Countdown to Wayne!

I've been back at Wat Opot a little under 2 weeks now, but that's old news.  The children are over my return and are waiting for the big arrival... WAYNE!  All day every day, all the children talk about and ask about is Wayne.  When is he coming home?  Why is he taking so long?  Most of them know he is coming back April 15th, the day after the Khmer New Year.  Today, however, someone decided to stir up false hope and spread a rumor that he was coming back this weekend.  To put these rumors to rest and give everyone something to relax them, Melinda made up a calendar to count down the days.

Ms. Kunthea got the honor of placing the first sticker on todays box

Melinda explaining the calendar to everyone

Good job Melinda, and our volunteers from New Zealand and Australia who drew Wayne!

Hanging on the office door where everyone can see it.

Even with something to see, I'm sure the kids will be asking about him all day tomorrow, and the next day until they finally get him back.  Hurry home Wayne, hurry home!!!

Life is Like This

Wayne, the co-founder and director of The Wat Opot Children's Community left for his family's home in the US a few days before I arrived and will be gone another two weeks.  He left because his mothers health was failing and she passed away shortly after he made it home.  The children here have all been so concerned about Wayne.  They know what it's like to lose parents, and worry about their "Pa Wayne."  From Michigan, Wayne posted the following entry to the Wat Opot website.  I'd like to share it with you.  It captures what makes Wat Opot so incredible, and maybe those who don't understand why I wanted to return so bad will after reading his words.


Life is Like This

Mother Knows Best

My mother used to tell me that everything happens for a reason. She would say it after something hadn’t gone my way to help ease the blow but it was never what I wanted to hear.  Of course when you’re growing up, your parents don’t know anything!!  I would think, “what does she know?!?!”  Through my travels, and the people I’ve met along the way, however, I’ve learned that no words are truer.  Last fall after 5 failed attempts to book a trip to Hanoi (power outage, lost credit card, visa office closed, travel agent system crashed twice), I gave up and stayed at Wat Opot.  Sure I was frustrated and upset at first, but decided to see what this blessing in disguise would bring, and what a blessing it was!  Had one of the things that kept me from Hanoi not occurred, I would never have met Zurich’s finest pediatric nurse Ms. Olivia Steinmann, whom I now hold very very close to my heart.  We shared a few days together at Wat Opot, and then had an incredible trip to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap.

Me and Olivia, mein haexli <3

Ancient ruins of Angkor Wat.  Viola, myself, and Olivia.

This philosophy proved itself true once again on my way back to Cambodia last week.  To make a long story short, I missed my connecting flight from Chicago to Los Angeles and failed to make the standby list on the last two flights out that night.  Just as I had started to panic about being stranded in Chicago and missing my next connection to Taipei, my dad back home contacted his best friend in Michigan City, Indiana who came to my rescue.  Jim Burris and my father have been like brothers since before they could walk, and he and his wife, Donna, and their daughter Amy have always been so special to my sister and me.  We used to visit them every summer but with jobs and school and always running out of time, I hadn’t seen them in 5 years.  I was still upset and teary-eyed when they picked me up.  I worried about my ticket to Asia being non-refundable, I worried about my luggage, which was already en route to Los Angeles, and I worried about whether I would EVER get back to the kids at Wat Opot.  All of my worry and sadness disappeared when I walked into the Burris’ familiar home and gave hugs to people I had missed and love so much!  I made calls and got everything taken care of, getting listed on the next flight out of LA two days later for a reasonable fee.  I spent two nights with the Burris’ and loved every second of it.  What started as a nightmare ended in an unforgettable side-trip that I now cherish. 

Jim!

Mom, you were right.  Everything does happen for a reason.  There were so many small factors that added up to me missing my flight in Chicago and even being routed to Chicago, and had one of them not occurred, who knows how long it would have been until I saw the Burris’!  In the end I made it (and my luggage, too!) back to Phnom Penh.  I immediately got in a tuk tuk headed straight from the airport to Wat Opot an hour away.  It was a long hour, but I arrived just before the weekly family service at the Pagoda next door and was greeted with big hugs and smiles.  I had no idea how much I missed these kids until I was back here.  Suddenly anything I had stressed about: the delays, the extra cost, the headache… all seemed so stupid.  What could I possibly have had to complain about in the end?!  I’m back at Wat Opot with the children I love so much, and nothing else matters :)

Melinda sent a tuk tuk from the village near Wat Opot.  He was standing outside of the airport holding a sign that read, "WELL COM KAT"

"KAT CHMA KAT CHMA"

I missed Chai and his famous smile :)

Phnom Chisor

March has arrived! I'm anxiously waiting to make my big return to Wat Opot, and am looking through pictures nonstop getting more and more excited. One album I just rediscovered was our trip to Phnom Chisor back in November. Olivia, a volunteer from Switzerland, Chihomi, a volunteer from Japan, and I took about 25 of the kids to Mountain (or Phnom) Chisor which is about a 45 minute walk from the main campus. On the top there are ancient ruins, vendors, lots of trouble for kids to get into, and wild monkeys. Everyone was so excited about it, especially the little ones and we had such a fun day :)

We passed by this beautiful little home in a village on the way to the mountain.

Samrat and the boys. On the way we practiced Khmer and English with each other and they tried to trick me into saying naughty things. Good thing Chihomi picked up Khmer very very well and saved me. They're all wearing long sleeves and it was so hot!! I kept asking if they were okay, but they insisted they were comfortable. By the time we came down, however, I ended up carrying an armful of sweatshirts while their eyes were peeled for a stream to jump into.

A bunch of the kids (and me somewhere in there) once we got to the top. They were already exhausted but still excited to play around in the ruins.

Exploring!

Chihomi! I miss her so much :(

Taking a rest on the ruins. Some are still smiling, but most of the kids were wiped at this point. I was too, those 500-ish steps to the top were a lot for someone who was totally out of shape!

LongDy checking out the view. He's also recovering from a scary run-in with a monkey. I got it on video but no pictures.

Chaney! So sweet :)

Olivia, Mr. Chai, and me.

Some of the ruins overlooking the view

We stopped for a hammock break before making the descent down and the long walk home!

On the way there, everyone was in groups and happy and laughing, and jumping on each other. On the way back they're in a single file line, no words, no smiles... miserably tired :(

Long Dy rode his bike back with some of the little ones, and recruited other big kids to come back with bikes and motos to scoop up the others.

Vandy and I brought up the rear, making sure everyone was accounted for. We took our sweet time getting back. It was a looooong trip home!

I'm looking forward to many more trips to Phnom Chisor, especially with Cora Marshall my very close friend from home who is coming to Wat Opot to teach for 2 months :) I couldn't be happier about her decision to join me and the Wat Opot family this summer!!!!

Back in the US

So much for me making up for my lack of posts! Another 3 months have passed since I said I'd be better with blogging.. oops.

I flew back to Maryland Thanksgiving week and plan on being here until early March then back to WAT OPOT :) While home Im taking NCLEX, working temporary jobs to make enough money to go back, and doing a little fundraising. In October, Wat Opot had a special guest- Fiona Newsome from New Zealand. She came for the 4th year in a row bringing donated beads and materials, and made jewelry. All of the kids participated in the jewelry making which she started doing as a way to bring art therapy to the children while providing a means to make money for the community. The little kids strung beads which hangs on an "Up and Coming Artist" board, and the older kids made incredible pieces with every detail handmade, even each link. The jewelry is sold to small business in Cambodia and a display hangs in the craft room where Wat Opot volunteers can purchase accessories, with all of the money going to the children's education. A portion of the money will go back into the craft room to buy more materials and fuel the program. The children benefit so much from the therapy aspect. They are so proud of their work and gain much confidence from accomplishing, even something as small as a beaded bracelet. I decided to take a bunch back to the US to sell and see how much I could raise. Im happy to report that I turned $320 worth of Wat Opot original jewelry into almost $900! With 4 kids in University, this $900 will be vital. Thank you to everyone who purchased jewelry from me. There are still necklaces, bracelets, and earrings left over if anyone is interested!

Baby Ratana helps to clean up the craft room.

Here is a link to Melinda's blog post that explains more about Fiona and her work benefitting Wat Opot: http://www.melindakaylivesfaraway.com/2010/10/princess-fiona.html

I've been so touched by the support of family and friends as I make my way back to Cambodia. Special thanks go to Caleb Griffin who made an extremely generous donation, and Ms. Abigail Anders my 10 year old best friend who asked family and friends to donate money to Wat Opot instead of giving her Christmas presents this year. Thank you also to Dan, the best big brother in the world, who is doing way more to help me out than he would ever take credit for!

I miss the kids terribly, but skype and email have allowed me to stay in touch with the older kids and I look forward to my daily email from Vandy :)

Now lets see how long I go until another one of these...

Pchum Ben Festival

It's been 5 weeks since my last entry! I didn't expect to neglect my blog so quickly. I'll try to recap what's been going on without turning this into a novel.

When it comes to holidays, the people of Cambodia don't mess around. Last week ended the 2-week Pchum Ben holiday and the country shut down Wednesday through Saturday to observe it. Pchum Ben is a festival to honor the dead, so people go to the Buddhist Wats to pray and offer food and goods to the monks and spirits, and visit family members. After being in the city working for a few weeks, I was eager to take advantage of the holiday and head out to Wat Opot to visit my Khmer family members, all 72 of them :)

It was a beautiful week for a holiday... until it downpoured for 3 days straight.

When I arrived on Wednesday, big things had already been happening. The Wat next door was busy with visitors, decorations, and lucky for us, a new sound system. Part of the tradition includes monks chanting ALL. DAY (and night). LONG. At first it was "o that's nice" but it quickly turned into me plotting ways to destroy the provinces electricity so that my ears would stop bleeding. I realize it's not appropriate to say these things, after all they are monks, but when you've heard the same old man screech at nonhuman pitches for 4 solid days through a scratchy but very loud speaker set, you start to think in a different way. So the festival had its one downside, but other than that minor setback, it was a beautiful time. Since it's based on families honoring and setting themselves right with the deceased, the children had a lot of visitors.

Thy (pronounced Tee), is an 11-year old HIV positive boy who has no family, or so he thought. One day during the festival, his father, stepmother, and grandmother showed up at Wat Opot to bring him money and noodles and pay their respects to Thy to honor his mother. Neither Thy nor anyone else at Wat Opot knew that he had any family. I'm still not sure of the details, but it's my understanding that he was tossed between orphanages at such an early age after his mother died that he probably forgot his family. He will stay at Wat Opot, but now he knows that he has family! I'm not sure how he was doing processing it, or if it had really even hit him yet. I also don't think that his family has any intentions of taking him in, as they were most likely just trying to clear the slate with his mother's spirit, but who knows what the future holds for them. Thy's big week continued when he and three other boys got to go on holiday on the coast for a few days with Caroline, a French nurse working in Cambodia who is very involved with the Wat Opot community.

Virak, who I pictured and wrote about in my first Wat Opot entry- the 4 year old HIV positive boy whose grandmother held him for the first two years of his life after his mother died of AIDS- also had a lot of excitement. He had been having a bad day and was throwing temper tantrum after temper tantrum caused by not having a nap and me making him clean up his toy cars (I'm so mean!!). Side note: turns out the whole time I was comforting him and trying to get him to calm down, he was swearing some very colorful words at me that he had learned from the older boys. I've studied up on my Khmer foul language and that mistake won't happen again. Once we found out what he was saying, we all couldn't help but laugh. It's not everyday that little kids get consoled and hugged for calling you, well, nevermind that. Anyway, so there little Virak was, throwing his fit, when his grandmother and older brother pulled up on a moto. He wasn't sure what to think of it at first and was very reserved. His grandmother collected his clothes and medication to take him home for a few days and loaded him up on the moto between herself and his older brother, behind the driver and his child (in Cambodia this 5 person on a moto with 3 of them being small children scenario is nowhere out of the ordinary). It wasn't until they just started to move that I watch a huge smile slowly start to spread on his face. I think he needed to be moving away to know that, yes they love me and they're taking me home for a visit. It was so precious to see and I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary eyed.

Virak pre-temper tantrum

So many other kids had similar experiences, family members that they knew of and didn't know of coming to visit for the holiday. It's sad to see the children that have one or both parents who don't want them home, like Little Nak. Nak is 8 years old, and like his parents has HIV. His mom and dad own a small shop in a nearby village, and the community only knows that he is positive and not his parents. Nobody would come into their shop because he was there, so his parents needed to essentially get rid of him in order to make an income. I guess it's not as easy to pick up and move to a new town or village in Cambodia as it would be if this was taking place in the States, but still. I can't imagine Nak being my child and not wanting to keep him, but I guess were not supposed to understand other cultures, just respect the decisions that people have to make to survive. It's not our place to judge them for their decision, only to be thankful that we don't have to face those kinds of choices.

Little Nak

They all have different backgrounds and stories, but each one ends the same, at Wat Opot. They might have parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters, but Wat Opot is their home. Little Srey Nith, the 3 year old who I also mentioned in my original Wat Opot blog post, had a visit from her grandmother who took her home as well. She came back so confident and different, like I know that I have some family, but Wat Opot is where I belong. I am so happy that I could be there to share the holiday with the kids (and Wayne and Melinda!).

Srey Nith with a fly on her face and a napping Ty Ming in the background.

Srey Lec, one of the oldest girls at Wat Opot, got a visit from her Grandmother.

The kids had another reason to celebrate, thanks to Billy Bigelow, who mailed me a huge package full of toys and activities! The box was a HUGE success and the kids absolutely loved their new toys. In order to avoid destruction and loss of the items, Melinda and I have put them in a special place on our big screened-in porch. We bring the kids in a few at a time to get some individual attention and play. It works well until a group gathers outside pleading to come in and join. They're starting to understand that they have to take turns playing with the toys and when you're in there, it's your special time. THANK YOU BILLY :) My mom and the Falk family just sent over another big box of toys that I'll add to the collection soon! THANK YOU MOM, LANIE, AND LORIE :)

Ms. Conthea with her baby doll. Conthea is the child with the bad fungal infections I had discussed earlier. Her head is healing up so well and she's even starting to grow hair back. She is so beautiful :)

Wey playing cars with our new puppy, Alfie.

Somnang anxiously waiting for his magic Spiderman towel to open up.

Worth the wait!

Chai and Nak racing cars.

Baby Rotana (18 months) and her sister Cha Ney (8 years) became the two newest members of the Wat Opot family when their mother recently passed away. She spent over an hour putting crayons in and out of the box. She is a very happy and content little girl.

This week wasn't just eventful for the kids, it was also a turning point for me. After doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do with my life, I have decided to pursue international public health. Before I go after this further, I want to have a year abroad under my belt. Since I've already put in 3 months and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Wat Opot, I've decided to come back in the early spring to Wat Opot for an undetermined amount of time. I will be coming home to the US for nursing boards in November, but then I'm coming back to Cambodia. This time, however, I'll have a specific purpose. I am planning a community outreach project that I will implement individually but with the Partners in Compassion organization which Wat Opot is a project of. I have absolutely no money, so I'm selling a bunch of jewelry, electronics, etc. (in case anyone's interested in Tiffany silver or my iMac!) when I get home to support myself. I have never in my life been happier than when I'm at Wat Opot, and I have my whole life to go back to the US and work, so for now I'm just going to ride out my crazy dreams and see what happens. I guess you can't make a living off being a volunteer so I'll have to grow up eventually, but not just yet.

Thanks for checking in and I'll try not to be so tardy on my next posting! Have a lovely week :)

Wat Opot Pictures

I have finally uploaded pictures of the kids and the community! My album is on facebook, but anyone can view it with or without a facebook account.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056497&id=1224690042&l=4315d03f8c

Enjoy and have a great day :)