day 2 and 3 or 6/29/12 - /30/12

Day 2 or 6/29/12 Friday was a day full of hard work and laughter. The day started out with us arriving in the tuk-tuk to the orphanage and the kids ran out to us and are normal greetings. Then all of us went inside on the stage and druze in some coloring books. Srey May and I colored angry birds because in Cambodia angry bits are the new cool thing. Then Mallory and I went to the volleyball court to play volley ball with the boys and they are so so good. We played vollybally for and hour or more.

Then we went to the garden to help out. Two kids stayed and played with the orphans. In the garden we had to upturn the soil and make a bed for plants to be planted. We all got special tools to re-surface the soil. We worked on the garden for 2 hours and it was sooooo hot we were all sweating so much. Although it was hot there was a final result. All of the hard work had paid off. That made everyone so happy.

Then we were all coloring and someone found a crayons gun and they started shooting the crayons at everyone and then there was a crayon war. We were all running around laughing and having such a good time. For me that was the best part of the day. But then all of the crayons were gone because they had fall through the cracks in the floor. So we all had to crawl under and pick up all of the crayons. That was the end of the crayon war. While we were having the crayon two of the girls had to clean the bathrooms because they needed to be cleaned. Once we finished picking up all of the crayons and the two girls finished both of the bathrooms we had a limbo game going on. For most of the time the little kids would walk through they did not even have to duck they just walked right on through. Even with their advantage Camryn won. It looked like she was laying down and walking at the same time. Some of the kids slipped or fell. We also go tons of great laughs.

After that Camryn, Mallory, and I got to go and talk to Sopia. Sopia was a 28 year old man that has been at the orphanage since 2004. But when he was 4 he was walking with his friend and a land Mine blue up causing him to be blind. But in his mind he likes the color blue and red. He LOVES to play music. He is also a music teacher. Sopia says," I am sooooo sorry I can't see you and I will never forget you. Will you ever forget me?" We all sayed," we would never forget you or your story." then he sayed,"that's good and I miss the other group but mostly jack and he is a good boy." I could talk to Sopia all da but I only got 1 hour before I had to help out with the other kids. That was the end of the second day and my journey is still going but one day shorter.

Day 3 or 6/30/12

We drove up to the orphanage and we got our normal morning greatin greatings; which are all the kids running out saying, " Hi, Hi, Hi." then we went inside to the stage where all the kids play and we got to hang out with the kids for about 5 min before we had to start our morning work which today was planting the plants. The plants that we were planting were called pei. It is a leaf that you put in soups or make tee. How we planted the plants were we dug a whole and held the soil back while we took the plant and folded it into a U shape. We had top do 3 across and a ton down. I think we had planted well over 100 plants. then in the next 2 rows we had to dig the soil so it made a little divit in the center so we could put new leaves and sticks in to fertalize the soil. On top of that we had to plant the plants. so in the end we ended up doing 4 rows of planting. We were all exhausted after doing that but when we took a step back and looked back on what we had accomplished it gave us that extra push that made us finish the day.

Then we got to play with the kids. The little kids LOVE candy; but the middle kids like to color and draw; and the oldest kids like to play vollyball. So through out the day you do all of the different things you can. The kids there are so creative because they use sticks and create all different kinds of games. like the one where they take two sticks and hit them on the ground going in on 2 and out on 3 so the pattern is 3,3,2 and people jump in and out. we got everyone through the game durring the day. the kids will also sing while you did the jumping, and the kids have a whole dance they created wioth the sticks.

we got to talk to Sopia again today and he taught us some khmere and he told us he only gets to see his family once a year. that made me so sad and he rarely gets to leave the orphanage. Then we were talking monkey child was poring water on his head then pored it on nikko that is how the WAR began. buckets of water we being pulled up from the well. At the end we were all soaked execpt the adults. There were so many laughes.

Then after we ate lunch we went to the slums. You do not know the true definition of "slums" until you go to see how they live. While we were there we got to go to the school and the library of the orphans. I loved the school and how they were learning English. The teacher would say a word and the kids would say it after and he would see if they could spell e word if not he spelled it. While we were still in the slums we got to see Srey Tok's house. We saw her godmother and we woos went to Srey Mey's house and we got to see her parents. She was pulling me ahead of the group to show me first but I had to stay with the group. Then when we were walking through Srey Mey's house out the back door was a path to the orphanage. I thought that it was so sad seeing how most of the parents live. I wish I got to see more of the slums. It made me so sad but gave me a better perspective on life and the stories behind the kids lives. Then we played monkey in the middle and vollyball. But while we were playing it started raining so hard so all of the kids ran out and started taking their shower by the well. One of the kids decided to dump a bucket of water on the ground and everyone was sliding through the mud. Then Bret was running from Nerot and he did not see the mud and was running full spread and takes a huge digger. Then he is all muddy for the tuk-tuk ride home. Right before we were about to leave everyone got together and started singing and it sounded so pretty. While they were singing Srey Tok fell asleep in the middle of singing a song and she was so cute. That was the very best way to end the day. Then we got in the tuk-tuk Lisa-Marie made all of the wet and dirty kids sit on one side and the dry and clean on the other. We got our normal goodbyes which are the kids running after us and Nerot made it the furthest. My journey is still happening and I love it and there are many more days to come but one less as yesterday. Thank you for you time reading my blogs. Miss ya