and the beat goes on

It's been a while since I've posted and much has changed wrt experiences and geographical location of your's truly... so I'll start from the top.

January 30th
hmmmm... too far back and I can't remember. Carly left this day. I don't think I did much else than chill out, help Leigh doing various things... Oh ya, I was booked into the "family" room at Earthwalkers for this night and the next and so it was a HUGE room with 1 kingsize bed and 2 singles, a tv + cable, and 2 bathrooms! heehee I was supposed to be in a dorm room, but I would have been in there alone with a sketchy indian dude and I didn't feel comfortable, so I upgraded! Leigh crashed there with me both nights and I watched 3 Wil Smith flicks as well as Beavis & Butthead Do America. Fun.

January 31st
I chilled out most of the day, called my 'rents, read my book, checked out of Cambodia for a few hours upon entering this crazy sterile cafe called The Blue Pumpkin for some delicious quiche and devine iced coffee. Truly didn't feel like I was in a 3rd world country: sterile white decor, comfy white couch lining an entire length of a wall, if I had a laptop I would have had access to free wireless net... weird, but it had AC and so I was happy.

Something terrible happened this night though... a middle-aged aussie dude named Peter was found in a park: head bashed in, robbed, and left unconscious to die. He was brought to the provincial hospital where he received mediocre "care", had been unconscious still when Leigh got the call and we both rushed over, 16 hours after he was brought in. Peter had been living in Cambodia for 10 years, had no contact with his family back home, and when he didn't show up for work this morning Tony and Muriel (the aussies who owned the plumbing outfit) had cause to worry. The polic filed no report, and the embassy wasn't going to do anything for him until Rahul (of DMGF) applied some pressure... Rahul pretty much made everything happen as far as getting this man proper care, but let me tell you, it was an intense evening. I had never seen a human being more badly beaten than this dude was, it made me sick to my stomach to know that no one cared about him just cuz he was broke. It made me think about how I would have been treated had it have been me found in that park... scary. Apparently the next night another "barang" (foreigner) was found in the same way, except it was a woman. The moral? Don't walk around alone at night in Siem Reap or any place really... Peter was shipped to Bangkok where it was discovered he likely won't make it afterall. His head injuries were too severe and he developped infection in his lungs since he wasn't properly treated as soon as he was brought in. If he lives, he'll live the rest of his life as vegetable. My condolences to all who cared for him.

We went out for beers and pizza down on Bar Street and hung out with the street kids. They are always loads of fun and excitement. I'm really gonna miss that...

February 1st
I moved my circus to a different location: The Green Bamboo. This is where Leigh lives and I got to stay for free! That's always nice. No cable though, just good conversation, met some good people and made some great contacts.

Febryary 2nd
same same

February 3rd
This day was FULL ON. The day started at 8am when we headed down to the childre's hospital for DMGF's 2nd anual unloading of the 40 ft. truck of medical and miscelaneous donations! It was weird being a part of this since I had only days earlier watched the documentary from the year before. It was good fun, again I met many awesome people doing various awesome things for Siem Reap and the surrounding villages. Lots fo work though and I know nothing about medical supplies and so trying to organize it all was a bit of challenge... I did ok though I think! All the donations were distributed accordingly to the NGOs and hospitals and FCF picked up: 5 computers, a shit load of the discusting meal replacement bars that no one back home would give their dog, a shit load of vitamines, blankets, clothes, teddies, books... Leigh is a very happy camper, except for the fact that she has to give it all away before she leaves Cambodia to go home on the 10th! haha So we piled it all in her "office" and the day was only just beginning...

THEN we went with this canadian dude named Shaun to pick up some water filters to give out to the vietnamese families who live at Tonle Sap Village (the floating one I blogged about before?). They bought 90 and stored 80 in Leigh's "office"... the other 10 we brought as a trial run to test if they actually work for them. So, Leigh, Shaun, his irritating and nagging girlfriend, Amir (the camera dude who shot the documentary of last year and this year), Dave (a constable who vollunteers with Global Medics), a translator, and I went out to the smelly village, hopped on a boat and sailed off to provide clean drinking water for 10 families. How awesome is that??? Crazy.

After a full on busy day, we got back, showered and went for some yummy thai food... with the "gang" and Rahul and some other volumteers of DMGF.

February 4th
Leigh and Meniya took the little Green Bamboo puppy named Bubba to the vet cuz he had a HUGE lump in his throat that was cutting off his breathing and his ability to swallow. He was to be operated on...

Leigh and I organized her "office"! Wow. What a job! It was packed full and we took everything out, took an inventory, and then packed everything back in and it actually looks like a great little office now! heehee Hard work. Apparently I am a princess...

Bubba died during surgery... the lump was an infection that leaked down into his lungs and he couldn't be saved. He was only 8-10 weeks old. We cried for him. I'm sorry Leigh.

Went for dinner with Amir and was engaged in awesome conversation. He's a really good contact to have... and of course, an awesome person with beautiful ideals and goals.

February 5th
Hopped in a taxi with this dude Ray whom I had overheard yesturday talking about wanting someone to share the cost to Bangkok. Oppertunity was knockin and I answered: 3 hours to the boarder is better than 8. Talk about bumpy road though!!! Almost got car sick! The bus to Bangkok was nice, met a Khmer woman (and her 2 beautiful children) who was kind enough to lend me her Lonely Planet so I could research Ko Chang a bit before heading there tomorrow. Upon arrival, I bought my bus ticket to Trat where I will then catch a ferry to the glorious island of Koh Chang. I found a hotel here on Kao San Rd. for a reasonable price, bought some beanies (just for you Carly!), some clothes just for me, and a phone card. Yay! I can't wait til tomorrow! Leigh will hopefully be meeting me in Koh Chang on the 10th since her cambodian visa will have run out on that day and she must return home on the 27th (if not sooner). I really hope she comes cuz she is an AMAZING woman. It's so awesome to meet such wonderful souls whom I wouldn't have otherwise met had I not left home. I'm lucky. I love my life. There's so much good left to do in it!!!

I'll try and write again soon, although I'm not sure about internet access out there... who knows though! I'm thinking of everyone. I love you. Stay warm!

so I got to thinking...

This started out as an email to a dear and special friend, but the more I wrote, the more I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings with everyone who was affected by my blog about the Landfill people... I received so many comments and emails about how that one entry touched everyone in differing ways and it made me think about how it affected me since I never really allowed myself to think about it fully. I don't think I was letting myself digest what I had taken in that day... on top of visiting the dump, it was our last full day in Phnom Penh (since the next day we left for Siem Reap) and it was full of good-byes to the beautiful people I'd met and whom I hold dear and will miss a great deal... I'd learned so much through them, talking with Roath, Marcel, Salem... went to Angkor Wat the following day, Carly got sick, and then I followed suit. So here are my thoughts... I haven't even written in my personal journal since I lost THE pen.

At the time when I wrote that blog, ya, I was being mentally tried and was mentally fried. What a tugging that was on everything and everyone I had ever held dear to me, something I'd never experienced before and something I am greatful to have experienced. But still... it didn't seem real that we were there... and then leaving them to go back to our guesthouses or hotels, shower, drink clean water, eat a good meal... while they remained and continued to breathe in toxic fumes and flirt with death with every passing dump truck... it just didn't seem real.

I mean, can you even begin to imagine what a place might look like filled with the rubbish and waste of over 1 million people?? Can you even begin to imagine what it might be like to live and work there? searching for plastic products of any kind: bags, bottles, seringes? Yes needles!! Carly and Leigh witnessed a little girl pick up a seringe - once filled with who the hell knows what - break it, bag the plastic and toss the needle. And do you know how much money they might make in a day of working in that wasteland? about 2000-3000 riel/day... that's $0.50-$0.75 per day! So that we were bringing them water was a huge thing for them since 1 big bottle of water would cost them a day's wage. Leigh was seriously thinking about asking the group of canadians - who did the health clinic for the Street Kids and who will be doing one for the Tonle Sap Village on Feb.2 - who work for an organization called the David McAntony Gibson Foundation (DMGF) to go to the Stueng Meanchey Landfill to do a health clinic there as well. I'm not sure if they will have the time to go since they are only here for 10 days, but I will keep you posted.

So ya, what do I think about this? I think it's absolute bull-shit to be quite honest. I'm really beginning to see how tightly everything is bound to everything else... like a line in a song: "ask any eco-system: harm here is harm there and there and there". When we were in Laos, boating down the niddy griddy Mekong River, the waste of all those inhabitants gets tossed and lost - more forgotten, flows down and down into Cambodia... where all the waste of its shores' inhabitants flow down and down... and all the waste that gets tossed into and of the Tonle Sap River flow into the Mekong creating this discusting river of man-made sewage and poison. The people bath in it. The people drink from it. The people piss and shit in it. The people fish from it, clean their food in it, and then eat from it. The people feed their livestock from it, then eat their livestock. There are no recycling programs in place, no water purification programs, no environmental awareness what-so-ever. It's understandable since they have only recently been free from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge Regime... they haven't had time nor the luxury to think about such things as environment preservation. So it's bound so tightly that it's so difficult to create an understanding in them that the environment is important because it affects their health directly as well as the health of future generations. And so now that the political climate is at a low and tolerable temperature, people like Leigh can come in and start up organizations such as Future Cambodia Fund to sort of start somewhere at creating some kind of awareness among a people who were brutally forgotten for so many years...

I am truly motivated to come back and help out as much as I can, but from where I stand now... I am looking forward to going home and seeing friends and family whom I love and miss so much. Many people whom I've met here have left their home fronts and haven't really looked back due to their particular situations and histories... some go back occasionally to make money to come back to Cambodia and fund whatever their endeavor is... I've been questioned as to why I'm going back since I would really like to stay and help more; it costs more to go and come back than it would to just stay. They find it hard to believe sometimes that us "tourists" will come back when we say we're gonna come back. Marcel - this interesting dutch dude who's marrying a beautiful young Khmer woman (Roath) on Feb 24 - sais that us westerners have the luxury of going back, of travelling to begin with, whereas most Khmers stay put because they are too poor... us westerners come into their lives and quite often make promises that we can't keep... the khmers trust us and then are dissapointed time and time again because many times, they don't come back. I understood what he was saying, but I don't consider myself to be your average "tourist" or "westerner" who makes promises she can't keep. Carly feels this way also. We have met some incredible people in Cambodia as well as Laos and we aren't the kind of people who make promises we can't keep.

The reason why we must go and come back is due to the fact that it is easier to make money to fund something here back home, than it would be to stay here. Another reason - the most important reason in my opinion - is that we didn't flee from our past lives... we have only ventured out to explore the world and document it and share it here with you all for you to experience some of what we have been... we have people who love us and who miss us to come home to and I know that I cherish that more now than I did before. So I'll see you all soon, but keep reading me cuz I haven't left yet! I think I'm gonna regroup on a beach somewhere in Thailand before I head home to freazing cold climates and even colder government.

anchor WHAT?

JANUARY 27
Went to the famous Anchor Wat (where Tombrader was filmed) and spent quite a big chunk of the day checking out the brilliance of all these temples. A nice little change from the intesities of the previous days. I for sure needed that. We took a tuk tuk out in the morning out to a temple that was about 37kms out from the main Angkor temple; this one is famous for its intricate carvings and detailing on all the buildings... friggen AMAZING! I mean, the time it would have taken to carve out the most minute detail... such concentration and patience. In contrast to the Acropolis and every other greek ruin, this place was so incredibly different even though both the Greeks and the Angkorians were once mighty empires toppled by time.
My favorite place was this one here: with immense trees growing up and out of the buildings, illustrating nature's power over man's creations... something else! The strangest thing is that when these temples were built from the 9th-15th C. AD, there were no trees at all... they've only since appeared over the passing of time, and have overgrown the entire area. Unfortunately, with all the tourists coming in to see these wats, there's nothing being done to really preserve the integrity they still hold. I mean, there is sort of tape to border off where you shouldn't venture, but it's still so easy to pass around it or under it and there is no one there to enforce these rules either. This tree you see here, I could have sat down in front of it for the whole day just looking at it. Its roots are as wide as I am and wider in some cases... the way they just push out through and from between the stone. We took some pictures (hopefully they'll turn out) and I hope to post them as soon as I can.

The Angkor Wat (the 1st picture here at the top) was a tourist MANIA and I hated being there amongst all those people who weren't really there for anything BUT the wat; so rude and ingnorant some of them were. It was as big as a small city and the monks still reside there. You're not supposed to photgraph the monks, but I snuck a couple photos in anyhoot... they were down the long hallway and you can barely see them, though they are surely there, so I don't think it'll come back to haunt me considering some people had no shame in blatantly taking photos of them. We were leaving the wat - having already crossed the moat - and looked up to see about 10 tourists just standing there beneath the entrance arch with their cameras up and poised to photograph the wat as the sun was setting... it looked absolutely HILARIOUS!! By the time we got our camera out to photogragh the foolishness, it was too late. Ah well. I'll always remember it and that's what matters most! I gotta stop relying on a camera to remember things anyhow...

and she gets sick...
So it's been pretty windy here in Siem Reap the past few days and
I didn't realize that would affect my health the way it did. I ate a little something at an outdoor restaurant just outside the Wat of ginormous trees - just rice and well-cooked beef. That night I had some pasta and I felt a little something going on in my body, like it was fighting something off, so I went to bed somewhat early just in case. The next morning I had a baguette for breakies and around 3pm some veggie fried rice and coke. I had woken up feeling slightly ill, but nothing serious... Carly had been up all night with a fever and diarreah and so she was in bed all that day. I even took her to the doctor to get some meds in her to bring her fever down and more cyprofloxin to kill that nasty parasite that keeps causing shit. That night I went up to watch a short documentary with Leigh on the Street Kids clinic that was held last year with the same team of canadians since the second one was being held the next day... we walked passed the kitchen on our way upstairs (we were at Earthwalker's Guesthouse where we've been staying) and I was overcome with this feeling like I was gonna hurle out all my innards! Weird. I ignored it and watched the film though I had to rest in the fetal position throughout the viewing since my tummy was feeling so strange... As soon as it was over I sat up and said "where's a garbage? I think I'm gonna puke!" and ran out the door and projected my days' meal about 6 ft out from the top balcony! Luckily, no one was walking underneath me at that time... though I did manage to cover the rear wheel of one dude's moto! haha So I thought that was it, but I was up on and off that entire night puking, diarreah, fever and headache. I couldn't keep anything down and became quite dehydrated. Carly took me to the hospital in the morning where I was given some meds and an IV to help keep the pills down. When I got back, I was bedridden the rest of the day and unfortunately I wasn't able to volunteer at the Street Kids health clinic... Carly did though. So I didn't eat at all yesturday save a few bites of rice in the evening. Today I'm feeling much better, though my appetite still hasn't quite returned. I can't tell if I'm hungry or not and my energy level is way down. I think things will improve over the course of a few days. I'll keep you posted.

Nice side-note eh? heehee Ah well. "shit happens!" Well, I got some stuff to do before Carly leaves for home this evening and so I better get to it. I'll be on my own for the first time in a while and it feels strange to think about...

Take care everyone and thanks again for reading and thinking. :-)

my bloody trip to the dump

Once upon a time...
there was a land full of garbage, waste, toxicity, and overall filth. This land was called: Stung Mean Chey Landfill. People not only had to physically work in that shit (pardon the pun), but they had to live there as well. The workers who were also inhabitants consisted of all ages, though the majority were small children. Human beings covered from head to toe with black toxic dirt - especially their hands since they were used for digging out and sifting for the valuable plastic from the rest of other people's waste, and especially their feet for they were used for walking on all the garbage since they could not be properly covered and protected with sandals or shoes due to extreme poverty. Some of them had acid burn marks on their faces and bodies, some of them had wounds that will never heal properly - physical wounds just as much as mental ones - and everyone, every single individual there was ill to some degree and unable to seek proper medical attention since there was no way of getting to a treatment centre let alone paying for treatment. Death at this Landfill was commonplace: getting run over by a large machine or malnutrition, whichever came first.

Everywhere you could see was garbage and the most discusting living conditions known to Mankind during this time. It stunk all the time, there was no refuge from the horrible stench no matter the weather; when it was hot - which was most of the time - it smelled worse, but when it was rainy it smelled just as bad and the chemicals from all the waste flowed like a river of everthing that is just not good for any living creature, but created by fellow human beings who called this "progress". Imagine this river (of everything that is just not good for any living creature) full of floating debris and waste so thick that you cannot differentiate where the land meets the river, creating a never-ending landscape of waste. Imagine, too, people - women, men, and children of all ages - up to their necks in this toxic chunky liquid searching for plastic bags, of all things. Try to imagine the stench eminating and steaming from all around: from the burning of this waste, from the people themselves. Try now to imagine bringing up a family in a land such as this...

...reality check...

This place really exists and I saw it with my own eyes and felt the sting of the toxins, smelled it with my own nose, felt the touches and tugs of the children on my arms and on my heart. We went - Carly, Leigh, Christian, Roath, and myself - to pay a visit to this place I didn't want to believe existed. We bought what seemed like a tonne of bottled water to give out, but of course it wasn't enough. Upon our arrival we were swarmed with children. We walked down to the village where Roath and I tried to disperse the life water fairly among them: it was an intense experience to say the least, and one that I won't soon forget...

But you know what? Despite all that, they were so happy to receive us and the water (probably more for the latter) and their smiles lit up through the steam and the smoke. It was beautiful in many ways to know that we helped in some small way... to know that this place exists and that these people exist is a knowledge that inspired all of us to act upon in any way we can, when ever we can.


Comedic relief?
Carly - the ever adventurous woman - was trying to get the perfect shot of the river (more like a stream) I detailed earlier; however, in doing so, she fell in to it!! up to her waste, managing to save the camera and the purse. I was on one side of her - having took the "bridge" across - and Leigh was right next to her and was able to pull her out. I couldn't believe what I had just seen! My first reaction was to laugh, as was Leigh's, but we were both unsure whether that would be a rude thing to do... since Carly had just about drown in toxic waste... Luckily, she handled it very well and and Leigh and I proceeded to laugh our asses off at the sheer incredibility of the whole incident. The locals were laughing too - a "barang" (foreigner) fell in the waste - and one of them ushered her over to him and he cleaned her up as best he could with somewhat clean water before the toxins seeped into her body... which they managed to a little since she claimed of a burning sensation in her bum. ***Don't worry, she took a hot and soapy shower at a clean hotel room as soon as we got back to the city and is just fine now.*** But, we had to laugh. Sometimes it's the only thing one can do in a situation such as that one.

Wondering what the bloody part is referring to?
Carly and I gave 350ml of blood this afternoon at the children's hospital here in Siem Reap, where we are now located.

Stay tuned for the next installment of my life. Thank-you for reading and thinking.