Photos from Cambodia!

Enjoying Angkor!

Just right.

Love the Cambodian food!

Cambodian home

Look at those intent faces

Just gorgeous

They are beautiful

Tiny stash of medical supplies

Local health clinic where we ran a health camp

Beach time!

Kampot, Cambodia

Sorry for the delay, the internet has been a little shaky since we have reached Kampot, a former rural outpost of the French during the colonial days. We arrived from Phnom Penh on Monday afternoon, where we were able to meet Dr. Steve, one of the founders of Solaid.

Solaid is a non-profit organization that is centered around improving local education and providing microgrants in rural areas around Kampot. These microgrants may appear minor in nature, but can be life-saving since they provide a way to earn money in a sustainable, community friendly manner. Such projects include providing families with plants to harvest, chickens, teaching them to basket weave, and even rebuilding homes. What fascinated us (Sonali and Justine) the most was that the Solaid organization is very well integrated into the community. Microgrant provisions, for example, are determined by a community panel.

Immediately after arriving in Kampot, they eight of us cycled to a school nearby to teach an English class. We were able to not only sit in on the class but also play educational games. Unfortunately, if you lose the game at the end of the class, you have to sing. Lucky for me (Sonali) and a couple of others, they were blessed to hear my wonderful singing voice........I think everybody in the class wanted to stop. Nevertheless it was a bonding experience for all involved O_o

After that day, we split into groups of four for the rest of the week's activities. My group consisted of Justine, Matt, and Jake. The other group was Nathan, Dayna, Itsumi, and Jared. The most common means of travel around Kampot is by bike. Bike riding was eye-opening because we got to experience the culture through their eyes and even feel a bit integrated within it.  We biked to an area where we met up with a group of kids that we called scouts. I don't think they were actually scouts, but they were wearing boy scout uniforms and were honestly great kids! They were around varying from age 14-20 years, and were practicing their English with us. They had a ton of questions for us from how many brothers and sisters, to what medical school was like. They were always so sweet and answered our questions honestly.

Many of the activities we did involved working with kids on their English, but more importantly, the Solaid group wanted Cambodian students to have a positive experience with foreign travelers like us. Although the kids were sweet and constantly smiling, it was astonishing to see their school environment and its condition. Often times there are 3 students per desk, and instead of paper many used slate boards and chalk. Solaid is often providing school supplies like books and games for students. They also built a library we were able to see. We visited many schools worked with kids and even got to visit the Epic Arts center, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes the integration of the deaf, blind, and other disabilities in the arts within the community of Kampot.

Many of our most poignant experiences were centered around community health activities. During two different days, we went out to rural parts of Kampot with a scale, stethoscopes, and blood pressure cuffs to give basic health assessments. It was great to practice blood pressure readings, since most of the time we do blood pressure in very quiet settings. This time, there were people lining up to not only get blood pressures readings, but also to see what it was all about. Even adults and kids were curious to see how tall they were and how much they weighed. It was fascinating to see how simple measurements like weight, height, and BP was discussion around the community. Even some of the adults were coming to get their weight, which was only done on kids to check their growth. Unfortunately, we noticed many kids with scabies and also blonde streaks, which is indicative of protein deficiency.

Most people think of Project Cura as a program promoting clinical experience abroad for medical students. However, it is hard to provide clinical care without understanding the culture, traditions, and daily lives of the patients we see. For example, many Cambodians participate in coining, which is a belief that by heating a coin and placing a cup over it to cleanse bad spirits from your body. Leaving Cambodia tomorrow, we both feel like we have a deeper understanding of not only the medical needs of the community, but also the daily lifestyles, struggles, and necessities essential for healthy living.

Day 2

I would like to preface this by saying that I am by no means as good a
writer as Sonali, so please excuse that.
With that out of the way here we go.

Day 2 in Cambodia.

Waking up at 6:00am is much easier when your internal clock is still
adjusting its time zone. We decided that elephant rides were something
that needed to get done while we were here so we talked to our tour
guide, who has been amazing, and he set us up.
The elephants went around Bayon, one of the temples we saw yesterday.

After the elephants, we climbed one of the hills of Cambodia called
Kulen Hill. It was 1500m vertically to the location of the holy waters
there known as Kbal Spean . It was a great hike and a lot of the
natural rock formations were perfect for climbing. Many of the views
were spectacular and we were able to get some great photos which will
be uploaded soon, but due to über slow internet, we can only upload 3.
The top of the hill is called the valley of 1000 Lingas. The majority
of the carvings related to the Hindu god Shiva and despite having
water run over them for hundreds of years, were in surprisingly good
condition. We also found a waterfall.

After the climb down, we went to lunch at one of the near by
restaurants and someone took pictures of all of our food. Lunch was
great and after we saw our last temple, Bantarey Sri.

Bantarey Sri was by far the smallest of the temples that we saw but it
was nice because it seemed more practical than the rest. You can tell
this temple is not as well known as the rest due to its lack of a wiki
page but to give you the gist of what the pictures will eventually
show you, the temple was built to honor Shiva and was built before
Ankor Wat so it’s pretty impressive that it is still around, let alone
in the condition that it is in. Fun fact, you can tell it was built
before Ankor Wat by the number of pillars in the windows, 5 for
Bantarey Sri and 7 for Ankor Wat.

Tonight we are off to the night market and then the real part of our
trip begins, 6 hour bus ride down to Phenom Phen then 6 hour bus ride
to Campot.

Temples of Angkor

 It has been a long couple of days. We met up as a group in LA, and together flew to Hong Kong. That in of itself was 14 hours. After Hong Kong, we flew to Phnom Penh and then took a 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap. It was a lot of traveling! That doesn't even take into account how much we are feeling the jet lag! After all of that traveling, we literally reached the hotel and fell asleep immediately. We were so exhausted!

Angkor Wat. Source: Wikipedia

 The next day, we headed out to Angkor Wat. I would upload photos, but the computer is giving me a hard time. Hopefully tomorrow it will be easier!

The major temples we visited were Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat, and Bayon temple.  I never realized how old the temples were. Nearly 900 years old, and they were still amazingly beautiful.  Everything represented a greater meaning; worthy of carving it into stone. Each of the temples were built by a king, and the faith and carvings of each temple were determined by his own beliefs.. Angkor Wat, for example, is a Hindu temple (Wikipedia Angkor Wat) while Ta Prohm is Buddhist (Wikipedia Ta Prohm.)

We learned a lot about not only the history of the temples and who made them and when, but also how modern history has taken a toll on these temples as well. The community regime, the Khmer Rouge, for example, destroyed many statues of deities and Buddhas as well as the Siamese in the 14th century (The Khmer Rouge perpetrated one of the largest genocides in history reducing the Cambodia population by 25% in the 1970's. Wikipedia.)

However, it is truly amazing to see that throughout the war-torn years, Angkor Wat has been preserved. Many times, soldiers and governments would specifically preserve this area as a no-fight zone to prevent the temples from being destroyed.


Anyway, we also had super good lunch. I think Justine wins the meal of the day with her lunch pick Khmer Amok. It was a coconut based soup, and even came inside a coconut! It was amazing! 


Photos coming soon! Here are some photos from Wikipedia and my family to tide you over!

 

The Bayon Temple. Source: Wikipedia.

Ta Prohm. Source Wikipedia

Young monks at Angkor Wat. Source: Gandhi Family

Angkor Wat has ONE MILE of carvings around the perimeter! Source: Gandhi Family

Snowflakes of Hope in Cambodia

Article published in Creighton University Magazine, Spring 2012, written by James Haug.