Welcome to Cambodia! Part 2..

The Recce Trip (5th June to 8th June)

Before I relate my experience proper, here's a glimpse of us, Lao Lao after 4 days in Cambodia and me, after 3 weeks in Cambodia:


Prey Veng Province, Love Cambodia
5th June
Lao Lao arrived in Siem Reap not long after my team left for Singapore and so, I didn't spend much time waiting for her. Upon her arrival, we headed down to a guesthouse for breakfast and then made our way to meet Bee Ngoh, our YEP trip contact in Cambodia, in Prey Veng province. I hope Lao Lao has had a good experience in Cambodia, being there for the very first time!

We reached Bee Ngoh's place, which's also a NGO called "Love Cambodia", at around 2.30pm. After which, we rested, discussed some stuff, watched "Cinderella Man" and had dinner together with some Singaporeans who are currently doing missionary work in Cambodia. I've learnt a lot more about Cambodia from the chat over dinner. Amazing stuff man!

They took their leave at around 8pm and we continued watching the movie. It was a pretty cool movie, rather thought-provoking as well. After the movie and bathing, we started chatting about stuff of Cambodia- its situation, development, about social work, community service till midnight. The conversation was information overload but it was definitely mind-nourishing for I learnt a lot more about Cambodia than I ever did before the 2 trips to Cambodia. =)

6th June
After a typical Khmer breakfast of French baguette (due to the colonisation by the French in the 1800s) with spread, we embarked on our recce trip and visited 4 villages. That's when I learnt about a burglary which took place the night before, the burglar stole 1,000,000 riels = USD250 but I wasn't sure if he was arrested in the end. Due to this incident, we decided to give that village a miss and proceeded to Prey Kla, some 15 minutes away from Prey Veng town.

The roads were extremely bumpy, making the ride unsuitable for people with motion-sickness. Upon reaching the village, we met up with the community based officials (CBOs)- people who monitor and plan the development of the village, to work something out. In the end, both Lao Lao and I were rather certain that this was the village we would want to work on as there's really a need to refurbish the school and that accommodation for a team would not be a problem in the village.
The floors of the school Our accommodation

Next up, we visited Kampong Ongquinh- a place in need of toilets BUT security there IS a serious problem and that the water in that village's arsenic- a potential threat to the health of the members. Hence, we decided that we weren't in favour of working on this village. The last village in consideration was Village Slang, the one which I went to previously. There was not much that we could do there, besides building toilets and so we decided that we shall work on Prey Kla first and may consider other villages in the future.

After the recce and some intense discussion and agreements for the trip in december, we retired for the day. I turned in really early at night as I was rather brain fried from the activities in the day. Haha.

Day 3 and 4 were spent visiting Prey Veng town, the market, the orphanage, watching sunset, eating, playing mind-boogling games, discussing about our trip and so on.. On Day 4, I attended Sunday service- my very first in Cambodia- but it was conducted in Khmer and so I spent half the time listening to the translation, by a Cambodian friend, and trying to figure out the gist of the preaching. Haha. It was still fun though! =)

The OrphanageSunset
Duck foetus- which Lao Lao claimed is very delicious, I ate 2 spoonfuls and concluded... it wasn't as scary as I thought haha.. At the garden outside Bee Ngoh's house

The trip was enjoyable overall... except for...

MOSQUITOES!! The most bothersome things at night. Seriously. I woke up at least 5 times to apply insect repellant onto my skin but it failed to keep the mosquitoes away!! This left me with:


And Lao Lao:

Now that I've recounted my experiences in Cambodia, I've gained so much, intangibly, from this trip that I don't know how or where to start gathering and documenting them.

But firstly, I have to thank God for blessing us with a smooth trip and for all the enlightenment and wisdom bestowed. I hope that HE will always be there to guide us and to grant us with the courage and strength to overcome any obstacles that we may face along the way. Thank you Lord Jesus, Amen! =)