It's incredible the number of things I've learned over the last couple of days. And it's not like someone is sitting there teaching us these things, you just get it from living this way. Some of these lessons I'm sure you've heard other people say, and you know it but you just haven't lived it or truly understand it, and yes they're corny, but I've come to realise that they really are true. Here are a couple of the things I've come to understand:  
      -We really do take water, electricity and the availability of food for granted. Water, I'm talking the water we drink, the water we use to shower or brush our teeth, all of it. Running water is something amazing and you shouldn't waste it on useless things. As for electricity, I've been going fine without it for the last few days, it really isn't so bad, but then I think how much of it I use back home and I am in utter shock. People always talk about living their life without internet or computers and they're usually either scared to do it or they think they can, but you really can't know until you try, and right now, I realise that there is so much that is more important and I really think I could. The availability of food, that's pretty self-explanatory. I'm just saying, being able to walk down to your kitchen, open your fridge and eat whatever you want- even if you complain there's nothing good- or being able to walk across the street and buy practically anything from a supermarket, both of these things are amazing. We assume that that's how it is everywhere, but it's really not. 
      -Something being cold is a luxury. Ice is a privilege. I will never be able to look at fridges or ice or cold drinks the same. We've all forgotten what feeling cold feels like: we don't have cold showers, fridges, AC... anything like that. The moment today, when one of our staff members told us we were going to spend the evening playing pool in a room with AC,  where we could order cold drinks, and everyone started freaking out... I'm never going to forget that. It has made me realise how much energy, how much electricity and how much time it takes to make something cold. I never noticed that before, I always figured well yeah, to make something cold, put it in the fridge, in the freezer, in cold water. What if you have none of that?
     -Similar to what I just said in the last point, that one moment I explained and how happy we were just by her telling us that... It made me realise how little it took to make us happy. And how much it usually takes us to be happy. And how that shouldn't be the case because we have a ton more than what they have and yet they are still happier. We should all just be more grateful, because we all have more than enough reasons to be. 
      -Similar to the first point I made, using the bucket showers (which never took more than 5 minutes total), I realised how unnecessary it is for us to spend so much time in the shower. It also made me see how much water we use when we do. Just get in and get out, that's all there is to it and there is definitely no reason for people to be taking showers for more than 20 minutes. 

     There are a lot more, but they all run along the same lines: don't take things for granted, be grateful for what you have and understand that what you have is not a given-not everyone has it. All these lessons I was sort of expecting to get out of this and I mean, I knew it before but I just never would have acted on it or acted differently because of it. Now I will.  

LM   

      No, a village that doesn't have running water or electricity does not have a concrete mixer. Yes we needed concrete... how did we do it? 

      During our service project, after digging the holes for the posts of the fence, we then need to put the posts in and make sure they will be sturdy enough to last quite a while. To do this, we are putting them in with concrete. To make the concrete we can use, we take 6 buckets of sand, 4 buckets of small rocks, 1 bag of cement and about 4 buckets of water (which we have to get from the water pump next door) and pour them all together, on top of each other, on the ground in the corner of the school yard. With our only two shovels, we then take turns "mixing our ingredients together": shovelling from the bottom of the pile and dumping it on top again and again until it actually becomes something we can use. 
      It dried quickly though, so we would divide everything we mixed into separate buckets and one person (which was me) went around mixing each portion of concrete with a metal rod to make sure it didn't dry before we could use it. When they need it, we fill the bottom of the hole with rocks and a bit of concrete, followed by the post, then around the base (still in the hole) a layer of rocks then a layer of concrete then a layer of rocks and so on until the hole was filled. We then double-check to make sure the posts are straight and move on to the next one. If we run out, we make more. 
      It took so long (about 4 hours for 12 posts) because we were being careful and making sure we were doing it right. We all agree that we would rather do it properly slowly than quickly and in a way that is unsustainable and will end up falling soon. So, by the end of the first day of working on our project, we have 12 holes dug with posts in and concreted and 13 holes dug with posts ready. 
      We decided to do some holes then put their posts in, then some more holes then put their posts in rather than all the holes then all the posts to make sure that if it rains it doesn't ruin any of the holes we already dug. I think this is a good idea, but if it rains tonight we still have those 13 holes that could potentially be damaged. We will see. 

      Just in general though: this is hard work! It's only the first day and all seven of us all already have at least 4 blisters each, everyone (except for me) is sunburnt, we've all been eaten alive by mosquitos and today, I've sweat more than I ever have in my life: and that's saying something because I live in the middle of the desert. But no, I'm not complaining, because somehow, we are all still happier than ever. We're helping other people and that's what counts. 

LM

      In Phnom Penh, our days were from about 7 in the morning to 11 or 12 at night but as soon as we got to Kampong Cham, that changed completely. By 7 pm it already felt like midnight... because of the sun. 
      The day shifted: people get up and go to bed with the sun. Meaning, when the sun rises so do the people in the village, when it sets, they head off back home and go to sleep. By 9 pm it is dead quiet (except for the occasional moo) because everyone is already asleep. Think about it: in a village that (for the most part) doesn't have electricity, (so as a result doesn't have the artificial lighting that people in cities use), as soon as their one source of light- which they need in order to do practically anything- is gone, there's nothing else they can really do except go to sleep. It's pitch black. I couldn't even see one metre in front of me. So, our days here will be from about 5 in the morning to 10 at night. The day consists of an almost even 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. 
      It's a bit weird and our sleep schedules will be thrown off, but I prefer having my day structured this way. It feels more natural... almost as if you have a little sun inside of you that rises and sets at the same time the real sun does, but most people fight it and try to decide their own sleeping hours. Changing to this schedule also made me think about something I never really noticed before: it made me realise how much electricity we use to be able to do things after the sun has set: how is it we can see when we walk around the city at night? How is it that we can go to the movies, throw parties, even sit around a table and have dinner, after everyone's major source of light has gone away? How much electricity would we save if we just changed our day schedules to match the sun?  

LM

      The village isn't like the city in the sense that not everyone speaks English (or at least a bit of it). So we really can't communicate with the people in the village... through words that is. We have started to adapt and use hand gestures when we can, but most importantly just smiling and laughing. A smile really is universal and can welcome everyone, no matter what language you speak. I tested it out a bit, I tried picking up one of the village kids with a straight face, but still in a friendly manner, and she hesitated and resisted. Five minutes later, I went up to the same girl with a huge smile on my face and lifted her up without a problem. They need us to smile to understand that we're not upset with them and that we have good intentions. 
      If we throw a ball with a smile on our face, they don't need us to tell them to throw it back, they will do it automatically. Everyone here, the kids especially, are always smiling and laughing... the only time I saw one of them cry was when he accidently got hit in the head with a frisbee. So it doesn't matter that we don't speak the same language and yes it's just a small other thing to adapt to, but that's okay because somehow, we can still understand each other. I know all of this is corny, but we really can communicate by smiling. It expresses that you're happy, that you're okay with something that is happening, that you're glad to see someone, that you're having fun or whatever else. And I mean, when I tripped and landed on my face, everybody started laughing, it didn't matter that we can't communicate with words. And who cares, it adds another challenge and it's also sort of fun trying to figure out what the other person means. 

      As long as the smiles are genuine, and you don't get into the habit of plastering a happy mask onto your face, then yes, a smile really is that important. 

LM

**To be completed as soon as I get my computer back, upon my return from Haiti** 

 *[Picture numbers according to the slide show at the bottom]*     

     Driving into the village (in Kampong Cham) it wasn't exactly what I was expecting... sort of better in some sorts. It wasn't too far from the main road (I timed later, 6 minute drive from the paved road to the village). There was also a sort of dirt path that went through the area and acted as their primary route of transport (even though that was generally by foot)  The houses, elevated-wooden-generally-one-room-houses, were also much nicer than I thought they would be. 
      We stayed in two houses that were right next to each other [picture 1]. They belonged to families in the village who were willing to (very kindly) give up space to accommodate us. The girls’ house, also referred to as the luxury house, was, well to put it simply, amazing. It was the only house in the village to have electricity (they just installed solar panels, so there were two light bulbs dangling from the ceiling that we could turn on at night) and it was also by far the biggest. At the bottom of the stairs there was a small manual water pump [picture 3]. As you went up the stairs and pass through the house entry you arrive at a small sort of porch. This is actually just a little room with the fourth wall half missing (open to the outside air). This is where we will be eating most of the meals we will be having in the village. Opposite this sort of window-without-glass there is a little door that leads into the main room [picture 4]. When the house owners stay here this is their equivalent of a living room with chairs and a small low table as well as a sewing machine. But we moved all the furniture and put thin mattresses on either side of the room with mosquito nets overhead and turned this into our sleeping quarters [pictures 5 and 6]. Opposite the door through which you entered there is another door leading to a sort of back room [picture 7]. This room has windows and I’m not sure what they usually use the room for, but we moved the furniture from the other room into here. Off to the right there is also a little entrance to the bathroom [picture 8]. This consists of a “squatty potty” and one big tiled square with water in it (and a big spider on the wall that didn’t move the entire time we were there). This water is used to flush the toilet as well as for our bucket showers. This house is also so luxurious because it’s the only one in the village to have an indoor bathroom; all the other ones are located under the house [picture 2].
      Since, obviously, there isn’t any running water, we had to shower, if we did shower, using a bucket and this big basin of water. To give a quick explanation, you fill the bucket and pour it out over yourself onto the bathroom floor and then the water will drain out and drip down the side of the house. A couple of buckets full of water later, you’re done with your shower.
      So, there were seven of us in this house (including the two female staff members) and the house next door had the 5 guys (2 group members, 2 staff members and our van driver). Their house was a lot more typical and more like the other houses in the village. Their bathroom was under the house and was the same things as ours except just a bit smaller. Once you go up the stairs and turn through the doorway you are in the only room of the house that had several windows along the walls. They set up their mattresses and nets here.
      Both houses are made of wooden planks that were placed fairly far apart to allow wind to come in and make the room feel cooler (which was very helpful when we were trying to fall asleep at night). Both also have a variety of different animals below the houses including cows, frogs, cats, dogs, pigs, goats, chickens, roosters, and there were also some bulls and water buffalos roaming around. Under the houses is also where all meals will be made. You start a little fire on the dirt and cook everything in big metal pots over your fire. We’ll see how good it is.
      The village consists of just under 300 families or about 700 people. We will be staying for 5 days before moving on to the last part of our trip. All in all the conditions aren't so bad, so I really think that I will enjoy myself here and I am anticipating what will be coming next.

LM

      Shortly after coming into the village, we went and met with the village leader and school headmaster to get a sense of their priorities and what we can do to help them. After an hour of discussions, translations and questions this is what we understood they need:
      1) A fence is their top priority. They need it to keep cows, goats and more from entering the school yard and to stop motorcycles from cutting across the front garden. This being the space where all the kids are running around playing (generally barefoot), you don't want there to be cow dung everywhere nor do you want the space to be dangerous due to speeding motorcycles. They said that if we think it would be possible, this is what they really need. 
      2) They also had a fairly new water pump that they had installed... but it was broken. Currently they are using the pump of the house next door, but they wanted to see if it could be fixed. But that's not something a group of teenagers can do, that was just a matter of calling someone to come fix it. 
      3) They need about ten more desks (they are wooden tables with seats attached) in order to be able to seat all their students. If we get them these, they have to be painted as well. 
      4) They also need about three more chalkboards so that each class could have one. 
      5) They have also been accumulating some books over the years, but they have nowhere to put them; they are currently in piles on the classroom floors, taking up quite a bit of space. So, they need about three more bookshelves to hold all the ones they have. If we get them these, they have to be painted as well. 
      6) Finally, they said that they would always also appreciate school supplies including notebooks, pens and so on. 

      Clearly, the fence was what they needed most, our only problem with building that for them was that we might not be able to finish it in time; we only have about 5 days and that can be a pretty long process. The school's yard is a rectangle with the front and back being about 55 metres long and the sides being 70 metres long... 5 days... will we be able to? We don't want to just start something we couldn't finish and oblige the next Rustic Pathways group to finish it. (The whole reason that we chose this program over others is because we get to develop the service project ourselves, and if we start something they have to finish, then we kind of took that away from them). But then we realised that it was the needs of the community over whether or not the next group chooses their own project. It's more important that they get what they need and we hope that the next group will agree. So fence it is! 
      Then, it was between a brick wall and a barbed wire fence; those were the two options that the village superiors were talking about. We all agreed that sustainability was key, so we all said brick wall because it will last the longest. But then, we switched to barbed wire because we found out, from one of the men we were meeting with, that they can also last about 10 years if the posts are durable. It seemed better as well since that way we could get more of it done. We were all set on the idea until we realised how stupid that was... a barbed wire surrounding a school full of 160 running children... that's far from safe. Also, how depressing is that? Our brilliant idea would end up being bad for the kids' morality. 
      We kept brainstorming and moved to the possibility of still building the posts like we were planning to, but instead of connecting it with barbed wire, connecting it with netting. We build a standard net fence. That seems like the best option.

      It was important for us to remember, though, that we are working with them, not for them. So, we sat down and talked strategy, cost and more with the people from the village. We made a supply list, some diagrams and an estimate cost. Now that all that's done, it looks like our goal is to do the fence for one side down the school (70 metres) with about 46 posts 1.5 metres from the ground up, dug 1 foot into the ground about 1.5 metres apart and then stringing the netting across those posts. That's what we will be aiming to finish. We also want to do some interactive work: things that we can do with the kids. So, for that, we were thinking about getting tables or bookshelves (whichever we can afford) and painting them with the village children. By the end of tomorrow we will see how we are doing and if any hidden costs come up and if they don't and we still have enough budget ($300-500 is our total) then we will buy chalkboards, shelves and/or tables and then work on those. (Hopefully we will be able to).
      As for the water pump, that's quite expensive and takes a huge part, if not all, of our budget. So, we are going to sit down and see what we can do about that. Maybe it can be something that we fundraise for during the year or something else like that. We will have to see.
     
      What I learned from this last part is to not spend the entire budget right off from the start in case other things come up or we're building and we realise we're missing items or whatever else. I also learned to look at things from different angles: we never even considered the safety issues with a barbed wire fence until somebody else mentioned it. In addition, I realised that things may take a little longer than what you would expect due to the language barrier and the time that it takes everyone to translate and understand the same thing. If I got so much out of our first 2 hours in the village, I am interested to see what will happen next.

LM

      It's time to move to the second part of the trip: the village homestay and service project. Leaving the city today I realised how different life in the village will be compared to what I just experienced over the last few days. Certain aspects of Phnom Penh left more of an impression on me than others. 
      As I said in one of my first blog entries, the things that I noticed first when I got here was the traffic, the greenery and the (for the most part) blue skies with actual white clouds (what a shock). Then, something else I found interesting were all the cables over the city that connect each building to each other. I was also shocked by the extremities present. How there would be a really run down road with small little shacks on either side then, right in the middle of that, there would be a big luxurious house. That one sign of wealth surrounded by poverty on every side. So of course, I also noticed how all these nice houses would also have barbed wire and shards of glass on the wall... for security reasons. Destitution and affluence are not separated into different parts of town like in many other countries; they are crowded together and rubbed up against each other. 
      In addition, I also loved the diversity of NGO's and how each of them are so different from the other. There are SO many... something I never would have expected. The weather and food also took a bit of time to adapt to (the latter more than the former). I also noticed, and greatly appreciate, how some foreigners have come and completely submerged themselves into the country, as if they themselves are Cambodian. Something else that was a part of daily life here was seeing Spirit Houses everyday, everywhere. But I imagine that might also be the case in the village. 
      I do like Phnom Penh, a lot actually, and as much as I want to stay here, it's time to move on to the next part. The village will be new and exciting, I imagine, and will also be a lot more different than what we are used to. I'm interested to see how that will turn out.  
 

LM

      In the car ride leaving Phnom Penh today (to go to our service project site), I realised that the village probably won't be like the city- political campaign wise. Even though I already wrote about politics and regardless of the fact that this is very similar to that entry, I just wanted to reiterate the aspects of the campaigns that surprise me most especially since, in the last few days, I have learned more about them than what I knew before. 
      What shocks me most is how much money goes into the campaigns and that by "campaigns", that isn't the parties giving speeches, debating or doing anything else to show their view on issues. Instead, it's more of a popularity contest based on 
superficial things. No one sees the actual people who are running, only representatives from one party: the Cambodian People's Party. Representatives get paid about $5 a day to stand in the streets wearing CPP clothes and hats or to sit in expensive sort of... floats (? more like trucks) with someone singing songs about Cambodia. I find that silly. People find out about what each party does based on rumours and assumptions and, to be honest, with everything that I've seen, I don't think this is a solid system at all. 
      This, all of it, is just so interesting because I have never been anywhere where elections are held this way. Will we forget that there is the political campaigns going on when we are in the village? Or will there still be some part of the system that spreads even to the less developed areas of Cambodia? They vote too so.... how does it all work there? I guess I'll have to wait and see. 

LM

      Throughout our trip, we haven't only been meeting with NGO's, we have also visited with some social entrepreneurs such as Small World, NRG Solutions, Agile Development and more. As a result, we have also been talking about the differences between the two. 
      Basically, the biggest difference I see, is that social enterprises don't rely on donations and grants to get the money they need for their projects; they have a structured program that will get them a steady income. This might be better because money wouldn't be as big of a focus for the group and instead, they could be focusing their time and energy towards whatever cause the organisation is working towards; money wouldn't be as much of a question mark or inconsistent aspect. Consequently, enterprises are more of a business, so they can also develop other businesses through what they're doing. Like Small World empowers other people to start their own companies, NRG Solutions encourages micro financing and more. Generally, the entrepreneurs for world development issues like the ones we met with will also make the slightest bit of an income as well so that he/she has a bit of money to live on.  
      On the other hand, an NGOs' biggest challenge is generally getting the funding for their projects. They will always be writing grants or looking for ways to increase donations and money, as a result, is more problematic. An organisation might, one month, be doing very well and have a great sum of money for tackling their issue but then, the next month, won't have had any donations and would be struggling to continue the programs they had started the month before. For big organisations, this isn't as big of a problem, but for grassroots that are just starting off, it is extremely common. Also, unlike most enterprises, people who work for NGO's are strictly volunteers: they don't make any personal money for what they do.   
      Personally, based off what I've heard through the last couple of days, I think that social enterprises might be better because they are more sustainable and I find that sustainability is one of the most important factors when working on service projects like these. An NGO might not last and get to the change they want to bring due to their financial issues. It is common for groups to start off as NGO's because they believe that that way they will really only be helping others and not make their own money because that's not what helping others is about, then they'll start to face these challenges with funding and will then change to social enterprises. Generally if an organisation is serious about the work that they are doing and that it's based off world development, when they become businesses they really limit their personal income to the essentials.  
      Neither option is bad, it's just a matter of how you want your program to run; whether you are prepared to tackle the financial challenge or you won't be able to and need to alter the system to ensure that your organisation will still succeed. 

LM