Cambodia trip 2009 daily updates:

On the 4th August a group of young people from North Devon arrive in Cambodia.  They have been saving for nearly two years.

Their trip is focused on three things:

To experience what life is like for children living in poverty.  They plan to visit an orphanage, a city slum, and some rural villages.

Secondly, it is to seek out God within all this suffering.  They hope that by exploring the issues, and experiencing the conditions, they will find answers.

Thirdly, it is to film and promote their findings on their return home.  By recording their emotions, and showing the issues they encounter they hope to make things more personal.  The group want to make sure their trip makes a difference to Cambodian children’s lives.

To support the young people by booking them to share their findings with your group, just send us an e-mail via the contact section on the website.

To support the children they are visiting go straight to the red donation button at the top of the screen.

Thank you for following their trip.  Below is their written unedited daily blog.

DAY 1

Good Morning from Cambodia!

We arrive at the airport, and being my first time EVER in an airport I was, to say the least… fascinated. The various stages of security and procedures were all very exciting to a first-timer, and I was loving every second. It STILL hadn’t sunk in that in 24 hours I was going to be at the other side of the world. Maybe it would hit home when the plane took off? No… It really didn’t.

At 8.30 we boarded the flight to Mumbai, after stopping outside the door to touch the outside of the plane that would be our home for the next 9 hours. “Can we open the window?” I said casually as I fanned myself… “No Jess…. “… Oops!

After the SINGLE most amazing journey of my life and various times of me opening the window shutter to look outside (disturbing EVERYBODY’S sleep) to turn around saying ‘WOOOW…This is the BEST THING EVER!’  we arrived at Mumbai at 11.20 pm [India Time].. this being around 5.30 pm in England.

The Indian Airport staff were strict… confiscating Ashley’s NEW pack of 8 AA batteries and the majority of the groups water supply. After a 2 hour queue to pass through security. and a compliment about my watch from the lady scanning me for weapons… we were off…rushing down the corridors to the next flight. The only part of India I experienced was the short gusts of hot air that hit between the doors and the plane…

It STILL hadn’t quite hit me that we were SO far away from home.

The 5 hour flight to Bangkok began, and what was to be the most uncomfortable sleep of my life. At 7a.m. we arrived in Bangkok [Thai Time]. With 6 hours to waste we made our way to the “MEMBERS LOUNGE”, grabbed lunch in an….INTERESTING… Chinese restaurant during which Chris found a small animal in his soup, and I mistook the sugar for salt. Oh dear. We were all absolutely shattered, and crashed out on every sofa available in the Lounge after tucking in to the COMPLIMENTARY popcorn.

At 12.30pm we left Bangkok on the third plane, the smallest of the three. The taking off and landing were the most exciting thing in HISTORY for me at least… and I managed to dash to the window seat on every flight.

Phnom Penh… Picked up by a retro minibus and the fact we were abroad finally hit home. After a 40 minute ride in the bus, and the most extraordinary views… We arrived at the hotel. The single most divine cold shower was had, by this time we were ALL dying for one. After the shower I discovered that the drain was OUTSIDE the shower door… meaning all my clothes were wet! HOW EXCITING!

Time to relax….falling asleep at 7pm… and waking up at 10 am the next day… 1 hour after the meeting for breakfast! OOPS!

Talk soon! [Joshua 1 : v 9]

Jess x

DAY 2 :  Wednesday 5^th August, 2009- a relaxing day getting over the journey

We all woke up late after a long journey; some people like Geri didn’t get up till 11. As we came down for breakfast the first thing that hit us was the heat (it’s slightly warmer over here than back home). At breakfast we saw our first glimpse of the Cambodian culture a monk (there’s loads of them here dressed in orange) each morning they go door to door asking for money so they can feed themselves in return the person who gives them money gets a blessing. All the males at some point in their lives will become a monk.

The first thing we did was go for a walk down the street we were staying at to get to know our surroundings. Along our way we saw loads of street stands, people selling anything to get some money. The scariest thing though was the roads. In Cambodia there are no road laws. There are one way streets but people drive both ways down it so the traffic is a bit hectic people just drive. Crossing the road is always fun as people just start walking across the road, and the traffic just goes around them.

The main way we get around the city is tuk-tuks. They are mopeds that pull a carriage for four people. Being in the traffic is even scary as the drivers just drive weaving in and out of each other. Our first trip in a tuk-tuk lead us to the central market which was soooo busy - puts Barnstaple market to shame. The slightest look and they’re ready to pounce on you with their cambodian charm. I personally didn’t fall for it, but you always get one and the one was Geri and before she knew it she was trying on 10 pairs of sunglasses. We then went on to a shopping centre which was way posh and made me feel bad because we had just came from the market where people hardly have any money, to this shopping centre that has an arcade in it and everything for the people who had money to waste. It was way weird seeing the two very different lives in the same area. At lunchtime I was the first one to need to use the toilet so off I went, when I got there I was confronted with like a hole in the ground and a bucket of water! – “so you do your thing in the hole then tip the water down afterwards”. It was an ok experience apart from sharing the bathroom with ant like creatures.

Back at the market we saw fried spiders and locusts.

Rachel.

DAY 3  : Work starts!

Wow what a full day.  Quite a number of us are still jet lagged, so it took us a while to get going this morning.  Rachel was the third person in the party to get ill. So far we have been lucky, as everyone has just been ill for a morning/afternoon.

We spent the morning discussing our plans for the week, and having worship.  Then it was all hands to the pump to get all the craft things ready in time for our trip to the orphanage - this will be our main way of getting alongside the Khmer people and understanding the issues they face.  Jess, and Rachel went to the internet café with me to do the blogs and download pictures.  Two hours later, five computers and two internet cafes later, we had only managed to do a very basic blog.  Broadband hasn’t arrived here so to send pictures takes forever.

We caught tuk-tuks over to the orphanage.  The sights were amazing.  There are mopeds pulling huge trailers of metal piping, or whole families on one bike.  We past little run down shacks and run down shops, and go through the newly built area with modern buildings, the new supermarket with escalators (people travel from miles around just to try it out).  Sometimes we drive past the huge “snooker halls” or “Kareoke bars”, that are not what they sound at all.  Usually they are huge red light buildings, with expensive cars outside.

On arrival at the orphanage both us and the children meet each other with great excitement and awkwardness.  What do we say?  How do we behave?  The formalities seemed to make it worse, but then we got the crafts and games out and suddenly there was screaming and laughter and instant success.

There are 44 children at the orphanage.  Most are orphans, or from poor or abusive backgrounds.  Some have HIV.  The centre is so happy and caring it feels detached and miles away from the life outside it’s gates.  I met a young boy and his sister.  There older brother died two weeks ago.  It was so sad.  He had contracted meningitis and by the time they got him to a hospital he was on a life support.  The staff at the orphanage took it in three hour shifts to pump his oxygen manually.  It went on for four days before he died.  The brother and sister showed no outward signs of being affected.  I can’t quite get my head round it, but as one of the staff explained, “death is a regular thing in Cambodia”.  I suppose it is just part of life. I am looking forward to interviewing people for our filming, as there are many amazing stories to be told.  The laughter and play is nice, but there is a depth and strength to the people here that they hide well.

We left there as best friends, laughing and waving.  We are back tomorrow and now have a full itinerary planned.  It’s going to be a very full week.  We are back here tomorrow and then hopefully off to our first village on Saturday.

With everyone dripping and red faced from the heat we head out to eat.  It was air conditioned.  I can’t tell you how nice that was.  Small portions though, we had to order two meals each just to fill up – just as well it was cheap here.

Chris