10th April

Today we sent some of them back to homeland at around noon. The lucky ones are Alvin, Jay, Raymond, Qasrina and Ming Yong.

It was very nice farewell at the airport. AFter that, we had all the time to ourselves. Let's go shopping!

PS: Their flight got slightly delayed

9th April

Today’s agenda was to visit the floating villages, to explore their way of life and try to understand it. It was quite a journey from our guesthouse and our tour guide for the day was Azim. I think it’s spelled like this. He came with us because the Kampong kluang or floating village is his hometown. We saw the village via a bumboat, slightly better than those you see at pulau ubin. Anyway, the water quality itself was seriously bad. It was totally light brown in colour. Haha, exactly like Milk tea. Since it was the dry season, all of us could see the wooden supports the people built to support their houses during the wet season. The difference in water level during these 2 seasons is just remarkable. This was not all! As we delve further, we saw literally floating villages. The only means of transport is by boat. Imagine a house surrounded by water. That’s what we saw, but just many of them scattered over the place. The life of the people there from our view is very primitive, and the way they can survive is just mind-boggling. The whole journey took about 2-3hours. After that, we help distribute some donated clothes to the villagers of Kampong Kluang.

Oh yeah, Sarah sprained her ankle when alighting the boat. Luckily it was well taken care of by the people around her especially Hayley, Ranie and the first aiders.

Cheers to the team and wish Sarah recover asap

8th April

What a day! We visited a catholic village in the morning to help out in the rice soup programme. We actually had plans to help out in the chopping etc, but there was some miscommunication in the instructions given to the driver, so we ended up in the midst of visiting Angkor temples aka stones.
Upon arrival at the village, which was 1 1/2 to 2 hrs journey from our guesthouse, some of us helped out in chopping of pork meat, while the others kept the kids entertained in a really big building. However, there were just too many people inside that it was very stuffy! Those chopping the pork were literally sun-baking too! Either way, it would make you perspire alot. This however wasn't the worst. There was this "chamber" where the cooking of the porridge was done. In the room was 3 FREAKINGLY BIG wok, and LOTS LOTS of smoke and fire. Some of us went in to help stir the porridge and we soon suggested that the room should be term as "Cambodia Sauna room". Since the place was built such that smoke wasn't really allowed to escape, those who helped out found that it was eye hurting. The heat from the stove could be felt from like 1 meter away. I think the leg hair of the guys who went in to offer help have twirled up! Once the porridge was cooked, we helped distribute it in bowls and bring it to all the kids. It took us quite some time, but working as a team made things happened really fast. Next was refilling of porridge for those who wanted some more. The porridge was really tasty, I tried a little bit. Haha! Shhh….Now, after the mass eating, we did the mass WASHING! 11 of us went into action to help wash the hundreds of bowls and cutleries. Let me tell you, it’s really a lot of bowls. Record breaking numbers. It’s like for every one bowl you wash, 10 new bowls pile up. Haha! We enjoyed though. Weird huh

Now moving to the farm, we had our lunch there. The food was delicious and their hospitality was just good. We were given a tour around the farm after lunch, exposing ourselves to different type of plants, information on how long they take to ripe, and some fruits to try. I remember the Cambodian apple, it’s a really small fruit, roughly the size of my pinky fingernail. Small yet sweet! (:

That’s about it for today. Debrief as usual and then sleep time!

7th april

Today, we held a party for the kids cos it was our last day that we were gonna spend at the orphanage!

So we woke up as usual and had our breakfast as usual. Then off we went, with our close to ONE MILLION riels of groceries. :) we had almost 200 BOTTLES of coke, 10th kilo of chicken, spaghetti (tomato sauce and aglio olio), korean type sushi, chicken alphabet soup and lots of baked beans oh and there was tuna mayo and egg mayo too! Can you imagine all of these with goods plus TWENTY fully grown people in a bus that doesn't even have much walking space. Hahaha..

Can u guess what's the next worse thing that could happen to us.? Halfway thru the journey, the front tyre punctured. -.- lucky for us, it punctured just before we turned into the village road, while we were still on the main road. So we all got off the bus and then some hid under the shade, some went to the nearby local market, and some stayed by the driver to render whatever help they could possibly offer, and also to fan the driver. Our driver is a neat guy. This hair is always neatly combed and gelled up, he is always in a long sleeved collared shirt, always in long pants, and always in loafers. Nothing less. Even if he were u walk down orchard road, u'd never guess that he's a bus driver in cambodia. His dedication and seriousness to his job, no matter how simple it is, is something we all should learn from.

Then the bus was rolling! We finally reached safe and sound! at the orphanage, we had a forklift to help us unload the coke cartons from the bus. A human forklift. Haha :)

It wasn't long before the food team had to prepare the Yummy dishes for the Party later in the evening. They really had lots lots of food to prepare, example like 4 packets of garlic to chop! As the food team gets down to serious business, the others helped out in the entertaining portion. We did the friendship dance, which goes "As we .... walk to the left, as we walk to the right, as we ......" Yup yup! IC of this operation was Ming Yong, Germaine and Lovell. Others went in between the kids to mingle and teach them. It was a very awesome dance which everyone did. At the end, we had a Friendship marathon, we did all the moves on shot! It was tiring.

Next activity was Balloon wars! You know, the classic tie a balloon to your leg, protect it but DESTROY other's balloon. Few of us went off to prepare the Tang Yuan which later some of the kids will get a chance to help roll it into balls. Of course they have to wash their hands before we allow them to touch anything, so our washing team took over after the balloon game.

All's left was to PARTY the night out! With the music Booming, it certainly set the atmosphere for some partae! Coke bottles opened one after another, dishes of food gone by the minutes and people dancing all around the floor. It was plain fantastic!
We all ended with a few words by each of us to the kids and then we bidded farewell in a very touching way. Some cried but lets leave it anonymous
It was no surprise as it was our last day there. The kids sure did enjoy our company like how we enojyed theirs.
Boarded the bus, which drove through the quiet road that laid under the blanket of stars. We fell asleep...

6th April

Here I come Orphanage! There was actually plans to do farming today but the weather was so scorching that you can easily catch fire out in the sun in a matter of seconds. Instead, today we had all our focus on painting and teaching of english lessons like usual.

Deja-Vu! Our superstar Jay went rolling down the stairs! not really roll, just missed a step or the steps was probably slippery. We were all in the addidas shop browsing through when we heard "Boom ba da boom". I guess all our heart went "Blup Blop .......Blup", missing a few beats in the process. Haha! It was really a very scary moment for all of us. The fall echoed around the enclosed shop. It was that loud. As we approach him, his face was seriously pale. Very Very pale, like he just bleach his face or something. Yep, given such a face, you sure know it hurts alot. Especially when he injured the same part. Not really, it was slightly below the previously injured area.
Ms Tan called the ambulance and it was really weird, because 15mins later, the ambulance have not arrived, so Ms Tan called again and guess what the person told her. they said" sorry, just now we couldn't understand english, now we'll transfer you to the english speaker." If it was a matter of life and death, what would have become of the victim? Luckily Jay was a person full of LUCK and perhaps a strong butt too! Haha!

Some of the people in the food department went to buy the food for the party in Lucky mall and Angkor Market. Total expenditure was close to 1 MILLION ..... riels. Don't look down on riels okay! 40 riels = 1 USD. Yup, I was just kidding! ha! It's actually 4000 riels to 1 USD.

Went back to the guest house to store our goods for tmr and back to bed!

5th April

As usual we had our Bread toast with cream cheese?soft boiled egg? Hard boiled egg? and scrambled egg? Anything that can be made with egg and goes well with bread u can find it in Bou savy Guesthouse. For those who is Maggie fan, they will have their noodle again!

As instructed by chiew nai we are supposed to leave the guesthouse at 7.30am. However, Jorina our 'livewire' who has a bubbly self unfortunately fell sick. Again, our guardian angel Clara stayed back in the guesthouse with her while the rest went to the orphanage.

Alot of us were not feeling well. Germaine was having a headache, Owen had bad tummyache, sarah was feeling slight giddy. With Clara accompanying Jorina at the guesthouse, we had only 1 first aider with us. Andy was really concern over all our well-being. Over at the orphanage, we had a slight change in plans for the lessons we were going to teach. Origami was on the list and Jay was chosen one to lead this operation. He was no doubt the best person to lead as he had lots of shapes and animals he was able to taught the kids. It was also avery good experience for alot of us who know nothing or very little about origami.

We left the place with the kids waving farewell to us. They always make us feel like we've changed their lives in that short period of interaction in the day with them.

4th April

Today was a really really long day for all of us.

we woke up at o430 in the morning. we left the hotel at 530 cos some people overslept. and we headed off to angkor wat to catch the sunrise! it was beautiful. and alot of pictures were snapped and some of us started to cam whoring with the sun. HAHAHAHA.. then we continued taking random photos around and then we headed back to bousavy guesthouse.

after our breakfast, we started preparing for the coming week's lesson. after spending 3 days at the orphanage, we were more clear of their english standard and could thus use more effective teaching techniques, to the best benefits of the children. we spilt up into smaller groups like english department one group, sports department one group and hygiene department one group and they came up with lesson plans for the next three days of teaching. after that, we presented to each other what we were going to do. after that, we started our planning for our party! food was one big headache. programme was a challenge. all i can say now is that its gonna turn out good! :D

by the end of it all, it was still kinda early, like about 3pm. so we headed down to angkor wat for history lessons since we still had our admission ticket.Jay was not allowed to join the group for the Angkor wat tour since he has hurt his sprain; he could not take the risks of climbing up and down and walking a 'NON- WALKABLE' distance under blazing hot sun.
His guardian angel,Clara was with him throughout this time Owen was with them to wait for the group. After they 3 had separated from the team,they came across a roadside stall selling oil-painting. Clara and jay both bought a few paintings from him. The local guy was exhilirated, he was smiling from ear to ear and treated us cold drinks.
We continued our touring and paused at the North entrance of Angkor wat and we were officially LOST! However, the locals were very keen to help us when we approached them for help. When we were wandering around in the North entrance, we met the Oil paint seller again, this time was different he was with his family(wife and his son.) Then, we begun our camwhoring with his family. YES again!Cam-whoring.
After camwhoring, we went to rest under the shade while waiting for the rest. Owen went to look out for the rest and at the same time.he had his sun tanning session.

Finally , when the rest were back we went to have our lunch, then continued our visits to several temples. Seriously! Angkor wat will attract more tourists if it is air conditioner HAHAHAAH! Most of us were sun-baked. The higher the anticipation, the bigger our disappointment will be. The sunset, that everyone was eagering to see since sun rise to our dismay the weather did not PERMIT! it's reallly Oh MY GOD!!!!!!!Obh my gosh!!!!! Having said that, owen is the sole person in the team who has caught sunset in Angkor wat before LOL!HAHAAHAH! Dont be jealous! come back and be volunteer again!

Then we went to have our dinner......

3rd April

today is R&R!

we met our tour guide, Sam. quite a handsum guy with quite a good sense of humour who knows a number of languages like english, khmer, basic malay, chinese, Japanese and French . He's single and available, but none of our girls are attracted to him. Perhaps it's because he's 32 years old! But he did mention that two of his exgirlfrens were miss Cambodian. He sure have some charming secrets up his sleeves! Any Singaporean girls interested, please call 012 91234567. He is very well versed with the history of the artifacts along the way. His explanation was also very detailed and he could answer any questions you ask.

Our new but kinda scary experience which resulted from forgetting to bring along our packet lunch packed kindly for us by Mr horn. Since we were to far to turn back, we stopped by a small humble restaurant and bought lunch for only 1 USD per packet. It was packed with chicken, thailand or cambodian sausage, cucumber & tomatoes with a packet of chilli sauce. It was cheap and delicious but when we had it at the waterfall, all our spoons were severely "disfigured"

We were left on the bus while Ms Tan and Clara went to get the Food. It was during this short period of time where we were bombarded by kids selling handicrafts, costing @ 1USD for 5 pcs. There wasn't just only 1 kid, but around 4-6 of them at the door of the bus shouting "Sir, 5 1dollar, buy from me...." Owen took control and said to them to queue up else we won't buy from them, but plan failed! Instead of having us going down to buy, Owenhelped sell the handicrafts. After some time, Sarah was slightly agitated with the kids consistent requests that she said to them "Keep quiet" in chinese etc. Haha! All most all of us got ourselves something.

Our first stop was a temple, which was situated quite high on a hill top. We had to hire a kid to look after ur footwear and we chose the cutest of them all. The temple itself was pretty magnificent, with a really huge sleeping buddha at the top. We also had a go with the water that was said to bring good luck. Just before we head towards the waterfall, we visited the Thousand lingas. Lingas are carved patterns in the stones of the river which the they use to believe it will bring good luck to the people who use the water that flows across it. Immediately, we headed towards the waterfall which was quite some distance away but the sight of the waterfall was jaw-dropping! However, something else literally made our Jaw drop and touch the floor! It wasn't the scenery, it was JAY! He atempted to jump across a rock, but failed, ended up injuring his back. It was quite a serious injury with the tail bone fractured & partially displaced. It was also due to his previous injury which was not properly taken care of. Despite this, he still manage to enjoy the cooling water nonetheless. At the waterfall, we jumped from an elevated platform. An Jun did the most awesome stunt of the day. He somersaulted into the water, but Jorina was catchin up! Owen, An Jun and Lovell started off with the jumping first, then some of the girls followed. I've got to say they were brave people, it's quite a high jump you know. and then we did the hokey pokey dance under the slashing water and angmohs started staring :D those who entered the water caught a glimpse of a rainbow on the surface of the water. really pretty!!! our inital plan was to go to angkor wat to catch the sunset. but we came to a consensus to send jay to the hospital instead. cos he was in pain and couldnt sit properly. turned out that he was still fit to join us. but he has to be very very careful and this had put a toll on our two beloved first aiders, clara and andy. since then on, they've been jay's guardian angel by his side 24/7.

we had an early night and then after debrief, we went to sleep.

2nd April

we left for the orphanage after breakfast as usual. but when we reached the main entrance of the orphanage, they were having construction, and the bus couldnt go thru! we wanted to get off and walk, but after the driver went down to ask police, the police instructed him to take an alternative route. so off we went. after driving further and further down, we started to get a little scared cos there were kids who ran out from their houses naked, and the kids were looking at us as if we were URO(unidentified rolling object). and when we thought we were finally reaching, we met with a problem. there was a steep step on the ground probably due to soil erosion? it was narrow and the steep. andy and owen tried looking for stones, and planks to make a 'bridge' so that the bus will be able to make it down the steep step. in the end, we figured that it wasnt gonna work out so the driver just decided to go back the same way we came in. and cos the road was narrow, the driver had to reverse like at least a 100 metres before he could perform a three point turn? wooh. i tell you, with all the trees and the road wasnt even straight, but he reverse like no kick like that... if such a reversing stunt was included in singapore's driving test, i believe 99% will fail it. HAHAHAHA.. and then when the bus could roll straight, we all boarded the bus. after going on for about.. 5 minutes? we saw twpo familiar faces alongside the bus! they were kids from the orphanage! somehow they knew that we were lost somewhere. so they came out looking for us. we wanted to bring them up the bus and out to the orphanage. but in the end, it was us who went down and followed them. the orphange turned out to be a 2 minute walk away.

We had a village tour! mr pol pean, who is the founder of RAINBOW ORPHANAGE, brought us walking around their reul district, which is just behind the orphanage. he told us about the history of the area and that this area is actually protected by the government! the militaries werent allowed to enter or to disturb the villagers. we were also shown their different types of technologies like their wells some were the 30USD type, some were the 200USD type. then our MISSION started. we were armed with clothes and sweets and colgate! mr pean knows 90% of the population there personally. so we were told to only give our dontaions only when he instructed us to. cos some were more well off than the others. there was a problem we faced. kids were following us and we were unwilling to give any kid more than one time. but all the kids looked the same! topless, bloated bellys and act cute eyes. the girls started to freak out as the crowd of kids seemed to be neverending. oh and one thing we realised was that the clothes we brought werent very suitable. as we only had two sizes, XL and XXL and the other clothes we had were for toddlers. the average age range was about 5 - 9 years old. so we didnt have stuff to give them other than sweets. however, for everyone that we did give the shirts to, they were extremely appreciative and were really grateful. even when it was a nyp open house tshirt, which was probably oversized, and we ourselves do not even like wearing it due to its material which is not water absorbent polyester. its not dri-fit. but they were still very glad to receive. ms tan guessed that its probably cos they din take the shirts out frm the plastic bag thats why they were still so happy about the shirts. :) then we continued the touring. we came to this compund where they hold ceremonies for large events. the walls were covered with paintings painted by a 23year old. everything was so life-like. the portrait of one of the monk seemed really 3D. just look at the talents of this country. then we went back to the orphanage and had lunch! :D

after lunch, it was back to work. we spilt into two groups, one group did farming and one group did teaching. for the farming group, we went into the greenhouse, and we started ploughing the ground. the tool we used was REALLY heavy. and can you imagine, there at the orphanage, it was the GIRLS and LADIES who did the gardening. after loosening the soil, the fun part starts. cow dung came! and we were to mix it into the soil with our bare hands and then make the ground even, before watering the ground using a REALLY heavy watering can that our guys had problem with carrying even using two hands, while sin and leksa(two girls from the orphanage) carryed it easily with one hand. they were 15 and younger. guys, whats up with all the going to the gym!? looks like u guys should switch to farming. lovell suggests that we should start a farming CCA in nyp and lovell is glad to be the president of the club. he has visions to transform the field at the stadium into a rice padi field. and will collect all the shit from the toilets to use as fertilizers. interested parties ready to commit to this noble project please contact lovell at 91234567. okay and on to english lessons. the kids were told to write compos. the initial plan was to let them write ONE compo out of the three topics given. it turned out that all of them finished all three compos within the first hour. and it was their first time writing compositions! awesome? definitely. then the kids were told to read out their compositions to the class to boost their self confidence and help train public speaking and train their english pronounciation all at the same time. then it was play time with the kids after that. we learnt a new game which as some what like dodgeball, but used chaptek, u know the rubber thing that has a coin to provide weight and feathers to make it land nicely? yeah. that. then suddenly a tickling fiesta erupted and everyone ran around tickling each other. :D victim number one: lovell.

We had dinner followed by de-briefing then it was bed time.

Update today

Hello parents,

Today is a very busy day. We went to the orphanage and introduce them photography.

We are safe and healthy. :)
Will update with photographs and videos soon.

Regards,
Jay