Just a reminder that our group trip debrief is on tomorrow night, open to parents and students.

Date: Tuesday 24th February 2015
Time: 6pm – 7:30pm
Location: Cousins Hall – Duncraig Campus

We look forward to seeing you there.

To all parents and students from our team, we are inviting you to attend the Cambodia trip debrief. The aim of this is for students and staff from the trip to share a few snippets from the trip, and to gain some feedback from both parents and students in a forum. As this was the first trip we have run to Cambodia, we would really like to hear the sorts of things that would aide in providing continual improvement for future trips.

This includes (but not limited to) the lead-up process, communication throughout the year, itinerary, logistics, RAWimpact’s part and the overall outcomes and success of the trip. It is valuable for us to know what worked well, and what suggestions you may have to change things for future trips and as such we value both student and parent feedback.

At this debrief, we will have Dr Mark Fielding (Director of Global Programs at St Stephen’s School), and Chub from RAWimpact as well as the trip staff to take on your feedback.

 

Date: Tuesday 24th February 2015
Time: 6pm – 7:30pm
Location: Cousins Hall – Duncraig Campus

 

We hope you can make it. If nobody from your family are able to attend, we would still appreciate any comments you may wish to make and if you would like to send them through as an email to Dave Belson (dave.belson@ststephens.wa.edua.au) we will collate and circulate with all other feedback.

St Stephen’s School and the parents of our students should be very proud at how this team of young people have performed and made such an impact in a family’s life in Cambodia.
Not just this, but what this team has experienced, learnt, felt and done together as a group is not something that can be taught in a classroom.

The house our team built is undoubtably the single best house in the village of Ko Ki (not just bias) and the workmanship and effort that went into this project shone through in the result.

Unfortunately the family moving into their new home weren’t able to be there at the time we finished it. The father is sick and in hospital in Phnom Penh and it is possible that he may not get to return if his condition deteriorates. The mother is with him and the children are with another family in the village.

This family is the poorest family in an already poor village. Their previous house (below) are the remnants of what they used to live in which collapsed on them one day.

In providing this family a house, it doesn’t just give them a roof over their head. This is where the family can feel safe, and where the children can grow up and create memories.

In a situation such as this where the parents have no money and cannot survive, as we were educated at SHE Rescue, it puts the children at high risk of trafficking and exploitation. For the boy, he could be trafficked to work in another village or somewhere completely away from home and for the girl, unfortunately child sex trafficking is a huge business here and in situations like this, a mother may have no choice but to give up her daughter into the hands of who knows what…just to keep her family alive. This is the unfortunate dark reality here where something so unthinkable could be done, though can you imagine what sort of a situation someone would be in to choose to sell their own child?

The team did such an amazing job in finishing the house in such a short time that we had extra time to put in a huge swing off the side of the house. This is the only swing in the entire village and will be a bunch of fun for the children to play in the safety of their home. In addition, we were able to source some more materials to put a large kitchen area under the house (where most families cook in Cambodia). This had a huge bench area which looked great when it was finished.

Window and door latches were some other small intricacies which we were able to get installed too, along with some shelving inside the house

Our amazingly hard working team were able to complete all this, including having half the team off over two respective half days to go for an unscheduled kayak down the Mekong river!

Even though the family wasn’t present, as a team we took a moment to reflect on the work, take a step back and absorb the difference this would make to this family.
The comments from the team were a mixture of accomplishment, amazement in their own ability and happiness for the family.
As a team we prayed over the house that the God we serve would take care of the family and that it would be a house of love and laughter.

It’s been a humbling experience to be able to do something for someone which we may never meet on this earth, and an experience nobody will be able to take away from any of us.

This trip has enabled an opportunity for the students to live out St Stephen’s School motto of “Serve God, Serve One Another” all in their own time and achieved by the fundraising they have done throughout the year.

“You can not live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” -John Wooden

Another early start on the worksite set us up for a great final day of building. The students were on the tools with a frenzy of action finishing all the jobs to a high standard. Without doubt this is a high quality house that will change a families life.

 

The hard work paid off and today was the day we were able to sit back and see our final accomplishment. The build is complete and we can rest knowing that we have changed the life of one of the poorest families in this country. With such a house comes improved security, safety, health and the chance to step out of extreme poverty and offer hope. This is something that the students were deeply aware of in the house dedication service. The work was completed by lunch, including two special features for the family; a purpose built kitchen and an enormous swing for the children. The journey has taught us much about ourselves, others, our place in this world and God’s desires for how people should live.

The afternoon saw an early knock-off and time to relax and unwind in the hotel. The group had a chance to wander though the town and expereience the local (non-tourist) markets. We visited a different hotel for a pre-dinner swim and a shared dinner of generous proportions. Post dinner several students and staff visited a the local fair/carnival, a real eye-opener and a fun, unwinding experience for the group.

The students should be proud of their efforts here in Kratie. They have worked in tiring conditions, battled heat, injury and sickness, learnt new skills and strengthened as a team whilst completing this build. Our efforts fundraising have been worthwhile as we have been a part of the transforming work RAW Impact does on a daily basis. We have been inspired by the RAW staff and blessed to be able to learn from and work with them. Thankyou parents for your comments, encouragement and prayers and please continue with this support as we travel the six or more hours to Siem Reap tomorrow.

For a heap of professional and awesome photos taken by RAWimpact’s media team of our projects here in Cambodia, check out RAWimpactOrg on Facebook and Like their page so you get their posts in your feed.

https://www.facebook.com/RAWimpactOrg

6:30am we were down for breakfast before our briefing for the day. We took a 45min drive up the dusty roads of Kratie to Ko Ki village where our project site was located.

A lot different to our previous site, we were in the middle of the bush and unloaded our tools to take them a few hundred meters through the scrub to where our new build site was.
There were a few foundation blocks and beams in place which RAWimpact had placed to outline the house. The family’s existing house was basically a pile of sticks next to our job site with a single bowed piece of tin where a smouldering pot of something was being heated.

Our team was broken into small groups for each section to set work on a different part of the house.
Some were making the bamboo walls from scratch while other groups set to work building the base of the house and starting on a great set of stairs.

It was a warm day with no natural shade so we rigged up a tarp so groups could do some work in the shade when possible. The gentle breeze helped keep us cool as we worked but we definitely went through the bottled water!!

 

We sheltered for lunch in the Community Centre which was built by a team of RAW volunteers only the week before.

The team worked amazingly to accomplish what we did in the first day. After some practise on the previous house, and people getting familiar with the process and tools, the house has started to shape up nicely!!

 

Apologies for the delay in getting the last couple of posts up. There is no signal on the job site which leaves only time when we get back to the hotel to get something up when we have some time. Also I’ve been told that there are a bunch of typing mistakes in my posts, so I’m going to blame my phone’s autocorrect for that – thanks Hannah for proof-reading this before I posted it!! 🙂

With a few bits and pieces left to finish on the house, we checked out of our hotel, and headed back to Gunty’s to complete the house.

We were finished by lunch and had an amazing meal waiting for us as usual.
After lunch we setup a hair washing station and washed some of the children’s hair and de-nit where we could.
In the afternoon we had the privilege of attending Gunty’s church where we listened to a couple of items sung in Khmer as well as leading a song of our own in English.
It was a unique experience which most of us would only do once in a lifetime like this and we listened as Chub took the service which Gunty translated into Khmer at the same time.

 

 

After the church service, the team had some time to just play with the local children, where the laughter and smiles showed that not speaking the same language doesn’t matter.

The team was split into several groups for sleeping, and each house was given around $5 to go to the market and buy food to feed their host family and themselves for dinner and breakfast. There was some excellent bartering done and some culinary geniuses amongst the group which were able to make a dish that would give Jaime Oliver a run for his money.

After dinner, most of the girls and guys, at their respective well, ventured out to have their evening shower outside in the dark. This involved pumping water from the well and then using a bucket to wash yourself while for boys, wearing underwear, and for girls, wearing a sarong.

Each person was given a thin bamboo mat, a towel, a mosquito net and a blanket. That was our bed for the night, sleeping on the wooden floorboards of our respective houses.

We were up early to pack up our mosquito nets and mats before making our family breakfast. We said our goodbyes and loaded up our vans and caught the barge back across the Mekong river for the last time. We stopped in at Brown’s cafe in Phnom Penh and RAWimpact bought the team a drink each before we made our way through the dusty roads of Cambodia up to Kratie.

After 5 or so hours on the road, we arrived at our hotel. Our hotel is situated on the Mekong and from out the front of the hotel we met as a group and had a chat as the big orange sun set over the river.

It was a refreshing change to sleep in a comfy bed with aircon, compared to our accommodation the night before in the village.

Today was a mix of emotions for the team as we got a rest from the tools and instead got to see some of the darker aspects to Cambodia. Confronted with the history of this beautiful country during the rein of Pol Pot the team got to see what has caused the country to be where it is now.

Our day kicked off with a tour of RAWimpact’s office where one of the co-founders gave as an insight into the formation of, and philosophy behind the work that the team does here in Cambodia.

This included a tour of the office where we got to see what they are about and the sorts of projects which they undertake.

Our next stop was SHE Rescue.

This organisation takes in girls from 7-15 years of age who have been sold for prostitution, raped, trafficked or are in high risk of those. This is the unfortunate reality where exploitation is not uncommon and due to corruption, many cases go without prosecution.

Our journey continued to S21 – a school which was turned into a prison for processing and torturing people during Pol Pot’s reign.

It left a lot of people dwelling on what the country has gone through and exposed a lot of what people didn’t know about Cambodia and its past.

For lunch we had an all-you-can-eat buffet where everyone got to stuff their face with all kinds of food.

After lunch we went out of town to ‘The Killing Fields’ where we traversed one of the killing fields in Cambodia on an individually-guided tour aided by an audio guide which each person listens to while they walk around the different sections.

Each section told the horrific scenes which happened less than 40 years ago and really hit home that we were standing right where theses atrocities occurred and the evidence still there in the ground of bones, teeth and clothing from the prisoners who were victim to Pol Pot’s genocide for reasons as simple as a person wearing glasses or was educated, or even had soft skin.

It gives a real appreciation to a country which has been through so much and yet fronts some of the most beautiful people in the world.

Spirits were lifted when we got back to the hotel for “Deck out a mate”. Each person pulled the name of another team member out of a hat (staff included) and were then given $10 to go to the market and buy an outfit for that person to wear.

Needless to say, there were some pretty hideous outfits which heightened the experience as we all jumped in tuk tuks and headed out through a busy Saturday night in Phnom Penh for dinner.

We culminated the day with some nice cold icecream to compliment a typical warm Cambodian night before returning to the hotel to rest up before tomorrow’s adventures….

ps Tomorrow night we will be sleeping out in the village and there is no electricity and very little phone signal so we possibly won’t get to post another blog until Monday.

Our first real day in Cambodia kicked off with breakfast at the hotel after a well needed rest from traveling.
We had a short briefing in the morning about the day and then we were off in our 3 minivans.

With tools in the back, we headed out to the river barge. We drive onto the barge and put across the Mekong river while we head to the top deck to take in the experience.

 

 

We were met out in the small village by Pastor Kunty. We got a tour of the SALT school which has been started by teams before us and has been under construction for a lot of last year. The team had a chance to see the students at their existing “school” (which is not really conducive to learning).

From there we went about a Km up the dusty road to a bunch of houses built by previous teams. Our mini project here was to finish a house for a man in the village who is currently working for RAWimpact as the agricultural manager for the village.
The sad story behind his situation is that his mother was an alcoholic who died of alcohol poisoning then some time after his father remarried he committed suicide. His brother has learning difficulties and has subsequently dropped out of school. This man found it difficult fitting in and currently lives with his aunty. Having his own room will be a huge benefit to him and will allow him to establish himself better.

The team worked amazingly together to get things started and learning how to use power tools and what’s involved in building a house in Cambodia.

Lunch was an amazing array of food put on by locals. Everyone had more than enough to eat, and had time to play with some of the children after.

After lunch we put in a few more hours work before heading back across the river back to Phnom Penh.

Some of the team relaxed in the pool and others ventured out to the Russian markets to check it out before we headed up the road for dinner.

Awesome first day, and I think a few people will sleep well again tonight.

Goodnight…

After a long day of flying and exploring Singapore airport, our team have arrived in Phnom Penh safely.

We were met by staff from RAWimpact and then travelled by Tuk Tuk to our hotel before shaking out and then heading out by tuk tuk for dinner at Titanic restaurant on the Mekong river.

It was a first time in a tuk tuk for a lot of our team

Sun setting over Phnom Penh – view from the roof of our hotel

First dinner out as a team