FALL BREAK - HOUSEBUILDING IN CAMBODIA

This year during fall break, we chose to spend our holiday building houses for the poor in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We formed a group of seven families from the Singapore American School, mostly friends and neighbors with teenagers, and were also joined by two families from Brunei and one Canadian. After all the amazing trips that we have been fortunate enough to take, we all felt like it was time to give back. To do something firsthand for somebody else who isn't as fortunate as we are. Planning for this trip started in the spring, and fundraising efforts began in earnest when we all returned from summer break. We held a very successful fundraiser at a local restaurant, complete with raffles and auction, and were completely overwhelmed at the generosity of our friends who helped us reach our goal. As volunteers, we were responsible for our own transportation and hotel costs, but needed to raise money to pay for the building materials which is roughly $950 US per house. Thanks to the generous donations, we were able to build not only 16 houses, but raised enough money to pay for 16 ponds and wells to be dug in the community. This will allow the villagers to water their crops and to have access to water. The simple homes that we built are up on stilts, allowing the families to escape from the flood conditions and have a roof over their heads. The Cambodian families were required to raise the equivalent of $30 US dollars to purchase the small plot of land and to contribute to the cost of the building materials. It takes most families over TWO years to save thirty dollars!!! That is the cost of a pedicure in my world, and it made me want to work that much harder to help these people who live in such poor conditions. I personally have never seen such extreme poverty in my life. There was no running water, no electricity, many of the young children ran around naked and those who did have clothes that are dirty and torn. The kids had no toys to play with, and played with sticks or bamboo fishing poles they made. A few of them rode bicycles. They had no clean water, and washed their dishes and clothes in the river which was covered in algae. They live in huts made of grass, cardboard, and discarded materials. When it rains everything is covered in mud. They cook their meals over an open fire outdoors. Yet, strangely enough, they seem HAPPY! They were smiling and grateful that we were there. Though we weren't able to communicate through speaking, the smiles on their faces and the looks in their eyes said it all. We learned to say 'thank you' which sounds something like "Ah Kun" and the Cambodian people thanked us again and again for being there. They were very shy the first day but opened up the second day, and it was just heartwarming to see the children playing duck-duck-goose and doing the hokey-pokey with our kids. To watch their eyes light up and chase the bubbles that we blowed. To smile shyly and pose for the camera. That was definitely the highlight for me, taking pictures of all the people and then turning the camera around and showing them what they look like! The kids would just laugh and giggle and want to do it again! I truly could have just taken pictures all day long. Next time I will take a polaroid camera and give them some photos of themselves.....

The frames were already in place when we arrived. We were responsible for putting in the bamboo floors and the metal siding for the walls. It was a lot of hammering and very noisy! I am happy to report that we had no injuries other than a few smashed thumbs. Our theme song was "If I Had a Hammer"; remember that song?

The OCD in me prompted me to count the nails that went into each house built - roughly 2,500 nails in the bamboo floors, multiplied by 16 houses makes 36,000 nails in the floors alone! Part of our group worked on the floors, and the others started in on the walls. It actually went pretty fast! We finished 10 houses the first day, and did 6 the second day. It rained some the first day and things were very very muddy!

This is what the houses look like when finished. We gave a quilt to each of the families at the "Handing Over" ceremony at the end of the final day of housebuilding. It's hard to explain the emotions we felt as we handed a family their quilt and a lady blessed us to a life of 100 years! This was a very humbling and rewarding experience, and one that we will never forget.

Some of the kids played duck-duck-goose with our kids, while many of the villagers looked on.

This is our group at the end of the first day.

Kasey and her friend Elizabeth were covered in mud, as we all were after the rain!

Families who owned a pig or a cow were considered very well off.

This is a good "before" photo.

I watched as they cooked their meal over the fire-rice and something that looked like a root or a bean of some sort.

This woman was washing her dishes in the nasty river water. They have to use this water for cooking and cleaning too, if they don't have a well.

Zoom in on this picture and you will see a Cambodian style "playpen" used for their babies. Notice the chicken in the foreground!

I just loved taking pictures of the Cambodian people, and most of them were willing and eager to be photographed. There were very few elders in the village, as a result of the Pol Pot genocide killings in the late 1970's. Most of their population now is under the age of 30. Sadly, their infant mortality rate is very high.

Isn't she the cutest young girl? I noticed her right away, as she was always carrying around the younger children. She loved having her picture made and really worked the camera! ha!

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to touch or hold the children. Parents have been known to try to give their children away if they see you holding them.....either out of gratitude, or perhaps just wanting a better life for their children.

This little boy was more than happy to collect all of our empty water bottles at the end of the day!

They are just the cutest kids, always smiling. I went to bed thinking about them and woke up thinking about them too. Kasey kept reminding me not to get too attached!

This bald headed lady was one of my favorites

This little boy was digging in the dirt with a stick for hours. We saw no toys at all, except for bicycles.

These are the women who work in the Tabitha cottage industry, making silk items by hand which are beautiful.

Some of the women making quilts at the sewing machines

Our first day in Phnom Penh was spent at the Tuol Sleng torture center, where we learned about the evil Pol Pot regime of the late 1970's. Pol Pot was a communist who wanted to kill all Cambodians with an education and their extended families-and force all others to work in the rice fields outside of the city. The inhumane treatment of the Cambodian people was just unbelievable. If you were a doctor, teacher, or lawyer, you and your family were first tortured and then killed-babies and children included. Pol Pot wiped out millions of people, over half of the population.

Double click on this picture so you can read the sign at the torture center.

Pol Pot and his followers put identity tags on each person that they were going to kill, and then took their picture. Can you imagine having your picture taken and knowing that you were about to be tortured and killed?

One of Pol Pot's rules - NO SMILING!

One of the torture rooms

This photo was taken at the Killing Fields. This is the tree by which the infants were killed. The communists held the babies by their feet and smashed their heads against the tree to kill them, because they didn't want to waste a bullet.

Display of skulls of the victims at the killing fields

This is the building where the bones and skulls were displayed at the killing fields

Poverty in Cambodia is everywhere you look. The villagers used this dirty river water for bathing, cooking, washing dishes and clothes.

Check out this skinny cow!

A local man selling his coconuts

Workers in the fields

I took this photo from inside our bus. The people in the city of Phnom Penh get around on scooters and carry anything and everything with them! This guy had cases of fresh eggs.

Family of four on a scooter. I did actually see a family of six on a scooter but couldn't get their photo!

This is our group of boys on the trip

OK, I made Wesley pose for this picture outside of the Tabitha building where we were getting our overview on the housebuilding. I hate to even admit it, but when Wes was little and ran around without a shirt on and he was so skinny his ribs showed, I used to call him a Cambodian Refugee.

We did go to some local markets on our last day in Phnom Penh, and saw fried bugs for sale-looked like spiders and beetles and roaches. And raw meat and fish for sale, with flies all over them. Are we so blessed in our lives or what? I can't even let the water run in the sink now without thinking of those we served in Cambodia.

SAME SAME....BUT DIFFERENT!

This is a photo of the most popular t-shirt in all of Asia, probably more popular than Hard Rock or Harley Davidson t-shirts. SAME SAME on the front of the shirt, BUT DIFFERENT on the back of the shirt. It's so true! Things on this side of the world are the same as on the other side of the world, yet they are different! Also locals here say "same same" all the time, and "can can" meaning "yes". There is even a dialect called "Singlish" where they end most sentences with "lah", kind of like an affirmation; i.e., "Don't be like that, lah" or "drink lah" meaning 'just drink'.

You understand lah?

WEEKLY UPDATE - OCTOBER 12, 2009

Well it's been another busy week at our house. The first quarter of school is winding down, and the big excitement of the week centered around the signing up for next semester's "Interim Semester". Interim semester is compulsory, it counts toward their high school credits, and have I mentioned that it is the one thing that all the high school students look forward to all year long? This year's interim semester will take place in mid February, and the offerings this year were just incredible. Trips to Europe, China, New Zealand, Australia - there was not a bad trip in the bunch! Seniors get priority, juniors get second pick, sophomores third, and finally freshmen. Wesley is pumped because he got his first choice, which is a ten day trek thru the Himalayas in Nepal. He will get to see Mount Everest! For a kid that's never even been to Colorado to see the Rocky Mountains, he's bound to be impressed! They will also learn about Buddhism and visit one of the world's oldest Tibetan monasteries. Kasey chose an adventure racing trip in Hong Kong, which will include mountain biking, kayaking, rock climbing, abseililng, and ropes challenge. They will also be conducting an environmental case study of Hong Kong's first windmill power station and helping with an environmental reforestation project in the Lamma Forest. Shelby and I told them that sure beats a field trip to Six Flags over Texas; ha!
Guess we need to get busy planning our own interim trip! We are inclined to return to Bali since it was such an incredible spot for us last year, and not too far away.

The latest items to hit the shelves at the market this week are Pringles potato chips in the following flavors: seaweed, grilled shrimp, and soft-shell crab. No thanks! I still can't figure out why they don't have the loaded baked potato pringles over here! Shelby bought a can of the seaweed pringles, telling me that when he lived here as a kid, he used to eat seaweed crackers and liked them. I'll let you know how he likes these new seaweed Pringles! This morning at the market I had to ask someone where the toothpicks were. There was most definitely a communication barrier there, I not only wrote the word "toothpick" on a piece of paper, I ended up pantomiming how to pick my teeth with a toothpick! And she got it! Yes! I got toothpicks! Not bad for someone who stinks at playing charades.....

Shelby and I went with some friends to Music in the Park at Fort Canning on Saturday night. It was an outdoor venue and there were several bands playing, including a country-western band which was pretty good, and a band called "Mid-Life Crisis" which played some of the old 80's music. It was pretty much an expat event, and I almost forgot I was in Asia for a few hours!

Saturday afternoon we went to the school to watch a football game between the Singapore American school players and a team from South Korea, American kids whose parents are in the armed forces and living on the base there. It was a very lively game and well attended. Shelby and I unknowingly drew a lot of attention when we showed up to the game carrying our iced tea and sprite in Sonic cups. People stopped us, asking where in the world did we get Sonic in Singapore? I heard people gasp and point and scream, "SONIC!". One middle-schooler punched his friend and yelled, "Dude! Oh my God, look! She has SONIC!" And on and on it went.....I cannot tell you how many times we had to explain that I brought the Sonic cups/lids/straws back from Texas this summer to keep the ice from melting and keep the drinks cold. And of course that started yet another conversation about how much we all miss the ICE at Sonic-those soft little rabbit pellets of ice that we all know and love.... I am totally convinced that if someone started a Sonic in Singapore it would be an overnight success! :)

Friday night the kids had plans of course (we never see them much on the weekends!) so Shelby and I decided to go eat dinner at one of the local "hawker stands" (outdoor food courts). We were commenting on how often we eat outdoors here in Singapore! Shelby eats at hawker stands for lunch all the time, and tells me about all the weird things he eats, "yellow meat and yellow noodles" in a clay pot being one of his regulars, curry chicken is another. He has seen cages of big frogs behind the counter too, and I''m thinking that might be what the locals call "yellow meat with yellow noodles"?? Think so? Ok I would gag. Friday night I ordered what I always order at any and every hawker stand - chicken fried rice. Yes I am a creature of habit,and proud of it! No yellow meat/yellow noodles for me! Sitting at the table next to us were two Indian women, and I watched as one of the women ate her meal with her hand. One hand, her right hand. (The left hand is used for toilet purposes only, I am told). It is common practice for Indians to eat with their hand; in fact they rarely if ever use utensils. It is commonplace for them to eat their entire meal, no matter how saucy or messy it may be, then they go to the "wash station" that is set up at every hawker stand to wash their hand. It was kind of fascinating yet also kind of disgusting to watch her in action. She had a kind of noodly dish which she poured lots of sauce on, then stirred it around with her hand, and scooped up handfuls into her mouth. It just looked so messy to me! She had it dripping down her wrist but it didn't seem to bother her. Shelby sees this a lot when he travels to India; in fact, in many places if you want silverware you must ask for it. We just sat there, the only non-Asians among Chinese/Malay/Indians, and were very much aware of standing out in the crowd. Not in a bad way, just different! Then we went into Sheng Siong market to pick up a few things, which is always eye-opening. Have I mentioned that the majority of all grocery stores and convenience stores sell condoms right at the checkout? There they are, an assortment of condoms and lubricants, innocently stacked as if they were gum or mints, just in case you might want to make an impulse purchase! hahaha Also there was something for infants called "Gripe Water"; I'm guessing something to calm their stomachs? So the most frustrating thing about shopping at Sheng Siong is that they take an item out of your trolley (shopping cart) as you leave the store, so that you will return the trolley and then you receive your item back. It's their way of making sure you don't just abandon the cart in the parking lot. Which of course we did not do, because they took our toilet paper and we wanted it back! :)

Last Friday I received a box in the mail from my sister Susan. She sent not only some shirts I had ordered, but also included some fall leaves, some mulling spices, Halloween M&M's, and DVD's of last seasons episodes of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy that I had not been able to watch over here. I was happy beyond happy, and after putting some spices on to boil and scattering some leaves, sat down to watch Desperate Housewives and eat M&M's. It was totally self-indulgent and I loved every minute! Thank you Sue! :)

THIS WEEK'S HAPPENINGS

Happy Hari Raya Puasa to you and yours! I'm not really sure what that means, except that it's a Muslim holiday and it meant no school on Monday for the kids and a day off for Shelby, too. The latest in Singapore this past week has of course been the earthquake in neighboring Indonesia. A 7.8 earthquake struck off of the island of Padang in Sumatra, western Indonesia, which was felt not only in Malaysia but here in Singapore as well. I personally did not feel the earthquake at our house but know some people who did. There was an aftershock the following day, and unfortunately for those in the area of Padang, total devastation. Oddly enough, a few weeks ago I researched Padang as a possible vacation spot for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday at the recommendation of a friend. However, I did read something that made me hesitant: the strong possibility of an earthquake predicted to hit that area "sometime in the next ten years" due to the fact that it lies on some fault line that is susceptible to earthquakes. I relayed this information to the family at dinner one night and of course they all laughed at me for being concerned about something that might or might not occur.....and just look what happened! I am so sad for all those who have been affected by the earthquake, and very glad that I chose not to make reservations for our holiday there. As of yesterday the rescue efforts have all been called off, and there are over 1,000 people feared dead. Not only that, but the worst typhoon in the Philippines history struck Manila last week, resulting in flood conditions and leaving over half a million people homeless. Many of the Philippino helpers in our neighborhood have family and friends who were directly affected by the typhoon, and efforts are underway here in the neighborhood to send donations of food and clothing to Manila. Olivia, the helper who takes care of Sugar for us when we travel, has a home in Manila that is now covered in mud and her family had to move out. It really has caused me to stop and think about several things, number one being how very fortunate we are to be able to help others, and also how a couple years ago if I heard this kind of news on international television I would have been like, "oh that's halfway around the world, how sad but it doesn't really affect me" and change the channel. Now when I hear news of happenings in southeast Asia it has a totally different effect on me! It's not just "somewhere around the world", it's right here, nearby, close to home, at least close enough where we can do something to try and help out.

On a lighter note, Shelby is a happy man these days as he has signed us up for ASN, Asia Sports Network, which is kind of like ESPN. We can actually watch Monday night football games on Tuesday nights, and even get some college football games which he records since they come on in the middle of the night, then he can watch them the next day. How happy are we! We also discovered a TV show called "Singapore Idol" which as you probably guessed is an Asian version of American Idol! Singaporeans singing western songs like Donna Summer's "I Will Survive" was just too painful to watch! haha! Last week I made my own version of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies, which is dipping Ritz crackers into melted mint-chocolate chips. yum! And my neighbor Donna was able to order some corn tortillas for me last week so I was able to make chicken enchiladas. Corn tortillas aren't always easy to find! Yes, it was a good week! And Richard the provisioner was able to bring three 12-packs of Diet Dr. Pepper to the tune of $43 Sing Dollars. Ouch! I know, I know, it's insane.....but it's Shelby's favorite and he savors every drop..... In the photo above, you will see Shelby with his new Chinese gong. He has wanted a gong ever since we moved here, and not just any wimpy old gong; he wanted one that gongs with meaning! Loud! So now when he gets home from work each day his routine is to strike the gong to let us know he's home. Yeah, we hear it all right.....and feel it, too! It also doubles as a dinner bell, and could possibly replace the doorbell when we move back to the states! Shelby and Wes are playing in a mens softball league and have double headers every Sunday. It's been a fun thing for them to do together, and they come home all dirty and sweaty and rehash every inning. Last Friday after school, Wes took the ferry to Batam, Indonesia with a group from school on a service project. They set up computers for some of the local middle and high-schoolers and plan to help them with their English via the computers. Right up Wesley's alley for sure. Kasey flew to Jakarta Indonesia with the volleyball team to compete in an exchange with Jakarta International School and Kuala Lumpur. They stay with families who have students at the school there, which is a really neat experience. Our girls won every game of every match and came home smiling!

This past weekend we helped host a comedy night at a local restaurant as part of a fundraiser for our upcoming housebuilding project in Cambodia. It was a huge success, and we were overwhelmed at the generosity of those who attended and who helped us reach our goal. We had a guy doing stand-up comedy, and also had a raffle and live auction. As a result, we not only raised enough money to pay for the building materials needed, but also have additonal money to fund some wells for the Cambodian people. We will be traveling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia over fall break with a group of seven families from the Singapore American School, two families from Brunei, and one Canadian. Our goal is to build 16 houses in two days. It will definitely be a different type of trip for the Waychoff family, and we're looking forward to it! :)