Cambaid Update: 6 December 07

Hi,
I recently received a document from Keo Rithy, Deputy Director of Lighthouse Orphanage, which details how the orphanage is run, future aims and monthly costs. It might give you an idea of how much it costs and how much help is needed. The document does not include costs for schooling, as the orphanage cannot afford the fees; some children are lucky enough to receive donations to guarantee their schooling, but many have to try and fund themselves.

Thanks for reading,
Jon

http://cambaid.freehostia.com/lighthouseinfo.htm

Cambaid Update

Again, looks like I've got to apologise for not keeping regular updates. Unfortunately I haven't had an awful lot to report on; my attempts to find people prepared to help me launch the charity have been unsuccessful. I am hopefully getting an article in the Cornish Times over the next week, and I now have a good contact at Hospital Radio at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where I hope I might be able to recruit some helpers.
All I am doing at the moment is looking for people; a charity can't be a charity without a long-term plan and without other people, there is now way I can guarantee the future of Cambaid.

I'll keep the blog updated more frequently over the coming weeks, now I've settled in Plymouth and at Uni, I am hoping to have some spare time to promote the charity and really look hard for local people who can help. Do you know of anyone?

Thanks for reading,

Jon

ps. I have updated the website (http://www.cambaid.org.uk)

Update: 4 September 07

The Facebook group hit fifty members today - its really cool how much support we've got, particularly from people who I don't know...it's really encouraging. On that note, I have started looking for helpers. I've written to the Western Morning News, The Herald and even 'Callington News', basically asking for a small advert to ask for people who would be prepared to help run the charity. One of the crucial and most important thing I need to address is finding local people who can shoulder this with me; for a start, to achieve 'Charity' status, I need to establish a sturcture within the charity that involves at least four other people so that, essentially, were anything to happen to me, the charity wouldn't dissolve. Secondly, for the assurance of not only the Charity Commission, but also members and donors, I need other people to basically make the whole thing look more secure; more people, less chance of corruption etc, I suppose. But most importantly I need other people to feed off; sure, my own determination will get me a fair way, but I know that on my own this is going to be ten-times harder.
So basically I'm on the hunt for helpers; I am starting University in Plymouth in October and that will instantly give me a network and a platform for which I can start a real 'on-the-ground' search for helpers, but I am also using the wonderful-world-wide-web; thank god for e-mail, else I'd be done-for. So if you, or if you know of anyone, who would be prepared to perhaps put in a little time to help, let me know. As I have said before, a little bit of effort over here can change someones life - sounds cheesy as all-hell but it is sooooo true. Trust me.
Thanks for reading (again)....
Jon

Update: 29 August 07

Hello,
Firstly I would like to apologise for the lack of an update and general activity over the past few weeks. I have been doing a lot of relaxing but I have also spent a lot of time researching and mulling where I want to go with Cambaid as well as getting a lot of advice...and gaining several supporters. For anyone not already a member of our Facebook group, I started a 'group' on Facebook whereby anyone can become a member, show support or even donate, roughly two-months ago. I have been really encouraged by the response, the group has forty-members and I have been contacted by several people from all over the world; from the US to Vietnam.
One problem that I hope to resolve soon is the structure of Cambaid; it is all-well-and-good researching, sending e-mails and gaining online support, but at-the-end-0f-the-day, I need to sort out the basic organisation so we can start getting some real support (i.e. money) so we can really start making a difference. I have been encouraged by advice I have received from Oz who runs a local charity, who assured me that getting the charity going would be a lengthy process and at the same time it will be crucial to maintain the initial enthusiasm for the cause throughout.
Essentially, getting a good structure to the charity is important so, were anything to happen to me, the charity must be able to continue...basically it can't be a one-man-show, and although I have a great partner in Steph, she is abroad and I need at least three, but preferably five, local people who are prepared to put in some time to keep the charity going.
I am starting University (again) in October and I am hoping this will be a good gateway to meeting enthusiastic, like-minded people who are prepared to help. And being at University will also give me a lot more spare time; working fifty-hours-a-week doesn't exactly give me loads of spare time to research and communicate.
Anyways, I will be posting more updates in the coming weeks, so if there is anyone out there reading this gabberwocky, thank you and well done for getting this far and please keep it up....
thanks again for reading, jon

Update: 6 August 2007

Me and Steph had a long chat over the net tonight, as well as working out some targets, I learnt a good few things.

Firstly, children in Cambodia DO receive free high-school education. However, due to barely-existant funding, the education the children actually receive is generally of a very poor quality. I have mentioned this before, but I met a girl who went out into rural Cambodia to teach in one such school, and the teachers who taught English could barely communicate with her.

In Cambodia, the only real chance of getting somewhere is to get a degree. But Universities generally don't accept students who have had a Khmer (Cambodian) education. They look for students from private 'International Schools'. These such schools provide a better education - although it can be inconsistent - and should ensure acceptance into University. These schools charge around $5-10 (£3-5) per month, and additional costs include a mandatory school uniform (£2.50), stationary and exercise books (£2.50) and transport (varies, but usually not over £3 per month).

Steph was concerned about the actual quality of the education at these private schools and I think this is something we shall have to investigate. We should be able to pay the school directly though and we have a possible link with a trustworthy tuc-tuc driver who would be happy to take the children to school. These links are valuable because we can ensure the kids are actually getting to school and perhaps even receive progress reports.

University is not free. The costs vary but from what I have learned from locals and what Steph has gathered, the fees are around $30 per month (£15). This seems very reasonable, although is still too expensive for most Cambodians to afford. Me and Steph agreed that we should make that a long-term priority, although in the meantime there are more important things to look at.

Importantly, the children need to receive a better diet. As I have mentioned, many, if not all of the children are anemic and receiving adequate protein and essential vitamins and minerals can be difficult; rice is cheap, chicken is not.

Healthcare is another priority. Healthcare in Cambodia is in what could be, and often is, described as 'crisis'. Public healthcare is too expensive, medicines are often counterfeit, emergency care is barely available. This is something we shall have to get advice with, and a lot of research is high on the agenda.

I am actually off to Hungary for two weeks, and although I will be able to check e-mails, I will, for the most part, be relaxing and taking some much needed time-off. Please don't hesitate to contact me though, and Steph, who has been indescribably brilliant, is actually at Lighthouse volunteering (and doing a great job), so if you have any questions for her, you can contact her on steph@cambaid.org.uk.

Thank you for reading.

Jon

Paypal!

We now have an account with Paypal to receive any donations as well as a bank account.
I want to stress that we are NOT yet a registered charity and that any donations are placed based purely on trust. If you would like to talk to me directly about anything regarding Cambaid I would be happy to talk to you on the phone or in person, just e-mail me on jon@cambaid.org.uk and I will give you my number/address.

Our e-mail address for donations is donate@cambaid.org.uk, the bank account details are:

Natwest - Account No. 16032462 - Sort Code 52-10-42 (please reference your name on the transfer)

Thanks

Jon

Update: 2 August 2007

I've established a few things during the last few days. Firstly, I'm going to have no difficulty finding enough people to sponsor all of the children at Lighthouse through high-school. I sent out an e-mail just to a few friends I was e-mailing home whilst away and the response has been great. I have already raised enough to ensure four of the ten kids go to school for the next year!

I am trying to find a local person in Phnom Penh who can act as an independent auditor so I can be 100% sure that donations are being spent wisely; not only is this for my own, and the donors, piece of mind but also as a requirement of the Charity Commission when it comes to registering. Finding someone happy to do that would be a huge step in the direction of registering.

I still need to sort out a structure. I have several contacts and I know of many local people who will be willing to help, but I guess it is just going to take time. And I am so impatient!#

Another decision has been made, thanks to Steph - my "partner" in all of this who is actually at the orphanage at the moment - to try and pay the school directly for the children's fees. In return we would expect a regular update on the kid's attendance so we can be sure that donations for school fees are being well spent.

For the time being I am waiting to hear back from the 30+ NGO's I have contacted to try and find someone to be an independent auditor.

Thanks for reading x

Step One: advice

The first thing I needed to do to stand a chance of getting Cambaid going was to get some advice. On a nice weekend (yep, the sun did actually shine) in July, I was at a garden party for Tamwed, a charity run by a local man to support communities and projects in Tamil Nadu, South India. I had been thinking about launching a charity but with no experience I considered it to be impossible. I had to get some advice and here was a local charity that gives aid to an area and cause not unlike Cambodia (Tamwed's website is www.tamwed.org).
Afterwards I contacted the man who runs it (not single-handedly but it was, and still is, definitely his baby), Oz, to ask for advice: where on earth should I start?

He was fantastic; he gave me shed-loads of advice and after a meeting with him I had a few clear objectives and, for the first time, focus.

Firstly, I needed to establish:
1. An overall aim,
2. A few objectives that will help achieve the aim,
3. A need,
4. A structure.

Sounds easy enough? I produced the following:

Overall aim (very provisional)
To ensure orphaned children in Cambodia get a good high-school education and receive adequate healthcare.

Objectives
[Short term – Long term]

1. Raise £800 by the end of 2007 (this is enough to financially support ten children in a Cambodian orphanage to go to high school in 2008).
2. Communicate closely with the orphanage to understand what is needed.
3. Increase the number of children supported through education every year.
4. Offer financial support to other local NGO’s who need it.
5. Find other suitable benefactors to offer financial aid (i.e. local people who are not part of an organisation).
6. Create a self-sustainable orphanage in Cambodia (hopefully more than one).
7. Take volunteers over to help.

Wider Objectives

8. Promote ‘responsible tourism’
9. Raise awareness
10. Encourage the British government to teach cultural and social awareness on a wider, more global scale within British schools.
11. No money spent on administration, 100% of donations to go straight to where it is needed.

Need
Cambodia’s past echoes still today. There are over 50,000 orphans in Cambodia. Most cannot afford an education – the majority of orphanages are over-subscribed and under-funded. Many do not receive aid or sponsorship and rely solely on donations and volunteers. Educating the children is a problem as the costs are too great for the orphanages to afford. Healthcare is also a big problem: there are several epidemics in Cambodia and healthcare is expensive and generally very inadequate.

Structure
Initially I would try to gain as much financial support as possible. This would probably involve a trust fund that would gather money in the UK and transfer it to the benefactor, initially Lighthouse orphanage.

Oz has helped me evolve all of this. I now have a few main aims to get the charity going.
Firstly, I need to establish a link with Lighthouse. This will involve a lot of research into how the orphanage is run. This is mainly for the assurance of my donors and members as well as the Charity Commission, when it comes to registering. I will also need to find an independent person in Cambodia who can audit the orphanage to ensure donations are being spent wisely.
I also need to establish a structure including a chairman, a treasurer, a secretary (me) and some trustees. I will also need a membership base. The chairman is the public figurehead and will not necessarily be involved in the running of the charity, the treasurer will handle the finance and administrative side of things and the secretary will basically run the show. The trustees will then have a say in how the charity is run. There must be regular minuted meetings.

Sounds like a lot of hard work. It is, but with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of help and a lot of hard work it is definitely possible. For the time being I plan to research, make as many contacts and friends as possible, raise money to send over and build some momentum.

Excitingly I have a contact in the US and in Canada who are keen to create a charity over there so Cambaid could, one day, be international.

Blimey. There's a long, long way to go, though.

And I've got to work first-thing so I'm hitting the hay.

Cheers for reading.

A brief history of Cambodia

I can't remember exactly where I was when I decided to create a charity. If you have read my e-mails there shouldn't be any question of where I found the inspiration; Cambodia itself, with its many layers, is inspiration enough: I suppose a large part of why I found Cambodia so heartbreaking and why it affected me so much, is it's amazing history. Here is a very brief history of Cambodia to hopefully put the country in some kind of context.

In 1975 the reign of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge began. Pol Pot's army marched into Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, and declared that history would begin again in Cambodia. The first year of revolution was known as 'Year Zero' and all references to past history were banned and destroyed.

The Khmer Rouge marched everyone in the cities into the countryside to work up to 15 hours-a-day on the rice fields; children 10-years-old and up were expected to work. The stronger were trained as soldiers; children aged as young as ten. Religion and family relationships were banned and the smallest infringement of the rules resulted in execution.

The Khmer Rouge murdered all intellectuals. People who could speak a foreign language or who wore glasses were executed. A prospering middle class of doctors, politicians, military men and civil servants; the backbone of the country, were murdered, as were their entire families. As an example, there were around 1000 doctors before the revolution. 53 survived.

The Western world, fuelled by America's distracted fear of communism, stood by and let the atrocities happen. The Vietnamese invaded in December 1978 and quickly prevailed. Pol Pot escaped and did not die until 1998.

Although the Khmer Rouge were toppled in 1979, their legacy still lives on today. For years Cambodia has been in political and economic turmoil; their infrastructure was left in tatters by the war and they are still rebuilding. Disease is a big problem; there are several serious epidemics including Hepatitis, AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Dengue Fever. The healthcare systems is still in tatters as is the education system.

I met a girl in Cambodia who taught in a very rural school for two weeks. She told me the children had never seen a white person before, and that the English teachers could barely string together a sentence in English. This is only one example.

Cambodia is a country in need. Not just of aid but of responsible help. Cambaid is not just about throwing money at the problem; as well as the concerns of corruption that are unavoidable in such a poor country, the people do not want to rely on charity. They want to be self-sufficient; not only will this promote self-reliance but will promote a sense of self-worth that is so important.

I could ramble on about Cambodia for hour and hours. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

Thanks for reading.

Jon

A Foreword

I had the idea for Cambaid whilst I was travelling in Cambodia in May 2007. The following are a few of e-mails I sent home whilst in Cambodia. The e-mails are not entirely related to Cambaid, but hopefully they will give some idea of why Cambodia affected me so much and why I am committed to helping out.

To put this in context, I had spent a month travelling through Thailand and Laos, just having a good time and enjoying a holiday. I left Laos, my favourite country, in early June and travelled into Northern Cambodia. Please excuse my lack of capital letters - simple pure laziness on my part.

Travel Diary: 12 June 2007

i'm still finding it hard that i'm not in laos, i'm missing it big-time. cambodia is in many ways so opposite, and the fact that it shares a border is weird; the people are friendly, but always in-your-face: yes, they're poor, and i don't blame them for a second, but i loved the dignified nature of laotians - i know between here and my hotel i will get offered a tuc-tuc, a motortaxi, a taxi, a tour, weed, opium, a prostute and even maybe ecstasy, cocaine - it goes on and on.

the area we have chosen to stay in is called 'lakeside''. its basically a chicken-coup of tourists ten-minutes outside of the centre, a 'haven' (a.k.a. shitehole), a zone, a precinct, a holiday camp - full of tourists, guest houses, overpriced western restaurants, 'massage parlours' (yeah, right), and of course the manditory eight-million tuc-tuc drivers / drug-dealers / pimps that line the streets 24/7.
the city itself is actually ok; it's cleaner than i expected (cambodian towns have a serious litter problem - there are rubbish dumps in the centre of most towns and rubbish lines the streets in most places), but, basically, poor asian countries simply can't do cities.
some people love it here; i met a dutch guy who's been here for two-weeks; getting trashed every night, partying, etc.....great, if that's what you want. but i don't, at least not at the moment. so this place to me is not cambodia, its a hole of westerners trying to get off their face, taking advantage of cambodia's relaxed laws (i.e. tourists are too valuable to arrest) and people.

today we visited S21 and 'the killing fields''. for anyone who doesn't know, for four-years 1975-79, cambodia was ruled (and yes, we did know about it, and no, it wasn't reported) by a lunatic maoist "dictator" (basically) who abolished money, split up families, banned interaction in general, and marched everyone into the countryside to work fifteen-hours-a-day on the rice fields. men, women and children.

anyone who was in anyway intellectual - and their entire families - were murdered or sent to S21, a torture camp where any information about relatives or other 'threatening' intellectuals were brutally saught. they photographed everyone who entered the camp (babies, women, the elderly, everyone); around 20,000 people. they would be tortured daily for anything between one and six months, before being sent to 'the killing fields', where they were blindfolded, their hands and feet tied, made to sit around a big hole in the ground and battered in the back of the head with an axe or bamboo. they would then fill in the hole. many people were still been alive when they were buried.

the khmer rouge killed around two-million people, and a further one-million died a a result of famine caused by the ruinous state the country was left in. it was the vietnamese who invaded and put an end to their reign. ourselves, the americans, the UN....nothing. hitler's holocaust doesn't really compare to what happened here.
the woman who showed us around S21 lost her father, four uncles, all her grandparents, her two brothers, her sister, her cousins and her brother-in-law. the population of cambodia was 7-million before the khmer rouge, and 3.5million a year after they were toppled.
sorry to rant on about this, but some of the images and the general history of cambodia over the past thirty-or-so years has absolutely shocked me, and unlike WW2, it was not that long ago. plus, we had a part to play in it, and we could have stopped it.


Travel Diary: 14 June 2007

i'm just finishing what has become undoubtedly the best two days of my whole trip, and it's come in one of my least favourite places.

a wicked, wicked canadian girl (alia) who i met at mama's on don det turned up the day before yesterday, and she mentioned that she had volunteered at an orphanage out-of-town the last time she was here. i jumped at the opportunity; i planned on using my tefl for good and volunteering in a school for a week or more during this trip.......but it hasn't happened.

in my defence, this trip is seven-weeks, and a whole week in a city would have forced me to miss out on so, so much. in some parts on laos i stayed in five or more towns in a week, met some amazing people and saw incredible things; although i would have loved to teach, it would have tied me down too much.

alia and i went to volunteer in the orphanage yesterday, armed with a few pound's worth of fruit as a donation. i was amazed by the place. the orphanage relies solely on donations; they are not, like many more central orphanges, sponsored and they do not receive money from charities or the government. i spent all my time talking with and teaching a young girl called Sri-Nung, who is fourteen and at high school. It costs her around $20 per month to go to school - cambodian schools are not free - and she has no family to support her.

the orphanage struggles to feed the children each month, let alone pay for their education.

she is incredible: really beautiful, very well-spoken and so eager to learn. she told me that she could no longer afford to pay for her schooling though, and that she would have to leave after another two months. i was absolutely heartbroken. $20 per month. less than a fucking TV-licence, a teenth of weed or four pints.

fortunately, the orphanage has a website where people can donate. im not going to ask anyone to donate any money, but if you give money to any large-scale charities, i urge you to stop and discover a smaller local organisation where the money goes 100% to the people who need it.

me and alia decided to pay for her education until she finishes school in a few years. it'll cost us nothing, and it guarantees her future. her face when she was told was amazing; i've never seen anyone so happy, and i know it will be an image that will stick in my head forever. the kids are all so, so......i just can't put into words how they are. they're beautiful people, they've all been through so much - one hundred times what we will ever go through our entire lives - and it kinda makes me sick that it is happening; kids as good as this can't be educated because it is too expensive.

on the way home we stopped at a hospital set up by a german guy to give blood. it offers free healthcare for children in cambodia; the only one of its kind in the country, where healthcare is unaffordable to most people. there were over a hundred families waiting outside in line, along the road, and when we went in we walked through the 'waiting room' - hundreds more families with sick children waiting to be seen. it was one of the most incredible and haunting sights i've ever seen. alia said 'it makes you think, what would happen to these kids if this hospital wasn't here?'.

last night we went to 'the heart of darkness': a cambodian western bar/club. it was....weird. it was basically a western club, with the usual shite music (intermingled the the odd gem such as groove is in the heart), the usual shite people, plus, of course, old scumbag western men with young cambodian girls. im not exaggerating to say that i would be extremely happy to see all of the blokes who do this to be, literally, strung-up by their balls and shot in the knee caps. i really fucking hate them. they make me sick.

we had a good night though - i chatted for ages with the people we've been with the last few days - all of whom we met on don det, strangley - but we soon realised that it was ultimately a shithole and we left. when we walked out the door we were greeted by a warzone. beggars carrying babies, the usual million tuc-tuc drivers, drunk westerners - it was like union street on a saturday.

then today, hungover, we went back to volunteer at the orphange for a bit; i played football with the kids and spoke a bit to sri-nung, then on the way home me n alia asked our driver (we've been driving around on motorbikes, three to a bike, for the last few days - its a great way to see the city, and the sole experience of driving on the most INSANE roads i've ever seen - this place even beats india - is an interesting experience in itself) to take us to a swimming pool, as we were swimming in our own sweat (it's 40 degrees here). he took us to 'phnom penh water park'. it was the best $2 i've ever spent. it was predictably ramshackle, but great fun. its a real shame alia is leaving for vietnam tomorrow, and me siem reap; the saddest part of travelling is that you meet some people you just click with - people you just know you would be best friends with at home - then you have to say goodbye, forever. goodbyes really suck. and im going to have to say a load in the next week.

sorry this has been exorbitantly long for one of my emails. if you got this far, well done - and if you're at all interested in the orphanage, its website is www.lighthouseorphanage.or

g. i've just been so shocked, sad, happy and generally emotional the last few days from what i''ve seen, but it has been all so fulfilling. i love cambodia, and i hate it, and i love phnom penh, and i hate it. such is travelling i suppose.


Travel Diary: 17 June 2007

"its the end of something i did not want to end, the beginning of hard times to come, and something that was not meant to be is done, and this is the start of what was" (the streets)

im in a bit of a state to be honest; i have a lot to look forward to at home, but i am so in love with travelling. i feel too young to tie myself down for two years at university, even though im sure i will love the course, and the idea of staying in one place for that long scares the shit out of me...especially frickin plymouth.
i've had an amazing, amazing time the last seven-weeks, i've met people who have taught me so much, people who take my breath away, and seen places that do the same. yesterday i saw angkor wat, the world's largest temple and it was incredible. when, after getting home, will i get to see something that is even worth a patch of ground angkor is built on? answer: i won't. it's quite simple. will i meet people who make my hairs stand on end every day? no. i don't want to sound arrogant or like i'm complaining 'for the hell of it': a lot of british people are scum, and maybe that will be the hardest thing to deal with.
cambodian people have been through extremely hard times, and still are. the country is still reeling from the events in the seventies and it is going to take a long, long time to achieve anything resembling prosperity.

we met a cambodian man who called himself tony in phnom penh. he was the nicest, most genuine bloke i've met (although almost every cambodian person is the same); he works in a bar, run by an englishman, in the tourist-zone shitehole i mentioned. he works 60 hours per week, 3pm - 1am six days, then during the day he tries to get taxi fares on his motorbike. he earns $15 a month from the bar. he can't afford to pay to live anywhere and lives with a friend. due to the tourist boom, accomodation and land prices in cities have sky-rocketed in recent years, forcing many people into the countryside. some days he gets a fare, some days he doesn't. $15 a month.
this is just one story but i know there are a million others. its the hardest thing to see; the nicest people in the world, people who are just incomparable to kind of wankers at home who are quite happy to not work, not go to school and enjoy pay-outs from the fucking government. those people are not worth the shit on a cambodian's shoe.

last night we went to a concert / talk by a swiss who calls himself beatocello. he has lived in cambodia for many years; he was here during the khmer rouge days, although he escaped, working as a doctor in local hospitals. the khmer rouge killed almost every doctor, nurse and anyone trained. there were 953 doctors before the khmer rouge: 50 survived.
beat spent many years pioneering for a better healthcare system in cambodia; it had been completely destroyed in the seventies and even now, hospitals are destitute and too expensive for most people to afford. he opened cambodia's, and south-east asia's first hospital to offer free healthcare to children. there are several epidemics in cambodia; two-thirds of people have tuberculosis, which severely weakens the immune system, encephalitus, hepatitus, polio, dengue fever and malaria effect around 75%. his hospitals are supported by voluntary donations and aid from the swiss government. the guy is a hero. before his hospitals (there are now three), the death rate for children going into hospital was 85%. in his hospitals it stands at 1.5%. they have modern western equipment and the staff, of which 99% are cambodian, are well trained....and well paid.
princess anne, the spokesperson for the world health organisation, visited his hospitals last year. beat was seeking more funding from the WHO and, more importantly, funding to stop an epidemic of dengue fever that he foresaw would occur in the wet season. the princess stayed in the most expensive hotel in cambodia - $350 a night. she said, publicly, that 'cambodia shouldn't have such modern healthcare and that the healthcare 'did not correspond with the economic reality': i.e. poor countries should be denied good healthcare. i.e. hundreds of thousands of people should be allowed to die. if i ever meet her, i will go against all of my morales and punch the stupid bitch in the face. this sort of ignorance is totally insane. if one man can build and maintain three modern hospitals purely from aid and donations, why can't more be done? one american couple, after seeing his show donated $1 million on-the-spot.

anyways, on a lighter note, we wet out on the piss last night, had a wicked time but ended up geing very messy.... we danced to the spice girls, trance and worse then a mate colin ran away for no good reason when the police turned up (they came for two cambodian girls who were going off-on-one)....he turned up a couple of hours later, claiming that he had been "jumping over fences''... me, nick and colin sat in the hotel smoking spliffs and being a state until 9, hence now i feel like a pig shat in my head. its horrible to think of it as the last of my trip, though. really horrible. roll on paying 3 quid a pint.....not.


Travel Diary: 20 June 2007

hi,
for various reasons this past week has been one of the worst ever, but the past seven weeks have been the most life changing weeks ive had yet. it doesnt seem like seven weeks ago i was sat in heathrow airport. now im in amman, turns out my 8 hour wait i was expecting, and had mentally prepared for, has been replaced by a free sweet hotel for the night - well i say night, but my body clock is totally screwed, apparently its 7 in the morning here but i actually have no idea.
i arrived at bangkok airport two hours early with a belgian guy called Johean; sound bloke. We got some grub and ended up chatting abotu cambodia and its people and how we both felt about going home, particularly about the people. He told me a story about when he went into the middle of nowhere in south-eastern cambodia and stopped on a bus to have a piss. He met two thirteen year old kids who spent all day, every day, carrying sand in buckets up two-hundred steps up a mountain to help build a pagoda (a kind of temple). they were thirteen, they'd never been to school, and they did nothing but welcome him and test out their english. Johean's cousin is fourteen, and when he comes round to visit all he complains about is his lack of a playstation. if he doesn't get to play on it he kicks up shit.
going back to what im going to feel when i get back, im going to be mainly angry. angry that kids at home, kids who will become adults and be much the same, don't realise how fucking well lucky they are and how hard it is for some people. the thing is, cambodians aren't starving; they are not desperate, and that makes me think about those who are. why don't they teach culture in schools? i just can't imagine ever wanting to bring up kids in a country like that.
we ended up chatting for a while then i looked at the clock and realised it was 10.50: my flight was at 11.15, his was 11.25 and we hadn't been through security or immigration. shite.
we raced through the airport like loons, got stopped by security for having an aeresol in my bag, and made the flight by one minute. what a crazy end to my trip.
hadn't ended though; now im sat in jordan somewhere in a hotel killing time before my flight.
fortunately, home alone 2 has just started so my next two hours are sorted.

over and out x