A little something extra!

Summer Camp sent us a little crazy...

Rounders, Rain and Emergency Rice

Our first week in Tonle Bati has been a busy one, since our last post we have done a lot more activities with the kids, from singing and reading to sports and paddle boarding.  Rounders seemed to be particularly popular with the children as pleas to play circulated the air from 7am. Throughout the week we have also been in charge of helping the children to make a variety Khmer treats, as a group we found some very tasty such as the waffles and barbequed bananas however the 'snowballs' and cupcakes with chives in were met with less excitement. 

We've been experiencing a lot more of rainy season this week, especially on Thursday where we found ourselves urgently relocating all our beds to the middle of the room as water took over our bedroom. Our great teamwork skills came into use as we created a chain for sweeping out the water as quickly as possible. We're all used to rain halting our plans in England so we adopted the traditional rainy day plan and put on a range of short Pixar films to keep the children entertained.

Friday marked the end of our first week of Summer Camp, to say goodbye to the children we had a party where we displayed all of our handmade decorations, played a final game of rounders and some traditional English party games such as musical statues and pass the parcel - with our own in house band consisting of Helen on guitar, Kat on recorder and Lucy on the bongos. As a group we were given the intimidating task of catering for 30, after a trip to the market to gather as many ingredients as possible a meal of bean burgers, salsa, coleslaw and potato wedges was created with Banoffee Pie to finish. We all broke off in to teams to create the meal with the aid of some children, most of whom looked concerned by what they were about to try and confused by the lack of rice. The rice wasn't far off though as we spied emergency rice being secretly cooked as a back up. The food went down well with most children, the biggest hit being the potato wedges and the most questionable being the Banoffee pie which according to one child was 'too sweet'.

Saturday morning we said big goodbyes to all of the children with promises to visit again and headed off to Kep on the coast of Cambodia. Our dreams of sunbathing on the sandy beaches of Rabbit Island were quickly shattered by the large amounts of rain so instead we found ourselves comfort eating with large plates of delicious fresh crab at $5 a piece! The rain however didn't completely dampen our spirits as we all enjoyed a dip in the Cambodian sea. If anything, it made us all feel closer to home and memories of British wet beach weekends.  We've arrived back in Tonle Bati to a week of more grouting and preparations for the final three weeks of Summer Camp which looks set to be a busy one with over 60 children wanting to sign up! 

Moving in, Mosquitoes and Mad Chickens

It’s day two here at Tonle Bati: I am writing this from our newly constructed bamboo home and it’s all fairly idyllic, it must be said the grouted floors are looking particularly spectacular.  Although we love our new home already, I think our squeals last night as we tried to escape the onslaught of mosquitos, bugs and enormous beetles provided a fair bit of entertainment for the builders.   That’s not to mention our group expeditions to the toilet which 25 of us share, equipped with head torches and buckets of rain water to flush.   Once safely in bed though (8.30pm seems pretty late these days) we are in a fairy canapé of white mosquito veils and bamboo bed frames.  

6.30 starts mean that we are able to do some sport with the children before it gets too hot, but even that wasn’t considered early enough this morning as we brushed our teeth in front of expectant faces and cries of ‘How much longer teacher?’ There’s talk of 5.00am tomorrow which sounds fairly intimidating but the resident cockerel is easily confused and lets out raucous half-formed crows just outside our room long before the sun rises. We hope the resident cockerel will be appearing in one of our meals someday soon.  Our first activity this morning was rounders, something that the children have all taken to straight away, although we have had some difficulty explaining why they have to always run around the outside of the posts. A narrow victory was awarded to Team Dragon, who quickly developed a knack for hitting the ball directly into the ditch making it fairly tricky to retrieve. 

News of our presence here must have spread quickly, as at lunch time a few local children turned up to find out what all the fuss was about and have been included in English lessons already.  The register for when the school opens officially in August is filling up fast and we have three full classes already!  Summer camp with the Seametrey children gives us a great chance to practise some of the activities that we have planned with kids who already speak quite good English and are accustomed to the Montessori method before we start fresh with the new school year. 

As I write, the rest of the volunteers are helping the children write diaries recording everything that they have been doing here, both to help them practise their writing and so that they will have something to take away with them at the end of the week. Our summer camp tie-dye T-shirts are currently drying out in the sun, although it seems like us volunteers are even more excited to see how they will turn out than the children!

I realise that this blog leaves a gap over the weekend but our main activity was a visit to the killing fields and genocide museum which we think deserves it’s own blog post that will follow shortly. 

Grouting, Gritted Teeth and Great News.

Team Leader Sophie here, reporting on what could only be called a ‘messy’ sort of week. After the excitement of week one with all the cultural excursions, kids and beard making, this week has been a little less engaging. Despite caution, some group members found themselves struck by fairly inevitable stomach bugs. You’ve all heard of Delhi Belly… well unfortunately we had a bout of the Phnom Penh P**s. Nothing serious, but equally, not very fun.

So the week saw the group split, with some staying back at our hostel, soaking up the air con and battling their bugs and boredom. Some intense games of scrabble have been played, and the local coffee shop frequented. Not how we’d hoped to start the trip off, but everyone has gritted their teeth and got on with getting better. The weekend is in sight, and everyone is up and nearly well, which is excellent to see! 

The real troopers of the week have been those who have been well. We started volunteering this week, and this meant building. The new school where we will be living and running activities was lacking some essentials (e.g. floor, roof, walls… you know, the little things). To get it ready for our arrival it was all hands on deck, with the healthy volunteers sorting tiles, nailing trellises, and generally pitching in. They've been commuting back and forth from Phnom Penh, and suffering some pretty early starts. The biggest achievement is the tiled floor which has been completed by our wonderful team. First major skill learnt on this trip? Grouting. The group’s enthusiasm and energy has been impressive, and I’ve been very proud. The amount of building they’ve done is more than they expected, but there have been no grumbles. We have even managed to do some English lessons with the Khmer building team. Nothing quite like seeing a group of grown men doing heads, shoulders, knees and toes!  

The positive attitudes have paid off, as the week ended with some great news. Due to the volunteers’ hard work, we’ve finished some of the building ahead of schedule. So, not only will we be moving to the new school on Monday, but so will nine kids. The kids are from the city school, and will be staying with as we run a week long activity camp for them. This is truly what we came here to do, and everyone is excited; the perfect way to end a fairly grim week. Roll on Monday! 

Football, fake beards and forced alliteration

So it’s been a while since our last post and a lot has happened since then! Sorry for the time lag on the updates, but we've been pretty busy!  

We’ve been spending time at Seametrey School here in Phnom Penh, which has been a great way to really find out what we are working towards in Tonle Bati. All the children were a bit shy at first but the ice was quickly broken as they helped us make our name badges.  We even learnt how to write the phonetics of our names in Khmer!  Before we knew it Charlotte had four children hanging off her and Kat was giving piggy back rides all over the place. Football was a massive cause of excitement –the children came in extra early, some in Chelsea football colours, ready to walk to a nearby park as the school doesn’t have a lot of space.  The number of volunteers at the school decides how many children can safely go, so we were a very welcome addition.  Football under the sweltering sun was a challenge for all, but everyone came away happy with a strict rule of no crying if your team loses, and very ready for nap time!

It’s the end of term here, which means one thing – the school play!  As if English and Khmer aren’t enough, the children are also learning French so this term the play was ‘Astrix and Obelix’.  Rehearsals have been going on intensely since we got here, often with us in the background making props (newfound team skill: beard making).  Friday was the big day, and the kids seemed mostly more excited than nervous and with good reason – their performance was great.  Muoy spoke at the end, reintroducing some of her staff and students who had recently won sponsorship to study abroad.  One of the focuses of Seametrey is to qualify Khmer staff, and so we were able to welcome one teacher back from gaining a Montessori qualification in America and wish another good luck. We were also able to congratulate a student on being talent spotted for guitar playing and being sent to study in Paris for the summer, with another studying in America! 

Everyone got pretty emotional, as all the kids cheered each of their teachers and peers successes; team leader Sophie failing spectacularly at keeping it together and crying at the happiness of it all. All a little humbling, and a good reminder at how lucky we are at the relative ease of our trip to Cambodia. The reverse, Cambodians working in the UK and elsewhere, is a genuinely life changing experience and a rare one at that. All in all, a very proud moment for Seametrey and a testimony to Muoy’s excellent work.

This weekend some of us have been a bit unwell, so we’ve been taking it easy but most of the group are currently Tonle Bati helping set up the new school! More info soon!

PS Check out our flicker for all the pictures! http://www.flickr.com/photos/98326534@N02/ 

Sun, Sweat and second stomachs

Hey all! This is the Camfam's first blog post, after three days we all feel like it has been a week and we've barely had time to update on the super-slow hostel internet...enjoy!

Camfam are feeling pretty hot. And not in a good way, there is so much sweat. We finally touched down after a gruelling journey (36 hours for Kirsten!) to be greeted by a wave of sticky heat, an incredibly overly excited Sophie and some very welcomed cold water. We dumped our stuff in our hostel before heading straight to the nearest bar to celerbrate the start of our Cambodian adventure. Khmer people go to bed pretty early so most restaurants were closed - our first meal in Cambodia therefore consisted of pringles and rambutan - a hairy, spikey fruit with a sweet centre a bit like a lychee.

Our first real Khmer food was breakfast - Khmer porridge, which seemed suspiciously like undrained rice with eggs that been basking in salt for too long. It didn't go down a treat. First on our agenda was visiting Wat Phnom, the traditional centre of a city. As beautiful as it was, we were all a bit surprised to see raw rashers of Bacon dangling from the mouths of the stone lions. Next we headed off to our Khmer Culture Class - essentially the longest game of charades ever played - a two hour extraveganza where not a single word of English was spoken. Highlights included fake monk dressing, a full funeral possession and culinary treats including tarantula, grasshopper and cockroach. Helen stole the show managing most of an enormous spider.

In the evening we all enjoyed the cheapest meal we have ever had - with the most amazing dishes averaging $2.50! Jet lag seemed to be setting in as certain members of the group could be fooled into believing that the long fabled cake stomach really exists. A deet induced coma soon followed ready for an early start at Seametry School.

Read all about it!

Gabriella, one of our team, has made the news!

Read about her coverage here: http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/bajan-brit-heads-to-cambodia-to-teach/

Well done Gabby! Keep up the good work!

The Ethics of Volunteering: Projects Abroad pull out of Cambodia

 
This project has always been very conscious & mindful of the ethics of international volunteering and international development. Individuals like Daniela Papi (whose fantastic TED talk, which our volunteers studied and reflected on during our training sessions, can be found here) have been working tirelessly to raise awareness on the growing culture of 'voluntourism' and the ethical pitfalls which stem from the industry.

Voluntourism is the intersection of volunteering and tourism, It is

“the practice of individuals going on a working holiday, volunteering their labour for worthy causes” ^[2] such as “aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society; the restoration of certain specific environments or research into aspects of society or environment”, “for various reasons”, “in an organised way” ^[3], “alongside touristic activities”. ^[4] 
 
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation's (UNWTO) 1995 definition, any work which includes remuneration is excluded, as it does not qualify as volunteering. Whilst voluntourism usually involves a fee paid to a travel company, these costs tend to cover the travel and activities of the volunteers, rather than qualifying as remuneration for work. What's clear is that voluntourism is difficult to define, which is why it is difficult to regulate and police. Put most simply, voluntourism is a trip with a volunteering and a touristic component attached.

Voluntourism, and the companies that adminstrate voluntourism, have increasingly come under-fire as organisations and academics scrutinise the practice. There are fears that it engenders actively unhelpful idealism, and seeks temporary solutions geared around pleasing the market (the volunteers), rather than the countries they seek to help. Furthermore, voluntourism often creates a misplaced idealism aimed at selling a touristic product, rather than creating an atmosphere for meaningful change. There are also worrying signs that destinations which receive voluntourists adapt their economies and infrastructure to actively encourage this industry; orphanages in Africa and SE Asia have been found, worryingly, to have children whose parents are alive and in contact, for example.

Following this scrutiny, and an investigation by French Television, 'Projects Abroad', a company who offer international volunteering projects, have decided to pull all projects out of Cambodian orphanages, over fear of endemic corruption. On their facebook page they state:

"Projects Abroad has already sent an investigation team to assess the situation of corruption in some orphanages. We have also consulted with the NGO Friends International, responsible for child protection and recognised internationally for their work, to help us to improve our work in the field based on its expertise. The result of our investigation left some outstanding concerns and therefore Projects Abroad has decided to cease sending volunteers to orphanages in Cambodia. By the end of 2013, Projects Abroad will no longer work with any orphanage in Cambodia."

Whilst this problem is certainly one that needs to be addressed, and we support Projects Abroad's decision to investigate and make changes, we do not support a blanket pull-out from Cambodia, or any stable developing nation. Curtailing the harmful effects of voluntourism can be achieved without the withdrawal of vital support and human resources, and without sending a political message with may disincentive other organisations from working in a country which still needs international support. We refuse to believe that there are no orphanages in Cambodia who are worth working with, and we point to NGOs such as Seametrey who are doing fantastic work in Cambodia, and who deserve the support of international organisations. We suggest that all international organisations amp-up their vetting procedures in an effort to ensure they lend support to ethical organisations, rather than simply pulling out altogether.  

More importantly, this measure will not solve the fundamental issue at hand, which is the industry of voluntourism itself. So long as organisations have a financial incentive to 'sell' these projects, the focus will always shift far too close to incentivising uptake, rather than creating meaningful change. 

Our volunteers, from day one, were made aware of the positive, and negatives impacts they can make as volunteers, and were also frankly made aware of the limited impact they can make as individuals, but the large impact they can make by being part of an ethical voluntereing movement. Moreover we sought to support an organisation with a sustainable model for change, ensuring that resources are diverted to organisations which are focused upon creating change, side-stepping one of the most noxious effects of voluntourism. Travelling as an international volunteer, and a tourist, need not be mutually exclusive, and it need not create the problems it does, but it requires organisations to look inward and ensure that the primary focus of every project is the destination country and the creation of positive, substantive long-term change.

We are incredibly proud to work with an organisation like Seametrey, who are doing genuinely innovative and powerful work in Cambodia's education sector, and we are proud to have a team of volunteers who are aware of both the positive and negative impacts they can make, and how they go about ensuring they err towards positive change. Whilst it, undoubtedly, was time & resource consuming to ensure we had this in place, it's an investment we feel is fully worth it, and we'd encourage all organisations to endeavour create ethical projects in the face of problems like corruption, rather than simply withdraw projects.

We'd encourage all international organisations and individuals thinking of volunteering internationally to be mindful of the ethics of volountourism, and to help spread awareness, so that the third sector can continue to evolve and adapt as new challenges to global equality emerge.

Thank you to this blog post (http://volunteertourismviews.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/what-is-voluntourism/) whose content features heavily in this post, as it is one of the most helpful introductions to voluntourism on the internet.
 
 
 
 
1. Clemmons D., 2012, Voluntourism: ‘A new future for aid’2. Tomazos, K., 2009, Volunteer Tourism, an ambiguous phenomenon: An analysis of the demand and supply for the volunteer tourism market3. Wearing, S. 2007, p.1, Swimming Against the Mainstream – Volunteering for Tourism4. Hesdin, 2012, The Evolution of Voluntourism