Cambodia Medical Voluntour Pt9

JANUARY 21

This particular day was not a good day for me.  My head cold had really taken hold giving me a nasty migraine.  I informed Tanya at breakfast that I would need to have a day off.  Really hated doing that but I really needed some downtime as well.

We were also going to the hotel we were supposed to be at.  They had rooms for all of us as the other volunteer teams had left.  Everyone else headed off to where they would be for the day, building and medical etc.  I crammed into the van with everyones luggage that was going to the other hotel.  It wasn't until I got there that I realised Jess was also taking the day off.  That meant two of us in crowd control were not available.

Sopheavy sitting on the luggage in the van

I had to wait for a while to get my room as they were still cleaning them.  When I finally got it they put the aircon on 16 degrees and added the ceiling fan to it as well.  Talk about freezing.  I turned the air con off and kept the fan going on low and the window and curtain closed.  My luggage was still downstairs underneath everyone  elses so I didn't have anything to do other than sleep.  Lucky I had a migraine tablet in my camera bag which I had with me.

I slept for most of the morning.  Come lunch time I desperately needed a cold drink and something to nibble on.  There was a Service Station not far away that was more like a western one (ie sold things other than just petrol).  This was on the other side of a very busy Y crossing in the road.  Boy did I get stared at.  Fat white chick walking down the road.  I was sure I was going to cause an accident due to someones inattention.  Thankfully I did not.

The Service Station was typically Western in it's prices as well.  I got myself a drink, some dry cookies and an ice cream.  Despite not feeling well I really didn't want to go back to the little, nothing to occupy myself with room, so I spent 5 minutes walking up to the bridge and taking some photos.

From this next photo you can see that the pathway on the bridge is narrow when you are a holding what the man has and are trying to pass someone.  He politely stopped so that could get a photo of the 3 monks coming up the other side.  He then started to motion to me and I thought he wanted to pass so I stepped back and indicated he could go and that he would not get in the way of my photos.  He walked passed, stopped, turned around, took his hat off and then posed.  I get it, you want your photo taken.  He probably thought I was indicating that the light was better if he was facing me from the other side.  He put on a smile on my face for the day.

I felt sorry for these pigs.  One is laying on its side and the other doesn't have room to stand properly so it has its leg up on the side of the one laying down.  It's almost like it's saying, "there, there, it's going to alright."

By dinner time I was feeling a lot better.  I had pretty much slept the afternoon away as well.  We all went to the Children's Village for dinner, and another yummy dinner it was.  We also finally managed to organise a hand over of the items in our second suitcase.  Mum had purchased a stack of clothes throughout the last 18 months to bring for the kids.  I had a couple of items in there for use in the school and I had also brought a flute that I was no longer using.  I had purchased it when my flute died but it didn't match up in quality so I never played it.  It was a $200 beginners flute so I really shouldn't have expected it would.

I brought it along after watching a video on Facebook titled Landfill Harmonics.  Pretty much in a country similar to Cambodia where kids work on the city dump to gather recyclable materials a wonderful thing has been happening.  Someone decided to teach them music.  They had a couple of violins but 50 students.  One day one of the locals decided to make a violin out of recycled rubbish form the tip.  From then on it blossomed into all types of instruments.  If you google Landfill Harmonic you will be able to see what they are up to.  Knowing that Cambodia was similar I though why not donate my flute.  Maybe one day, someone can make one out of trash. 

On a side story, while the house mothers were being organised to come down and mum sorted out the suitcase, I went with Tanya to see where my little girl lived.  They were in the middle of evening worship.  It was stinking hot in there.  They put on a show for us too with their singing.  They still hadn't finished when Tanya got a call to come back to the eating area as the house wives wished to thank me for the clothes.  Not sure why me as it was mum that had purchased them and I made sure they knew that when I got back.

This photo is of the house mothers with the clothes all laid out. They took them away to be sorted later.

Back to the flute.  It was the first thing Sokhun (in charge of the Village) pulled out of the suitcase and asked mum what it was.  She told him and asked if he knew someone who would be interested in it. He was on the phone straight away to one of the older students and told him to get down there straight away as something was happening.  This students name is Vichhai and his english is very good.  I found out from him later that he had been in the middle of praying to God for some direction when he got the call.  He had been feeling quite down in the dumps and when he was handed the flute he was so excited.  I didn't have long before we were leaving so I just took the mouth piece and showed him how to blow.  I explained how there are two sounds that you could make and before I could say how he asked if it was to do with the way you blew and changed your mouth.  I was impressed.  Within a couple of minutes he was getting the lower octave.  I was really happy as I really didn't know if handing the flute over would be worth it.