most of my photos are taken using qm's camera, since he is the official photographer for the team. looks like he is gonna take some time to sort out the pics..he took like 10k photos in 21 days! haha scary..so here is a little mini preview first..taken using my 1.3 megapixel camera phone..hehe..
in siem reap, the old kropeu school
this is what the entire project angel is all about, to build a new school for the children in kropeu village so as to replace the old one that they have in the photos. i dont even consider what they have now a school. it's more like a 5m by 6m square hut. the tables and chairs are wooden. there is a blackboard in front. one of the walls has collapsed. the roof actually caved in too but someone made a donation so they now have a zinc roof. there are no fans, ventilation is bad and it's freaking hot in the classroom. the floors are sandy and uneven. during the rainy season, the whole place gets flooded and muddy. the children there dont wear shoes btw. minority of them wear slippers.
no canteen, no bball courts, no bookshop, no nothing....you call that a school?? a far cry from what we have back in singapore..
communication was a huge problem because these kids dont learn english.
the skeleton of the new school
thereby began the first part of the project, setting in the foundation of the new school. first digging out the soil on the floor, setting rocks at every inch, then filling it up with soil once again. it's hard manual work under the scorching sun. primitive methods they use..for the most basic technology to us seem foreign in this village. for goodness sake, there isnt even a wheelbarrow! eh will show the completed sch when i have the pics.
perhaps it's the weather...rainbows are simply common in cambodia, nonetheless to city kids like us, rainbows are still the prettiest sight to tired souls.
the kids forming a human chain, helping us transport buckets of soil from outside to the interior of the school's foundation.
my fav kids: from left, Peel', 'Kcant' & 'Kay'...at least i think this is how their names are pronounced lar..they are DAMN cute!! they are small, but very agile and fast, playing catching with them was torturous!
our only water supply on our work site, the well. due to our lack of skill and experience in drawing water from a well, we lost quite a number of pails, but they were later retrieved by the villagers. when we camped at the work site, we built a wooden structure to hold the canvass around the well so it became our bathing area. at night, we literally bathed under the stars. it was very very romantic.........one of the highlights of the trip.
the siem reap wet market
our team was broken up into groups of 4 and we take turns to cook everyday. the cooking group went to the wet market every morning to do grocery shopping for lunch and dinner. it was quite an experience. rows and rows of shop vendors, selling everything from jewellery, bags shoes, pails, cultery, to food stuff like meat, vegetables, fruits...
...and crickets too...GROSS!
bargaining is a must! and it was fun...even though the sun is merciless, the crowds pushy, one gets all sweaty and hot shopping. nonetheless what was rewarding was when we bargained and sometimes managed to get our groceries for cheaper prices. we got to interact with the natives and communicated in khmer. definitely not as comfortable as shopping in a air conditioned supermarket where everything is nicely packaged. no flies all over the place...but it lacks the personal touch, the smiles and interaction with people that made the difference..
Angkor wat
the little girl who spoke good english and sold me postcards. there are kids selling guide books or literature text abt cambodia on the streets everywhere in cambodia..some of them make really good salespeople..usually it's the young ones who make the most, because they are so adorable that they make your heart melt...they stare at you with the big watery eyes looking like pitiful puppies, slowly breaking down the defences of your heart and finally getting to you.
fishing village
houses are built on high slits in this village, during the monsoon season, the entire field that you see above will be flooded, and the water level will rise covering the slits. traps are attached to the slits to catch fish.
isnt she adorable?
floating village on tonle sap river
i cant imagine living in the middle of the lake your entire life..your main mode of transport boat, main source of income fishing, children play in the murky water...the water is really dirty lar..eyoo..probably spolit by tourism and lack of a proper sewage system. EVERYthing goes back into the lake..
sihanoukville, the town by the beach
bamboo island, where we took shelter while waiting for the rain to stop so that we could go snorkelling. picking seashells on the shore..
me in sarong, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate after getting stranded in the rain previously and feeling freezing cold.
taking neo print in phnom penh..
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