Today we traveled across the Cambodian boarder. It was a long day of traveling. To pass the time Albert our guide told us about the Cambodian history.
In Cambodia they use American currency. The reason behind this is because in the past 40 years there has been 4 regimes and each time the currency changes. Every time the currency changes people's money is no good any more. No matter how may millions you have it is worth nothing. So the people now use American currency because it is reliable giving them financial security. The USA put a lot of money into Cambodia so they chose this currency to adopt. When you withdrawal money from the ATM is comes out in American dollars.
Each hotel, restaurant or house has a little mini house in front. They call it the spiritual house and it protects them. They believe the spirit leaves body and those spirits who do not find new homes are homeless spirits. When bad things happen Hindus believe it is caused by the homeless spirits.
I learnt that that the salary in Cambodia is 20-80 dollars per month depending on your job. Education is key here because of tourism. People must speak at least English and Cambodian to survive. It costs three dollars a day to send each child to school and most parents cannot afford this. Even though Angkor Wat is here, Siem Reap is still one of the poorest towns in Cambodia because only 5% of the tourism money is staying is the community. The rest of the money does to foreign investors. With the tour, we are using local restaurants and toor guides so the money goes to Cambodia. We don't give children money because it encourages them to stay on the street. We want to encourage them to stay in school. Child tourism is how a lot of people earn money. People collect children and call it an orphanage so tourists will donate money for the children when really the money is only going to the one person.
Child trafficking is also a huge problem here. You could buy a child on the street for 50 dollars. Families often cannot afford all of their children. They are promised an education for their child and other things so they sell their kids because they are desperate for money. They never see them again. Girls are bought for the sex trade and boys are taken to thailand to work on fishing boats. Then when fishing season is over they throw the boys overboard so they do not have to pay for them and just buy new boys for the next season.
Once arriving is Siem Reap we toured New Hope. New hope is non-government organization ran by a local man and a woman from Australia who focus on free education for all. First we went and saw the old school and got to play around with the friendly community children. I loved that.
Then we went to see the new school which was beautiful. The organization has grown and now has a free school, free clinic and a training restaurant to teach hospitality. We went and sat in a class for the last 15 minutes with the senior students. They were all so keen to learn and the class was very formal and well run. There was a volunteer who was helping the teacher too. What a huge difference from Ghana. I was in a kindergarten there but still the structure and quality of teaching was just incomparable. These kids are learning grammar I never even learnt. This is the most amazing organization with the best people running it. If you are looking to volunteer or to sponsor a family do it here. There are so many people out there getting rich off of poverty but this company really is doing good and you can be sure your time and money are truly making a difference. They are looking for nurses and teachers but they especially need doctors. The doctors they staff are Cambodian but they are new out of school. When western doctors come to volunteer they learn so much from them and then can continue their work once they have left. The website is www.newhopecambodia.com. It is not often you come across an organization like this. Many parents will not let their kids go to school because they need them to work. But New Hope will only sponsor families who send their children to school. They are very well run. I know I am babbling on but really this is rare and what volunteering and charity should be like.
After learning about New Hope they served us a wonderful meal at the training restaurant. It was the best meal I have had on the trip yet. I tried fried cricket!! I just pretended I was eating a chicken nugget and it was alright.
After dinner we took a tuk tuk to the night market. A tuk tuk is a buggy pulled by a bike. I bought some knockoff Ray Bands for 2 dollars. We also went to the bar for a beer then headed home because we had to be up at 4:30 the next morning to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat.