So Today.. we woke up early to get an early start on the day so we could volunteer our time at a local orphanage as much as possible. Although we got up very early, it didn't quite go as planned... as it never does.
After much help and sorting out a lot of BS, we finally made it after 5pm. I expected it to be a life-changing experience... I tried tp even expect the worst, but I could have never expected what I saw. Describing it here wouldn't even do it justice but I suppose I have to try... for memory sake and maybe fill in with pictures later?
We know from much experience here in Cambodia that this is an extremely impoverished country.. and we are literally walking wallets as some refer.. and this bothers us so much in so many ways. But we have to keep are spirits up as much as possible. Because Lucy and I aren't in a position in our lives right now to be offerring money. Many people have jobs, but no time. We don't have paying jobs, and a lot of time... so that is what we have to offer.. and we cannot feel bad about that.
Even though they really really just need so much, it kills us.
So many kids are sick, there is little to no electricity, barely a roof over their head (and what I mean by barely.. is that yes, there is one, but it is makde of makeshift tins with many holes for the rain to make life miserable ALWAYS). A 15-yr old basically runs the place, and a few cambodian volunteers help where they can. They have NO government funding. After taking a tour of the place, and seeing and learning and hearing about all the endless issues they have and things they need.. I was a bit overwhelmed. I had to take a few steps back to really ground myself.. as there was nothing super immediate Lucy or I could do to really help this place in the few days we have. I aksed them to start prioritizing their problems for me so I could start with the most important, and see there was anything I could do there.. and if not, we could move onto the 2nd one. Unfortunately, as i sort have suspected at that point-- their number one problem was shortage of food. They want us to buy them food at the local store... but with much time and explanation through broken English... I tried to help them understand that is not what we were here for. That's not to say we can't mooch up some money to buy them food... but that of course, we could.. but that only helps them for a few days.. whle we are here. Give a man a fish today, and he will still starve tomorrow. No, I know I cannot teach these people to fish necessarily so they can live tomorrow... but there HAS to be something we can do in the way of sustenance... because my 100 bannanas I could buy are just not going to do it for them. This whole thing has been an extremely troublesome and difficult thing to go through, and my stomach has literally been in knots for days now. I have some ideas, but I'm not super sure... I asked them for help in brainstorming.. but they just can't seem to understand the concept or the English.. I dont know.
My first idea was to create flyers with all the info necessary to attracting and helping those people/tourists here who can continue to help. Because after us, that's it. So if we can continue the chain of people, that would be so much more effective than that time volunteered for an hour teaching English.
The only other idea I had after having discussed with them, was to try and contact some farms. There are many many more poor farms here than rich ones, but I know and hope that there has to be at least SOME richer ones.. that we could setup small regular donations from. I just don't know where to begin with that one, and no one seems to be able to help. The third idea, was in addition to the flyers we print and hang in as many guesthouses as we can, we can go downtown to the partial tourist district and hand them out to people in person marketing and hopefully use our charm and skills to inform and inspire others to help continue our mission of helping.
I'm really overwhelmed right now, so I'm probably not thinking as clearly as I can.. so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to come up with a few more better things. IN the meantime with so limited of time, I'm trying not to spend too much time planning (as I know this is an essential part to efficiency and maximizing the help we can offer) because I have a tendency to get so caught up in the planning and leave not enough time for the doing. So I have realized that sometimes i just have to force myself off the boat into the water prematurely to get things done at the cost of maybe the best solution. Time management I suppose is one of those things you have to work on your whole life.
Lucy and I have to also concern ourselves with safety... as this being such a poor country and in such a poor part of town, people are in dire straights. So although I can understand their needs to rob and do other horrible things, we have to do our very best to steer clear of this. We had a tuk tuk drop us off and pick us up, but when we were dropped off.. we literally did not understand where to go... it looked like a garbage dump (not joking) it was very unclear as there was no real building in site. As we got closer there was a signpost with the name of the orphanage. But what we found as we got closer and swollowed my instincts of fear of where we were, was a bunch of makeshift buildings in the ghetto.
These next few days are going to be very trialing, and one of the many challenges I will be facing alone, is keeping my stress levels within reason. Because although Lucy and I spent the hour an a half in very different ways for our first visit, we both walked away with very intense emotions and entirely overwhelmed.
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