I am so behind on the stories I want to tell. I've ended up with some sort of sinus sickness and it's all I can do to make it through dinner at night, let alone paint the stories of my days. Here we go.
On Sunday, I had the most pleasant surprise. Lisa Marie came walking into the yard as I was sitting taking a water break. Behind her was a tall skinny man with a face mask on, and I immediately thought he was one of our contractors. As he began to grow closer, I realized his movements seemed familiar, his eyes glistened in a way that I knew. Before I could stop myself I had leapt off the stage squealing and catapulted my way into Lavin's arms. It is difficult to have favorites on these trips, but Lavin and his siblings; Lavit, Srey Neath Thom & Srey Neit, are at the top of my list. I met them three years ago on my first ever CGA trip, two months after their mother had passed away. Their father still lives in Andong and does his best to care for the kids while dealing with health issues. Last year, Lavit & Lavin had moved to a new orphanage/home in Phnom Penh. We went to visit and it was so much nicer and well kept than CPO. As sad as it was to not have them close anymore, clearly they were in a better place. Srey Neath Thom unfortunately was working in a garment factory, which made me so concerned for her well being. Lavin is who wrote my tattoo on my forearm, which reads, "I remember you forever in my heart", in Khmer. Last year was his first time seeing it, and his response was, "This is my handwriting, I am with you always." Now all four kids live in the same home in Phnom Penh. They go home to visit their father once a month, and we were lucky enough to see them on this visit. Srey Neath Thom is going to school to be a hairstylist, which made me very happy. Lavit and Lavin are still in school and speak phenomenal English. Lavin is almost 18 and taller than me, Lavit is also almost taller than me. Srey Neit has gone from a baby to a walking, talking beautiful little girl. To hold all four of them in my arms again was the most amazing feeling, I don't know how to explain.
Andong village is an important part of the experience our students get when traveling to Cambodia. For argument's sake, Andong is a slum. Although paved roads are starting to appear more and more, the main streets are mainly flattened trash piles that turn into cesspools during the rainy season. I love this place, despite it's brutal outward appearance; the sense of community and the love within is quite beautiful. I like to ease the students into this reality by walking the newer paved route in to the preschool, and follow up with leaving through the old road, where the families of Niroon, Srey Chen, Srey Neit and Lavin's family live. The route out of town consists of walking through wet trash piles and jumping from brick to brick to avoid the sludge. Every person we pass says hello, either in English or Khmer, grandparents smile at us and children follow us, as we are the white people who come year after year to help.
With a student in tow, we went to visit Cheang, Sok Heang Thom and the new baby in the village. Cheang was let go from the orphanage because her and Warath were pregnant before marriage (They married a week after we left last year). This seems a little crazy to me, as the children who live at CPO have seen far worse than babies out of wedlock, such as prostitute mothers, being abandoned by their parents at the gates of CPO and even watching their parents pass away. Cheang was the only one who really cared for the kids and kept them in line, making them bathe, go to school and help clean up around the orphanage. It is a blessing in disguise however, as now they live in a nicer home near the preschool and she has a new job that is better pay. She lives in what we would call a studio apartment, with one bathroom, with Sok Heng Thom, Warath, her mother and the new baby. It is maybe half the size of my bedroom at home. Chan Ton, her son, still lives at CPO.
My next stop was Srey Mei. Krissy and I found her outside the school last year and were told by the villagers that she was the "crazy girl". We believe she has cerebral palsy or perhaps suffered a stroke as a baby. She doesn't know how old she is, but I think she is around 10. She goes to school, at a lower level and is constantly made fun of and bullied by the village kids. I think the children at CPO are more accepting of her after we made sure they treated her kindly last year. We went to her aunt's house, and normally, when you arrive at a Cambodian home you are greeted with a place to sit and offered food. This was not the case here, Srey Mei's aunt and uncle hardly looked up from their bowls of rice when we came to the door asking for her. Mei was watching a static television and when she turned and saw us her eyes lit up like fireworks. She struggled to her feet and practically fell into Lisa Marie's arms, gripping onto Lisa Marie's neck as tight as she could. Her enormous grin sent us all into unstoppable tears as she made her way to Meng and I with hugs. She was filthy from head to toe and her clothes hung baggily from her bony body. No surprise, there was no objection to us taking her back to the orphanage for the day to clean her up and feed her. I carried her back to the orphanage and she continued to hold on with all her might, nuzzling her face into my neck and kissing my cheek. She told Meng that she remembered us all, and Krissy as well. Once we returned to CPO, Srey Mei was deloused, bathed, given new clothes, fed and manicured. She then spent the rest of the day playing with the kids, never losing her brilliant smile.
Yesterday, Monday, I had a new experience. I was talking to Lisa Marie when Meng rushed over saying a 10 year old boy Simin was hurt. He had been laying on his stomach playing with some other boys when they jumped on his back. He was writhing in pain, saying his legs and low back hurt. We came to the conclusion it was most likely a pinched sciatic nerve, however, he was hurting so badly we decided to take him to the hospital. The adults at the orphanage were trying to cure him with copious amounts of Tiger Balm and aggressive back rubs. Troy, Meng and I spent the 40 minute tuk tuk ride trying to make Simin's trip as comfortable as possible and when we finally arrived at the National Pediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh, his ibuprofen had kicked in and he had started to relax. For the next 4 hours, we shuffled from one building to the next, carrying poor Simin in only is underpants, from one exam room to another. The admissions workers tried to tack on extra charges, claiming I was Simin's mother, and foreigners pay a different price. They even tried to challenge Meng on her Cambodian roots. After we took x-rays, we were told we had to wait for the doctor to return from lunch. Apparently, lunch lasts from 11am to 2pm. We ate lunch ourselves and Simin was beginning to move a bit better, yet we still wanted a doctors opinion on his health. After shuffling between a few more exam rooms looking for a doctor to read the x-ray, getting peed on by a baby, and repeatedly asking for someone to help us, Meng confronted a woman who was seemingly in charge to a degree. The woman told Meng that one of the doctors decided to not come home from lunch and the other was in surgery, and if Simin had been more hurt then he would have been taken care of better. At this point, we had the attention of the entire waiting area (two white people was enough of a start), and Meng, God bless her, reached her breaking point. She lectured the woman on the lack of care and concern for a Cambodian child, for whom this hospital was built to serve. The hospital is government run, and most doctors work there merely for the perks; cars paid for by the government, etc. It is not uncommon for a doctor to work half day and then decide to leave and finish the day at their private practice, where they can charge upwards of three times the amount (We paid $16 total for our experience). Needless to say, we stormed out of the hospital, Simin and x-rays in hand, and headed back to CPO. By this time, Simin was begging to go home and saying he felt better. I am happy to report that he seems to be doing just fine now.
