You are my Sunshine!

After returning from the weekend trip it was a very tiring and long Monday! Non the less though was another great day in phenom pehn. The orphanage today was extremely laid back even more than usual, reason being that at 9am this morning 13 children piled onto a tuk tuk and went to the dentist. After returning from lunch though it was really weird there were no kids at the school and it was very quiet kind of scary because we had though something went wrong! After only realizing that the children got quite a bit of teeth pulled at the dentist so they were just sleeping upstairs all drugged up and sleeping! Without being able to do lesson because of this we decided to try lighten up their day by teaching them a new song! " you are my sunshine". The kids picked up on the song very fast and really loved singing this song, and they kept on singing for an hour it was a lot of fun. After getting back to our room Kendal started to feel sick, so while she took a nap to help her feel better I grabbed a 1 dollar tuk tuk to the local gym! Looked very nice from the outside with a pool and bar. When walking into the gym though they had a heap of beautiful cardio machines... But the weight machine lacking to be updated. Every time I went to pull weight on the machines it was if I was going to pull the whole machine down with it! I am surprised that there was no forms to be filled out before using this hahaha. Over all today was a very laid back and relaxing Monday not much else went on other than teaching/playing withthe kids and attending the local gym! Thanks for following!
Jeremy out!

Weekend trip to Mondulkiri

After a very long 12 hour ride, with 27 other volunteers packed into a small bus, we arrived in the eastern Cambodian province of Mondulkiri. It is a province known for its landscape and tribes that still live the traditions of their culture. Our accommodation for the 2 nights was a cute bungalow with paper thin walls that allowed you to listen to the nature sounds all night. It was a breath of fresh air being out in the forested region rather than the dirty, polluted city. We began our day as we headed out to a tribal village (one that still uses elephants as a means of transportation!). We learned about the elephants and familiarized ourselves with them before we got on them and trekked with them through jungle. We trekked for 40 minutes, sitting on a small wooden plank inside a homemade bamboo basket on top of the elephant. Soo uncomfortable! When we arrived at the waterfall with the elephants, we ate lunch while the elephants also went back into the jungle for a lunch break of their own. Afterwards we played in the waterfalls all afternoon! Our vibrams came in so handy! Later the elephants joined us in the water for a wash! It was a little scary at first having these massive animals coming in the water with you! I feel proud that I was the first of the group to brave up and get up close and personal with them! Haha After I warmed up though, I was having so much fun and I couldn't believe I was actually swimming and playing with elephants, in the waterfalls, in Cambodia!! After that, we chose not to ride the elephants home, and we took the hike threw the jungle instead. We ended up getting ourselves lost and we ended up an hour later in another random village! Seriously by the grace of God we made it back to our bus safely. After that we drove to a coffee bean farm and had the most amazing coffee as we laid in hammocks and enjoyed the view of the jungle . Then, they took us to the top of a hill to watch the sunset. Right then and there, I felt like it had been a perfect day... But nope, it wasn't finished yet. We shared a traditional Khmer meal, sitting in a large circle on a mat, eating in a bamboo hut. Afterwards they had a tribal dance performance that the villagers put on for us! We joined to dance with them around the fire then left back to our place for the night. We planned to head straight to bed after a long day, but once we were offered to share homemade wine that some of our tour guides brought back from the village, we couldn't pass it up! Packed into a big clay vase, a mix of rice, guava and random plant herbs made a mean, potent wine! We sipped it from bamboo straws and chilled out with some other volunteers, and our tour guides. While walking back to our bungalow, we had stopped to sit under the stars because they were so bright and clear in the night sky. We could see mars and Venus and Jeremy spotted a shooting star. As we sat there, I thanked God for blessing me with an amazing day that I was able to share with my best friend. It the most perfect way to end a perfect day. I can't imagine how it could have been any better besides having my friends and family there to expirence the day with me.
-Kenni xo

Expensive day in Cambodia

Today started off just like yesterday... get up, wash our face wash, brush our teeth after we eat breakfast of course. When we got to the orphanage it was a bit more relaxed now that we were no longer new to the children. They all said the same thing as yesterday, "hello, how are you?" "I am fine." Today the lesson was learning and reviewing our abcs. Everyone was so excited to show and impress us with how fast they could ramble off their alphabet. It is unbelievable how quickly the children pick up on new learnings. Obviously some were struggling more than others with their alphabet and they are all at different levels of understanding! A boy named Hoy, is probably the brightest of the bunch! He's extremely clever! At 10 years old he made his own addition and multiplication chart in his little note book and was showing me how to do my times tables and addition! It's exciting as well as saddening at the same time because seeing children like Hoy, who has so much potential, only receive a few hours of education a day and won't have the funds to carry on into university.
We've been told,that here in Cambodia teachers are paid very little. Most times the teachers demand that the children pay them more out of their own personal pockets, and if they can't afford it, the teachers refuse to teach them. It's not long afterwards that the kids usually drop out of school. It is sad and disheartening as the continuation of the cycle of poverty.
After school was done, we were so dirty from playing with the kids in the heat, we thought we'd treat ourselves to a hair wash at the salon on the corner. An hour head massage, hair wash, face wash and face massage for $1. Kendal had a hair wash, hour head massage and her hair straightened for $2! Later we went down to riverside for a bit, however I must say it was quite pricy though ..... $0.75 for a pint of beer and Kendal had an enormous banana split for $2.50
-Jeremy

First day on the job and a trip to the dentist!

Our first day at our placement was very exciting as well as bit overwhelming. First arriving at the orphanage, kids flocked to us with hugs and 35 times repeated greetings like, "Hello! What is your name? How old are you? How are you? I am fine!" haha Each child had to ask us these same questions over and over! It was so cute because when they would ask, "How are you?", they'd also answer for you "I am fine," before you had a chance to answer yourself. So funny! After the children somewhat settled down we attempted a short lesson, but it didn't last long as the kids were too wound up from the excitement of having new volunteers. We played jump rope, read books and took a few photos before leaving for lunch. Our day at the orphanage begins around 8am and we start with a lesson, then play until lunch time which is around 11:30 am. The orphanage is a quick 10minute walk from the place where we are staying so we walk home for a delicious lunch served around noon. We made our way back to orphanage afterwards where we were pleasantly surprised that we were taking 8 children to the dentist! The 8 kids plus the two of us, piled into a Tuktuk for a 30minute drive across the city to the dentist. They each waited patiently for their turn and all went in to see the dentist on their own, even the 4 year old Liang! This was our first real insight into how independent these kids are and how they can switch from being a child, to being a mature grown up so quickly. It was a little bit sad to see how they didn't need anyone to hold their hand, or go in with them, or keep them occupied while waiting. They were completely fine to do it all on their own. We had lots of fun on the Tuktuk ride home. We taught them the song"down by the bay." They had no idea what they were repeating back to us, but did it anyways whole heart idly. Once we returned back to the orphanage, we said goodbye for the day and our first day with them was complete! It was overall very exciting, very tiring and a whole lot of fun! So pumped to see what tomorrow brings!

Khmer Rouge Torture Prison Toul Sleng

Today as part of our orientation to the volunteer program, we were taken on a tour to Toul Sleng, also known Prison S-21. From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge brutally killed 2 million Cambodians. Toul Sleng, a former high school, was converted into a interrogation torture prison, where inmates were kept for 1-6 months then taken out to the killings fields to be executed. When walking around the corner and seeing, this once flourishing high school, wrapped in barbwire you could already visualize the horrors that have happened behind each and every worn classroom wall. Some rooms had only a bed with shackles and torture devices on it, while the others had been broken up into 8 small holding stalls dimensions being 1 x 2 meters. While viewing these rooms you can still see the blood stains on the tiles. Disgustingly graphic images that were recovered, originally taken by the Khmer Rouge for documentation and pleasure, were displayed. Our guide was 15 years old during the time of the Khmer Rouge and lost 2 brothers, and 3 cousins during this genocide. There were only 7 survivors at S-21, and only 2 left alive today. We were extremely lucky as we were able to meet one of the miracle survivors, Buo Meng. The experience was very sobering... seeing each victim's photo that was taken when they arrived at the prison, you feel extremely connected and their eyes telling their horrifying story! You could feel the pain as you walked through the prison grounds, yet we can't even fathom what really happened there. It was very uncomfortable knowing that such evil took place right where you were standing and so unbelievable to think this happened not long ago. -Jer & Ken

To learn more about Toul Sleng and the Khmer Rougr go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum

We broke our bed.. because of a lizard.

After a few days of being here, I was pleasantly surprised that we did not have any lizards joining us in our room.. But that didn't last long. Last night we had a friendly little gecko waiting for us on our wall, when we came into our room to go to bed. My month in Costa Rica had conditioned me for this, as we usually had 3-5 lovely lizards joining us every night, so I was okay with him in our room. Jeremy on the other hand was not so willing to have this little guy spend the night in our room with us. He was actually losing his mind over it. Determined to either catch the lizard, kill the lizard, or chase the lizard out, he was not going to have this lizard in the room. After trying to explain to him that none of the 3 options were possibly since they can run so fast, and promising him that the lizard would not come off the walls, we compromised that we would pull our bed away from the wall, and I sleep on the side closest to the wall.. Well, a simple tug on the bed, and the bed completely fell apart! Haha! We had to pull the entire thing apart and put it together piece by piece. We came to discover that the bed screws were missing, metal brackets broken, and the bed was only placed together by a mere balancing act. So were reassembled it the best we could, gave Jeremy a flashlight that he could take to bed for safety, and we tried to head to sleep. The lizard's call sound, I'm sure forced Jer to sleep with one eye open, but we eventually got some sleep.. Only to wake up to another different lizard in our bathroom... Poor guy. -Kendal

Yoga and Pizza date!

We started the day off with a yoga flow class at a local studio. I believe it's the only studio in the city which is a little hard to imagine, but It sounds like that's the case. It was all white foreigners, most Auzzie's. The room was small with a wicker roof, and simple window screens as walls made it for a natural hot yoga experience. Afterwards we grabbed a Tuktuk down to the riverside for some lunch. We found a cute,'western inspired' restaurant, the kandal house, and shared a delicious pepperoni pizza. Having traditional food all three meals, everyday since we've been here, the pizza was a nice touch of home.
Today was once of the first days where we both felt completely comfortable to grab a Tuktuk and venture out around phnom penh freely, without much fear. During past few days of being here, I've learned that you really have to trust people if you want to go anywhere or even do anything. You have to trust that the Tuktuk driver is taking you where you've requested and you have to trust that he will only charge you your negotiated price.. If we never trusted any of them, I'd be stuck in my room all day long. When I think about this on a big scale, I think about all the opportunities I may have missed out on because I was afraid to trust someone..It's unfortunate. But not to dwell it!
And what if they do end up screwing us over? We'll.. I guess we'll figure it out then. -Kendal

A day in the eyes of 2 lost Canadians in Cambodia

Sooo where do I start.. I have had two days in phnom pehn and I have nothing but great things to say about it! The people are fantastic and supper nice to everyone.. always smiling and never shy to try offer you a tuktuk ride! Haha that's one thing I am shocked about is the street rules and it's pretty much like playing dodgeball but instead of dodging red rubber balls, you find yourself dodging motos tuktuks and bicycles! Needless to say they dont know what signal lights are but they sure as hell know what a horn is! Today at 7am it was 30 degrees and let me tell you this is something I am going to have to soak in as much as possible. Me and Kendal went down to the river front today where we enjoyed a fantastic 1 hour massage for 8 dollars each! Unbelievable it was like having Cambodian ninjas crawling all over you twisting you into a pretzel. Anyways everyone I am off to dinnnnnnner!

Tata for now!
Yours truly J.Long!

Cambodia in the day light

Arrived in Cambodia at 1am, and brought to our volunteer house where we will be staying. It took 26 and a half hours from my airdrie home to my new Cambodian home! It is always scary first arriving somewhere at night, when everything is dark and looks so sketchy! Got snuggled in our little room in no time and was out like a light. It was very relieving so wake up and see this new unknown place in day light. We had fresh mangos for breakfast and plan to jump on a Tuktuk and venture around for the day! The market sounds like a good place to start to get some cambodian teaching attire!

As reality sets it!

So this morning came a lot more quickly than I had imagined! it was a bitter sweet saying goodbye to my rents and family. I am still currently running on 2 hours of sleep after wake up at 4:45am I decided to go for a lift at my old high school with my old coach. Needless to say i am sore for my flights maybe not the best idea but I went Ham. I am very excited about this trip and have worked all this time to go on it with kendal! Thanks for all the support from friends and family at home hollllla! Oh and this is to Casey I am still the champ at NCAA for 4 months sucks a fool!
Tata for now everyone - jeremy

Up, up and away!

When I first woke up I felt immediately sick to my stomach. Nervous about the goodbyes and facing the reality of leaving my comfortable life in Canada for 6 months. It was a calm nervous but could feel my heart fluttering in my chest as I packed my bags in the car and left for the airport. The fam, Jeremy and I shared a good ol' A&W breakfast in the food court and then gave our hugs and kisses good bye at the security gates.  It was a strong moment of realizing how important family is and how much they mean to me.
Sitting at the gate waiting to board the plane, I couldn't believe today is the day we leave! A day that I've drawn motivation from every 20 hour day that I worked.  -kendal