As Ye Sew, So Siem Reap
Trip Start
Nov 28, 2007
1
19
31
Trip End
Dec 25, 2007
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Friday, December 14, 2007
We ask at the desk if there is an orphanage we can visit as we have been lugging around dozens of pencils and toothbrushes for just such a purpose and want to give them away. They say they don't know of any.
The phone in our room rings moments later and they tell us that there is a place, "Krouser Thmey" (www.krouser-thmey.org) and a representative can come by shortly. Since we have already engaged Tola, we have him meet us as well and we follow the rep to the home.
Because we're American we expect it to be some institutional environment, though we are also familiar with Oliver Twist, so it could go the large, horrible way. It is neither. It is an unassuming building, about as dirty and beat up as every place else in Cambodia. Tola is familiar with the property as well. We enter a small reception area and receive a nice introduction about the organization, the details of which you can find at their website, if you're so inclined. The place seems unspecial, but how special could it seem in the absence of children? Then, we are invited to go into the classroom where some kids are finishing class.
Their teacher, David, a Scottish guy in his mid-twenties, is teaching a small room full of about 10 six-eight year olds the parts of the human body in English. He has taught them a rhyming song and they are drawing pictures with lines pointing from the forms to the names of the body parts. The kids are beyond adorable. They welcome us gladly and, as class is pretty much over, let us have at them. Many of them are orphaned and many others are rescued from devastatingly poor, often abusive homes. Others are street kids that they found in Siem Reap. Some of the organization's money goes to paying some of the families off so that they don't take the child back and put them to work on the street.
We inspect and praise their artwork and Julie and I split up, each with our own little cluster. Julie helps a dyslexic kid write the word "nose" correctly. His version was a backward mirror image of the word, and Steve drops into his amateur slight of hand tricks. They are fascinated and delighted (yes, he exposed the secret of the French drop and if that has him banished from the Magic Castle forever it would be a terrible shame as it is the only place that comes to mind to wear the amazing, custom Hoi An suit he had made!). When the children see that Steve is sweating, they actually start fanning him! Their accessibility and warmth is nothing short of moving. They are very different from western children and make a very persuasive argument for a much less sophisticated upbringing. They seem, for the most part, to be extremely playful and happy and are spared the 'keeping up with the Jones' kids' attitude we instill in our young. Steve is ready to take two of them home instantly but, from what we understand, Americans are forbidden from adopting Cambodian kids (American rule, not Cambodian).
After that, it was a quick pass by the hospital to get their complementary blood test results. Julie lost her card, but Steve had his, so one should be enough. Steve is "clean" so Julie should be too.
Our first temple of the day is the Preah Khan where Tomb Raider was filmed. By the way, when you enter almost any temple complex there is this ominous, steady chorous of Cicadas that makes the entire place eerily atmospheric. Preah Khan is labyrinthine and intriguing. The weather is sultry and hot and it is as if Angelina Jolie's breasts still swing through the mysterious pathways.
On the way out of the temple, we pass a Khmer musical group comprised of mine victims. Everyone in the band is missing some (or almost all)of their limbs. Often they are military veterans, more often they are landmine victims. They play to survive as there is no Walter Reed in Cambodia to insult them with. They are also in large part blind as the explosions that removed their limbs, removed their eyesight, too. We stop and listen and leave a donation. How can you not.
Typically on the path out of the temples, there are young children doing, what one would imagine is exactly the kind of work the kids at Krouser-Thmey might be doing if they weren't there... that being hawking crap to tourists. We pass what we expect to be just such a little boy of about six sitting by the side of the path, but he doesn't look up from what he is doing, which is scraping the alphabet in English into the dirt with a stick. This is the true spirit of the children we have met here; the desire to fill their minds with an almost preternatural obliviousness of their plight.
We double back and see that he is only up to 'G', so Steve starts getting him through the rest of it. It takes a little while, but we get him through the whole thing, sounding out the letters, going over and over from the letter A. It seems fairly obvious that he is waiting for someone and that someone is undoubtably in the band we passed a moment before. A passing Cambodian tour guide translates for us and it is confirmed...his father is with the band but too badly damaged to play anything. He is missing three limbs, his one prosthesis is a badly broken plastic arm, and he is blind.
We go back with the boy and with one band member using spotty English to get our point across, we let his father know what a bright and beautiful son he has. The boy clearly loves his dad. The vision of the two of them is heart-wrenching, as you can see. We purchase the band's CD and carry the lumps in our throats back to Tola at the waiting tuk-tuk.
Our second temple of the day is Bayon. No doubt you have seen it. It is so dead-on templey that it is hard to believe you are in it and NOT looking at a picture!
We head from there to the UNESCO Khmer Heritage Museum, which is a rough hewn affair featuring most of its exhibits pinned to cork boards. That said, we learn a great deal about the history, lifestyle and heritage of the region. For instance, the reason Cambodians look as they do is that centuries ago China and India were trading partners and one would send ships to the other. But when monsoon rains forced them to find a port, the two races found themselves held up here. With both groups being pretty attractive folks and nothing good on television for another thousand or so years (which may be the case now as well), they got what the ancients called, "funky." The Cambodians are the product and they can be some very beautiful people!
We took Tola to early dinner with us to a place called "Happy Herb Pizza." We sat and ordered a pepperoni pie. While on the way to the bathroom, the proprietress asked Steve if he wanted the pizza "happy?" What she was talking about? Was she going to bring Steve manual satisfaction as he digested his last slice? No. Go back and read the name. Um... yeah. But, having taken the oath and not wishing to avail himself of either the nerves associated with another discontinuance of use or the luxurious accommodations provided by the Khmer prison system, he asked that the pizza be unhappy. (By the way, for insiders, Steve has now declined his happy herb of choice twice on this journey - golf clap, if you please).
Tola has told us that his wife would like to have us over and meet us tomorrow night. She is very impressed by our having given blood to the Kantha Bopha Foundation Hospital as their son was quite literally snatched from jaws of death (without charge) by that institution. We are delighted as we had hope to glimpse real family life here and accept.
Next...what could be better at this moment than an hour of serious reflexology on our feet? Nothing. So we get it. Ahhhh.
Comments
The final episode
Even knowing you will be posting more upon your return, I must admit that, knowing that you will be coming home any day now, it's like waiting for the last episode of 'Seinfeld' or 'The Sopranos.' I'm really going to be bummed when it's over. Actually, we may need to send you out somewhere just so we can keep it going. However, somehow, reading blogs about your experiences in Simi Valley will have a tough time comparing. Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
Stephen and Michelle