Friends in far places

Our latest trip to see the teachers and children at the Goodwill Center was tinged with a little sadness and left us a little melancholy. The sleepy little seaside town of Sihanoukville has gone the way of many small tourist towns and become a concrete jungle of highrises and casinos for wealthy holiday makers.

View across the city

It's controversially part of China's 'One Belt One Road' initiative and the scale of development is staggering by any standard, anywhere.  More here for those interested in that aspect.

The demand for land has pushed Sihanoukville beachfront prices higher than those in Australia’s Byron Bay. 

Many of our friends have already moved on because of this and the latest will be Henrik, who started the Goodwill Center and was the first manager.

(L to R): Sabine, Henrik and Toni

However, most of the trip was awesome. We went along on a beach trip with all of the staff and forty of the kids.

Toni with some of the kids in a Tuk Tuk

Some of them had never seen the ocean before, so it was a real treat. These outings always start with a clean up of the beach to teach the kids about looking after their environment and as with most beaches on the planet these days they didn't have to look too far for the rubbish.

Gloves on at the beach, collecting rubbish

Dinner
As usual, we had a lovely dinner with Sok Mong and his family, he was one of the first young Khmer we'd sponsored through University with the help of all the donors. This time we were joined by Sabine, who was the second manager of the center.

Sabines Blog (in German)
https://kambodschaimpressionen.wordpress.com/

We could tell that she really enjoyed catching up with everyone.
Mong had some big news to share with us. He has found a beautiful young lady Mey, to share his life with but first he must save a dowry for her family.

Mey (with her birthday cake) and Sok Mong

Food Drops
We were again lucky enough to time our visit with the monthly food drops. We started these many years ago as a way to encourage village parents to bring their children to the Goodwill Centre where they would benefit from free education. These families could not afford to send their children to the government schools so this alternative works well and benefits so many local families.

I always like to do some craft with the students and we need two sessions as some of the children only attend in the mornings and some only in the afternoon. Its sometimes difficult to find a craft that's suitable for most age groups but after researching I found some spinners made from cardboard
and string. The kids had never made them before and they seemed to enjoy it.

Making spinners with the students

Phnom Penh
We headed to the Capitol city, Phnom Penh next to see Somnang. He is in his third year of university studying engineering and doing really well, so well in fact that he has been offered a job. He now works full time and continues his studies. We are really proud of him and the dedicated young man he has become.
We shouted him to a special meal at an exclusive buffet restaurant where he ate his fill of crab and giant prawns.  He's hopeful he'll finish his Civil Engineering studies at University within 18 months

Nom Nom Somnang

With all of the changes going on in Sihanoukville and the fact that we hadn't been back there for two years, this was one of the most interesting trips to Cambodia that we can remember.

Email Subscribers

You may not be able to see the videos if you received this via an email subscription to the web site, if so you just click through to the website here and watch the videos from there, or if you prefer reading this on the website instead.

Read More

Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville

The main port and largest coastal town in Cambodia, the town were we lived in 2011. Returning was like a homecoming of sorts.

Exchange Rate

We took A$7000 of donations to Cambodia, A$500 was donated to CHOICE, the rest was converted to US Dollars, with the currently deteriorating exchange rate we received US$4930.  Some of this was used to buy the Sarong Bags from COLT, these will be available for sale at the Nymboida Markets.  The remainder we deposited into the Cambodian account to fund our on-going projects. As mentioned in the last post, we are now unable to take on any more projects amd we're concerned we may struggle to fund the current projects.

Free classes for the village 

That night we sat in on the English and computer classes at the Goodwill Center, both of these classes are funded with your donations.  Buntha is really pleased with the results of the children. The children attend classes based on knowledge not on year level so that classes may have students aged five sitting beside children aged twelve if the older student hasn't had the opportunity to attend school previously. The children have never used a computer before, as it is not in the public school curriculum. Not until University are they given that opportunity and most cannot afford that luxury. Two of the students now have employment in design businesses in town due to these classes.
Sambath teaches the English classes five nights a week. The children are now writing and reading whole sentences in English. It reinforced to us the benefits of our fundraising efforts.  These classes are open to anyone in the surrounding village.

Buntha teaching IT design

Sambath teaching English night classes

Dinner with friends 

Once again we were in the same place at the same time. Four of the past managers of the Goodwill Center and the teachers had a wonderful dinner at the Small Hotel, owned by Henrik who founded the Center. Thank you to Henrik and Mom for looking after us all. It was a fantastic night and great to catch up with everyone in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Happy shiny people

Read More

Stueng Hav completion

Stueng Hav

The outdoor enclosure at the Stueng hav center, which we part funded has finally been completed. The children now have a safe and dry area to play, study and learn out of the torrential tropical rains of Cambodia. There was an opening ceremony with local dignitaries and parents in attendance. The children received certificates and gifts from the Village Chief. M'Lop Tapang, who we have mentioned many times in past posts, performed a dance for the occasion. You can read more about the excellent work being done in Steung Hav.  For those if you who receive this blog update via email, you will need to click through to the web page to view the photo slideshow.

Poor village families receive food parcels

Jen, the Goodwill Center Manager and Kolab, one of the teachers, are continuing to donate their spare time to arrange food parcels for some of the poorer village families. We thank you many times over for your efforts. 

Romdual School

There are plans underway to return to Cambodia with two generous friends who support this school by paying the wages of one of the teachers. The new teacher travels 2 hours a day on his scooter to give the children their lessons which is only possible because of Jen and Richards help.   We also maintain the organisations website and other administrative duties to help ease the load. 

Read More

Following up from back home

Sok Mong saying thank you

Sok Mong is one of the young adults from Cambodia whom we are helping pay for his costs through Uni

As well as helping with his Uni fees we have donated to help with extra English literacy classes

Food Drops

We have also helped with two more food drops, these are done under the proviso that the children of the families attend the Goodwill Centre

Romdual School

Two generous Nymboida locals, Jen and Richard, who wanted to support the small remote rural school on the Ream Rv have committed to pay the monthly wages of the second teacher.  

We had previously paid for the new school desks and associated teaching paraphernalia but a new teacher was needed.  One of the things is that when educational facilities are available over there, children seem to come out of the wood work hopeful of an education.  So they needed a second teacher and we have funded it. A huge thank you to Jenny and Richard and to the "Friends of Romdual School" for organising it all.  Currently it's $US80 a month, lets hope the exchange rate holds up !

Financials

These are still being kept up to date and you can visit the page here any time, there are also details on the page if you would like to make a contribution.

Read More

keeping on, keeping on

Keeping on, keeping on

We have been busy getting our "back to Australia" life on track, we have a few ideas for presentations etc that we will get around to implementing after Christmas.

A huge thanks to Jen in Sihanoukville at the Goodwill Center for continuing with some of the work by disbursing funds to help. Another recent food drop was undertaken.  This goes to people who are desperately poor and short of everything, food being the most urgent.

Produce 

Speaking of food, we recently had a surplus of veggies from our small farm. Way in excess of what we could eat and more than we could give away to our helpful neighbors, so an opportunity to sell the excess was available at the Nymboida Night Market. Its a regular affair held through the day usually but a special twilight market was organised.  A huge thank you to John and Jenny Spencer for selling the produce on our behalf, and to everyone that purchased it and a huge thank you to Steve for growing the food, he had planted it all in our gardens when he was minding our property,  so when we got back the garden was lussshhhh with produce...  I had another commitment that evening that I needed to attend to, John and Jenny raised $40 that will go to the Fund.

Our produce for sale

University

As some of you may remember, we have sponsored Sok Mong to go to University, recent expenses include his new uniform, here he is "modelling"it for us, looking very spiffy.

Sok Mong

Financials and donations

As ever the financials are being kept up to date and as transparent as we can make them, they can be accessed here and if you do feel inclined to donate, the information is here

Read More

Still getting stuff done

Food Aid

A huge thanks to Jen from the Goodwill Center for helping continue some of the projects we had set in place in Sihanoukville.  Long time readers may remember we have opened  bank account in Cambodia and put funds in it and given the ATM card to Jen to help with the work.  Last week she was continuing our food project that helps the poorest families survive and send their kids to school.  How does it work ? The parents are so poor that they keep their children at home to help with chores in the small business to help them survive. They need to choose food over education in really extreme cases. We give them the occasional food aid parcel to take the stress off them but only if they allow the kids to attend the Goodwill Center and continue their extra English and Computer classes.

Happy !

Back in Australia

Well, we have been back in Australia for two weeks now. That is taking some getting used to and we are both finding it difficult to adjust in different ways. We plan to catch up with as many locals as we can to say Thank you for their support and give them some thank you gifts. We also plan to keep raising funds to make sure the projects we are involved in can keep going, particularly the support for Romdual School, The Goodwill Center and various small community projects.  Anyone who wants to keep giving, give until it hurts ha ha ! 'cause over there, many do hurt.

For those interested, you can follow our Australian experiences on our small 45 acre property here

Our cottage in the bush, in Australia

You can add subscribe by adding your email address in the area that looks like this

part way down on the right hand side of the blog.

Read More

Leaving Cambodia and Financial update

Leaving Cambodia

Well, we have decided it's time to leave Cambodia temporarily,. We were sorely tempted to stay indefinitely, the place is so wonderful but a few things need sorting out back in Australia.  Its time we gave our friend Steve back his life after he has put it on hold to look after our property. We need to go back to regroup and replace all our stolen equipment (much of it unable to be sourced in Cambodia) so we are heading back.

It's with a very heavy heart that we leave Cambodia. It is a wonderful place and we're not sure how we'll cope with the plethora of laws and restrictions to personal liberties that seem to be enacted on a daily basis back in Australia. The societal diversity, being used to meeting a dozen different ethnicities when walking down the street, was a wonderful experience.  We have also made friends with many Cambodian locals. Mongs Family cooked a wonderful meal and invited us over to say goodbye.

One of the farewell dinners

Romdual School - Friends group saying thanks

Our friend Heack cooking us Khmer pork ribs - TASTY !

Fruit for Desert ! Dragon fruit & Watermelon

Heack, inspired by the Grigg's girls photos using Poi, nearly knocking himself out ! 

Crying, as I explained to the children (khmeng khmeng) at the Goodwill Centre that I was leaving
and where Cambodia is in relation to Australia

Sokhar, an HIV positive orphan wiping tears from my eyes as I explained to him
I was leaving, I will never think I have a hard life again !

Cambodia is currently an ethnic cornucopia of ex-pats. We met people from all over the globe:  Ireland, England, Sweden, Denmark, USA, Canada, Germany, Finland, Ukraine and on and on but we love the Australian bush and our small 50 acre property with it's low environmental impact  and our wonderful small community at Nymboida, so we're looking forward to being back.

We look forward to seeing all our wonderful friends and acquaintances when we get back and thanking them for their support. Currently we plan to be back into Australia on 9th  November.  We hope to raise more money to help the projects we are funding in Cambodia as we now have a reliable network there to ensure the funds are used wisely and a fee free way to disperse the funds.   We are hopeful we can do a couple of local displays on what we have been doing over here, more on that later.

Read More

Food drop and chicken in a pot

Food Parcel Drop

We did another food drop to the very poor on the outskirts of the village the other day. We'll let the photos speaks for themselves.  Some of you who receive this via email may need to come to the blog site to view the photo slideshow. Each month we spend $60 approx to purchase rice, sauces and tinned fish (good source of Niacin, Calcium, Protein and Vitamin D)

Food for us

Speaking of food we had a Khmer friend come over and show us how to cook something local.  The minimalism of the cooking facilities is offset by the ingenuity of using what they do have.  By this I mean they have no ovens etc and as this simplicity appeals we were interested to see how they cooked a chicken.  A pot of course !

Chicken in a pot

He laid some lemon grass at the bottom, put the entire chicken in the pot, some congealed chicken blood, the liquid from a freshly opened coconut (no need to get it out of a can here)

Fresh Coconut - they're full of juice

and in a nod to modernity sprinkled in some chicken stock.  Then put it on a high heat and boiled it for a couple hours. The chicken was superb I must say and interesting to see how it was cooked.

There is such a variety of foods to be tried here in Cambodia. Two that piqued my interest were BBQ frog and BBQ snake, you can get just about anything on a stick here including a snake.

Snake on a stick and BBQ frog

  

Read More

Romdual School update and Uni

Romdual School Update

The desks have been installed and we have a couple of photos showing them at the school, they look great.

School Desks in place

with kids !

We have also purchased a white board and suitable pens to use in the school room and they will be delivered to the school in the next few days.   You can read more about the happenings at the school here

University for Sok Mong

After Mong did so well at his final Year 12 school exams, we  have decided to commit to sponsoring his first year at a local Sihanoukville University, LIFE University.  It's a $150 commitment for the first year and we've let him know further commitments will require hard work and good grades.  Toni went up to Uni to complete the forms and pay the fees.

Completing University Entrance Forms

Enrolled and ready to go, the rest is up to him

He will be studying for a Languages and Tourism degree.  We have committed to the fees from the donations account, he has to find the money for books etc

Waiting for the rain to stop before going back to soccer

He's also taken on the Coach position for the new Goodwill Center Soccer team, so I purchased him some new soccer boots from our own money. We wish him all the best in both endeavours !

Street Vendors

One of the things we love about Cambodia are the street vendors.  These people travel around on scooters, pushbike and on foot and you can just grab a snack.  One of the tasty treats we have become addicted to are these eggs.

Bporng Moa-un Ang (BBQ Egg)

 The eggs have a small hole in one end, the egg is sucked out with a syringe and mixed with pepper, garlic and various spices, depending on the vendor and then injected back into the egg with the syringe and boiled. They then heat them over coals as they drive around on their motos.

Bporng Moa-un Ang with supplied  lime and S&P mix

Very tasty and we're a sucker for them ! 

Read More

School Supplies and Finances

School Supplies

One of the projects we have been working towards for a few weeks is getting more of the poorest children to go to school.  Toni has been working with Kolab, one of the Staff at the Goodwill Centre to help identify some of the poorest children.  These are often the ones who have everything against them, losing one or both parents is typically the major contributor.

While the Goodwill Centre does a great job of providing care for children in the community and access to materials and facilities they would never see elsewhere and access to free English language and Computer classes for anyone in the village who wants to improve themselves, the children still have to go to Khmer public school.  One of the requirements to go to school is they must wear a school uniform.  Some have no chance of affording that, so we identified six at risk children who have stopped going because of that and went on a small shopping trip to provide them with two uniforms, a backpack and minor supplies like pencils, books etc.

Kolab with the kids at the local Phsar (market)

In the "change room". measuring up

Everyone into the Tuk Tuk to go back to the Goodwill Center

Back at the Goodwill Center for the obligatory group shot

All up we spent $126 and look at their smiles.

This is one of the things about being here on the ground and forming relationships in the community, you are actually able to help and by maintaining those relationships, continue helping and monitoring into the future. We  don't have to go through a variety of middleman, all taking their legal cut, you don't have to deal with bureaucracy, you just get things done, immensely satisfying but impossible if we had not had the help of all you guys back in Australia, giving donations, thank you so very much.

Changing the Finances

Knowing we were eventually coming back to Australia, we have been struggling for some time to come up with a solution on how best to enable the continual use of the funds.  Transferring money from Aus to Cambodia is expensive, often the fees involved are more than the money itself. The donation money going to Bankers seems a poor use of funds, as does us paying for it personally.

Canadia Bank Account: Cambodian Donations Account

The solution we have come up with is to open a bank account here in Cambodia and transfer the majority of the remaining funds. We then attached an ATM card ($6 fee over here as most don't use them) and leave that with a trusted local,  Jen Hoggett.   Jen is a long term English expat. We met Jen when we first came here and taught English with her at the school in Wat Otres. Jen has been volunteering at the Goodwill Center for over a month and is well respected in the community. We have complete faith in Jen.  We have contacted all the local groups we have dealt with and advised them that if they have projects etc they want funded they are to contact us via email. If we think their project is worthy, we will advise Jen of the amount via email and Skype, she will then withdraw the money from the ATM and they will give her receipts/invoices etc that will be copied electronically and sent to us.

We decided to do this, as from the outset, the money is supposed to be there to help the peoples of Cambodian.  The Cambodian banking system is still quite "old school", yes they have Passbooks and electronic banking is a far away dream, it's probably akin to the Australian banking system in the 1980's. The bank we used is Canadia. We hope everyone agrees this is the best solution ?

In that respect we added the details of the new bank account to the Financials Page, go there if you want more info.

Read More

updates

Financial Updates

Well that time of the month sees the financials having been balanced for the end of the month.  Go to the link on the financials page at the top of the blog if you want to review any of it

Update on Mong's Dad (Keo Sok)

Some of you may remember that Mong's Dad fell from the roof and did himself some real damage, his legs did not move etc  Anyway, he is up and about and thanks to the kind donation of Trevor's family, half of the medical bills were paid for and they didn't have to sell their scooter to pay their neighbor back. The scooter is how Mong makes money as a moto driver to help his family and save for university so it would be a real setback if that had happened.

Mong's Dad  (Keo Sok) on his crutch

It was mentioned that this was an indication about how the plethora of OH&S rules help people in the West but this is not quite true.

OHS catastrophe waiting to happen  

I know two people from Townsville, Australia (my old home town) that fell off the roof of their house while doing work up there. It's more a reflection of a terrible health system here.  Here, Mongs father was put onto the back of a scooter and sandwiched between passenger and driver, driven over a bumpy road and taken to the nearby clinic while unconscious, (no hospital here in Sihanoukville) they stabilised him and then a private taxi was hired by the family and he was transported to Phnomn Penh for five hours in the back of that taxi... in Australia an Ambulance would have been called and transported to the nearest hospital... but enough of that, the great thing is he is getting better every day !

Another wedding

Mongs elder Sister invited Toni to her wedding, the new kitchen was put to good use to prepare the celebratory feast .

Wedding feast preparations

Ducks being killed and prepared !

Theft update

As per the last blog post all our camera gear and computers have been stolen, so we will only be able to post very sporadically when we can get access to loaner equipment. None of the equipment has been recovered and it is very doubtful it ever will and yes we were drugged, apparently the modus operandi is they send in a small child to hold a cloth with a knockout chemical under you nose, you breath it in, knock you out and they then go about robbing you, stuff was scattered everywhere, which was why we had no idea how we could not have been woken up.  The tell tale sign being the horrendous headache the next day we both suffered, to all those out there that though my snoring must have been the reason ! 

I had just got the okay from an art Gallery back in NSW to do a portrait exhibition when I returned back to Australia and I had everything organised to start the shoot here, so not being able to do that is very disappointing as well.

Interestingly, I was trying to justify the theft as "they are really poor so I can kind if understand it" to a Khmer friend.  He said "I am very poor and I never steal, they are bastards !"  I guess he was right... and yes he is very poor, we have been to his house, it is not much better than our chicken house at home.  

Read More

ahead of the game and updates

Toilets

Some of you may remember some months ago where we used $50 donated by Jenny from Nymboida to install a toilet at a Cambodian villagers house.

The toilet that Jenny's donation built

Some may laugh but the lack of toilet facilities over here is a real problem.  A news report indicated as many as 10,000,000 Cambodians have no access to a toilet and this probably contributed to the recent EV-71 disease outbreak that resulted in the deaths of some 70 children across Cambodia a few months ago.  So serious is the issue, it seems Bill and Melida Gates (everyone will probably Bill Gates of Microsoft fame, he retired some years ago to use his fortune, joined with Warren Buffett's, to do humanitarian work) feel similarly to us and have just announced they are investing some $11 Million into the initiative of adding toilets to communities in the region. They are also  investing in trying to design a better toilet for use in the developing world.  So well done to them and well done to you guys for similarly helping, albeit in a much smaller way.

Now, where is my pirated copy of Windows 8 <grin>

Romdual School Desks

The desks have been finished and transported out to the school, we hope to get a photo of them in-situ.  No one remembered to take a photo of them being transported.  Thanks to your donations, the kids don't have to sit on the floor and we have given them part of the cost of a teachers wage for a year, when they have recruited a teacher. (Monthly salary $70, of which we have committed to $10 x 12 months = $120)

Steung Hav School Cover

The construction of the school cover is well underway.  We were sent some photos recently.

Steung Hav shelter foundations

Steung Hav shelter

You guys paid for this, somewhere for the kids to play during the monsoon season, out of the mud.

Site update

A minor modification to the links section has been made, with the update leading to other interesting organisations doing good work locally, ones we're involved with closely.  For those not in the know, the links are on the RHS near the top.  

Go to the top right section of the blog to find this information

I have taken a sample screen shot to indicate the changes.

Read More

Streets, desks and death

Monthly Reconciliation

That time of the month again, the "books" have been balanced.  You can see whats going on by going to the Financials Page if you're interested.

Desk for Romdual School

The first desk for Romdual School has been built, we have committed $320 to funding the purchase of 10 desks and helping fund the salary of $70 a month for the new teacher, our commitment there is $10 x 12 =$120.   All in US Dollars.

School desks

The builder will be on a roll from here and have them knocked out in no time.  For those of you new to the blog, the school is a tiny affair in the rural area on the outskirts of Sihanoukville, on the Ream Rv.

Whale Shark

A Khmer friend of ours called us up, saying there was a "big dolphin... very big dolphin" down at one of the local fishing villages. We had a couple hours free, so we jumped in his tuk tuk and headed off, mildly intrigued but knowing this was not going to be a "Seaworld" or Disney type experience.  After some zigging, a lot of zagging and much cursing as my tailbone was shoved up through my spine on the rough road.  We parked up and trekked through a maze of small alleyways...  I spotted it lolling lifelessly against the peer and new instantly what it was, an immature whale shark, tied up to the side of the pier, being butchered.

All in all I found it pretty confronting but then observing the abject poverty of the locals on the way there, it's very understandable. To them this is enough food to feed many families.

Read More