Day 9

Happy 4th of July everyone! We have had an interesting 4th to say the least. Once again today seemed about a week long. I'll try to remember some highlights. I'm sorry we haven't had luck with posting photos. We've got some great onces and maybe once we get home we'll have to add the online photo albums because it just takes too long to upload from here. Oh well...

This morning we packed up and left the Cambodiana. No love lost on that hotel for us, despite the sentimental attachments. As we were leaving, I grabbed the small photo book I brought along and walked down to the street where the cyclo drivers gather. These guys are among the poorest supporters of the tourist industry in Cambodia as they peddle tourists around town in basket type seats on the front of bicycles for about a quarter a ride. Some now have new "family size" cyclos that are more like little carriages but many look like they're driving the same contraptions we rode in in 1991. As I showed the photo of "my" cyclo driver to some of them, one guy exclaimed excitedly "Oh he dead... but I know you! Your friend! Your friend!" And then he pointed himself out to me in one of my photos... and there was no missing that it was him, darkened even further from every day spent in the sun, and aged significantly.... but it was him. Marcy - it was your driver! And he remembered me, and "friend" and Dara. "Dara" now stands as tall as he does and he enjoyed pinching his muscles. It was a fun moment. I slipped him some money and we headed on our way. I couldn't believe that all these years later he is still driving a cyclo from almost the very spot where he was back then. Fun for us, but sad when you think about it.

Yoen drove us to our new "home" for the next two nights which is right in the center of downtown. The Golden Gate Hotel. Let's put it this way... our room is only $25 per night. It's a clean tourist class hotel that a lot of non-profit groups use when they're in town to do housebuildings and stuff like we're going to do. The rooms are very simple. They remind me very much of where Marcy & I and the other parents stayed in 1991. We quickly dropped of our bags (and Brennan and Kaley's eyes got really big when they realized we would be climbing a lot of stairs!) and then headed out with Yoen for our day.

This morning we were visiting The Sharing Foundations programs in the village of Roteang. The Sharing Foundation was founded by this wonderful retired pediatrician who is on a mission to help the people of Cambodia... at least as many as she can. The organization has an orphanage, a school, a sewing workshop, a farm, and other projects in a small village called Roteang about a half hour drive from Phnom Penh. The facilities are truly state of the art and very different from what we saw at the Nutrition Center. Dr. Hendrie herself was in town and gave us the tour. What a neat lady. She spends one month out of every three here in Cambodia checking up on her projects. As she says, "When you're 73, this beats bowling and bingo anyday!" The Nutrition Center where Brennan and Kaley are from is a state run facility and really pretty depressing. There's very little that we can do from home to "help" the Nutrition Center, either, because there is so much corruption in the state run programs You send money and it doesn't help the kids. I know that the Sharing Foundation's programs are well run and I thought a visit while we were here would give us some ideas as to how we might be able to continue to support the children of Cambodia.

The orphanage, school, and other projects were clean, well run, and the kids were happy and very well cared for. The pre-school class sang and performed the hokey pokey for us in English. Very cute! Sadly, even here about 25% of the kids have HIV. But they are doing so well on their HIV cocktail that you couldn't begin to point out who these kids are. Our last stop was at the village school and Dr. Hendrie told us goodbye and headed back to Phnom Penh... and Yoen's van overheated! For about the next 45 minutes, he, Jim and Derek worked on the van while Brennan and Kaley and I were surrounded by more and more village children. I had a bottle of bubbles in my purse and once the kids got the idea that they could chase them and pop them we had a great time. I don't think they had ever seen bubbles before. These kids clearly live very simple lives but weren't begging in any way like some of the kids we have encountered over the past few days. What could have been a really bad situation turned into a really special hour for us.

From there we went and had lunch at the Foreign Correspondents Club once again. As we got out of the van, one of the side windows broke and shattered all over the place. Once again, the Americans drew quite an audience as we tried to help clean up. We had a leisurely lunch, with plenty of time for a couple of rounds of pool (very big in Cambodia!) and then we set off on some errands.

First on the list was delivering the baby formula we had purchased to the Nutrition Center and saying our goodbyes. I think for Brennan and Kaley it is just sort of strange to have the nannies fuss over them so much and be sad to see them go, but for me it was nearly as emotional as it was 14 years ago. These women live such difficult lives and are paid so poorly for taking care of these children. Over the years they have allowed themselves to truly love many of their babies, only to lose them to adoptive families across the oceans, HIV, or other diseases. They can't read or write - so keeping in touch is virtually impossible, short of sending photos or a word through another traveller to Cambodia. So goodbye really is goodbye.... and their grief is real. But still, sharing their joy over the past few brief visits has been wonderful. They didn't know we were coming.... probably hadn't given these kids a thought in years because they never expected to see them again.... when suddenly unexpected and unannounced we walk back into their world and they get to see how healthy, and beautiful, and grown up their babies have become. That was magic... at least for me.

After the Nutrition Center we headed to the outskirts of town where car parts are sold to try to find a new window for Yoen. We wanted to buy it for him, knowing that replacing the window would probably cost him all that we had paid him all week. We finally found one for $50 -- he will have to have it installed later but we were glad to find it. Again, we caused quite a stir everywhere we went. I guess tourists don't got to auto parts stalls very often. t was an interesting experience to see how hard it is to purchase such a simple thing that you very much needed in this country. Having the money didn't really matter. There just weren't any windows to be had!

Yoen then wanted to show us his home which is in a new development (suburbia) on the outskirts of town. He is very much middle class, probably upper, by Cambodian standards but he lives a very simple life. Brennan enjoyed playing soccer with some of the kids on their street while Kaley once again blew bubbles for the little ones. No language barriers there!
We left Yoen's at around 6:30 (after Jim & Derek helped him fix his computer!) and headed for the Golden Gate. When Kaley and I walked in her room, a gecko (chameleon) scurried across the wall. Needless to say, she freaked in a very quiet way. Seeing everything they have seen over the past few days, they are still totally freaked out at sharing a hotel room with a lizard! Life could be much worse! They are VERY Americanized.

We went to the rooftop to meet the rest of the housebuilders, all of whom are from Australia. Nice people, and about a dozen or so adopted Cambodian teens. I think this will be a very interesting experience for all of us in many ways. Tomorrow morning at 8:30 am we go to training and then on Wednesday morning we head by bus out into the provinces.

I've thought a few times today about this being the 4th of July. It's not lost on any of us how different our lives are from those we have met here. How is it our fate to live in the US and enjoy so many privileges and blessings??????? We are so very fortunate. Enjoy your day everyone, light a sparkler for us, eat a hotdog (that's not really a dog...) and thank God for the blessings that we enjoy.
Hugs -
Lisa