Work and some fun

Nic helped the kids do some painting. This is always a little dangerous as the kids seem to paint themselves as much as they paint the wood.

Meanwhile, the dining room is starting to look finished.

We took a break and visited Battambang (pronounced Battamong). While in Battambong we did some kayaking.

We also went on the Bamboo train.

We also saw the amazing site of millions of bats leaving a cave at sunset.

Building progress

Here are some photos of the building progress.

Quad biking

Stan and Nicole got to go out and explore some of the more remote areas around Siem Reap by quad bike. This was surprisingly more fun than we had expected.

We brought a full backpack of tennis balls and teddy bears to give out to the kids we met along the way. As you get further from Siem Reap the poverty becomes more and more obvious. Children would come running to the path when they heard the sound of the bikes coming and yell and wave when we came passed. When we stopped and gave out a teddy to the little boys and girls they would yell and jump around dancing for joy.

We would recommend anyone visiting Siem Reap go on one or two quad biking adventures. It is a little pricey, but it is fun.

Swimming and Lucky Mall

We are trying to take the kids out in smaller groups to have some more quality time with each of the kids. This also gives them a chance to choose where they want to go.

We paid for some to go swimming at our hotel's pool. When they all jumped in the water went cloudy. (They jump in fully clothed.) Some friendly Irish girls helped us keep everyone afloat in the pool. It was a fun day for everyone.

We took some others to lucky mall where there is a tiny playground with a ball pit and some gaming machines.

Preparing to build

We started on the building recently. This involved going out by motor bike and ordering the wood.

The place we bought the wood from just happened to raise crocodiles as well. This photo is taken just three meters from the wood shed.

After we ordered the wood, they wanted to show us where and how they cut the timber. They put some into a hand pulled wagon and pulled it across the road to their saw. As you can see, the OH&S leaves a lot to be desired.

Sometimes we feel guilty

Every night we eat out and a meal costs us just a few dollars. We get treated to delicious Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese and western food. As well as here to help out at CDO, we are also here on holiday and we want to do all we can to relax and wind down so we can be ready for another year of work. But sometimes one still feels a little guilty when you compare our meal to those the children at CDO receive. We do try to buy them meat and fruit when we can. We'd love to take them out for dinner with us, but we couldn't afford to take 34 of them plus their minders out. (Would need to pay 7 tuk tuks as well.) We'll try and organize a nice meal at CDO before we leave.

Our meals:

Their meals:

Your money at work

Apologies for the very slow update. We have been quite busy and it is often hard to get a good Internet connection which will allow us to upload images.

We arrived at CDO to find two thirds of the children absent as they were visiting the village they come from to catch up with their extended families for a few days. The children left behind were very happy to see us.

We noticed a few changes immediately. They are in the process of moving to the block next door and have made a start on their building plan. Their old place is really starting to fall apart and the one room could no longer accommodate everyone now they have five more children.

They have started on the first dorm and while it is mostly finished it has some large gaps in the building. This means that when it rains, if there is any wind, they get completely wet. Not a comfortable way to spend a night.

We have decided that the best use of the AU$750 that many of you gave us in cash is to add it to the money St. John of God Pathology has raised for the CDO building fund. We look forward to sharing some photos of what is being accomplished with this pool of money before we leave. They have promised to continue sending us updates after we leave as well.

We had been thinking about using the AU$750 for medicine or an optometrist visit, but the children are very healthy and they have free access to the children's hospital in Siem Reap where they are well looked after by Western doctors. (It would be great to see some of our Deakin medical students do a regular placement here.)

We'll try update this again soon with some more information for you all!

Phnom Penh

We arrived in Phnom Penh and spent a couple nights here. We are in a hotel along the Mekong river which is nice in the evenings as we get a cool breeze which makes eating outside and going for walks quite pleasant. As we have more teddy bears than there are children at the orphanage, we have been giving them out to some of the poorer children we meet. There are many destitute people here and it is a little sad to see children sleeping on the sidewalks or in the gutters right next to the hotels us tourists are using. Nicole has been putting a teddy bear next to some of these children and hopefully they get some pleasure from the gift when they wake up. One of the ones we gave was to a little girl, about two, who had lost her left arm.

Stan also got to sample a local delicacy, a nice lightly fried bug with spices. The locals eat them like pop corn.

Yummy!

As always when we eat out here, our table became an instant hit with the kids as they all wanted to play cut the rope or fruit ninja.

As we walked around the market today, we got to watch them unloading the ice they use to keep the foods fresh (no freezers here).

Packing

We are taking one and a half suitcases to Cambodia full of things we're hoping will be useful at the orphanage.

In the suitcases we have toys, clothes, medicine, books, dolls and 76 handmade teddy bears.

While many people gave us things to bring along, we'd especially like to thank Karen Hoskin who, every couple of weeks, brought something new in to work for Nicole to bring with us. We'd also like to mention Geraldine and her mother who have spent many months knitting teddy bears for us to bring along.

Nicole trying to fit everything in a suitcase

76 hand made teddy bears were somehow made to fit in our suitcases.

Getting ready to go

I am attempting to do this by phone. Excuse the auto correct and any other errors.

So many of you have been exceedingly generous and asked us to bring some money with us for the children in Cambodia. We had people from our workplaces in Geelong and Melbourne give generously as well as our church and families. All your gifts were put into a tin and we asked Bill and Ben to open it and count what was there. They counted $497.50. A tremendous response. Before we left we had a few more cards and bank deposits bringing this to a total of $750. We will convert this to US$ in Cambodia and cannot wait to share with you in this blog all the benefits your gifts will bring these children.

Bill and Ben counting the money.

Ben makes sure the $100 note is real!

Returning to CDO July 2012

Hi everyone,

Stan and Nic will be returning to CDO in July 2012. We just want to say a big thank you to people at St John of God who are doing some tremendous fund raising to help the children at CDO. It's amazing and overwhelming how many people are willing to give of their time and money to help people half a world away in Cambodia.

Stan and Nic