Cambodia!

Holy guac- where has the time gone??? I officially have less than a month in Asia and am already more than halfway through my time with CCPP. Bittersweet.... Just wishing time could slow down for just a second to let my mind catch up a bit!

To start where I left off:

I had another luxurious flight from Hong Kong back to Saigon and had just enough time to haggle for a taxi and find a guesthouse before everyone closed up at midnight. Woke up early the next day and caught the first bus to Phenom Penh. Crossed the border no problems and got to sit next to a very talkative and intrusive Russian who smelled moldy for a good 6 hours. Arrived in Phenom Penh and found out that the buses for Sihanoukville had already left- checked into a nearby guesthouse, befriended an Aussie and two Nigerians over dinner and headed to bed. Early morning stroll around the grand palace and breakfast on the river in PP and then jumped on a bus at noon towards Sihanoukville.

Got picked up by Madeline, CCPP's new director, from the bus stop and hopped into a tuk tuk. I learned within the first few minutes that she grew up with the beautiful and sweet Jess Levee- a sure sign of good things to come- and she was gracious enough to give me a mini tour of the town as we flew by in our little tuk tuk. Arrived at CCPP right around 5 which is closing time so everyone was outside at the bar next door with a fresh beer in their hand. Got introduced, shown around and given my room- nothing fancy but oh how I loved unpacking and putting that backpack away! Went outside and grabbed a beer as well and got to know my fellow volunteers before we all headed out for dinner- real burgers at Outback (no, not the chain with bloomin onions)- delicious!

Some background info on the program and the town: Sihanoukville is a little city on the Cambodian coast near the Vietnam border. The town is broken up into a few different sections and beaches which are fairly spread out. The beaches here are gorgeous- white sand, turqouise water- but are also taken over a lot by little restaraunts and shops and vendors offering massages, pedicures and children selling bracelletes and fireworks. Like much of Cambodia, much of this town is plauged with poverty- made obvious by the amount of beggars and delapitated shacks lined behind the bigger resorts.

Sihanoukville has been a backpackers place for quite awhile and the tourism here is what keeps this little place afloat. Unfortunately, with the increased tourism, other serious issues have become more prevalant- theft is not uncommon and cases of vilonce and rape are not unheard of here (though most of these cases tend to be more localized around the heavy bar scene here). More disconcerting, however, is the fact that this place has become a destination of those who come to Asia for the sex tourism. Even worse and more sickening, it has become a 'hotspot' for pedophiles.

Because kids can often make 'good money' selling on the beach to tourists, they often decide to forego school and spend their days and nights out on the beach schmoozing with the fat westerners laying out in speedos- charming them and eventually getting them to buy whatever they are selling. And how can you refuse?? These kids are beyond adorable- and they are tough as nails- you can tell they are poor and they will sit forever and chat with you- you feel guilty and sad for this sweet child so you buy $5 with of handmade bracelletes and feel better for helping out- that seems to be the mentality here. And I have no doubt that each beach kid goes home with anywhere from $10-40/night- which is huge in a place where teachers get paid $30/month and cops get paid $80/month. Thus, in a place where education is seriously lacking and costs money, heaps of kids decide they rather make the money and learn English through their haggling and bargining with the western tourists (and these kids have excellent english skills after a few years on the beach- but they can't read or write a word of it!).

A lot of these beach kids are the ones that fall into prostitution though- easy money. Your heart always breaks when you see a young (12-17ish) pretty Khemer girl walking the beaches at night. There are other stories of western tourists offering kids on the beach a wad of cash to come back to their hotel for a few hours- absolutely sickening. With a corrupt government and police force and a terrible national history, the problems do not seem to be getting any better as time goes on- it's ultimately a vicious cycle perpetuated by poverty.

CCPP, Cambodian Childrens Painting Project, is a NGO dedicated to giving kids a safe place to be. There are a lot of different projects that they run but child safety, I would say, is the number one priority. It was started by an artist who used to paint on the beaches here and would attract a rather large number of beach kids who were all interested in what he was doing. What it has evolved into now, is a program that allows children of all ages to come and learn and play. Each child is allowed to do two paintings a day which are then sold in our gallery- the paintings are $4/each: $2 goes directly to the kid and $2 gets put back into the program. Everyday after the morning art, there is an hour long English lesson and/or a typing class. After the afternoon painting session, the kids get to do some kind of arts and crafts and/or read and play games. Once a week (sometimes more), we take the kids on a field trip to a nearby beach or temple or to see the monkeys. We serve snacks and a hot lunch daily to anyone who shows up and provide health care, dental care, clothes and food to anyone who needs it. CCPP is always finding new sponsors for kids to go to school as well and keeps records of their attendence and makes house visits whenever neccessary. There's a bike fund to buy and maintain bikes for kids who live further away and a rice fund where needy families get a designated amount of rice a month. We also do a trade with the local English school where we have one volunteer help teach everyday and, in turn, they sponsor 10 kids for a year.

All in all, it is an impressive program that offers a ton of great services to any kid who wants or needs them. There is no requirement to show up or punishment for not attending- it is entirely the child's choice. We have anywhere from 30-110 kids showing up daily ranging in age from 1.5 to 18 years old. Though most of our kids all come from poor families, all of them seem to have a family and home of sorts- some being raised by relatives and some living in rather depressing locations- it is not an orphange though as many seem to assume.

It has been really nice waking up in the morning with a purpose again. Working with the kids is entirely exhausting at times but is fun and entertainng as well. Just like the kids back home, a lot of them are just little 'cheeky monkies' (as two of the Aussie girls just taught them to say- aka: little shits) and like to make your life a little bit harder by 'boxing' with one another or messing up eachothers paintings or just climbing all over you. As a whole though, it is a great group of kids with some amazing talent. The group of volunteers, as well, is a fantastic group of people. We have an international crew that is ever-changing but all of which are beautiful souls. My time there, thus far, has proven to be worth the time and money and my only regret is not having more time here.

I have much more to write and share about the individual kids and the wonderful volunteers and the great little Cambodian towns I have since visited but I will save that for the next blog and just get SOMEthing up for now- sorry for slacking!

If you want to look up some more info on CCPP, look us up on the interweb- it's a worthy cause and amazing program if you are looking for some place to stash a bit of cash...

www.letuscreate.org