Liahona Children's Foundation

   So I realized that I've been here a month and all I've blogged about is the exciting trips we've taken which is only about a fourth of our time here.  The other three quarters of the time here we are kept busy by our internships.  That's right, I'm an intern!  I work with the Liahona Foundation here in Phnom Penh.  It's a super great organization that works on children's nutrition and promoting breastfeeding.
     So every six months they screen children in six different areas of Cambodia.  They take their height, weight, and other information to determine how well nourished they are.  If the children show signs of malnutrition, they are entered into the program where they then receive nutritional supplement and their mothers receive lessons on proper nutrition.  It's a really good program and they work really hard to help out young children because malnutrition is a huge problem.  In class at BYU we've had a lot of lessons about this shown through the poverty cycle: families are poor and cannot afford to feed their children very well--> their children are malnourished and their brains don't develop as well--> these children aren't as well educated and can't get great jobs--> they work at low paying jobs and their family is poor so they can't afford to feed their children very well....And the cycle just continues on from there. It's a really hard cycle to break, but it starts with properly nourished children!  And that's why I love the work the Liahona Foundation does and am glad to be a part of it!
     Two weekends ago the three other interns and I went to Battambang to help with the screenings there for an afternoon.  It was a really cool trip and a nice chance to go out and do work with the mothers and children instead of data analysis behind a computer.  Here's a few pictures of us at the screenings:

Two of my fellow interns: Chelsey and Lisa

Some cute children at the screening

My new friends!  Although it seems like I terrified the little girl on the left and the other little boy clearly developed a bit of a crush...

One of the elders and Clarissa (my roommate) teaching a lesson to the mothers

How the children responded to the clearly exciting lesson

Screening some children!

Chelsey, Clarissa, me, and Lisa: INTERNS EXTRAORDINAIRE!

Koh Kong

So this past weekend we had our first real group excursion to Koh Kong, less than 8 kilometers from Thailand!  But since BYU won't let us go to Thailand it was one of those 'so-close-but-so-far' situations.  I'll just have to go back later to get that passport stamp!  Anyways, the weekend was just full of adventurous activities.  We spent Friday afternoon kayaking around some mangroves and up to this island with the creepiest statues ever! I mean it was just all these gory death scenes, crazy weird statues some with really creepy grins and others with weird animal heads.  We talked to some guy and they apparently had something to do with punishing bad people in Buddhism... but I don't know...

Our lovely little hotel pier with a restaurant and bungalows to relax in

Nicole, me, Lisa, and Chelsey out in the kayaks

Nicole, my personal kayaking chauffeur

Creepy Buddhist statues and me

Saturday we took a river cruise up to the gorgeous Tatai Falls where we had a grilled seafood lunch, swam under the falls, went rock jumping into the falls, and hung out for the day.

Grilled prawns, squid, and chicken!

In Cambodia you eat the whole fish- go big or go home!

After the falls we went out to the largest mangroves in Cambodia and walked the path through them.  They were really pretty, right on the river, and they were also vaguely reminiscent of the Forbidden Forest...yeah I could see some Acromantulas living up in there!

So all in all a pretty nice weekend, yeah?  

The Killing Fields and Tol Sleng

I didn't know much about Cambodia before deciding to come here for the summer.  All I really knew was the Cambodia was next to Thailand and they make some of the clothes in the US....that's about it.  Over winter semester I took a prep class with the rest of the students who are here with me now and we learned a bit about the language, culture and history.  Part of our work for the class entailed reading two books: Survival in the Killing Fields and Voices from S-21.  Through these books and our lessons I learned the story of the Khmer Rouge.  The Khmer Rouge only lasted for a few years, but in that time one-fourth of the country was killed.  In my family that means at least one of my siblings would have died, which is too hard to even imagine.  Everyone in Cambodia now knows someone who was killed, children born since the tragedy still see the impact and know of the family members who aren't there.
As part of our cultural experience here, we visited a couple of historical sites.  We first visited the Killing Fields, a place where thousands were taken to be killed and buried in mass graves.  It's interesting, the juxtaposition between how beautiful the area is, right outside the city by rice fields with beautiful trees and gardens, compared to how horrible the events were that happened there.

The Killing Fields and museum

This is a fence surrounding one of the graves.  Visitors here put these colorful bracelets on the posts in respect of those who died here.

'The Killing Tree against which executioners beat children' is also covered in the bracelets.

Inside the monument of the Killing Fields- 17 levels of skulls and bones of the victims found here.

After visiting the Killing Fields we went to Tol Sleng (aka S-21) the school inside the city where thousands were tortured for false confessions before being sent to the Killing Fields to be executed.

A list of the insane rules the prisoners were forced to follow.

There were a whole series of rooms filled like this with pictures of the victims who were kept here of which only 7 survived.

The tiny, 1 meter, cells that held the prisoners here.

Tol Sleng, once a regular school before the Khmer Rouge.

It's hard to describe what it was like to visit these places.  It was similar to visiting one of the Holocaust Museums.  You're glad you went and that you understand better, but there's a feeling of disgust and horror.  This only happened less than 40 years ago!  The older generations here still remember it vividly and it still affects their lives today.  It's impossible for me to understand how this could happen, how millions were killed because of a corrupt and horrible government that was so afraid of being overthrown that it condemned it's own innocent citizens.  It serves as a great reminder of what can happen and what should never happen again.  But now it shows how well this country has recovered.  They were set back a long way due to these events and they still have many many problems, but the people here are so amazing and I love being around them.  They are so happy and friendly, friendlier than anywhere else I've ever been.  They love talking to us here even though we really struggle to understand each other.  The children here love when we bike past and they all run out into the streets yelling 'Hello!  Hello!'

I'm just so grateful for the chance I have to be here and to meet them and get to know the culture and the people in Cambodia.  And that I get a chance to give something small back to them through my internship here.

Lazy Beach!

This past weekend five of us decided we wanted a break from the insanity that is Phnom Penh so we booked a bungalow on an island off the coast of Sihanoukville for a few nights...and we had an ADVENTURE!  It started when we had to take a two-and-a-half hour boat ride to the island.  When we got there they said, hey sorry but the surf is too rough for us to land at the pier, so you're going to have to swim ashore...So that was cool.  And he was right, the water was rough!  Big ole waves and craziness, but we made it to land and were totally wiped.  So we solved that with fish and chips- literally any problem can be solved with fish and chips (and one of those ice creams you get with the flake, oh man!).  And it also helped that the beach was GORGEOUS!!

We got to stay in a cute little bungalow- two beds with mosquito nets (thank goodness), a bathroom, hammocks on the porch, and these little guys hanging out everywhere (and by "little" I mean crazy HUGE foot long lizards!).

Our cute little bungalow!

We spent two days on the beach, relaxing in the sun (not getting burnt at all, I wish!), reading books, playing in the waves, exploring a bit, and snorkeling!  I haven't been snorkeling in ages, so it was super fun!  I wish I could have gotten pictures of the cool coral and sea urchins and neon fish we saw!  I felt a bit like I was watching the reef in Finding Nemo, there were so many colors and different kinds of fish (including Nemo-esque clown fish).  It was great fun!  And they had a cute cabana area where we could hang out and get food.  The last night there we had the craziest thunderstorm ever!  It was literally right above us and sounded a bit like we were being bombed (huge loud sound and massive flashes of light, right? plus I was a bit sleep deprived). And thankfully, we didn't have to swim out to the boat to leave the next morning (instead we just took a little boat out to the bigger boat. very logical, right?).  And sadly we had to leave the Lazy Beach and head back to the city, but hey, my ROUS had been missing me!

Basically our private beach and cabana.

Probably the most pathetic little pier I've ever seen!  I was much happier to swim to shore!

One of the little boats we took to the island (the ride wasn't two-and-a-half hours because the island was far away, but because the boat was so dang slow!).

R.O.U.S (Rodents of Unusual Size)

For all of you who have seen The Princess Bride you may remember the large rodents you saw in the fireswamp (which were actually tiny people in rat suits) which, while scary, you never believed were real.  However, I can now tell you THEY'RE REAL!!!  They exist in Cambodia!  And I'm only SLIGHTLY exaggerating.  So now on to the story: there are mice/rats in our room!
So three nights ago Clarissa and I were peacefully asleep in our host family's house (after listening to the horrifying sound of cats fighting right outside of our window).  We thought we were safe!  Then it began.  Little sniffling sounds.  The sound of tiny feet pitter-pattering across the floor. The rustling of a bag.  The scratching of tiny paws on wooden surfaces.  It barely woke me before I returned to sleep.  We woke up the next morning to find the little trails the rodents had left behind everywhere!  So we deep cleaned the entire room (thanks to my environmental health class lessons on pest management!).  We went to sleep that night confident we'd outwitted the little monsters!!  Little did we know...
At 5am we woke up to the screeching of rats in our room! They were so loud and sounded so close, we both freaked out!  We couldn't see them and neither of us wanted to leave the safety of the bed and turn off the light.  So we made loud noises, but as soon as we stopped they'd come back out!  When we turned the lights on on our phone they eventually stopped, so we left the lights on all night!  But we didn't sleep soundly, every little itch was a rat biting us, every tiny sound was an army of rats ready to attack!!!
Last night we didn't even try to sleep with the lights off but left them on all night, and guess what, no rodent problems!  Of course, I also had my headphones in and was blasting music all night, so I may not have heard them!  But I finally saw one and it was HUGE!!!  Of course, my sleep deprived, already horrified mind may have exaggerated it slightly, but I'm pretty sure it was an actual ROUS...I have never had a fear or animals- spiders never really bothered me, I like snakes and other reptiles-- but now, I have developed a rat-phobia...thanks Cambodia.

 

 R.O.U.S. (not actually mine, but pretty close!)

Tuk Tuk Goose!

This title actually is a very poor description of what I'm going to blog about, mainly because tuktuk is not pronounced like 'duck' but more like 'Took' a clan of the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should immediately go out and rent the entire trilogy and watch it....but more specifically for this reference you should watch Bilbo's speech at his birthday in the Fellowship and feel ashamed you didn't get my clever reference before!)
Basically, I love tuktuks.  They're essentially moto/motorcycle drawn carriages...although carriage makes it seem fancier than it is.  And BYU owns one!  Seyha, our driver, basically will drive us wherever, whenever for FREE (actually he's paid by the program costs...so not quite for free)!  And it's awesome!  His tuktuk has BYU decals all over it.  And boy, it's fun!
In a tuktuk, you're right in the middle of traffic and you can just watch the chaos happen.  On a bike you stay as far away from the traffic as you can, sometimes even driving up on the sidewalk!  But in a tuktuk you are right in the middle of the roads, swerving around bikes and motos, blasting in front of cars.  The rush is crazy!  And maybe not entirely healthy....but I still love it!
Here's an article about the BYU tuktuk from BYU Magazine: http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=3312

The BYU tuktuk and me!

My Little Bathroom Buddies: A Poem

Yes, yes I realize how strange that title sounds but it's true.  The bathroom in my host family's house has windows to the outside...but they lack screens or glass.  So odd and ugly little critters decided to move inside and make it their home.  So in a moment of pure creativity (for which I apologize) I wrote this poem about them...

Those Friendly Little Critters

In my bathroom I can find

many species of all kinds! 

They're (sometimes) friendly and special to me!

When they crawl across the floor,

occasionally on my foot or something more,

then they start to see the ugly side of me.

The mosquitoes I will squash

as I continue to wash.

On the spiders I will trod

if they try to get near this bod!

The centipedes I fear and then I smush

often with an accompanying squeal as I rush.

There's a baby gecko on the wall

that I always fear will fall!

But the worst of these "friends"

are the ants that will spend

their lives tormenting me to the end!

They scurry across my feet

regardless of how many I beat

they will always win in the end!

No matter how many I kill dead 

or send down the drain with a shower head

they always replace their lost friends.

So I've stopped trying to squash them and their kin

Congratulations ants! You win!

That's it now---THE END!

Yes, I know how disastrous this poem was, so as a consolation I've attached a picture.

Yes I know the quality is poor, but if you look closely, that big thing above the light is our friend, the baby gecko, who has been named Francis for reasons unknown.