We've spent the past 2 weeks teaching children in rural Cambodia (Kampeng Village, Takeo Province - 12km from Phnom Chisom) and just made it back to Phnom Penh last night. No running water, lots of rice, limited electricity, cart and ox still heavily used for transportation, no connection to the outside world and a LOT of smiles. We were treated like movie stars in the village with the women handing us their children with pride and not being able to walk anywhere without all of the kids coming out of their huts to greet us and show off one of the 3 English phrases they have mastered: "Hello!" "What is your name?" "How are you?" We truly enjoyed our time out there and the 15 days flew by with the generous hospitality extended to us. The meals consisted of rice, water and a portion of meat... quite a few times frogs (note I said frogs... not frog legs as they just grill the hell out of it and serve it whole and you eat every part of it.) The average farmer in this village makes around $60 a month and uses that to support generally a family of around 6-8 people (lots of kids) so needless to say this area was very poor. That said, the outlook, attitude and welcoming we received proved to be all the luxuries we needed (OK, OK... we would have liked toilet paper.)
We just uploaded our pictures to the "Travel Gumbo 2" album so feel free to check them out. I'll post a link to it soon if anyone has difficulty seeing them. There are a lot btw, once the kids got ahold of our camera it was a no holds barred free for all photography frenzy.
No comments:
Post a Comment