26 days...,Second Day on the Job...

So today we finished our project at the nursery. I did a lot of sawing and learned two things about my self.
1. Crew has impacted me far more than I had thought. Today, when I was sawing, I did power tens. I actually had Clarke cox me through the last log I had to cut. I made her say "Don't give up, Central is two seats down!"

2. I am horrible at sawing. Speed isn't the issue. Its the whole sawing straight so that the end is flat that I have trouble with. I am so bad at it that there were actually a couple of times where the wood I had cut was angled to the point that we couldn't use it... By the end of the day I improved, but still... if you need something sawed, and you want it flat... I'm not the guy to call.

But the job is done and we're leaving tomorrow to go back to the plantation, where we will begin our renovations/construction on the school. I can't wait.
Hope all is well in C-town and beyond...

Also, I might not be able to blog for the next couple days... I will do my best to get back to town so that i can, but it is an hour drive, so its unlikely.

First Day on the Job

Today we began working on the nursery. I'm still not entirely sure what we are building for them. This morning we put in the frame for a floor. And by ''we'' I mean Travis and Pippo. Clarke and I did help, but there were only a few tools, so many times we were just getting in the way.
So... instead we played with the kids, which was a lot of fun.

Update on that, I now have a signature move when playing with kids. I would like to give a shout out to my big brothers (oliver/alex) for teaching me it. Basically, you turn your hat around like a cool cat from the 90's, and pull the back down over the tip of your nose. Making sure that it is properly in place you then pull the hat down so that it fits snugly on your noggin, thus giving you a pig nose. Warning! Do not attempt with a fitted hat.
A. You'll break your nose.
B. You won't be able to see, and you will probably end up stepping on one of the kids heads. An accident like that will surely ruin your playtime, and possibly reputation.

Moving on... It is that time of year where the kids that are still in school (God bless their souls) are starting to hope for a snow day, and all of the older folks are beginning to complain. I know how it goes. Well for those people, and all others who enjoy beautiful beaches with warm water, and a waiter to fetch you whatever your sun-burned heart desires, I am living your dream. As I told you before i am staying in a bungalow in Sihanoukville, 2 meters from the ocean. At night, I fall asleep to the sound of waves breaking on the shore, and in the morning I wake up with a nice refreshing dip in the ocean. yes, it is paradise. And its so strange to swim in ocean water that is not lip-bluing cold., And by strange, I mean wonderful.


Unfortunately we will only be here for one more night. We will go back to sleeping on the wooden floor of the plantation, being woken up at 6am by a rooster, eating food loaded with MSG, sweating profusely at all hours of the day and night... And you will be the lucky ones. but for now... *Evil cackle*
Well, so long for now.

Cambodia!

Well, I have been in Cambodia for five days... I think.
Its a really interesting place, very poor, dirty and flat. The history is absolutely horrifying, which makes the culture, people, and area strangely intrguing. There is much to say about Cambodia, but first let me tell you what I have been up to.

My first few days I stayed in the Ökay Guesthouse. It was okay. Patrick, CLarke (another volunteer) and I had a few meetings with some local people in Phhom Penh. One of our missions here is to find someone who we think can run the orphanage/childrens center/school that we hope to create here in Cambodia. So far we have had a few interesting leads...
Travis, and Pippo (both volunteers) arrived two days after Clarke and I. Pippo is an Italian engineer, and he is going to help plan the GR children's home and help us to fix a school in one of the areas we visited. Travis was Global Root's first young volunteer. We left Phnom Penh when they arrived and drove four hours to a plantation owned and operated by a friend of Patricks. His name is Heat. How cool/ironic is that? Anyway, we looked at a peice of land they (Patrick and Heat) both own to see if it would make sense for us to build our children's home there. We have yet to come to a conclusion.
Five minutes from there is a school that we also visited, and plan to support. It has no walls and a roof that is in very poor shape. In total about 70 kids live in the surrounding village, but currently a little under half of them attend the school. We hope to increase that number.
We just arrived in Sianoville, where we wil be staying for the next week or so. We are right on the beach in some pretty beat up bungalows, and it is sweet.
I will update you further on what we will be doing in the next few days soon.

Stay tuned dear friends.

Cambodia

Hello Everybody.
I do apologize for not blogging in the past week or so. I have been very busy/I have been in Cambodia, and I have had trouble finding internet.
Cambodia is hot and muggy, but nice.
I'm not sure if this is inappropriate for this blog, but Cambodian girls are pretty cute.
Oh yeah, we did the play at the orphanage a week ago, and it was fantastic.

The kids loved it, and did not disappoint. I met a group of people who were staying in Shangri La for a week or so, as they made their way to Tibet. They came to the play, and fixed the basketball hoop (I slam dunked it off). It is all video taped, so be looking for it in theatres near you... but not really.
I will write more later.
Hope all is well.

A regular...

There is so much to see in Shangri La, and I have had a chance to do some sight seeing. But, i have also become a regular at two of its restaurants/cafes. Noah's cafe and Marco's (aka Helen's Pizza).
I eat breakfast at Noahs. Its warm, and the milk tea is very good. The waitresses speak little English, and so they don't disturb me. (I am not a morning person.) They do smile though. I must look like a lunatic, or at least like I am very lost. Other people also smile, when they come in, because I am always at the same table, doing the same thing, drinking milk tea. They too must feel a bit sorry for me. But I think its practical. I have tried many other restaurants (if I were to right this blog later I might also have to include "The Compass," which is another restaurant I am beginning to frequent) but they aren't as warm, and their milk tea is so-so.
Depending on whether or not the kids are in school, I either leave Noah's a little before ten, or a little before noon. If they aren't in school, I make the 40 second trek to Helen's Pizza for lunch. It is my opinion, my very biased opinion, that Noah's and Helen's are in a sort of competition. Noah's has the atmosphere, but Helen's has Marco and thus good Italian food. I go to Helens for lunch because Achu (helen) is very nice. (Marco hasn't been around for a week or so- he had to go to HK to renew his visa, and he is Italian, so he had to stop along the way to meet with old friends, drink wine, and speak too loudly). I have to account for my not eating breakfast there, and so i tell her that i was playing spy over at Noahs. I will sit and talk with Achu, until about 5, when I head to the orphanage.
Who gets the pleasure of seeing me again for dinner depends on whether I ate at the orphanage. If I don't eat at the orphanage, I go to Helen's for dinner. If I arrive around nine Achu, Aca (Achu's nephew), and the other woman (Her name didn't rhyme as nicely) are usually preparing their own dinner, and so they ask me to sit with them. It is always good, and always free. If I did eat at the orphanage, then I am far from hungry, so I head to Noahs. I order a milk tea, open my laptop, and rest in the assurance that their won't be any conversation between me and the waitresses to interrupt my work.
It may sound boring, even perfunctory, but I love it.
Besides I am headed to Cambodia next, and I am almost sure that they won't have Milk tea.

Let us hope...

We can stand because we have legs, talk because we have mouths, but we need hope to act and faith to endure. And to change the world, we need one another.

The Play cont...

So it has been a week since I gave the kids their scripts. It has been a grueling process, saying each word a hundred times, taking thirty minutes to an hour with each kid to learn each individual line, but alas the lines are learned. There are of course the few stars that I mentioned in my previous blog, but every kid takes his/her role very seriously, and they are all doing extremely well.

Yesterday and today I worked with the stage hands to show them when and how to move the set to create the different scenes, etc. I spent only about an hour or so yesterday, and I was afraid that they would have forgotten what and when they were supposed to change the set. But once again, I underestimated these kids. They did have a few slip ups, and they were a little late, but they remembered! I was so impressed.

Also, today we began the “acting” party of the play. They can each read their lines well enough, but they speak them in a monotone, without movement, or emotion. Well, that is beginning to change. I now have a few of them fake crying, snickering, and growling. It cracks them up. It’s really quite funny.

The moral of this blog is that these kids astound me. Everyday I am impressed by how much they retained from our brief encounter the day before, and how quickly they pick up new ideas and actions.

Its so sad to think that if Tendol had not found them they would have never had the chance to show, to prove, to use their incredible abilities. But they can and they do, and it is wonderful.

And you all helped make it possible. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.