blocks again. What a relief. :-) Yep, we had McDonalds for lunch. The french fries tasted just like back home. Now the black sesame seed sundae, however, we didn't try. In the harbor section of the city, there is a starbucks about every 10 feet, too. Besides that, we haven't seen any western fast food. We also had one heck of a time finding any ice cream when that became the evening craving. While this is one of the more english speaking, technologically advanced cities we have visited, at least in the downtown area we haven't seen the western influence on commercializiation like we saw in Bangkok. I will say that the McDonalds and Starbucks were all packed, and not by westerners. Tonight we ate in an italian restaurant for a change of pace and it was also packed. Can't help but wonder if as our fast food and dining styles filter into places like Hong Kong if more Asian people will also wrestle with weight problems and the health issues that we face in the U.S.
After the uninteresting bird and flower markets, we hit a couple of street markets that were of interest to the girls. There were lots of baby clothes, linens (including towels that said "monogram towel" all over them), t-shirts of various makes with messed up english phrases on them, etc. The girls went in a number of shops that are "factory outlets" where clothes don't have labels but the stuff will probably end up in shops like Forever 21 where they like to shop in the U.S. They both picked up a couple of shirts or dresses for around $4 a piece.
After some down time back at the hotel and reconnecting with Deb who had a good but long day at the hospital, we ate Italian at a restaurant not far from the hotel. I had looked at the map to plot our route and led us right through a building/plaza area called the Chun King Mansions. I knew that it was home to a lot of hostels and was supposed to be a seedy area but that was an understatement. It was creepy. After leaving the restaurant we took the long way around. We walked down to the harbor front where we watched the 8 pm light show. The city is divided by a harbor. We are on the Kowloon side and HK Island is on the other side. Every night there is a music/light show that is most viewable from our side of the harbor so that was nice. It is well choreographed with about 20 large buildings on the other side using lasers and lights for the show. There was a bit of cloudy fog that made viewing a little less than perfect tonight, but still it was fun.
From here we walked up Nathan Street quite a few blocks, doing some window shopping at pretty expensive stores. Again, we're struck by the number of people seeming to be dropping huge amounts of money on high ticket fashion items. This while on the local news we've been hearing about how bad economic conditions are throughout Asia, just like back home. Hard to make sense out of the money being spent on luxury items if this is the case. We hopped a cab to the night market where the girls were successful in purchasing the quality of handbags that they had been hoping for. To our surprise, the handbag market here in Hong Kong is not nearly as big as in Bangkok, Saigon, etc. Even the fake rolex guys don't sell right on the street. They hold up pages of photos to get your attention as you walk along and then they take you to a quiet location behind the market stalls to show you their goods and make the sale. It's all a little creepy and we were glad to end the evening and take a cab back to the hotel.
Tomorrow, our last day in Asia, will be a sightseeing day. Hopefully it will be a fun day, but I suspect that the girls will find it a little dull. Since we had to fly through Hong Kong I really wanted to have an opportunity to check out this amazing city, but in hindsight maybe we should have headed on home. It's hard to re-enter a place that is a lot like NYC after spending time in a place like Cambodia. The lights, the people, the money being spent, and the whole sh-bang just seems overwelming. But then again, three years from now when we're watching a movie somewhere and there is a scene shot on the streets of Hong Kong, we will have memories and be able to think, "Hey - I've been there." And there's always something fun about that, even when while you're there you're not sure if you want to be.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Hong Kong!!
Hi everyone -
Another quick note since we're tired. It's been a long day. We fley from Siem Reap to Singapore and then had about a 4 hour layover before flying on to Hong Kong. We arrived at 7:30 pm, spent some time figuring out how to get into the city, and finally took the train into town. This city is BEAUTIFUL. Lots of lights, gorgeous harbor, and I don't think it ever sleeps. At 10:45 the stores were still open and there were lots of people out and about. We passed a swimming pool complex while on the train and there were tons of young kids there at like 9 pm. Guess since they don't go out in the sun evening is a big time for pools.
This stay in Hong Kong is a bit of re-entry for us. It's very western here and we're getting used to good air conditioning, trash cans, etc. etc. before returning home. :-)
Girls are doing OK. Kaley is a bit under the weather with a sore throat. I've started her on amoxicillen which is available over the counter here. Got to love that. Leanne is better but got carsick on the way to the hotel on the train. Poor kid.
Deb is teaching a class tomorrow at a hospital here in Hong Kong. She is a nurse working with a company that is at the forefront of medical records technology. The rest of us will probably do some shopping since many people believe that Hong Kong is the retail center of the world.
I promise that tomorrow I'll get some photos posted and start to do some wrap up reflections. We've got two days for sightseeing and then that long plane ride home. Yuck.
Hope all is well -
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
Another quick note since we're tired. It's been a long day. We fley from Siem Reap to Singapore and then had about a 4 hour layover before flying on to Hong Kong. We arrived at 7:30 pm, spent some time figuring out how to get into the city, and finally took the train into town. This city is BEAUTIFUL. Lots of lights, gorgeous harbor, and I don't think it ever sleeps. At 10:45 the stores were still open and there were lots of people out and about. We passed a swimming pool complex while on the train and there were tons of young kids there at like 9 pm. Guess since they don't go out in the sun evening is a big time for pools.
This stay in Hong Kong is a bit of re-entry for us. It's very western here and we're getting used to good air conditioning, trash cans, etc. etc. before returning home. :-)
Girls are doing OK. Kaley is a bit under the weather with a sore throat. I've started her on amoxicillen which is available over the counter here. Got to love that. Leanne is better but got carsick on the way to the hotel on the train. Poor kid.
Deb is teaching a class tomorrow at a hospital here in Hong Kong. She is a nurse working with a company that is at the forefront of medical records technology. The rest of us will probably do some shopping since many people believe that Hong Kong is the retail center of the world.
I promise that tomorrow I'll get some photos posted and start to do some wrap up reflections. We've got two days for sightseeing and then that long plane ride home. Yuck.
Hope all is well -
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Welcome to Disneybodia
Sorry folks - no photos tonight and boy do I have some good ones! Internet connections are slow here, so maybe tomorrow. Today was our full day spent in Siem Reap, the home of the ruins of Angkor, an ancient civilization built between about 900 and 1200 AD if I remember what our guide said. I had prebooked a day with Tek Leng via the internet and he picked us up promptly at 8 am. As with most Khmers I have met, he was a sweet young man, smart and eager to please. Everyone (including Mike and Leanne) were feeling better today and ready to go. I still have my spots, but there don't seem to be any more today. I'm thinking of taking a pen and connecting them all to see what kind of art I come up with!
We began our day with a visit to the Bayon Temple. He did a great job of providing us some historical information and insights into the peculiar mixture of Budhist and Hindu faiths that are combined in these temples. Big news.... we rode ELEPHANTS around the temple perimeter. Stepping out onto the platform on the elephant's back was a little scary, but the ride from there was pretty much fun. I'll have some great video and photos to post when I have a faster connection.
My family and I visited the ruins back in 2005. I have been hearing how much things have chnaged here since then, but I was shocked to feel like we were in Disneybodia today. Even in the midst of rainy season which is low tourism, there were THOUSANDS of tourists tramping around today. They have a new slick system of selling the day passes where you actually have your photo taken and imprinted on your pass. When we went into the differnet sections of the ruins we had to show our passes. All very different from even a few years ago. The girls got in for free because they are Khmer. Hilary had no trouble getting in because she really looks Khmer. Kaley & Leanne get more skeptical looks since Kaley has a sort of Thai look about her and Leanne looks more Vietnamese.
Despite an afternoon deluge that chased us back to the hotel for a while we had a great day, despite the crowds. I learned a lot more about the temples by having a guide like Tek along with us for the day. In addition to the crowds, there are now clean western style bathrooms on the outskirts of the ruins. We got in for free (to use the bathrooms) but the girls had to pay 500 riel which is the equivalent of half of a quarter. Funny.
As usual, these three beautiful young woman caused quite a stir. Lots of people, Cambodian and others, had questions about them. At one point there were clowning around in the midst of a hoard of Japanese tourists and the three moms got in on the fun, too, taking crazy pictures impersonating the statues that surrounded us. You might just surf the web in a few days and find us on the Japanese version of u-tube since there were lots of video cameras rolling and fingers pointing at our antics.
I can't say that I would discourage people from coming to see the temples, because they are an absolutely phenomenal site.... but I'm glad that I first got to see them in '05 when there weren't so many people here. It's hard to grasp such incredible change in just three years. We sort of expected to round a bend and here a disney tune playing. We were extremely lucky with the weather actually. The deluge dropped the temperature significantly, and it was actually rather pleasant walking around the temples in a bit of an eerie mist. It's usually HOTTT here so this was a welcome welcome anomaly.
As always in Cambodia, the day had its poignant moments. Over lunch Tek discussed politics with us. Like most young Khmer, he would like to see fairly sweeping changes in the government. Elections are coming up on July 27 and there is much hub-bub as the campaigning parties appeal to voters, but most believe that Hun Sen will be elected again. He has been in power for a long time. There were actually a couple of reporters and members of a minority party murdered a few days ago while we were in Phnom Penh. The corruption is so rampant. Every tourist from another country paid at least 20 bucks to get into the ruins today, and yet the starvation level here remains high. Before we leave Cambodia, we will each have to pay a 25 dollar exit tax. Where does this money go? At one point today the cops pulled our van over and the driver had to pay a "fine"just because. It wasn't much, but still.... where does all of this go? The Cambodian people would like to know, too.
As always, there were lots of children selling trinkets, amputees playing music and asking for money, and small pathetic looking children begging. One of the lowest moments of the day was watching a couple of tourists pose some of the beggar children (one of whom was carrying an infant) for photos in the midst of the temples. It's pretty sickening.
Tonight, for our last night in Cambodia we went to see some native dancing known as Apsara dancing. It is very beautiful but a little slow. I found myself dozing a bit but the girls liked it. We hit the night market one last time and in a moment we'll head back to the hotel. There is much packing to do. Yuck.
Tomorrw - Mike heads back to Chicago, while Julie and Hilary head back to Pittsburgh. Deb, Marcy, Kaley, Leanne and I fly from Siem Reap to Singapore and then on to Hong Kong. 'We'll have two days for fun in Hong Kong before flying home. Deb will be staying a couple more days to do some work for her company.
There is still much processing to be done as we get ready to leave Cambodia. It takes a while to fit the pieces of what you have seen here together with life as we know it. But today was a fun day with good memories made by three Khmer princesses who have had a great time together over the past two weeks. What a privelege it has been to be with them.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
We began our day with a visit to the Bayon Temple. He did a great job of providing us some historical information and insights into the peculiar mixture of Budhist and Hindu faiths that are combined in these temples. Big news.... we rode ELEPHANTS around the temple perimeter. Stepping out onto the platform on the elephant's back was a little scary, but the ride from there was pretty much fun. I'll have some great video and photos to post when I have a faster connection.
My family and I visited the ruins back in 2005. I have been hearing how much things have chnaged here since then, but I was shocked to feel like we were in Disneybodia today. Even in the midst of rainy season which is low tourism, there were THOUSANDS of tourists tramping around today. They have a new slick system of selling the day passes where you actually have your photo taken and imprinted on your pass. When we went into the differnet sections of the ruins we had to show our passes. All very different from even a few years ago. The girls got in for free because they are Khmer. Hilary had no trouble getting in because she really looks Khmer. Kaley & Leanne get more skeptical looks since Kaley has a sort of Thai look about her and Leanne looks more Vietnamese.
Despite an afternoon deluge that chased us back to the hotel for a while we had a great day, despite the crowds. I learned a lot more about the temples by having a guide like Tek along with us for the day. In addition to the crowds, there are now clean western style bathrooms on the outskirts of the ruins. We got in for free (to use the bathrooms) but the girls had to pay 500 riel which is the equivalent of half of a quarter. Funny.
As usual, these three beautiful young woman caused quite a stir. Lots of people, Cambodian and others, had questions about them. At one point there were clowning around in the midst of a hoard of Japanese tourists and the three moms got in on the fun, too, taking crazy pictures impersonating the statues that surrounded us. You might just surf the web in a few days and find us on the Japanese version of u-tube since there were lots of video cameras rolling and fingers pointing at our antics.
I can't say that I would discourage people from coming to see the temples, because they are an absolutely phenomenal site.... but I'm glad that I first got to see them in '05 when there weren't so many people here. It's hard to grasp such incredible change in just three years. We sort of expected to round a bend and here a disney tune playing. We were extremely lucky with the weather actually. The deluge dropped the temperature significantly, and it was actually rather pleasant walking around the temples in a bit of an eerie mist. It's usually HOTTT here so this was a welcome welcome anomaly.
As always in Cambodia, the day had its poignant moments. Over lunch Tek discussed politics with us. Like most young Khmer, he would like to see fairly sweeping changes in the government. Elections are coming up on July 27 and there is much hub-bub as the campaigning parties appeal to voters, but most believe that Hun Sen will be elected again. He has been in power for a long time. There were actually a couple of reporters and members of a minority party murdered a few days ago while we were in Phnom Penh. The corruption is so rampant. Every tourist from another country paid at least 20 bucks to get into the ruins today, and yet the starvation level here remains high. Before we leave Cambodia, we will each have to pay a 25 dollar exit tax. Where does this money go? At one point today the cops pulled our van over and the driver had to pay a "fine"just because. It wasn't much, but still.... where does all of this go? The Cambodian people would like to know, too.
As always, there were lots of children selling trinkets, amputees playing music and asking for money, and small pathetic looking children begging. One of the lowest moments of the day was watching a couple of tourists pose some of the beggar children (one of whom was carrying an infant) for photos in the midst of the temples. It's pretty sickening.
Tonight, for our last night in Cambodia we went to see some native dancing known as Apsara dancing. It is very beautiful but a little slow. I found myself dozing a bit but the girls liked it. We hit the night market one last time and in a moment we'll head back to the hotel. There is much packing to do. Yuck.
Tomorrw - Mike heads back to Chicago, while Julie and Hilary head back to Pittsburgh. Deb, Marcy, Kaley, Leanne and I fly from Siem Reap to Singapore and then on to Hong Kong. 'We'll have two days for fun in Hong Kong before flying home. Deb will be staying a couple more days to do some work for her company.
There is still much processing to be done as we get ready to leave Cambodia. It takes a while to fit the pieces of what you have seen here together with life as we know it. But today was a fun day with good memories made by three Khmer princesses who have had a great time together over the past two weeks. What a privelege it has been to be with them.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
On to Siem Reap
Just a quick note tonight because the internet at this hotel is lousy and I'm afraid that what I try to post won't work. Today we moved from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, an old city in northwest Cambodia. We said goodbye to Yoen about 10 am. It was sad to say goodbye to him again. I really wish that there is more that I could do to help his family. He was a godsend to us during this trip, making sure that we were safe, interpreting with birthfamilies. He is amazing and the hardest worker I think I have ever met. He'd be a great American, but despite his dreams that's probably never going to happen. I think we all left Phnom Penh with some sadness and some relief that the heavy emotional experiences that the girls had there over the past few days were coming to a conclusion. There will still be a lot for everyone to process as we return home.
We decided to travel by van instead of bus so that we could leave on our own time at 10 am. Good decision since by this morning Leanne and Mike were both sick in the tummy. Lower tummy that is. Deb is convinced it is food poisoning with both of them but we loaded up and were on our way. Hilary got carsick on the drive, Leanne was sick.... it was a lovely ride. We were in a decent sized van but we were a little crowded because we took on 2 extra passengers. The van driver (who spoke not a word of english) asked Yoen if his two brothers could ride along with us, both sharing the front passenger seat for the 5 hour ride. They have never been to Angkor Wat and he wanted them to see it. So we agreed to have them ride along and off we went. We passed other vans the same size as ours carrying at least 20 Khmer in the seats, on the floors, and on the roofs so I guess we can't really freel badly for ourselves.
The ride took us through lots of open fields and rice fields. Pretty, but not too exciting. We stopped for lunch at a lively restaurant. The menu was interesting.... one item was "Pork with Gas Hew Nuts." Go ahead, sound it out.... yep, pork with cashew nuts. Being the brave soul that I am I had french fries.
Siem Reap is a beautiful town, a stark contrast to Phnom Penh. The streets are relatively clean, the plethara of hotels are clean and beautiful. It's a great place to visit. Since 2005, however, the number of tourists has EXPLODED. It will be interesting to go see the temples and ruins tomorrow since I suspect it will be much more crowded than on my last visit.
This evening Deb, Marcy, Kaley, Julie, Hilary Sopheap and I went to the market for a while and then ate dinner at a place called Dead Fish Tower. It was built in layers sort of like a huge treehouse jungle gym. I had the spring rolls, which were good. I've been on the spring roll tour of Southeast Asia. I've eaten them almost every meal since they are relatively predictable and tend not to be as weird as pork with gas hew nuts. I'm going to write a book "Lisa's Guide to Spring Rolls." Look for it at a Borders near you.
Hopefully by morning everyone will be feeling better and ready for our busy day of ruins exploration. It's very very hot here. Even after sundown you sweat buckets outside. My bites have spread to my right arm now so I stopped in a pharmary to ask for a different kind of cream and fearfully asked the woman working there if she thought they were scabies. "No - not scabies. Squito bites,"she said calmly. Boy, I hope so. They'd better be gone by the time I come home or you'll all disown me.
Well, time for some sleep. Just wanted to let you know we were all OK.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
We decided to travel by van instead of bus so that we could leave on our own time at 10 am. Good decision since by this morning Leanne and Mike were both sick in the tummy. Lower tummy that is. Deb is convinced it is food poisoning with both of them but we loaded up and were on our way. Hilary got carsick on the drive, Leanne was sick.... it was a lovely ride. We were in a decent sized van but we were a little crowded because we took on 2 extra passengers. The van driver (who spoke not a word of english) asked Yoen if his two brothers could ride along with us, both sharing the front passenger seat for the 5 hour ride. They have never been to Angkor Wat and he wanted them to see it. So we agreed to have them ride along and off we went. We passed other vans the same size as ours carrying at least 20 Khmer in the seats, on the floors, and on the roofs so I guess we can't really freel badly for ourselves.
The ride took us through lots of open fields and rice fields. Pretty, but not too exciting. We stopped for lunch at a lively restaurant. The menu was interesting.... one item was "Pork with Gas Hew Nuts." Go ahead, sound it out.... yep, pork with cashew nuts. Being the brave soul that I am I had french fries.
Siem Reap is a beautiful town, a stark contrast to Phnom Penh. The streets are relatively clean, the plethara of hotels are clean and beautiful. It's a great place to visit. Since 2005, however, the number of tourists has EXPLODED. It will be interesting to go see the temples and ruins tomorrow since I suspect it will be much more crowded than on my last visit.
This evening Deb, Marcy, Kaley, Julie, Hilary Sopheap and I went to the market for a while and then ate dinner at a place called Dead Fish Tower. It was built in layers sort of like a huge treehouse jungle gym. I had the spring rolls, which were good. I've been on the spring roll tour of Southeast Asia. I've eaten them almost every meal since they are relatively predictable and tend not to be as weird as pork with gas hew nuts. I'm going to write a book "Lisa's Guide to Spring Rolls." Look for it at a Borders near you.
Hopefully by morning everyone will be feeling better and ready for our busy day of ruins exploration. It's very very hot here. Even after sundown you sweat buckets outside. My bites have spread to my right arm now so I stopped in a pharmary to ask for a different kind of cream and fearfully asked the woman working there if she thought they were scabies. "No - not scabies. Squito bites,"she said calmly. Boy, I hope so. They'd better be gone by the time I come home or you'll all disown me.
Well, time for some sleep. Just wanted to let you know we were all OK.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
Photos: Last dinner in Phnom Penh, Yoen's little boys, On the road to Siem Reap (notice the brothers sharing the front seat!)
Monday, July 14, 2008
How do you say.... hope?
Here in Phnom Penh every day seems like it has been a month long when we think back on it. Today was no exception. We were looking at some photos this evening and commenting on how it seems like ages ago that we were in Macau.
This morning began with our normal degree of confusion since Yoen was to come by in a van to pick us up at around 8 am. He had gone to the rice broker's first to load the 20 bags of rice in the van and then picked up me, Kaley, Marcy, Julie and Hilary to go back to the Nutrition Center to deliver our gifts. It took us about a half hour to make the trip to the outskirts of town but when we pulled in clearly they had been waiting for us. Several men who work there doing something (who knows what) helped to unload the van, but Kaley and Hilary gave it a good hand, too.
They carefully piled all of the supplies in the middle of a big empty recreation room and the children climbed on the bags like it was a jungle gym. In a few moments a truck pulled up with the refrigerator and you would have though that the Queen of Sheba was arriving. Everyone went outside to watch. It was carefully brought into the room and the cardboard was quickly removed. Adults and kids alike were touching it and opening the doors to take a peek. You could tell that this was quite exciting for them. We did some posed shots of the group around the rice and then Kaley and Hilary (or Sopheap which is her Khmer name) passed out bananas and cookies to the kids. The Nutrition Center has become a facility almost entirely housing kids with fairly severe handicaps and HIV. Our welcoming committee was made up of almost all boys since the girls were at school. The boys go in the afternoon. They were very sweet (for the most part) and warmed up to us quickly. Some were clearly mentally bright despite their physical limitations. Two additional nannies were present today who weren't there during our first visit. They greeted us warmly (remembered this big white woman from my previous visits!) and the first thing out of their mouths was "Where's Dara?" (Baby boy - those ladies loved you and were sad that you weren't with us today. Yoen explained that you were home because you are going to football camp and they said that you have to come back next time. It was very sweet to hear them ask of you. )
After some playtime with the kids we were given another tour of parts of the facilities. We saw mostly young handicapped children this time, but we also saw a nice preschool type classroom and a playroom with quite a few toys. Very different from the Nutrition Center in 1991 and good to see. The younger children, most of whom probably have HIV, were way chubbier and healthier looking than the babies were in 1991. This, too, was good to see. Food is still in short supply, the training for the caregivers is limited, but they are doing the best that they can and we will know that our supplies will give them at least a good month where they can feed the chilren some extra food and special treats. (I can't remember if I mentioned yesterday that due to a communications glitch we bought 4 LARGE cases of sweetened condensed milk instead of formula. But I understand that the older kids enjoy this as a treat so it will be appreciated.)
I suspect that because of our generosity (which was YOUR generosity friends back home who sent money with us) the director of the orphanage and her assistant were willing to look in the log record book one more time to try to find any information on my kids. Brennan Dara's story seems to consistently add up. He was born on or about July 3, 1990 and he was abandoned in the town train station and then brought to the orphanage. Pretty cut and dry but a story that is consistent throughout his documentation. Kaley (Kalop's) story is not so clear. Despite the searching it appears that she was never entered into the book, leading us to believe that she didn't spend much time at the Nutrition Center. In some ways, I think that witnessing the more difficult parts of birthfamily reunions that she has seen with Leanne and Hilary during this trip have led her to think that maybe it's better that she doesn't know. On the other hand, she has said that she feels like she just fell out of the sky compared to the other girls. Several people have told us that advertising is fairly common here in Phnom Penh, since many families are still look for relatives lost during the Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge regime. There are ads and photos in the Khmer papers for people looking for family members and these ads are dirt cheap to place. Several adoptive families have placed these ads and a few have met with success. If the kids want to do that, we'll do it. We'll see how they feel about it after we get back home. For now, Yoen and his family are overjoyed to be their Cambodian family which is very sweet.
After the Nutrition Center we came back to Phnom Penh and made a visit to Tabitha, the non-profit group that my family did the housebuilding with back in 2005. This is an amazing organizataion that does lots of good across Cambodia, drilling wells and building homes using volunteers from around the world. They have a shop where they sell handicraft products made by their team of workers (who are paid better than the garment factory workers by the way) and we bought a few things. We also used some of the donated money to buy 2 wells and a pair of piglets to donate to a farm family. So to our donors, hopefully you'll enjoy knowing that you bought pigs today!
Next up was a quick visit to the SOS western health care center for me. I had stopped by earlier in the day and was given a 2 pm appointment. AFter my shower this morning when I went to dry my legs I realized that I looked like I had chicken pox from my toes to my knees. Nowhere else. I showed them to Miss Deb K who is our resident nurse, and she reluctantly told me that she thought I might have scabies and should go get checked out. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? This is way beyond my comfort zone and I was not happy. Neither were my travel mates who now were looking at me like the lady with the cooties. So at the clinic they didn't have any appointments left with the western docs but I could see a Khmer doc. Seeing a western doc is $60 in the downstairs clinic complete with comfort chairs and a TV in the waiting room. Seeing a Khmer doc is upstairs with benches lining the walls and only a $30 fee. I got bumped to the front of the line (imagine that?) and a nice doc told me that I had mosquito bites. Big relief. Hopefully he's right. He also told me that night mosquito bites are OK but day mosquito bites carry more disease. Hmmm. He also told me that I should lose weight. OK buddy, I'm on it, all right?
We also made a quick stop back to the Central Market to pick up a couple of things and as usual the beggars descended. Before I ever come back here, I'm definitely losing weight (because the Khmer doc told me to) and dying my hair black. Big blond woman in the market is just too much of a beacon for beggars. :-)
Yoen also took us to a dress/tailor shop where Kaley was able to look through catalogs of formalwear and "design" two dresses to be made for a low price. A woman we met is coming back to the states in late August and offered to carry anything back for us that we couldn't pick up while we were here so we're going to take her up on that offer. Mailing a small box through normal methods is about $300 so shipping is out of the question. Should be interesting to see how the dresses turned out. They measured her from 186 different directions so they should fit! They wanted to make dresses for me and Marcy, too, but we politely declined. The guy was working on a wedding gown for an American that was a replica of a magazine pic. If you're in the market for a designer wedding gown, you could definitely cover the cost of your plane ticket witht he money you would save by coming over here and have them make a replica. They told us that if you want to stay in Phnom Penh and have them do fittings throughout the dress creation process that you would need to be here for about 2 weeks. Very interesting.
We also stopped by the photo store to pick up our Khmer Hoochie Mama Glamour Shots that the girls had taken the other day. Kaley's were lousy. (IMHO) For some reason they seem to equate white with beautiful so in addition to the light make up they put on the girls they also lightened their skin before printing out the photos. Kaley looked like Kristy Yamaguchi (I know that is spelled wrong) and was in weird contorted positions. The photos of the three girls together will be fun souveniers, but I wasn't overly impressed by the whole Khmer glamour shots thing. Brown is beautiful, especially on these girls.
Back at the hotel, Leanne had returned from her overnight visit with her birthfamily. Read Deb's blog below for more details. God love this young woman. She is so brave to have done this. She came back with a touch of "Kampuchean belly" so she has been in bed throughout the evening. I think Kaley and Hilary are missing their spunky and fun friend Leanne, as we all are. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be back up to snuff.
This evening, Yoen wanted us all to come to his house for dinner but we couldn't take the thought of another awkward dinner in someone's home. I know that sounds rude, but you just get to the point where you don't want to push the rice around on your plate anymore. Mr. Mike (being the man of the group) broke the news to Yoen and we agreed we would stop by his home to see his place and then all go to dinner at a fun traditional Cambodian place down on the river. It is called Pon Lok and it is where Phnom Penh families might go for a celebratory meal. Since it is our last night in PP, this seems appropriate.
During our visit in Yoen's home we ate some very strange fruit that called for spitting large seeds in a bowl. I am a very bad spitter. I explained that American women don't spit much, but I wasn't sure that he got it. He also gave us some very strange little brown things that looked like cat poop and tasted very sour. He said they were to help increase saliva. We all sort of licked at it a bit and then hid it in our pockets. Very clever, wouldn't you say? Dinner was great fun with his three little boys singing American music (can you imagine these three little Khmer boys singing "shorty got low-low-low-low-low-low -low" with perfect gangsta accent?) They are just adorable and so sweet. I'm glad that they have agreed to be our Cambodian family!
Saying goodbye to the nannies again today was sad. Tomorrow will be sad for us as we say goodbye to Yoen and move on to Siem Reap to see the ruins. For me, it will be sad to say goodbye to Phnom Penh. I'm not sure that all of my traveling group share my sentiments, but I have come to love this place. Dirty, smelly, crazy, corrupt, overwhelming, sad... you get the picture. But more than most any other place I have experienced in my life, hope grows here. This is a place that is hopeful about the future, despite the current situation. There is so much joy in so many of the people that we meet. They are warm, curious, loving, and gracious. They have so little. They aren't afraid to ask for what they need from us, because they believe that we have so much. But the asking is done in a way that comes (I believe) from a sense that life can be better for them. That their world will be a better place in the future. In the U.S., current economic conditions have led many of us to feel like our quality of life has maxed out. It's not going to get better. We're not so hopeful about the future. But here in this place, as unbelievable as it is, there is still a hopeful spirit.
Riding with Yoen again today, we spent much time playing the english game yet again. Today's favorite was perhaps "what is the polite way to say fart?" Today's lesson included pass gas, feces, and urine. Strange as it seems, mastering those new words are part of Yoen's indominable spirit of hope.
In our language, how do we say "hope?" Do we remember? Perhaps we can learn from the people of Phnom Penh.
Night all -
Big hugs -
Lisa & Crew
Photos: 1. Kaley & Hilary deliver rice. 2. Delivered items and the Nutrition Center folks. 3. Remaining nannies who took care of the kids when they were babies. 4. Kaley and a cutie patutey. 5. Looking through the record book, one more time.
The Konicek's Day - July 14, 2008
July 14 Konicek Events
Leanne was still out this morning in Kampong Speu with her family. Mike and I took a ride along the river and had breakfast at the Cambodiana, a hotel where we ate many meals with the kids in 1991. It has changed with the times and gotten quite “hoity toity” with a glamorous lobby and grounds and a 20$ breakfast buffet. We used to pay several dollars in the afternoons and take the kids swimming for something to do to beat the heat. Heat is still there, pool has been upgraded with a fountain and slide!
I had been conversing over the internet before we came with Pam, a nurse from the UK who has been here since 1997, first as a volunteer, and now as the head of a clinic for patients with disabilities. Her primary responsibility is for those with leprosy. She came by the hotel for lunch and Mike and I chatted with her about Cambodia, healthcare, etc for several hours. I rode with her out to the facility that is sponsored by the Veteran’s Administration of America (they took off the word Vietnam as it did not sit too well with the locals) The clinic had about 45 residents living there receiving treatment both medical and physical therapy. Conditions were clean but simple. I left some of your donations there to buy rolling commodes so that patients with limb deformities could get up out of bed rather than using bedpans – and you thought the funds were only going for rice? I learned a lot about how things work here in terms of the government and charitable organizations from overseas. Pam is doing a terrific job with what she has and is even using standardized terminology (ICF) to report her patient outcomes!
I returned at 5pm to find that Leanne and her family had returned at about 2:30. Leanne had a fever and some GI symptoms so did not enjoy the visit as much as she could have. Her sister gave her some clothes from her shop in the market. Mike said that the final goodbye was quite tearful and prolonged. Leanne has now had some Tylenol and a good nap and seems to be better. We organized our Cambodian treasures and are ready to leave in the morning for Angkor Wat. Lots to think about in terms of continuing contact with her family. Overall, she had a good visit and was glad to be able to spend time with them on her own.
Leanne was still out this morning in Kampong Speu with her family. Mike and I took a ride along the river and had breakfast at the Cambodiana, a hotel where we ate many meals with the kids in 1991. It has changed with the times and gotten quite “hoity toity” with a glamorous lobby and grounds and a 20$ breakfast buffet. We used to pay several dollars in the afternoons and take the kids swimming for something to do to beat the heat. Heat is still there, pool has been upgraded with a fountain and slide!
I had been conversing over the internet before we came with Pam, a nurse from the UK who has been here since 1997, first as a volunteer, and now as the head of a clinic for patients with disabilities. Her primary responsibility is for those with leprosy. She came by the hotel for lunch and Mike and I chatted with her about Cambodia, healthcare, etc for several hours. I rode with her out to the facility that is sponsored by the Veteran’s Administration of America (they took off the word Vietnam as it did not sit too well with the locals) The clinic had about 45 residents living there receiving treatment both medical and physical therapy. Conditions were clean but simple. I left some of your donations there to buy rolling commodes so that patients with limb deformities could get up out of bed rather than using bedpans – and you thought the funds were only going for rice? I learned a lot about how things work here in terms of the government and charitable organizations from overseas. Pam is doing a terrific job with what she has and is even using standardized terminology (ICF) to report her patient outcomes!
I returned at 5pm to find that Leanne and her family had returned at about 2:30. Leanne had a fever and some GI symptoms so did not enjoy the visit as much as she could have. Her sister gave her some clothes from her shop in the market. Mike said that the final goodbye was quite tearful and prolonged. Leanne has now had some Tylenol and a good nap and seems to be better. We organized our Cambodian treasures and are ready to leave in the morning for Angkor Wat. Lots to think about in terms of continuing contact with her family. Overall, she had a good visit and was glad to be able to spend time with them on her own.
Photos: Leanne & her family. Sister and brother-in-law. Saying goodbye to Khmer Mom and family.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
One starfish
Today was another busy divide and conquer kind of day that got off to quite a crazy start. Hilary's birthfamily traveled in from the Svey Rieng province for one final visit. Yoen was here to translate for them at 8 am and after a short visit and receiving gifts the family headed off to the bus station to return home. While it had to have been great to meet her birthfamily and realize how much her sisters really love her and miss her, I think there was some relief for her in knowing that this stressful part of the trip was ending and she can focus on enjoying Cambodia.
The Konicek family spent the day with Leanne's birthfamily out in Kompong Speu town. Deb's notes for today follow this posting so you can check out the scoop from their adventures if you just keep reading.
Yoen drove the Koniceks out to Kompong Speu so that meant that I was on my own to go to the market to buy supplies for the orphanage. Early this morning Yoen and his wife Nary took me and Kaley to the rice market to order our rice for the orphanage and then we were to go buy the refrigerator, but after that it would just be the girls.... me, Kaley, and Nary who doesn't speak a word of English.
Those of you who have donatede to our sendricesendlove project will be interested in hearing about our time at the rice market. The good rice is now selling for $38 for 50 kilos. When we were here in 2005 I think that the same bags were selling for about $15. The inflation and decrease in available rice has been very difficult for everyone in this region, especially the poor. I had originally planned to spend about $500 on food and then buy the refrigerator. At the rice market I told Yoen that I thought I should buy about 10 bags of rice. I asked him how long this amount would last at the orphanage. After doing some figuring, he told me that they need one bag of rice per day to feed the children three meals a day. I have to admit that I was shocked. The ten bags of rice that I was planning to purchase suddenly looked like a drop in a bucket. It looked like a huge pile and I was feeling pretty noble about what we were able to do, but then the realization that we were only going to feed these kids for 10 days hit me like a brick. I told him that we needed to double the number of bags to 20. "But you will not have enough for 20" was his response. I assured him that there would be enough for 20, and the rice broker woman who was about to sell $760 worth of rice looked very happy. It was interesting to watch the women in this busy market sifting through the rice to remove any small bugs or imperfections. We will pick up the rice tomorrow morning and then deliver it to the orphanage.
We then quickly ran to the store where we were to buy a refrigerator. For $400 we bought a good sized frost free refrigerator that will look like a modern wonder next to what they have there now. I'm sure they are going to be thrilled. Incidentally, the appliance store also sells motorcycles. I guess that's so you can haul your new refrigerator home on the bike. You wouldn't believe the kinds of things that you see people hauling on motorcyles.... pigs, trees, barrels of oil, families of 6....
Yoen then left the girls at the market and went to take the Koniceks. We went to a market that is primarily frequented by the Chinese and Yoen's wife Nary is of Chinese descent. From the looks we got I know that they don't get many westerners there. I don't think a soul in that market spoke a lick of english, either. First stop was at a meat stall where we bought 25 pounds of dried pork sausage which was strung in links on rope. Very yummy looking. Not. Then we walked straight through the middle of the market to get to a vendor where we could buy most of our other items.
After Kaley's "lost in the market episode" of a couple of days ago, we have agreed that we will avoid the food sections of the markets since that really seems to upset her. But since Nary doesn't speak english, and we were in a pretty crazy market, we had to trot right through the middle to keep up with Ms. Nary. Although I get frustrated with her low tolerance for smells and yucky sites, I was proud of Kaley's willingness to just get through and do what she had to do today. She's not a touchy kid, but she took my hand and let me guide her through the stalls, occasionally actually closing her eyes in order to keep going. We passed one table that contained at least 20 fresh pig heads, other bins of flopping fish and eels, areas where men were plucking feathers of chickens and chopping off the heads, I could go on and on with the descriptions, but I'll stop.
At the stall where we were to do most of our "business" Kaley and I were given little stools to sit on. We did OK buying the cooking oil, coffee, fish sauce, and cookies. We ran into deep trouble when we were buying the requested baby formula and sweetened condensed milk which they use in coffee and tea here. (So this item was really a treat for the nannies.) Yoen and I had agreed on 4 cans of baby formulat (the big cans) and 1 case of sweetened condensed milk which would hold about 24 cans. Nary negotatied the purchase of 4 cases of something that looked like small cans of sweetened condensed milk from the woman. The cans had pictures of a blond haired boy on the front and simply said, "Happy Boy." Using my expert sign language and zippo Khmer skills, I picked up a jar of coffee and simulated pouring the can of happy boy in a cup and then pointed to a baby bottle on the wall and said "Which one?" Trying to graphically show that I was asking if this was baby formula or sweetened condensed milk. The only answer I got from Nary and the shop woman? Cha, Cha. Which means yes, yes. I had some misgivings but we bought four cases of the Happy Boy. After buying two huge bunches of bananas, still hanging from the stalks from the trees, a couple of boys from the market loaded everything we had bought into a tuk tuk (an opened aired cart pulled by a motorcycle. We had to put our feet on top of everything to drive it to Yoen's house where it would stay for the night.
This evening we were in a restaurant and I saw a poster for "Happy Boy," the perfect accompaniment to coffee. Yep, I bought a small boatload of sweetened condensed milk. That should fatten up the nannies at least! Tonight we stopped by the Pencil Market (a strange name for a grocery/multipurpose store) and I bought some large cans of baby formula. Hopefully that will fatten up the babies, too.
By noon we were back to the hotel for a quick dip and then I had an opportunity to have lunch with Kerry and her family. Kerry is a woman I have met on a cambodian adoption internet group list. She has been living in Phnom Penh for 2.5 years trying to get US visa approval to bring home two children she has legally adopted here through the court system. Makes you proud to be an American to realize that our government can invest hundreds of man hours and lots of resources in making sure that these two little children aren't allowed to immigrate with parents who have grown to love them. Kerry and her husband (who is here for a short visit from their home in the US) are leaving tonight for Bangkok for a hearing on a humanitarian visa that would allow them and the kids to return to the U.S. They're not hopeful about the process, but please keep them in your prayers. There are actually a number of Americans living and working here who started the process to adopt kids and then got caught up in the beaurocracy of the moratorium. Rather than abandoning these kids back to orphanages, they have chosen to begin a life here in Phnom Penh for as long as it takes. And we thought six weeks here was bad back in 1991!
This afternoon Hilary, Julie, Kaley and I did some souvenier shopping in the Russian Market. There are lots of knock-off items there (lots of Hollister, Abercrombie, Coach, etc.) and lots of Khmer crafts. Beautiful things very cheap. We took a tuk tuk back to the hotel where we grabbed Marcy for dinner at Friends. This is another restaurant that is doing a great job of teaching street kids to work in the hospitality industry. We had a great dinner including a pineapple chili marguerita for me and chocolate banana spring rolls for Kaley for dessert.
Next it was down to the riverfront area where it seemed that the whole town had turned out for the typical Sunday evening walk around downtown festivities. It was packed. We checked out a nice evening carnival/market where all of the young "middle class" Khmer seemed to be spending an evening. We didn't see any other tourists so of course they were checking us out. Phom Penh is more beautiful than it was when I was here in 2005 and way nicer than in 1991. They have added fountains to the Independence Square area, more statues, and have restored more buildings. They riverfront area is being redone and restored. This truly could be the Paris of Asia, except for the fact that there is GARBAGE EVERYWHERE. It is common practice to just dump your garbage in the gutters and pee anywhere nature calls. It really is disconcerting to see and smell this all day long, but boy the parks are beautiful. Just plug your nose when you go around the corner.
Tomorrow we will make our final visit to the new Nutrition Center. As before, this leaves me feeling a little melancholy. We don't know when we'll ever be back. We don't know what will become of the nannies who took care of our children there. We can't write letters, send emails, or even call to check in on each other because we just can't communicate. So goodbye is goodbye. I was also feeling melancholy about the tiny little dent that we can make in the level of need that is present at the Nutrition Center through what we have raised through the send rice send love project. 20 days of rice. Is there really any value in that? But then Miss Deb reminded me that every little bit does make a difference, and like that story of the one starfish being thrown back into the sea that we have used in the thank you notes for our rice project, the rice and supplies that we are delivering will make a difference. Perhaps in the life of one child. Perhaps only for one day or for twenty days. But it will make a difference and for that we can be grateful.
Hugs to all -
Lisa
Photos: Yoen's wife Nary at the rice brokers with us. Ladies sifting rice at the rice broker. Kaley modeling "our refrigerator" that will be delivered to the Nutrition Center. Julie, Hilary, and Kaley in the rain at the Russian Market.
Konicek's Day - July 13, 2008
A
big surprise at the Oeun family party…
Thanks to all of you who have been sending such warm words of encouragement throughout the trip! I have been forwarding all accolades about Lisa’s awesome ability to describe vividly each day what we are experiencing. Brief update to our first visit to Leanne’s family…I forgot to mention that we took supplies of rice, noodles and cookies to the orphanage using funds graciously donated by many of you! I also neglected to give humble thanks to Marcy Dickson, a friend from our 1991 trip, who was able to go with us and be our freelance photographer. The great shots depicting the emotion of the day are strictly due to her skill at being able to take pictures while crying….
Today we returned to Leanne’s village of Kampong Speu town the capital of Kampong Speu province. Her sister’s home is only about 3 miles from the orphanage where they used to live. We have found out that Leanne’s family lived peacefully with their father, Oeun, on a small farm until he passed away at age 38 of malarial fever. Mom and 3 daughters moved into the orphanage where her mom worked as a nanny for the residents and raised Leanne and her 2 sisters. Leanne was described today by her older sister, and Mom agreed, as stubborn with a mind of her own and very mischievous. I think we got the right girl, hmmm?
Her oldest sister cooked a Cambodian feast for us of chicken curry (with coconut milk – but do not tell Mike Konicek) noodles, veggies and of course, Angkor beer. The food was spicy but delicious…only problem was that they kept filling our plates…and we kept eating to be polite! Everyone was very relaxed and we enjoyed ourselves especially since Yoen came along to interpret and help us eat the mountains of food. We learned later that Leanne’s 2 nieces (9 & 7) speak fairly decent English, but were too shy to talk.
We then piled into cars and drove out to her Mom’s home, where we had a chance to meet her husband (father of Leanne’s 2 youngest sisters) and see the newborn baby piglets 12 days old. Leanne was walked about the neighborhood and shown off by her Mom to all of her friends, it was sweet to see the two of them walking along holding hands. Her stepfather is recovering from tuberculosis, but is apparently on the mend and doing well.
When we returned to the Savregn’s (her oldest sister who has changed her name from Metchevan, the name Leanne remembered) I got to take a motorbike tour of the town with So Chan (formerly named Meotut) It seems that if the monks at the temple tell you your name isn’t correct or working for you, you must change it? That made things a bit confusing for us at first until we understood the name change process. I also forgot to mention last time, that Savregn has been going to fortune tellers for years asking for news of Leanne. She has always been told that she is doing well and that she would see her one day! I know that you are thinking, that’s what they all say, hmmm?
Here is the surprise of the day. Savregn asked Leanne if she would stay overnight and then go to the market with her tomorrow to help in her “new, not used” clothing shop.
Leanne said sure. I told her Mom she had not extra clothes, but the sisters all said not a problem. Thus, we left Leanne with her family out in the county and they will bring her into the city tomorrow afternoon. Weird feeling leaving her there,to be sure for Mike and me, but a truly happy one, as she seems to have come “home” and is definitely enjoying herself. To get a sense of what her day will be like tomorrow take a look at the webshots link and focus on the market shots! If only the Abercrombie and Fitch store at the Hawthorne mall could see her now! This is even funnier since every clothing stall in the local markets carry A& F, Hollister, American Eagle, LaCoste, Polo, etc knock offs with authentic looking labels!
Lots of text here, but one message, we remain overwhelmed by our positive experiences here in this beautiful country. I am spending tomorrow with a nurse from the UK who runs a clinic for the disabled, so more to follow on Leanne’s night in the country and my day at the city clinic. Just fyi for all who are worried, the infected bug bite (nasty cellulites) has responded nicely to the meds and creams prescribed at the SOS clinic, even tho they offered me allergy meds and creams first for a different patient! No electronic records here of any shape or form….Goodnight.
Thanks to all of you who have been sending such warm words of encouragement throughout the trip! I have been forwarding all accolades about Lisa’s awesome ability to describe vividly each day what we are experiencing. Brief update to our first visit to Leanne’s family…I forgot to mention that we took supplies of rice, noodles and cookies to the orphanage using funds graciously donated by many of you! I also neglected to give humble thanks to Marcy Dickson, a friend from our 1991 trip, who was able to go with us and be our freelance photographer. The great shots depicting the emotion of the day are strictly due to her skill at being able to take pictures while crying….
Today we returned to Leanne’s village of Kampong Speu town the capital of Kampong Speu province. Her sister’s home is only about 3 miles from the orphanage where they used to live. We have found out that Leanne’s family lived peacefully with their father, Oeun, on a small farm until he passed away at age 38 of malarial fever. Mom and 3 daughters moved into the orphanage where her mom worked as a nanny for the residents and raised Leanne and her 2 sisters. Leanne was described today by her older sister, and Mom agreed, as stubborn with a mind of her own and very mischievous. I think we got the right girl, hmmm?
Her oldest sister cooked a Cambodian feast for us of chicken curry (with coconut milk – but do not tell Mike Konicek) noodles, veggies and of course, Angkor beer. The food was spicy but delicious…only problem was that they kept filling our plates…and we kept eating to be polite! Everyone was very relaxed and we enjoyed ourselves especially since Yoen came along to interpret and help us eat the mountains of food. We learned later that Leanne’s 2 nieces (9 & 7) speak fairly decent English, but were too shy to talk.
We then piled into cars and drove out to her Mom’s home, where we had a chance to meet her husband (father of Leanne’s 2 youngest sisters) and see the newborn baby piglets 12 days old. Leanne was walked about the neighborhood and shown off by her Mom to all of her friends, it was sweet to see the two of them walking along holding hands. Her stepfather is recovering from tuberculosis, but is apparently on the mend and doing well.
When we returned to the Savregn’s (her oldest sister who has changed her name from Metchevan, the name Leanne remembered) I got to take a motorbike tour of the town with So Chan (formerly named Meotut) It seems that if the monks at the temple tell you your name isn’t correct or working for you, you must change it? That made things a bit confusing for us at first until we understood the name change process. I also forgot to mention last time, that Savregn has been going to fortune tellers for years asking for news of Leanne. She has always been told that she is doing well and that she would see her one day! I know that you are thinking, that’s what they all say, hmmm?
Here is the surprise of the day. Savregn asked Leanne if she would stay overnight and then go to the market with her tomorrow to help in her “new, not used” clothing shop.
Leanne said sure. I told her Mom she had not extra clothes, but the sisters all said not a problem. Thus, we left Leanne with her family out in the county and they will bring her into the city tomorrow afternoon. Weird feeling leaving her there,to be sure for Mike and me, but a truly happy one, as she seems to have come “home” and is definitely enjoying herself. To get a sense of what her day will be like tomorrow take a look at the webshots link and focus on the market shots! If only the Abercrombie and Fitch store at the Hawthorne mall could see her now! This is even funnier since every clothing stall in the local markets carry A& F, Hollister, American Eagle, LaCoste, Polo, etc knock offs with authentic looking labels!
Lots of text here, but one message, we remain overwhelmed by our positive experiences here in this beautiful country. I am spending tomorrow with a nurse from the UK who runs a clinic for the disabled, so more to follow on Leanne’s night in the country and my day at the city clinic. Just fyi for all who are worried, the infected bug bite (nasty cellulites) has responded nicely to the meds and creams prescribed at the SOS clinic, even tho they offered me allergy meds and creams first for a different patient! No electronic records here of any shape or form….Goodnight.
Photos: 1. Leanne and her birthmom. 2. Visiting the baby piggies at Leanne's birthmother's house. 3. The menfolk have a toast at the party. 4. Leanne spends the night with her Khmer family.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Welcome to Cambodia. Please Leave Your Expectations at the Door
It's said that one of the most important thing that happens in travel is moving beyond one's comfort zone. Strike today up as a big success for me, I suppose. Today was a divide and conquer day. Leanne had to go to a clinic this morning to get the huge nasty looking bug bite on here foot looked at. They gave her antibiotics, anti-inflamatories, and some other good stuff. Just like home, they tried to give her the wrong perscription when they picked up her meds. Besides that, the clinic was great and her buggy bite should clear up nicely. Marcy, Kaley, Leanne, and Deb spent the day shopping and doing fun things. The girls got some jewely so that was a hit. Mike went to visit Toel Sleng (the high school that was turned into a torture prison during the Khmer Rouge regime.) Julie and Hilary returned to Svey Rieng to visit with Hilary's birthfamily again. From what I've heard, the shoppers had a great day, but Julie and Hilary had a tough one. The trip back and forth to Svey Rieng is exhausting including the torturous beggars faced at the ferry station. While it is clear that Hilary's three sisters care deeply for her, the visits have been complicated by messy family systems (don't we have that in every country?) and the cultural expectations and levels of poverty within which the family lives. Tomorrow, both girls will have one additional visit with their birthfamilies. Hilary's sisters are coming to Phnom Penh for a final visit. Leanne and her family are heading out to her birthfamily's home in Kompong Speu for a party. Please keep both of the girls and their families in your prayers as they face all of this.
As for me, I spent the day adventuring on my own. My friend and driver, Yoen, spends most of his time working as the in country liason for a non-profit funded by an adoptive family who has built a school out in Kompong Speu province in honor of their son. Yoen is very proud of his work at the school and when we were here in 2005 he wanted to take us out there but we just ran out of time. I promised him that if we ever came back I would go visit, and he remembered. So this morning at 6 am Yoen picked me up for our road trip.
Yoen has a seeminlgy unquenchable thirst for mastering the english language and much of our 4 hour drive was spent playing the "how do you say ....." game. One of his questions was, "What is the opposite of predator?" Anyone want to take a stab at that one? We traveled through THICK traffic getting out of Phnom Penh since we were leaving the city as thousands of garment factory workers were heading to work in the massive factories where they make our GAP and Old Navy clothes for pennies here in Cambodia. Once out of the city we drove for quite a long way on bumpy dirt and gravel roads. I wasn't sure exactly where we were going, but Yoen told me that the school is at the foot of the Cardoman Mountain Range and as we drove I began to see the mountains in the distance.
We finally arrived at the school, which is on summer break for the students. Several of the men who work there were present and they were very interested in this "statuesque" American woman that Yoen had brought with him. I am a spectacle most places that I go out in the countryside here, but this was a very remote area so it was all the more so. This remote area was a heavily wooded area but over the past maybe 5 - 10 years the trees have been cut down at dangerously fast rates. The people living there can't seem to think through to the future to understand what it will mean to their future when the forest is totally gone. We passed yard after yard with wood stacked in the front, and trucks and vans loaded to the top with bags of charcoal made from the illegally cut down timber.
As a means of providing income for local villagers, and addressing the devastation in the forests in that area, this school has started a program that makes cooking briquettes out of scrap paper. It is quite a process where the paper is liquified, the pulp is put into moldes, and then the briquettes dry in the sun. The briquettes are sold to families and restaurants which would normally use charcoal or wood to cook their food. It is quite a little operation and Yoen was very proud to show it to me. As he was giving me a tour of the property he told me that most of the land in this area is land that was given to former Khmer Rouge soldiers by the government. After the war these people had nowhere to go, so they were given this farmland. The price for the land now is rising dramatically since the Chinese (or Korean, I cant't remember) is building a big hydroelectric plant in the area which will supply plentiful electricy throughout the region.
Yoen also told me that in the mountains ahead of us the people can't keep cattle, because the tigers attack them. Hmmm. One of the men who worked with the briquette program also shared with Yoen that his son presently has malaria, but don't worry because he is feeling better. Hmmm again. Glad I'm taking my malarone.
After we had been there just a few moments I was seated at a table and offered tea. Yoen assured me that I could drink it because it was made out of rain water from a pot, not river water. Hmmm. I drank.
Next up was a visit a little farther out of town to see a piece of land. Hilary's one sister was thinking of moving to a place where she could own land and Yoen had told us that land was cheaper out near this school. He had arranged for me to look at the piece of property while we were out there. The only problem was that the car we had travelled in couldn't go any further on the road. Yoen looked at me and said, "We will ride motorbikes." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? My hubby Jim bought a motorcycle a couple of months ago. I've never been on it and I probably never will. When he rides, he is careful and always wears a helmet, boots, heavy pants, and a jacket. So here I was in Cambodia, about to climb on a motorcycle behind a former Khmer Rouge soldier, and I was wearing no helmet, no jacket, capri length pants, and rubber flip flops on my feet. Saying "no" crossed my mind for a moment, but then I thought, "Oh what the heck." After the first few bumps and getting over the sense I was going to go flying off, I actually kind of enjoyed the ride. But I don't think I'm going to make a habit of it.
The land turned out to be a bust, since it was located next to the home of illegal loggers and was pretty barren. I wouldn't want to see anyone live there. So politely as I could I told the people no thanks, and then Yoen suggested that we ride into the village and take the workers from the school with us to lunch at the restaurant. Sounds good to me.
Um - hello? This is Cambodia. Leave your expectations at the door. This was not what I would call a restaurant. We pulled off the road in front of this little open air place with some pots on a cart out front. Yoen lifted a lid on a pot with whole fish in some kind of broth and told me I could eat that because it was very hot so it was safe. To me, this was worse than the motorcycle ride. I pulled him aside and said, "Yoen, I can't do this. I cannot get sick and ruin this trip. I am sorry." "But you will offend," he said. So we finally agreed that I would have white rice and a fried egg. I chopped the egg up into my rice, and then very carefully took a few bites of rice in areas where the egg wasn't. So far it's been about 10 hours and I'm still good. I'm hoping for the best but I'm going to take a dose of antibiotic tonight! The men seemed to thoroughly enjoy their fish head soup and pork with bamboo. Yummy.
Back at the school Yoen and the men had payroll to attend to before we could leave. They carefully negotiated the months pay for the briquette workers and counted out the payments in cash - Cambodian cash. 4000 riel = 1 dollar. Yep, it took a while. On average, the workers there make $33 a month. This is considered to be a good job for the local village women.
Our adventure finally ended and Yoen and I headed back to the city (in a car!) We played the english word game some more . While we were driving alont he asked me if I wanted to stop to see "New Angkor Wat." What's that? He explained that a Cambodian man living in California had raised money to build scale replicas of Angkor Wat and Bayon temples about an hour outside of Phnom Penh. Thinking we were going to see mini villages, I said sure. I was blown away by the size of this face historic temples that we drove up to. It was insane. I asked Yoen what he thought of this much money being spent to build such a thing. We agreed that in a nation like Cambodia there were probably far better uses for the huge sums of money that must be being spent to build these temples. While we were there (and there were very few people there looking around) I also saw a budhist monk in full orange robes wearing a blue tooth phone in his ear. Hmmmm again.
Tonight, we went to a really yummy restaurant named the Boddhi Tree which sits directly across the street from Toel Sleng museum of torture. Sad location, good cheap food. After dinner we all went to Sovanna Phum which is a theater where local kids are taught to do the native dances. Unbeknownst to us, tonight was a special night and the regular dances were not done and instead a group of Khmer drummers and male "monkey dancer" put on the show. It was more than a little weird, but entertaining in a bizarre kind of way. It's Cambodia.... we should have left our expecations at the door.
Last stop for the evening was ice cream, where only about half of us got what we ordered, but it's OK because we're learning to let go of those expectations, right? The girls (who have become so close that they squabble like sisters) are on the internet, Deb is floating in the pool, and I will soon join her.
Tomorrow will be another big day, with the final birthfamily visits. As for me, Yoen's wife is coming first thing in the morning to take me shopping for the refrigerator that we are donating to the Nutrition Center. She doesn't speak a word of english. I asked Yoen today if we would be able to communicate with each other enough to get the job done. He smiled and said, "In Cambodia we have an expression that says that you will be like an ox and a cow walking together." Huh? Which one am I? Should be fun.
In all seriousness, we are learning in these final days here that we have to let go of the expecations if being here is to be a positive experience. Don't expect to get the food you ordered. Don't expect to go where you thought you would go. Don't expect to be able to change the cycles of poverty and corruption and pain, even if your heart is in the right place. It's not an easy place to be. But a piece of my heart still belongs to this broken land.
Good night all.
Big hugs -
Lisa
Photos: 1. Me and my Khmer Rouge friend on a motorcycle. 2. Lunch at the "restaurant." 3. Yoen outside of the New Angkor Wat.
Friday, July 11, 2008
More new photos
See photos of Leanne's meeting with her birthfamily here:http://family.webshots.com/album/564076378yrbdct
See more photos from Friday July 11 including the Nutrition Center:
http://family.webshots.com/album/564040831EAYugH?start=72
See more photos from Friday July 11 including the Nutrition Center:
http://family.webshots.com/album/564040831EAYugH?start=72
Seeing ghosts
Well, it has been yet another strange day in Phnom Penh. The day began early when the Konicek's were to meet with an intermediary who had information about Leanne's birthfamily. It has been an amazing and emotional day for the Konicek family and I'm going to ask Deb to write a post of her own which will be posted just below this post. So read on my friends.
Our day was a lot less interesting but nonetheless an adventure. We started the day with a dip in the pool since we're out of clean clothes and the laundry hadn't finished anything yet. The morning was spent laying low in the tropical beauty of the Pavilion Hotel. It is a bit rustic here with the geckos and the buggies, but it is a beautiful environment and makes you feel like you have stepped back in time to a french colonial paradise.
By late morning the Koniceks and their photographer Marcy were ready to head out to the Kompong Speu province where Leanne might visit with her family. Julie, Hilary, Kaley and I headed to town in tuk-tuks, carriage type contraptions pulled by motorcycles. Our man Yoen was traveling with the Koniceks so we were on our own. (Which meant that my personal sign language would get quite a workout today!) First stop was the Canada bank where I had been told I could cash travelers checks. I brought our rice project money in the form of travelers checks so I had a lot to cash. When we went in there were rows of chairs and you were given a number and told to sit in the chairs till your number was called. We waited for about ten minutes until someone came out and told me to go ahead and go to a teller window. Clearly, we stuck out in the crowd and being the big white woman in the room had its priveleges. One hour and 88 signatures later (they made me sign every check several times in several places) we were out of there. After completing the traveler's check cashing I asked to have $80 US dollars converted to Khmer riel but I was told this would take another 15 minutes. I admitted defeat and we moved along.
Back in the tuk-tuk where our driver had agreed to haul us around for $12 for the day, we headed to the Java Cafe, a delightful little place full of NGO workers and Embassy staff. We had a yummy lunch and enjoyed some time sitting in a cooler place. I still think that I'd like to work for an embassy and spend my day sipping cold drinks under a palm fan. :-)
After lunch we hit the Central Market, a huge, very very hot flea market atmosphere market. The market sells clothes, electonics, jewelry, books, etc. It also sells a lot of food, including weird fish, live and dead chickens, many kinds of fruits and veggies, rabbits, etc., etc.c It can smell rather ripe. There are also many landmine amputees selling books and postcards, and children who belong to the beggar syndicate begging. The shopping can be fun if you can tolerate the heat, smells, and constant harassment.
Kaley struggles with the food and the smells and asked that if we went to the market that we avoid the food section. One minute we were looking at shoes, and the next minute we were in the food aisle. Plugging her nose, Kaley protested and scurried out of a side exit. We continued down the row taking photos of the culinary weirdness, assuming that she would meet us around the corner. But it didn't work out that way. An hour later we still hadn't found her, and I was trying to explain to a tuk-tuk driver who doesn't speak english that we had lost Kaley and we needed help finding her. We decided to divide and conquer and finally Julie and Hilary heard her voice behind them saying, "Have you seen my Mommy?" I didn't know whether to hug her or wring her neck when I saw her.... but I went for the hugging.
Before heading back to the hotel, I asked the tuk-tuk driver to make one more stop for us at the Hotel Phnom Penh. This is the lovely hotel where my family stayed during our 2005 visit, and it was located right next to the original site of the Nutrition Center, the orphanage where Brennan, Kaley, and Hilary spent their early days. This location has been purchased by the hotel and is slated to be torn down any day. We had been told that we wouldn't be able to see it but I figured it was worth a shot to stop by to see. When we walked onto the hotel property it was clear that the solid cement wall that separated the orphanage and the hotel had been knocked down but that the orphanage buildings were still standing. Using my best sign language to explain that the girls had lived there when they were babies but now they lived in the USA and it would make us very happy to take some final photos of the place (and slipping $5 into the guys hands) I gained us access for one last visit. It had a very surreal quality and was something like seeing ghosts firsthand.
Scattered about the grounds were broken toys and leaning against a post near the front entrance was a poster board with photos of children. It was very sad to see all of these things just left behind. Even thought the property had only been vacated a couple of months ago there was lots of broken glass, weeds growing up all over the place, and even a dead rat as a bonus. We still made our way into the center and were able to visit the rooms where the kids lived as babies. We were also horrified to find floors littered with paperwork and medical records for lots of children. There were photos of adoptive children and their families also scattered about. We spent a few minutes digging through the papers on the floor, but finally decided that the paperwork was all related to healthcare and not adoption and that the best thing to do was probably just to walk away, for our own health and safety.
For Hilary, having her first visit back to the Nutrition Center in this condition was disconcerting. For Kaley it seemed to be a positive experience. She was sad when we learned that the Nutrition Center was closed and that we would never be able to return to this touchstone of a place in hers' and Brennan's lives. So having this final opportunity to walk through those rooms and take a few photos was a good opportunity for closure and leaving the ghosts of lost documents and broken toys behind.
This evening the mood was lightened by a trip to a pizza parlor with Yoen and his wife Navy, their three delightful young boys and the rest of our traveling companions. The boys are growing up watching the Disney channel so they know some english (especially Hannah Montana although they said that's for girls) and the little one was singing an Akon song in the car. Very funny.
Yoen told Kaley and I tonight that he would be honored to be our Cambodian family, sensing that it has been difficult for her to see her new friends both have powerful experiences meeting their Cambodian families. He is a special and wonderful man. I would be honored to be part of his American family, too.
Tomorrow will be another busy day. I am leaving with Yoen at 6 am to drive to the middle of nowhere to see the school where he works and the briquette production program that he runs. I will make sure to pack some cheese crackers because I sure won't be eating anything! Kaley will hang out here with Marcy and the girls and do some shopping and have some fun. Hopefully I'll be back from dinner and then we'll all go to see the native dancers and the shadow puppets. Should be fun.
Stay tuned for Deb's blog below.
Hugs to all -
Lisa
Photos: 1. Tuk tuk riding. 2. Dead chickens in the market. 3. Kaley and Hilary in the abandoned Nutrition Center. 4. Yoen's beautiful family.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
