This was a very busy day, but I don't have many pictures of it. Sorry about that.... At 11:00am a lawyer named Hour Sotheary from Sciarini Associations (not sure if that is spelled correctly) was scheduled to come to the dorm, but since she is Khmer and would speak in Khmer, I decided that I didn't really need to be there. It turns out that she wasn't actually a lawyer but just an associate at the firm, but I think the girls still found it to be useful. I hope so!
So, I left around 9:30 in the morning and hired the tuk tuk driver from next door to drive me around all day. I met someone named Emily (Abra's cousin - Abra was the one in the moto accident and who worked at Sovanna Phum). Emily works at Oxfam in DC, but is in Cambodia for 4 months helping with a project. The two of us met at the Living Room, which is a place to eat, and we met someone else named Ed there. The three of us then went to a place called the Lighthouse Orphanage which is in far south Phnom Penh, just over the bridge on Monivong - actually quite close to the dorm. Even though the website says they house 75 kids, it looks like they have around 99 right now - both boys and girls all between the ages of 3 and 18. They live there, go to school, and take additional classes in computers, English, French, and Japanese at the dorm (yes, all 3 languages!). Some of them have quite good English for such a young age. It was a really amazing place, and they seem to rely heavily on donations. For instance, they use one huge bag of rice a day to feed that many kids! Tourists and other people just drove up while we were there to drop some things off.
Anyway, the people I was with had raised about $650, so we went to the market to buy some things: brooms, big buckets, big knives, shampoo, soap, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc. Lots of things like that. There was barely room for us in the tuk tuk!
Shopping at the market:
The kids were all so great, and I wish the best for them. The girls at the dorm seemed interested, so I am going to see if some of them would be interested in going out there to volunteer or just play with the kids. They really loved having people around!
Here is a picture of us with some of the kids from the orphanage:
After the orphanage, I took Emily to try the fried bananas (of course - I am addicted!). Then, we went to some stores. We had planned to go to the Wat Phnom, but there wasn't time and we just didn't have the energy at that point. We went to Sentosa Silk and Kravan Silk on 178. We both bought a few things at Kravan - I got some necklaces, something for the chair of my committee, and something for one of my grandmothers. Oh, I also got a few things at the market (for my mom and grandmothers): 2 fans and 2 bags for $5 - I love the markets!!
We also went to a store called Spicy Green Mango, which I had been to with Abra when I first got here. There were some shoes I had admired and was wondering if they still had them in my size. I ended up getting a different pair and then ordering that other pair ($30 each...a little pricey, I know, but they are really cute!!). I have to go back on Thursday to pick up the new pair! The girls at the dorm really liked the shoes that I got but were shocked by the price. Apparently they usually spend about $3-5 on shoes, and even running shoes cost only $20. They couldn't believe it when I said that good running shoes in the US cost $120. It is pretty expensive!!!
Here is the website for the Lighthouse Orphanage if you would like more information: http://www.lighthouseorphanage.co.uk/
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