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.
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