Day 1: Sousdey!

Sousdey! (which means 'Hello' in Khmer Language)

On 23^rd nov, 19 students and 5 teachers embarked on a trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We had to wake up really early that morning to meet at the airport, at 4AM ! We were excited and anxious.  After bidding goodbye to our parents who had come to send us off, we proceeded to board the plane. After 2 hours of flight, we finally reached Cambodia!

We met up with our Cambodian guide, Mr Moni, and proceeded by bus to Siem Reap! On the way, Mr Moni brought us to a road-side stall to try their local snacks, FRIED CRICKETS AND GRASSHOPPERS!!! We were horrified to learn that these are side dishes for the locals!! Most of us tried them and to our surprise, the fried bugs actually tasted delicious, just like fried bacons!  We then continued our long bus journey of three and a half hours and finally arrived at Baray Kompong Thom Province for our homestay experience and our CIP activities to support the local community.

 

We had our lunch at Solar Café which is runned by Ms Esther Ding, a Malaysian who has been living in Cambodia for the last 16 years to help support the locals. We had Cambodian glass noodles, tempura abalone mushrooms and chicken soup. YUMMY! It was a very satisfying meal.

 Thereafter, we were brought to the homestay village and we sorted out used clothes that we had brought from Singapore. It took us about an hour to finish packing the clothes. After which, we went to the respective wooden huts which we were allocated to and we were all excited to see how our rooms would be like!  We felt like we were transported back in time as the facilities were very basic - our beds were thin mattresses and bugs were crawling all over. The huts were warm and stuffy. The electrical supply in the compound was controlled - supply came on at about 6pm and out by 11pm. Although the homestay environment was very different from our homes back in Singapore, we were still thrilled to be able to stay there as it was a brand new experience for all of us!

 We had about an hour to familiarise with the village and we started playing games with the village children. We got chased by an angry goose! We continued walking deeper into the village and took a truck ride to another part of the village. Although there were 30 of us on that small truck, we truly enjoyed the bumpy but fun ride! We paid 5 USD just to take that ride.

Next, we went to a nearby orphanage in the village to donate stationery sets and the clothes that we had packed to the 25 orphans who are living there. When we handed them the gifts, the children were very appreciative and thanked us with smiles on their faces. They also showed us their bedrooms and when we saw that each bed in the orphanage was shared among five children and that the beds were each laid with only a thin straw mat, we felt really sorry for them.

Our guide, Mr Moni, then brought us to visit the First January Dam which was built during the Pol Pot Regime. The scenery was really beautiful there and we were able to view the sunset. All of us got into the dam to soak our feet in the clear and cool water. We were shocked when Mr Moni told us that the lives of 2 million people were sacrificed during the building of the dam. They were being captured and forced to work extremely hard to complete the construction of the dam.

It was soon dinner time and we went back to Solar Café for our delicious dinner which was swamped with flies! Suddenly, the whole café blacked out! But luckily we had more or less finished our dinner. We boarded the bus back to homestay and showered. The toilets were also filled with flies and spiders. We were finally allowed to go back to the room and we had an early rest with creepy crawlies!!

Posted by Group 1

Eunice, Jia Shing & Jun Jie