Rice Planting Day

Today was rice planting day at Wat Opot.  There is a small rice field next to the pagoda that Wat Opot plants and harvests each year to make use of the land and to keep the children connected to the people of the region.  Every person on campus who consumes rice had to help plant, so every resident from 2 year old Ratana (who mostly just splashed around) to me, Melinda, other volunteers, and Khmer staff got into the mud to work.  It was my first experience in the rice fields.  I had fun with the kids, but two hours was enough for me.  I can't imagine doing that full time.  We also only had one small field to plant whereas most planters have to do several large fields.  I definitely have a new found respect and appreciation for the people who work the rice fields.  It is tough work to say the least.

The rice plants come in bundles.  When you plant, you pull off just a small portion and stick it down in the mud.  The rice goes into rows, ideally about a foot apart.  The planting is done after the start of the rainy season after the fields flood.  The rice needs mud to grow in and the field must remain wet for the plants to stay alive.  Last year there was a drought and the fields dried up before they should have, leaving everyone in the region worried as to whether there would be enough rice this year.  As I understand, enough rain came later in the season to revitalize the fields to still yield a substantial crop. 

Ty Meng, Kimseck, Srey Mao, Davit

Kunthy and Phanya

Srey Nak

Channy

Brian showing the boys how to plant

Melinda helping Virak and Wey

I can't stress the importance of rice in Cambodia and all of Southeast Asia, and I guess Asia in general. Rice is served for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A meat or vegetable dish is eaten with it, but rice is the main food. When someone is going to eat a meal, they say they are going to "hope bai," or "eat rice." In the US we would have rice with our meal, here you eat rice and whatever comes with it.

Takeo province, where Wat Opot is located, is filled with neatly planted rice fields.  Ours certainly isn't as pretty, but we had a great time and tried our best!

Lethal Salads

My father taught us many things growing up, including that vegetables were bad for you. He doesn't like them, in fact he despises them. To this day the hides them in his napkin, mashed potatoes, under the table etc to avoid having to eat them. It's a miracle that my sister and I grew up liking vegetables eating with a parent who would say "don't touch them! They're poisonous!!" As we got older, Amy and I joined the fight of taking care of my dad. Now there's three of us at every meal putting veggies on his plate and sitting there watching him like a small child until he eats them. We also do terrible unspeakable acts like make him drink water and take his vitamins, pure evil things. I always thought he was silly and that no harm could ever come from eating vegetables... I was wrong.

Tonight we were served a salad with dinner. A sort of make your own with a plate of lettuce, a carrot, cucumber, tomato, etc. I put some lettuce into my bowl where I would then break it up. Out of the big pieces popped a giant centipede looking thing. It ran out of the bowl and onto my lap. Wayne quickly said "move! Don't touch it!" I instinctively jumped up but thought he was kidding. I said, half-jokingly, "should I kill it?" He replied with an urgent "YES! It's poisonous!"

All those years we thought poor Dan Bernoske was just being silly, it turns out he was right. Vegetables ARE poisonous. Nobody listened to him! I had it coming! Dad, I promise to never force another vegetable down your throat. You win.

Ruined

In Melinda's latest blog post, she describes how every few nights, the WatOpotians crowd around on the dorm porch for a DVD.  Their DVD collection is quite impressive thanks to donated movies and the plethora of cheap movie shops in Phnom Penh.  Cars, Shrek, and other animated movies were great for a while but now the kids are craving more action.  Recent showings have been of the Jurassic Parks, ET, Avatar, War of the Worlds, Fantastic 4, The Goonies, and the new Karate Kid among others.  A big crowd pleaser was the Indiana Jones trilogy.  It was so popular in fact that the kids decided to make it real life.

I have written before about trips to Phnom Chisor, which they love visiting.  There are ruins to explore, monkeys, temples… everything necessary for an adventure.  On a trip last week to Phnom Chisor, some of the boys maybe went a little too far in living their Indiana Jones fantasies.  In the middle of an intense treasure hunt in the ruins, which were empty of visitors making it even more fun, they had to twist round pegs to see which one held their prize.  They twisted the first peg- nothing.  The second- nothing.  On the third and last chance to find the treasure, Meng Ty reached for the peg, twisted, and it fell off.  He broke it.  These ruins have been standing there perfectly fine for a thousand years.  The Wat Opot kids come through for 10 minutes and leave a path of destruction.  Maybe we’ll go back to Disney classics and calm down their imaginations….

Below are some pictures I've taken over the months of our trips to Phnom Chisor.

Mr. Chai

Searching for treasure

Phanya and Somnang

Phanya and Somnang

Meng Ty, the leader of the adventure

The infamous Chisor monkey

Taking a break

Srey Mao taking a rest, treasure hunting is hard work!

I'm so lucky to be playing host this and last week to two of my best friends from high school, Whitney and Laura.  We traveled a little to major stops in Cambodia; from the beaches of Sihanoukville to ancient temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap.  We got to do a little ruins exploration of our own, but unlike the WatOpotians, we didn't break anything!  Here are some pictures of us at the Angkor Wat complex.

Me, Laura, and Whitney walking into Angkor Wat

The complex is filled with insanely huge trees

One of the most famous parts, the trees of Ta Prohm where Tomb Raider was filmed

We climbed to the top of one temple to get an aerial view... you can faintly see a yellow hot air balloon in the sky

Laura and my failed attempt at horsemaning.  They're filling me in on all the American pop culture I'm missing.  If you don't know of horsemaning, google it.  Some of the pictures are really funny.

Laura and her elephant friend

This little man popped out of nowhere and took us to hidden places.  And he had a great beard.

Laura, me, and Whit outside of the main Angkor Wat temple

SFF 1: Teen day in Phnom Penh

The response to the Summer Fun Fund was slow but sure, and with the help of friends and family we were able to meet our goal!  Thank you so so much to everyone who donated :)

To kick off the festivities, Cora, Melinda, and myself escorted the 13 high schoolers (grades 7-12) into Phnom Penh for a day of exploring.  The only condition was that you could only go if you passed your final exams.  Everyone passed, so everyone got to go!  An organization in Hong Kong donated cameras at the beginning of the summer that the kids were able to borrow to get their own shots.  Most of these pictures are Cora's... thanks for sharing, Coca Cora!

We left bright and early in a rented mini-bus.  The boys were dressed in their nicest trousers and shirts, and the girls were dressed to the nines; makeup, heels, hair all done up.  They had all picked out their outfits the night before and spent hours primping before it was time to go.  The girls looked gorgeous but were warned that they better be able to keep up in heels!

First stop: Royal Palace.  Most of the kids had never been before and they were in awe over the architecture and décor.  It was especially great for Saman who just finished high school and will begin university this fall pursuing a career in architectural engineering.  While the others marveled over the jade Buddha, silver tiles, and rubies, Saman studied the building’s minute structural details.  The only graduating senior, he is an extremely talented artist and will be greatly missed when he leaves for university!  

Nak

Saman 

The whole group minus Melinda

Brother and sister: Pesei and Srey Leak

Van

Sombaht

Me and Pesei inside the Silver Pagoda

Part of the Royal Palace

Second stop: National Museum.  The tourist attractions are strategically located in Phnom Penh so that one could hit the Palace, then the National Museum, check out the art and handcraft streets, then hit the riverfront.  Everything is so close, and easily walking distance.  That is, of course, if you’re not in 4 inch heels.  I insisted that we walk, they insisted that we drive; and since I’m a huge pushover, we got the minibus drive to take us from one place to the next.  All quarter of a mile.  We toured the museum filled with ancient artifacts and statues, and exhibits on Khmer Rouge effects on the nations treasures among others.   It’s another gorgeous building and I think they all enjoyed learning something about Cambodian history, especially from the map that showed the Khmer territory hundreds of years ago.  The Khmer empire ruled most of Indochina and Thailand.  Even in the 60s and 70s Cambodia was a booming country, but after the genocide it is now decades behind its neighbors.  Phnom Penh in comparison to Hanoi, Bangkok, and other Asian capitals is a nothing city.  I wonder what it would be like, and the whole country for that matter, had it not been for it’s dark but recent past.

Long Dy photographing the National Museum

Back: Saman, LongDy, Chareya, Srey Aun, Srey Leak, Srey Lis, Srey Nich
 Front: Van, Pesei, Nith, Nhanh, Sombaht, Leak

Srey Nich

Cora and me

Third stop: lunch.  We went to a nice but modest Khmer restaurant near the Central Market.  They put us in a private room with our own TV (yay!  Khmer music videos!!!) and each person got to order a meal and a fancy drink.  The food was delicious and they ate every last bite (well, Long Dy ate every last bite).  We wanted to go to a special place, but also wanted to be careful not to spoil them in a way to make them feel uncomfortable.  We got exactly what we wanted.  

Saman documenting our feast

Me and LongDy

Nak enjoys his strawberry smoothie; LongDy, Srey Nich, and Srey Aun admire the fancy LokLak

Last stop: Sorya shopping center.  The finale of the day was an afternoon at the 6-story Sorya Shopping mall.  The mall has a grocery store, several Western-style fast food restaurants, a very pungent Khmer food court, levels of shops, and on the top a 4D movie, regular cinema, skating center, arcade, and upscale confectionary.  The building as a whole is very modern, with many old school Khmer twists thrown in along the way.  The one thing everyone was looking forward to was my big promise to let everyone do the 4D movie.  They went in to see/experience the Haunted House Coaster in groups of 4.  It was only a few minutes long but those watching from the outside had more fun than those actually participating thanks to a TV screen showing video footage of those inside.  The reactions were priceless, from attempting to fight the ghosts, to the boys screaming like girls, to hiding their eyes in each other’s laps.  Across the board it was the favorite part of the day for sure.  The movies were done and we hit the arcade.  They had all of the standards- ski ball, racing, the claw, etc. and a Japanese game where the player has to punch as hard as possible.  You get 3 chances and a total score.  Long Dy, not the most burly guy, stepped up and surprised everyone with a very high score.  A group of strong, tough guys were watching from a distance.  When Long Dy finished, the most macho one of them all walked up to outdo the score.  He tried, and failed, 3 times to produce a single score higher than Long Dy’s.  In the end, he was a few hundred points behind LongDy and absolutely mortified.  Victory for Wat Opot!

Leak, Sombaht, Nith, and Chareya brave the 4D movie

Srey Aun squeezed in the front so she could hold on to Srey Leak!  

They made fun of each others reactions for days 

Srey Lis, Van, and LongDy playing basketball against one another

Srey Leak

Srey Nich

Fancy footwear

LongDy and Cora playing basketball

Nhanh cheering on Sombaht

We ran out of arcade coins, piled back in the bus and went home.  On the way back, most of us slept including me.  I found out later that my head was bobbing so much that everyone (even the driver) was laughing at me.  I was in the front seat and visible to all from the mirror.  I’m glad I could provide some entertainment.

The Wat Opot teenagers have their groups and their problems, but for one day at least got to come together as one.  We got back and had a light dinner as a group and explained why and how the day was possible.  They were so appreciative of everything they got to do, and were so touched that people they never even met had donated money so they could do something special.  One day all about them where they didn’t have to compete with little kids for attention, where they could drop the issues within their own cliques, and where they could have the freedom to see and learn what they wanted.  It truly brought a sense of unity to the teenagers and though we went 3 weeks ago the effects have lasted. 

Thank you again to everyone who gave your money, your prayers, and your support to Wat Opot and our first Summer Fun Fund sponsored event!