Pho, it’s what’s for breakfast! Rice noodles in a beef broth with different cuts of beef in it, these could include steak, fatty flank, lung and any other organ. It is served with bean sprouts, lime and greens. It is tasty, cheap and widely available! Every street corner has a pho stand!
The limes in Southeast Asia are a cross between lemons and limes. They are smaller and sweeter and perfect for making sweet, sweet limejuice. Pretty much a lime smoothie!! Cool and refreshing, perfect for those hot, hot Cambodian days!!
As you saw in the video, Self Help Community Center or S.H.C.C is a small school located just outside Siem Reap, Cambodia in Krobey Real. It provides free additional education to twelve villages based around Krobey Real. Each student receives an additional hour of schooling free of charge. S.H.C.C. was founded and is run by a community local, Sambath Chourn.
When returning to his home village of Krobey Real after a six-year absence, he noticed that his community was not evolving. Lack of education is a direct result as to why the people of his community are not prospering in the modern day economy. With the money he earned living in Siem Reap he started S.H.C.C.
How did we find this place? A fellow traveler told us about her experience volunteering. We wanted in on the action. She said they weren’t looking for any teachers at the moment but were looking to maybe make a promotional video for their website. “We make videos!!!” we said in unison.
We got in contact with Sambath and were on our way to help out S.H.C.C. not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into…
The next ten days would turn out to be some of the most profound days of our lives!!!
Because we were doing such a big project, Sambath invited us to stay in the village. This gave us a real taste of what being a Cambodian really means.
The family that we stayed with consisted of tailors and security guards that worked in Siem Reap. They seemed to have it a tiny bit easier than the farmers or fishermen but not by much. Our family was also small, with only three children. The only way we could communicate with our family was through sign language and Rockstar, the youngest brother, who was the only member of the family that spoke English. The bond that we formed with this family surpassed anything that we could have possibly imagined despite the language barrier. When they found out that it was Kinsey’s birthday while we were there they planned a surprise party for her. Throughout our stay, lots of laughs, hugs, hitting and tears (hitting in Cambodian culture is a sign of affection) were exchanged! To the point where they invited us back after we had finished editing the video for a celebration at the local pagoda. The time we spent living with this family taught us things about life and ourselves that we could never learn from textbooks or lectures. They have touched our hearts and souls and we miss them every minute.
The people of Krobey Real work from sun up to sun down. Children as young as six or seven work besides their parents farming, fishing, sewing and basket-weaving all to just to make ends meet.
Because the government does not fund public education the poor get the short end of the stick. They can barely afford to clothe and feed their children let alone pay to provide additional schooling. In return, this leads to fewer opportunities because they are uneducated. The jobs left for these people are physically strenuous and low paying. It is a vicious cycle that S.H.C.C. is trying to break.
The Cambodian poor do not have access to basic health care needs. Most adults have more than a few teeth missing and the others they do have are rotting. Tooth decay is apparent as early as five years old. After walking back from the market, a family invited us in for a shot of rice wine. They were very happy to have us there, so of course they were all smiling. Instead of white pearly smiles we got toothless and rotten grins. Even the little boy we were living with had tooth decay and he was only twelve.
With families as large as eleven and twelve people, the majority of rural Cambodians have absolutely no education on sexual health and birth control. This results in a lower standard of living in a place where the standard isn’t very high to begin with. While biking around the village, one woman held up her baby and began yelling to us. Sambath told us that she was saying, “Come take my baby, you can take care of my baby.”
Sambath is an Inspiration!! What he showed us we will never be able to reciprocate. The selflessness that Sambath lives is a lesson that everyone should take a chapter from. He is not in it for the bragging rights but to truly help the people of his community. Sambath, it was a privilege to have met you and to have worked with you. Hopefully, we have helped a tiny bit for your cause and all those beautiful kids. We will Never Forget you!!!!
TO DONATE: Please send a Money Gram or Western Union to Sambath Chourn in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Send him an email at chournsambath@yahoo.com with the reference number for pick up!!
Thank you for ALLLL your help in making S.H.C.C. grow and Grow and GROW!!!!!!
For more photos, check out our Flickr account ———->>>
One of the first things that one learns while on the road is that you Cannot do or see Everything!! You have to pick and choose the things that you want to do and the things you are o.k. missing out on. Sad but true!!
Our experience at Angkor Wat is a prime example of this lesson. Angkor Wat consists of hundreds of temples and takes up to three days to see all of them!! The main temple and most famous is Angkor Wat itself! Because we had decided to work with a school a half hour outside of Siem Reap, we only had about half a day to see the temples.
Since Angkor Wat is the most famous we decided to head there. It is the symbol of Cambodia today, gracing the nation’s flag. It was built in the 12th century for King Suryavarman II. It is the largest religious structure ever built, and it is roughly 1,000 years old. It is the epitome of classical Khmer architecture and the best-preserved temple, or wat, on the site.
Hopefully, one day we will make it back to Cambodia. When we do we will dedicate three full days to Angkor to see for ourselves the extent of the Khmer Empire at its finest…unless something else comes our way!!
For more photos, Check out our Flickr Account ———->>>>
As we stated in the video, we had Never heard of Tuol Sleng, S-21, The Khmer Rouge or the Cambodian Genocide. We were shocked to find out that this even happened!! How could something so much like the Holocaust just be ignored. In our schools the Holocaust is portrayed as the only genocide to ever have happened in recent history. We understand the restricted time that teachers have in the classroom. But we believe that just touching on the fact that other things like this have occurred throughout human history and recent human history is vital for not only learning empathy towards others but for understanding world issues on a higher level.
After going to Tuol Sleng, it started to dawn on us that anyone over the age of 30 living in Cambodia today were effected by Pol Pot and The Khmer Rouge. It made us really begin to look at the people of Cambodia in a different light. Cambodia has blatant after effects due to the policies of The Khmer Rouge. Understanding their history helped us comprehend their present and hope for their future.
We could only fit so much information about Tuol Sleng and this genocide into our video. There are so many more horrific events that happened to these people not so long ago. Check out the following websites to further your education on not only the Cambodian Genocide but the mass slaughtering in Rwanda and the current Genocide going on in Darfur, Sudan. Education is key!!
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana
So you can say we are a little excited, nervous, anxious and pumped all at the same time!! As of tomorrow we start our trek to the other side of the WORLD!!!!! Beijing, China!!! Honestly we are both a little nervous about the amount of English there will be in Beijing!! All we know how to say is hello and thank you, which are clearly the first key words to learn. Still, depending on how much English is used will depend on how difficult it is for us to basically do everything!!! lol Which will probably be pretty entertaining at times!!!! We’ll get through it we just have nooooooo idea what is ahead of us. But this is just part of the excitement of it all…and the Adventure!!! China here we COME!!!
We’re Chelsea and Kinsey, two badass girlie girls from Boston who travel the world with only packs on our backs, Chucks on our feet and travel guidebooks in our pockets.
We’ve conquered countless countries, including such off-the-beaten-path places like Russia, Columbia, and Egypt (check out the other 29 countries we’ve been to in our Bio section). Now, we’re traveling on the largest continent on Earth—Asia—and you’re coming with us through the videos we’ll be posting!
We’re out here on our own, on a budget, taking on adventure after adventure. We want to see the world and experience other cultures. We represent modern girl power…doing it up the way we love it…and finding out that along the way, even though the world is so diverse, we’re all more the same than we are different.
This September we will be traveling through China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand for three whole months!!! We are starting in Beijing, China and ending in Bangkok, Thailand. We are recent college graduates (which means we are Broke) and will be doing this trip on only $3000 bucks or $33 a day!!! Yikes!!! We will be hitting up major cities, unknown treasures, eating lots of crazy food, riding elephants and chilling on some amazing beaches!! Come along for the ride to see if we can make it through this adventure without calling the rents for money… and if we make it back alive!!
