Cambodia is an amazing country, its people have suffered enormously his last years he suffered again and yet its population is in the whole dynamic and extremely cheerful. Indeed, the Cambodians have chained several dark period, when civil war the war in Vietnam (the country was divided between those who supported the Americans and those who were for the Vietnamese) and the infamous Khmer Rouge period. The population is currently extremely poor al (Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world), corruption reigns in the country, there are still areas not cleared as in Laos, so the bombs continue to wreak havoc every year and these accidents are increasing from year to year the number of maimed in the country, the streets of major cities such as Phnom Penh are filled with orphaned children often living on the street, begging to meet their needs, search the bins for find something to eat or pick up objects in plastic then sell them to companies that recycle all this. Despite
just as I told you the the population is incredibly cheerful, dynamic, there are hundreds of examples of incredible journey of people who have managed to get out, and especially lots of local associations which add s international humanitarian organizations who do a fantastic job. (In parentheses Cambodia is a country in which there is more humanitarian, more than 20,000 in all!)
Our stay in this country has not, therefore always been the moral obvious (not obvious to discover in more the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, for example) but despite all we had a very good month and we draw lessons from best Life! Hope for this country and its people than the situation improves s!
First of all, we pass the border at Poipet, a town fearful, imagine the context of dozens of casinos all more beautiful, larger and more luxurious than each other in the streets and hundreds of beggars, mostly children ragged, extremely dirty, mafia everywhere, women pushing carts filled with more than each other dune border to another, and by way of gravel roads and mud out of sight.
Obviously we're eager to continue our path and go directly to Phnom Penh. We stayed a few days in the capital s time to adapt to new rules of this country, including traffic regulations that de facto limited to: There are not many rules! We take this opportunity to visit a little town: the royal palace (since there is a king in Cambodia), the genocide museum located in a former Khmer Rouge prison where photos can be seen as instruments of torture etc., horribly difficult ! some temples, the colonial district, and we also went to see two films on Cambodia, the first on the Khmer Rouge period and the second on mines in Cambodia and their damage. Very poignant! Traffic is crazy in this town, a real anthill, people are very poor there enormemement motorcycles or bicycles on the roads people can not afford to buy a car. The extremes are clearly visible and therefore shocking, we can regularly see children sleeping in the street and just next to a Mercedes go ... But here, no huge shopping malls like in Thailand despite the existence of a leisure class . Phnom Penh is a city extremely dynamic, lots of things are permanently organized exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, etc..
We went a few days in Sihanoukville, a seaside city in the south, the lower we mainly been marked by dozens of children who spend their mornings and after school al noon on the beach selling things. These children have a timetable but not incredibly dependent once we heard a complaint. They are incredibly resourceful and intelligent, they have an amazing level of English when we consider that they learn through the tourists! They keep joking and tourists to defy any kind of games, saying that, if they lose they must buy them something. The challenges are all kinds of games, speed, reflection, general culture as the capitals of countries, for example ... So amazing!
We then went to Kampot colonial city, today a quiet little town, clean, on a river. The city is beautiful and very alive: No we have constantly come across organizations or sports events of all kinds: athletics, basketball, football, volleyball, etc.. We also visited the region, including the surrounding countryside or you can see rice fields out of sight, pepper plantations (Kampot pepper is deemed internationally), and salt marshes. We went for a ride to the town of Kep, old seaside villas for the rich, completely abandoned during the Khmer Rouge, we can observe today a lot of beautiful buildings in ruins, some of them being inhabited by families extremely poor who are trying somehow s house. People have come here regularly recommmencent we can observe Khmer picnic or come across to the beach every weekend but not everyone lives n in the reality. We take this opportunity to visit the famous march to the crustaceans of Kep and enjoy an excellent crab pepper.
We also alles in Bokor National Park, at the top of the mountains, see an old station altitude created by the french, it also completely abandoned during the Khmer Rouge. That day there was thick fog everywhere, c was very strange to walk among all these abandoned buildings in ruins, a true ghost town, a real film set!
Before leaving Kampot We also went to visit a school run by the association Khrousar Thmey. The humanitarian organization in question is intended to educate the deaf and blind in the country, c is the only association have to take care of that audience. In Cambodia, people believe that we have several lives, all our actions, good or bad condition the next life, the goal being to earn the maximum good deeds for one day to reach nirvana and then finally stop the cycle of life . For the Khmer fact have a child who is blind or deaf or disabled means that we have done wrong in his previous life and therefore that we "pay" in this life. And c is not only a shame for them, so they try to hide most often these children but there s nothing more to do except to behave in this life and await the next life. The mission of this association is not obvious n at all because it goes against local customs al. They need plus a minimum of equipment to carry out their missions, including Braille books, teachers who can speak sign language etc ... This meeting was amazing!
We then returned to Phnom Penh where we spent the majority of our time to visit all humanitarian organizations as remarkable as each other. No unfortunately we have not much time to talk about today because our time is limited on the internet but we intend to remedy it as soon as we get home and we will make the blog date!
Here are just a few names and words
- the association friends (or Friends International): n occupies the Taking street children orphans, they are weaned s drug (Often the case ...), accommodation and feed them, give them a level and into school. The partner has also created its vocational programs for refugees (mechanics, hairdressing, aesthetics, food, electronics ...) so that they can leave with practical training in your pocket immediately exploitable, it also helps them find jobs. L s assoc holds also train mothers of street children who are lucky enough to have relatives still has a trade practice as a seamstress by example and helps them find a job behind in exchange for what moms s commit to educate their children .
- the association "For a child smile" has the same overall objectives and the same field of action, but it works with children working in the municipal landfill (they spend their days alone for orphans or accompanied by their parents collect and sort plastic, wood etc and then sell it all).
total there are 20,000 street children in Phnom Penh, these two associations has come to support about 5,000 of them every day, see the work that remains to be done ...
- SIPAR, the humanitarian group aims to promote the creation (story, graphics, layout) and the publication of books in Khmer. Indeed, al Khmer Rouge all that closely or remotely to the culture was destroyed, after this sad period there remained not masses of resources to the few who had the chance to be letter. The objective of this assoc is to develop reading in the country and thus support the education effort. To achieve the assoc created especially school libraries or as bookmobiles that circulate in the villages.
We then went to spend a few days in a small village, Kompong Chnang, a village in Tonle Sap Lake, which has the particularity to be floating! The houses, shops, garages, schools are floating! C is an awesome show! C was much more fun than this is not a tourist place at all, no one spoke English, but then everyone was watching us with curiosity, the children followed us running to say hello in Khmer They burst out laughing that they took photographs and that they then showed their heads. A great time!
We then went to Battambang, a town farther north. The lower we visit other temples and markets, another school of khrousar Thmey which we talked about earlier, we had the chance to attend a course of aerobics outdoors in a park, very nice and we did our most beautiful boat trip to go up in Siem Reap along the Tonle Sap to admire the many birds and fish, there are even crocodiles but we only saw in a cage (this tells the kids swim in the lake without problem in their place ... I m worried!) and very many floating villages! A long journey but super nice ...
Finally we spent a week in Siem Reap, where we visited a few schools and spends the rest of our time to visit the famous temples of Angkor! What a pity that there is so many people, so many vendors who harass you until in temples! Despite all this remains a magical place, awesome ...
We also saw a dance very well: cultural week!
Bre resume in a very good month goes Cambodia, full of encounters and beautiful scenery!
0 comments:
Post a Comment