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Tuesday, May 07, 2013 5:10 PM
Cambodia Part II: Life in Hope Training Center, Prey Veng
 
Life in Prey Veng was very simple and unhurried. It's a kind of feeling you can never ever get in Singapore. Transportation is ancient, there is no Internet, there is no TV, and there is no hot water.
Things get very quiet once the skies grow dark. Everyone here rises early, and sleeps early. We're lucky that we never ran out of electricity, unlike the batch of Pharmers before us who went in the year before to work with Operation Hope Foundation. There were plenty of horror stories of the lights going out while people were showering, leaving them calling for their friends to hold up torch lights for them while they bathed, haha!
Being smack out in the rural open area, there are no other buildings around, leaving the skies dark for some awesome viewing of stars every night.
 
Credits: Nic Wong
Strangely though, we could always hear club-like music in the middle of the night from a faraway distance... Looks like the Cambodian people know how to party. We're nowhere near the main town of Prev Veng, so it's still a mystery that can't be solved :)
Hope Training Centre was our home, and our main mission was to build a house for a family whose children were being educated at Hope Village. We also conducted lessons at Hope Village and made soap for distribution at villages in Prey Veng.
 We were split by gender to occupy one house each. In each of our "villas", we had two small toilets with squat toilets and no shower (only a tap!), a small common living space that was largely empty, a kitchen, and a bunk room.  
Credits to Lisa for this shot of me
Our bunk beds came with mosquito nets, but I didn't really need to use them. Our windows were also all covered with meshes because there are plenty of insects. And some are gigantic. After all, we are the only light source in miles and miles. The smaller ones would still get through, so we had to sweep the floor daily to clean up any mess. There was a small can hung out on our front porch to attract the insects...and the can gets filled with popcorn from the sheer number of insects flying into it every night. Sometimes, during our debriefing sessions, right when the sun has begun to set and the swarming of insects begins, we would switch off all the lights and use a single torch instead to keep the madness at bay.  
Credits: Nic Wong
With regards to weather conditions, days could get very hot. The heat is far from humid, however. It only rained 3 (out of 16) days while we were there and with the exception of one day, most showers were rather sporadic. Nights were supposed to be very warm according to the team that went in one year before us, but when it was our turn, the temperature got really cold once the sun went down. Thank god I brought my sleeping bag so I could use it as a blanket!   Hope Training Center houses a soap-making factory and various other factory equipment. It's a beautiful site, and I'm glad for all the amenities they offered... because many locals don't even come close to having homes like this, as you will see later.   
Our morning routine
A leisurely and simple breakfast (of bread, biscuits and drinks) coupled with a few round of cards while we wait for the lorry to take us to our work site.
 
Here comes the lorry!
And guess what, the engine has died today too
 
Many mornings were spent running and pushing the lorry along to get its engine started.
With that done and all of us loaded aboard, it was time to get to the work site.
   
I loved all our lorry rides.
I loved being crammed into a tight space with everyone, speeding along bumpy roads, the freshness of the Cambodian air and how all our hearts skipped a beat whenever the lorry went over a bump a little too quickly.
   
Lunch was collected from one of the roadside vendors along the way to our work site.
Lunch was almost always the same: veggies (delicious!), rice, and some meat. Sometimes we would get yellow noodles and this was a real favorite for most of us in the team.
Meat was very sparse. The animals there are all very lean in nature, and you often get more bones than meat on your plate.
With that as our last checkpoint, the lorry eventually exits the main road and starts moving towards the village of our choice.  
The distinctive start of our drive: a man with SO MANY DUCKS!!!!
The ducks even know when to stop if you choose to cut into their path.
Sights from the drive into the village:    At our work site! Taking a chill after we are done for the day. 
Here we built a house from its foundations with the help of the team from OHF.
We had raised funds for the cost of the house earlier on in Singapore before our departure.
I'm glad I learnt how to use a hammer (and pretty well too, considering I never once hit my own thumb-- gotta thank Kendo for training me to have a good grip and aim!). It was also really inspiring to see how the locals made do with whatever they had to put the house together, from antique tools to bamboo stalks.   .jpg)
Before, Halfway-through, and After
It's moments like this where many people like to say, "Why do this for another country? Why not give your money to the poor and needy in Singapore instead?".
Others may also make comments such as: "Why are you the ones building the house? Professionals would do better."
It's true. I think both points are very valid. There are plenty of people who could benefit from our volunteering efforts in Singapore (though we also did pre-mission and post-mission voluntary work with IMH). And while we toiled at our work site, we saw for ourselves how inept we were when it came to building a real house.
The locals could done it in a much shorter time than us, so why didn't we just give them the money and leave the building to them instead of wasting everyone's time?
This is when I'll say that a trip like this was a learning journey for us, the volunteers, and we conveniently helped to bring some sunshine to the people there. I wouldn't dare to say that we were being magnanimous, or that we went on our trip to make a huge difference to their lives, one that they could never attain without our help-- never can I say that.
It was more of how they touched our lives and taught us something about the world that we live in, while we simply tried to give them something back in return.
They taught us to appreciate whatever we have. Too often, we're caught up in materialistic needs and ambitious desires. Here however, in a country that has been torn by war and disaster repeatedly, they have shown us warmth and happiness that many of us cannot achieve...even when we have so much more to be thankful for than them.
  
While the children of our country complain about school, tuition, demand the latest iPhones from their parents and make comments about how their teacher's phone (mine) is outdated compared to theirs... this is what kids in rural Cambodia do.
It is very humbling.
Sights of the village
    While most of the team worked at the work site in the day, each team would get a chance to stay behind to keep-house. Members of the stay-home rotation were tasked with keeping our bungalows clean and cooking dinner for the rest of the team each day. My team had the honor of being the first to take on this rotation... and we were the very first to make our visit to the Prey Veng marketplace. So we were dropped off at the marketplace with one translator, who taught us a few basic Khmer phrases (such as 'how much is this'). We were also tasked with writing down the costs of common food items for our team to take reference in the future. 
Outside of the market where piglets are for sale
Being in the market was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The first thing we did was to change our money from USD to Riels at the money changer found within the market itself. Here we also got to see some unique fruits and vegetables. We ate mandarin oranges everyday after dinner because they were so damn good.
      
Other team members had to go to the market without any translator with them, so they resorted to bargaining with smiles and using calculators. For us, we had to go without transport, so we walked all the way back to our home on our two feet with our pots and pans / veggies / utensils all stuffed in our bags or held in our hands. I don't even know how long we took, although it was a very simple route: just follow the paved road all the way and you can't go lost! It was at least an hour's worth of walking and we kept time by tracking the landmarks that we passed. Something like three bridges.
  
With that, I'll end my first post on life in Prey Veng. Part III will be about our experiences with travelers' diarrhea, our lessons in Hope Village Prey Veng, and soap distribution!
 Labels: cambodia, dispense-a-dream, prey veng, travel ♥ Belinda |
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GREETINGS  Hellooooo, Whether you are genuinely interested in my life or you're just as voyeuristic as I am, please be nice while here :) If you do, you will be treated with much love and care. If not, I will come and eat you up. I may look harmless, but really, I'm not. I will eat you and tear you to pieces. Om nom nom. Crispy! About Me I am a NUS Pharmacy Year 4 student living in Singapore. I love travelling, photography, and cats. I also like food and attending events that catch my interest! If you have any queries or like what you're reading, do feel free to comment! :) Travelogue Cambodia 7-23 December 2010 Part I - Arrival in Phnom Penh Part II - Life in Hope Training Center, Prey Veng Part III - Travellers' Diarrhea, Soap Distribution & Hope Village Prey Veng Penang 4-7 Jan 2011 Phuket 19-22 July 2011 Taiwan 9-15 June 2012 Sydney-Melbourne 7-19 August 2012 Others My Flickr Photostream ARCHIVES
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