“We love you, we love everything about you, Cambodia you are this super rough diamond. “Despite the poverty and hard life, these people have to be one of the loveliest group of people in the world. Ok so i haven’t met all the different races in the world but in the last 4 month we have experienced about 12 different ones and out of that group i have to put the Cambodians down as the smiliest race so far, when these beautiful people smile at you, their whole face lights up and it makes your heart jump a beat.
We have always wanted to go to Cambodia, and when we found out a few years earlier, that our friend Tania from Byron Bay had set up an NGO for street kids in Siam Reap we had even more reason to go. We had organized with Tania ,that we would come for two weeks to her and try to help as much as possible. We would be staying in a (as it turns out very posh) hostel at a discount price and our plan was to put our kids in with the rest of the kids and just go from there.
Before i( Nici) arrived in Cambodia i believed that Cambodia was a country in total poverty ,so how blown away was i when we arrived in Siam Reap at night to a sea of golden lights, enormous fancy looking Hotels with big Lions/snakes statues at the front gates. Glitz and glamour, everywhere accept the roads which were still dust and dirt. Our hostel was so up market that we were impressed but totally stunned .The next day however revealed the real Siam Reap. Siam Reap is this huge contrast of super expensive hotels and shops for all the people coming to see Ankore whats temples, and the true Cambodia poverty. The rich and poor contrast could not have been any bigger.
Since we still had a couple of days left , before we would start at the Green Gecko we went sight-seeing to the Angkor Wat temples. This particular day was a rainy day, and it felt like the monsoon season was starting. The weather was very windy and rainy but really hot and humid. We spoke to our kids about what they would see in Cambodia, how we would see children and adults begging and that this would make us sad, but that we would try to do as much as we possibly could while we are there.
20 minutes before we left Angkor Watt temple, a boy (the same age as Ayesha) started to follow us. We had seen many kids that day, but what struck me the most about this one was how sad he looked, all wet and shivering. He only had a pair of shorts on. Ayesha was starting to feel very upset and she really wanted to help him. One of the things we learned from Tanya was not to give to begging children ,because than we are helping thia cycle to continue. Ayesha wanted Richard to give him his towel, so he could dry himself and in the end she gave him her umbrella which he took silently and put over his head. He cried sitting down in a far corner and we walked away slowely, not knowing what to do. All I wanted to do was pick this child up, wrap him in a blanket and take him home.:(
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