Later, we went to the tiger cages, and started talking to the keeper. After a while he asked us if we wanted to pet the Tigers!!! I pet a Tiger!!!! One of the highlights of my trip so far.
After leaving Phnom Penh, me and Nika headed to Pursat town, the capital of Pursat province. The reason we stopped there is because HOPE Cambodia has an office there. Nika works with HOPE in the Dominican last summer, and will be working with them again this summer, so we wanted to drop by and see if there was anything we could help them with here. As it turned out, they helped us more than we helped them. Their excellent and friendly staff showed us around the province and were super hospitable. They didn't really have much use for us, as we can't speak Khmer and don't know much about building wells or raising cows. We did help them compile 6 databases though, using the excellent data entry skills I developed at the CCAC. It wasn't as glamorous as I had pictured, but really, it makes a lot more sense to have me working on a computer than plowing a field from a productivity point of view, and i was glasd to help. The data entry was actually interesting too, because some of it was about microcredit, meaning small loans given to groups of farmers to help them develop capital and improve their business.
HOPE took us around to see their projects and it was very impressive, their main thrust, at least from what I saw, was to build wells. To decide where to build them, they contact the community and the community decides next to which houses the well should be built, usually based on who needs it most, though everyone can use it. HOPE then supplies the material and technical knowledge, and the villagers supply the labour to build the well. Afterwards, HOPE teaches them how to plant and care for vegetable gardens, which they use to eat and to sell for money. It is amazing how building a well can turn things around for a family in such a short time. For example, we met one women who showed us her house in 2004, before a well was built next to it. It was literally a small wooden shack on the ground. After the well was built, she planted a garden. From the garden profits, she bought a pig. When the pigs was big enough, she sold it and bought more pigs, as well as some wood to turn into lumber. With those profits, she bought a rice mill to seperate rice from the shells (chaff?). And finally, when we arrived, she showed us her newly built solid wooden house, with cement stilts (to keep away termites) and stairway. Help provided her with the materials for the well, but the rest was all from her entrepreneurial abilities, once she had the basic necessities to give her an opportunity. Wow!
We are now in Battambang, and leaving tomorrow. Battambang is not a huge tourist destination, though we are definitely not the only ones, but we met to guides, Hon Youn and Olas, who are excellent. They took us around for two days, and while the sites weren't particularly interesting, it was one of the best tours we've gone on because they were so knowledgeable and fun. One of our guides wa an extra in an upcoming Angelina Jolie movie, and met her. He also told us that there is a famous and beautiful Thai movie star named "Morning Star" (I forget her Thai name) who, due to her popularity was invited to an important event in Cambodia around 2003. However, she said she would not come until Cambodia gave Angkor Wat back to Thailand (Angkor Wat is in an area that was fought over by the Siams and Khmers numerous times). As a result of her impertinence, all Thai movies are now banned on Cambodian television channels, and can only be seen with cable. At the end of the day, they took us to the Bamboo train, which I thought would be gimmicky but was actually quite fun. You ride on some old rail tracks on a bamboo platform with a motor attached. It is kind of like riding the flat parts of a wooden roller coaster.
When we got back to town, we found some tasty insects from a local vendor, and chowed down on fried beetles. They were actually quite good, and where just like any other sorta crunchy fried snack.
We visited some temples and saw some nice scenery, as well as learning more about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. For those of you who don't know, the Khmer Rouge government was responsible for approximately 3 million deaths from 1975-79, either through execution or starvation. To save bullets, they often clubbed victims to death, pushed them off cliffs, sawed their heads of with the sharp edges of palm leaves, or buried them alive. Both here and in Phnom Penh large stupas can be visited house the bones of their victims. We visited a huge artificial lake and dame, which is know a popular picnic spot, but an estimated 10 000 of the forced labourers who dug it perished in the process. Moreover, the brutality of the Kmer Rouge is largly unknown in the West, and is not even taught in schools in Cambodia because Khmer Rouge leaders still have influence in the modern day government. Horrible, but true.
Tomorrow we leave for Seim Reip and the temples of Angkor Wat by boat. Until the next!
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