Some things never change!

So although Vietnam is very different in so many ways… esp good ways, there are some definite funny things that pretty much stay consistent across the SE Asian penninsulas here.
Tuk tuk drivers, and their scam prices (got ripped off by a taxi driver for our first time from the dreaded meter on crack- as our friend calls it) One of the rigged meteres that jumps up wayyyy too fast. That was pretty annoying.. again more an insult to the well-traveled instincts we supposedly claim.
The walking shopping mall- as I call it. When you just want to simply sit alone and take in the beautiful views.. but instead there's a hoard of fakely friendly people walking by constantly trying to sell you something.

An evidential success!

Lucy and I were both sooo excited today because as we were visiting the orphanage again today, a stranger walked up! Yes, it really was someone that had seen our flier! We immediately made friends... and will be meeting later tonight after hanging out with the kids. Zach (his name)is also an extended traveler, so maybe we'll even have a new travle partner.

I also was excited because both the store managers I tried to recruit for donations seemed open-minded to my ideas. They will be speaking with their bosses today and hope to have a more concrete answer by tomorrow. We will be gone on a bus to Saigon tomorrow, but I already got the orphanage directors in the loop and I hope they can work on something feasible!

Vietnam!

Vietnam has exceeded both Lucy and my expectations. It is clean, fun, and most of all- friendly! We have been meeting so many people, foreign and local.
They drive on the right side of the road here.. so in some ways its been easier.. but its also been hard to get used to again. The name of their currency is a bit fun/funny... as I can't help but laugh everytime Lucy exclaims "I really need to get some dong."
Other things that are different-- Thousands and thousands of motorbikes everywhere.. its like a sea of moving heads. The beaches so far don't compare to Thailand.. but they're still nice.
Other odd tidbits:
Baby chairs and tables to eat. Seems to be the norm for most locals.. beats their normal squatting. It had to have started as just another cheap short cut.. money and efficiency for moving around. Quite a funny sight though.. we've only gotten stuck on them a few times.
Reading this amazing book called "When heaven and earth Changed places." As they not only copy fake DVD's and clothes, they also copy books. Today we even saw a fake Ipod.. not even close. I finally broke down and bought fake IPOD speakers though, 8$ later.

Hacked?

Well... my blogspot is all written in Vietnamese at the moment... so I'm not sure what's going to happen to this. I'm assuming its just some kind of automatic converter.. which is mildly annoying.. and hope that it does not sick from now on out. AND moreso, not hacked...? Anywaysss.. got on here to write about the amazing experiences we are having in Vietnam and hopefully post pix if I have time.

So far so good!

A more successful day!

Got up early to go to the orphanage again.. although not as early as I would have liked after having had a tick bite me in the back.... made for a somewhat restless night =)

This time we had something to show upon arrival... no food or money as they would prefer at times.. but a flier! Lucy and I spent a decent amount of time on trying to get it right. And we wanted them to check it and add a few cambodian peices before copying and distributing. They were pretty excited about it, as were we. I figured it would be a much better use of our time trying to promote this place that barely exists even in the eyes of the local cambodians, let alone not even on a map. This way long after our visits, more people can come. And as I explained to the director, even though we may not have a lot of money to give, the ones that follow may! At this stage in our lives, Lucy and I have more to offer from our heart/brain than our wallet. He was very happy and surprisingly understanding/appreciative!

We set off after lunch. Spent the whole day posting fliers and promoting. It was exciting, but at the same time much more tiresome than I think either of us expected. We had to take little AC/pastry breaks every so often to keep our energies up. We worked 'til night-fall... at which point we amazingly reaped some rewards right away! People had already started recogmizing us from the posters and were coming up to ask us about it! It was soooooooo perfrectly great! And more than I could have hoped for. Many people were actually very interested and were so happy to have someone readily deliver all the info to them. I as more than excited to help them along!

Tomorrow is our last day... and will be a little more of the same. However, I plan to dive in and become a little more interactive with my fellow foreign travelers instead of passively hopeing they see a flyer. I also plan on engaging a few of the local grocery marts to donate their leftover foods from the end of the day. I'm not sure how fruitful this may be, but its worth a final shot.

Another Emotional Day

Lucy and I have been increasingly becoming more upset... I won't say depressed, because that's a big word to just throw around. But every day being surrounded by extreme poverty and hopelessness has really just been taking it's toll.

I'm still overwhelmed by how much I'm learning. Not just about society, and culture, and poverty... but about myself. My interests, my reactions, my emotions, my philosophies, my trivialness, the list is endless. After resisting for about an hour, I couldn't help but finally break down in tears from all the suffering. But even selfishly. How could I ever have worried about my issues... even the seemingly bigger ones.. in the face of all this. I just prayed that I would never lose sight of my time in Cambodia.

Making flyers with hopes to have them hanging today. Played and sung and danced with the children until the sweat poured down my face so hard that it literally stung my eyes. I can't remember the last time Í've sweat so hard. Again, they have no electricity, as I continued to remind myself there would be no fans... let alone AC or a building to even put it in.

Another VERY difficult day

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.