カンボジア

大分遅くなったけど、カンボジアの報告書です！

昨年12月２１日から今年１月１１日までカンボジアへ行きました。１６人の参加者と３週間、自転車をこぎながら様々なＮＧＯを訪ねたり、小学校でエコ レッスンを教えたり、献血したり、アンコールワットにも行きました。　全部で８２５キロを自転車で走りました！　カンボジアへ行って本当に良かったと思います。　アンコール ワットは勿論素晴らしかったです。　子供たちはすごくかわいいし、人々も優しかったです。　だけど一番勉強になったことは現地で活動するＮＧＯを訪ねたことです。

クメール・リュージュ（１９７５年から１９７９年までポルポトの政党）時代を経て、１９９１年まではベトナムの占領下、その後も現在まで不安定な 政権が続くカンボジアの人たちはとても大変です。　これまで多くのＮＧＯがカンボジアで様々なプロジェクトを始めました。　学校建設や、地域開発、インフラ整備な どです。　その事業の殆どがカンボジアの人たちにとって素晴らしく役に立っています。　しかし私が知った、最も重要なことは、その様な開発がその国の人々や環 境、文化にどんな影響を与えるかを事前に十分考えることです。

例えば、学校を建てたとしても先生はいるでしょうか。その学校に通える生徒は何人いるでしょうか。教科書などはどうするのでしょうか。
もし井戸を掘ったら、誰にその管理責任を持たせるかとか、そしてその後その井戸が壊れたら誰が直せるでしょうか。またその水は飲むのに安全でしょうか。

自転車を走らせながら、様々なとりくみの後々までにも思いを走らせたカンボジア縦断の旅でした写真も英語の報告書もここにあります。
さて、天気予報によって、明日は晴れ　＾＾　と言うことは朝、自転車!!

PEPY Ride IV: Phenom Penh to Kep Part

So, left off with arriving in Battambang on December 29th right?

December 30th: 2nd day in Battambang.  I was feeling much better enegy-wise but something was still a bit off.  We went to a cooking class at a restaurant called "Smokin' Pot".  No joke.  The food we made there was delicious!! First we went to the market, bought all the ingredients and made Khmer Curry from scratch!!  We even made our own coconut milk from shredded coconut. . .mm my mouth is watering just thinking about it again.  In the afternoon we visited a social venture in Battambang called DDD (Digital Divide Data)  They train disadvantaged Cambodians in IT services and outsource to global clients.  Just as the visit was wrapping up, the "a bit off"- ness that I was feeling earlier, started to come to a head and I was running to the bathroom about twice or three times an hour. . . After dinner I got some Ciprofloxacin over the counter from a pharmacy (>.<) and was feeling 100% better by morning which was good because. . .

January 1st 2009!!!: We split up.  It was also pouring rain.  Half of us stayed in Pursat and did eco-lessons at the Sustainable Cambodia school there. The other half of us rode 30km out to Kravanh to do the same at the school out there.  Of course, I joined the riding group.  However, because of the rain, and dirt road, we all got SOOOOO muddy.  I was the only one who had a rain jacket so my jersey stayed relatively clean but everything else was an unsalvageable mess.  Well. . .maybe it just needed to be washed but anyway, we were late for the lesson we were supposed to teach because we all had to have bucket showers (ie. cold water poured over yourself with a bucket) before we looked even remotely presentable. It was quite the experience. After the lesson and lunch with the staff from the school, I wanted to go back to Pursat so Lucky and I took a less muddy and bumpy and more scenic/ slightly longer road back into town (the rest of the Kravanh group opted to stay overnight in hammocks at the school).  By this time it had stopped raining so it wasn't so bad.  I taught another eco-lesson with the other group when I got back at the school in Pursat.  

Krakor: Boat Tours

January 2nd: We were scheduled to be going out to a village just outside of Pursat to see some of the development work being done by Sustainable Cambodia but most of the Kravanh group had fallen ill so only the group that stayed in Pursat (plus me) ended up going. We played with some kids at a preschool and learned about some of the projects going on in the community before going back to the Pursat school for the Bike ceremony!! The school gave bikes to some very poor students so that they have a means of transportation to and from school. It's also an incentive for more students to enrol. A bicycle!!??! Yes please!
After the ceremony we had a quick lunch and then cycled 30km to Krakor. When we arrived, we had a few minutes to change and then tried to go out to a floating village. A number of families lived along the littered road to the floating village. Upon arriving at the boat launching point we were surrounded by villagers trying to get us to ride in their boats. Enter striped shirt guy (herein ssg). He comes over with a giant sign telling us that there is an official price for all tourists that has been put in place (as of this morning. . .apparently) by x government official who's name was at the bottom of the sign. The sign also says, only those who hold a license are allowed to take passengers. Ssg says that we must pay $10 for a 5 person boat (by Cambodian standards this is insanely expensive). Ssg also says, if anyone takes us out in a boat for a cheaper price, he will call the police. We decided as a group to boycott the floating village and spent the money we would have used for the boat on buying coconuts and fruit juice from the people who had set up shops around the boat launching point. Over dinner we had a long conversation about government corruption and challenges PEPY has faced because of it.

January 3rd: Cycled 60km to Kampong Channang. I cycled out front with another guy who had joined our group since Battambang. His name is Rithy. He was teaching me some Khmer the whole ride and I kept annoying him by repeating many many times what he taught me to make sure I remembered. It was really fun though and a beautiful ride. We all just hung around until it was time to go to dinner. After dinner Lucky and Rithy told us a bit about what their families had related to them about the Khmer Rouge. From the first of January until the 7th of January all of Cambodia celebrates the fall of the Khmer Rouge which was January 7th 1979. This year is the 30th anniversary.

January 4th: Woke up bright and early for our hot 92km ride into the big city Phnom Penh! When we finally arrived my head was pounding which I think was a result of too much sun.  We had a delicious dinner out and I wanted to go out with the group for some celebratory drinks but decided to take it easy because of my head and just went to bed.

RDIC waterpump

January 5th! today! Today the only thing scheduled was a visit to another NGO RDIC.  Most of the team took tuk tuks but Lucky had mentioned that the ride over there was beautiful. . .so I decided to cycle it.  We left around 8:45am waited for the ferry, arrived on an island about half an hour later.  It was soooo beautiful! We saw tons of mango trees (and took a mango that was way too unripe) and got some sweet rice cakes from a lady living along the path.  It was also such a beautiful day, though hot. The NGO was apparently close to the other ferry port off the island, so we took another ferry and crossed back over the river. . .by this time, however, our tour guide was getting worried about where we were. We were supposed to be there by 10am but it was now 11:30!  So, I ended up missing a lot of the NGO visit which was sad, but the ride was sooooooo good, so I didn't really mind.  Anyways, RDIC does tons of really cool stuff.  They make water filters out of clay so that Cambodian people can have clean water.  The pots are $8 which is not cheap but affordable for many Cambodians.  They do a lot of children's TV programming to teach literacy and some values like forgiveness, friendship, etc.  They also make Karaoke videos as a means of education. . .we watched one that was about taking care of your chickens. . .apparently it got really popular and 2 famous people performed it for the prime minister!  RDIC also does water testing all over Cambodia since many pumps installed by large NGOs can't be trusted due to arsenic concentration (and lack of research before well installation). . . 

A lot of the wells in Cambodia that have been provided by NGOs pump water with dangerous arsenic levels.  Not so much that it kills immediately but enough to poison and cause serious tissue and organ damage over time.  The well at the school in Chanleas Dai happened to be one of those wells.

So, that's the end of my story so far!  We have a few more days in Phnom Penh and then we head out to Kep to have a few beach days!  I'm enjoying my trip immensely.  Cambodian people are so friendly, we have choruses of children screaming "hello!!!!"at us all the way down the road.  It's like, tour de Cambodia or something :)

To Part I!

PEPY Ride IV: Phenom Penh to Kep Part I

Hello from Phnom Penh! and Happy New year!

We are now about 2/3 of the way done our trip!  Time has gone by so fast and I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep you as updated as I would have liked.  I will try to go through a quick summary of each day so far.
December 20: Arrived around 11pm in Phnom Penh.  Stayed at a hotel.
December 21:Took a 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap.  Met PEPY ride leaders and participants of this year's ride for dinner.
December 22nd: Had our first day of Angkor Wat sightseeing with the 4th grade students from the PEPY ride school in Chanleas Dai (a small village close to Kralanh in Cambodia).  Angkor Wat is absolutely incredible.  I guess I didn't have a clear idea of what it was/entailed and was kind of expecting just a big stone temple that was really old.  I didn't understand why we would need 3 day passes or why anyone would want a whole week pass!  Little did I know.  The temple complex is huge!  Even in a week I think it would be impossible to see all the temples and structures within the complex. 
The kids that we met are at one of the schools that PEPY works with and has provided many programs for (literacy, computers, bike-to-school) and because it is expensive to get to Angkor Wat and would require buying food in the temple complex etc. none of the kids have ever been to the temples (although it is free for Cambodian people to go) so it is a big event for them too.  It was really great to hang out with them.  They were all sooooooo cute!  And they taught me how to count in Khmer (their mother tongue) :)

December 23rd: We went to the PEPY office and got our bikes fitted. Then we took them for our first ride to Angkor Wat with our lovely Cambodian tour guide Lucky (conveniently, he happens to be the #1 cyclist in Cambodia).

December 24th: Free day. 2 other participants and I decided to check out the landmine museum, which was very interesting, and another temple inside the complex. At night we had an X-mas eve dinner with the PEPY staff and some of their friends.

December 25th: 60km Ride into Kralanh.  I took off with Lucky and left the rest of the team behind. . .oops.  I had a lot of energy!  We had an X-mas dinner in Kralanh with a number of teachers from the PEPY school and some other PEPY staff before hitting the hay.

December 26th: 8km ride out to the PEPY School in Chanleas Dai.  Taught 2 lessons about biodiversity and how they can help to keep their country clean.  The school is really nice and the students were so excited to see us!  They sang us songs and taught us about their village. Rode back to Kralanh after dinner at the school.  Unfortunately, this day I started to get sick :(

December 27th: 8km ride out to the PEPY school.  Went to the construction site (about 100m away from the PEPY school) for the new Junior Highschool and did some construction work for half the day.  I was still having stomach problems though so it wasn't very fun.  The second half of the day I tried to do more construction work but felt like I was going to pass out. I decided to take a rest until dinner.  Rode back to Kralanh

December 28th:  Woke up feeling really sick, but after breakfast decided to try the 60km ride to Sisophon.  It was a really difficult ride because I had no nutrients in my body but I got through it, had some lunch, was sick again, and pretty much just passed out until the next day.

December 29th: Woke up with very little energy.  Still sick. . .hadn't eaten dinner the previous day.  Decided to try a bit of the 80km ride to Battambang.  Although the terrain was flat with no wind one way or the other, it was a really really really hard ride.  I was definitely the lantern rouge that day.  About 18km from the city I couldn't go any further so we hitched a ride from a truck the rest of the way to Battambang.  I went to see a doctor in Battambang and he gave me some medicine.

Ok. . .sorry but I think the internet place I am at right now is trying to close so I should probably finish there for now.  I will try to do more tomorrow and update you til today!  I am totally better now so don't worry about that part!
 I'm having a really really great and informative time here.  My legs are getting even stronger and I think I have 3 various shades of cycling tan now. . .-__-  That will be awesome when we finally get down to the coast.  I've picked up a few phrases in Khmer and have been trying to use them as much as possible!

Talk to you tomorrow *hopefully*
To PEPY Ride II!

まだ生きてる！

最近色々あったけど、日記を書く時間があまりなかった。
でもまだ、元気で生きてる！　前よりもっと元気かもしれない！確かに前より脚が強くなった。脚は最近、プローサイクリストの脚線美みたいな形にちょっとだけ気づいていく。気のせいかな. . .

日本語もまだ頑張っている。今日また日本語能力試験の二級を受けた。漢字・語彙と聴解の部分は大丈夫だったと思うけど読解・文法の部分は大変だった。時間が足りなかったもん。また落ちたかな. . .

さて、もうすぐ冬休みだね。私は、今回何処かでボランティア活動をやってみたいなと思った。で、思い出したの、ＰＥＰＹと言うＮＧＯがある。日本 に来た時ＰＥＰＹについてはじめて聞いた。　あれはカンボジアの教育のために自転車ツアーがあって、カンボジアを自転車で回りながら子供たちに英語を教え たり、いろんなボランティア活動する。

ぴったりジャン！！！

今年のＰＥＰＹライドと言う、三週間のカンボウジアを自転車で回りのツアーの参加者になった！^-^ もう必要な15万円の募金を集めたし、航空券買ったし、予防注射打ったし、パニアバッグ（自転車を付ける荷物を入れるやつ）を買ったし、ほとんど準備でき て、２０日からカンボジアに行って来る！