Sigh of Relief (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

Okay, so yesterday I went to the Lighthouse orphanage. Yep, sure did..................... yep....... that's what I did alright.........

Oh! Do you wanna know what happened? The suspense can kill ya, can't it? I was so nervous the whole ride there on the back of Thom's motobike. A few hundred meters away I thought I was going to be sick or something. Well, the moment we entered the gates of the property two of the older guys that live there spotted me and yelled out 'Hello!' each of them gave me a hug, these are two grown men we're talking about here. Then children came out and started yelling "Dnam-rai" which means elephant in Khmer, its a nickname they gave me back in January. I could never (still can't) pronounce it correctly and so they always shout it out at me.

So there's about maybe 16 kids at the orphanage still and I know about 10 of them. One of the new kids is the little brother of Aroon (who was there before and still is) and I couldn't stop staring at him because they look so much alike. A lot of the kids there are related to one of the ladies that live there and that's obviously why they were never taken back to their families.

Aroon and I were looking at old photos and I asked him if so-and-so was still there and he said "no", then I asked another name and again "no". Then he named about ten of his old friends and said "no." Poor guy, it must be hard to be one of the only ones that was left back and not brought to a proper family. I found out today that one of them has gone off to get married and another is now working at a clothing factory. I wish them well. Most others have gone back to their "homeland".

After being there for a couple of hours a man drives up in a motobike, he came over and asked which one of us is Dean. He introduced himself to me as Ken, the new manager of the orphanage. He then went on to tell me how he knows about the old manager and how he was evil and basically starved the kids. Ken then appologized for the torment that these kids have gone through and said that he is trying his hardest to get a proper structure to the orphanage and that he's applied for funding from an NGO. Ken also said that he's heard a lot about me and the other foreigners that were there before he came along and thanked us for all that we've done. Later in the day I heard one of the kids talking in Khmer and the words "Phnom Penh Water Park"come out of his mouth, I looked over and I could see Rotana describing how we took them to the water park and how I was tossing him into the water that day. Ken said that he hears about it all the time!

Thom found out some info about Ken from the kids and he reckons that Ken is the real deal, no lies. Ken actually sold his mobile phone and his bike when he first took over, just so he could feed the kids. Unfortunatley, we discovered today that Ken is working for the same director that the old manager was working for. I don't know what this means exactly, I don't know what the director's intentions are, but I'm hoping for the best. I am putting my trust into Ken. You can actually see that he cares for these kids, he actually plays with them and tends to their needs. Today he enrolled about 6 of them into school and applied medicine into an aching girl's tooth.

Laura has decided to put her efforts back into the orphanage. Hooray for Laura! Hopefully her and Ken can work together and do some real good. She came to the orphanage today with Jeremy and I and I don't think it takes very long to fall back into that same state of mind.


I NEED HELP!

Look, I know that I've already sent out an email (to Canadians only) requesting that you send me money via email banking, but I'm asking again. Only one person has responded to my email (Thanks Kitchie!!!!).

In the past 2 days I've spent about $20 US and I only have $130 left. This money has bought a proper meal for the kids (twice), a supply of simple medicines like paracetamol (aspirin), cold medicine, rubbing alcohol, cotton balls and toothache relief. I asked Ken earlier today what kind of medicines they already had and he opened up his bag and said "only this". It was a tiny little drop bottle to prevent infections. I also picked up some soap, toothpaste and laundry detergent.

Again, I don't want to beg for money, but I guess if I don't the children may end up doing it themselves.

Thanks for your support. Even if you don't send me money that's fine, I completely understand. I would even just love to hear from you, a friendly email giving me your kind words and an update from yourself would be wonderful! I miss you guys!