When I initially planned and booked my volunteering project at Kais Kids Orphanage I did a fair amount of research which included reading the Personal Overseas Development (POD) project booklet, talking to a couple of previous volunteers via Facebook and of course talking to my personal volunteer project manager from POD via e-mail. I wanted to be prepared, but at the same time I didn't want to take all the excitement that comes with the unknown out of my adventure. As it turned out, I really don't think any amount of chatting and bombarding of questions to previous and then, current volunteers could have really prepared me for Kais.
I tried not to have too many pre-conceived ideas of what it might be like: but when it's all I could think about for months before it was difficult not to build up some kind of image in my mind. I had imagined a tiny village in the middle of no where nestled in the heart of rural Cambodia with dirt tracks, sprawling fields and rice paddies with only tiny shacks and wooden huts dotting the landscape. To a certain extent I was right and that definitely does exist; but what I hadn't anticipated was the huge National Highway Four (primarily funded by the Americans) to run straight through Treng Trayeung. National Highway Four is the major road which connects Phnom Penh city to Sihanoukville where Cambodia's only port is: this makes the road busy with transport lorries and of course buses taking people to Sihanoukville beach resorts. Take Route 4 away and Treng Trayeung is completely rural and rustic like I had imagined; but this road drastically altered the image I had in my mind. The increasing number of transport lorries along Route 4 has triggered the development of many 'gasoline service stations' along the roadside, most of which have modern marts attached to them, again something that took me by surprise.
I discovered the landscape I had been expecting when I made the journey across country to Kampot (I was lucky enough to be given a lift, but normally taking a bus this way is not recommended as they have a tendency to drop you in the middle of no where!) The journey across land was beautiful: giant tall palms, with the backdrop of the Dâmrei Mountains (translated as Elephant Mountains), rice paddies on the brink of turning lush green, cows wandering along the roadside and through the fields, water buffalo in the swampy ponds, traditional Khmer houses on stilts as well as far more humble abodes. There were children playing barefoot and farmers working in the paddies wearing the Vietnamese conical bamboo hats. It literally was picture perfect - and I did wish I could stop for a photo opp every 2 minutes!
Sketch of National Highway 4 and Surrounding Area
So that's all about the setting! What about the orphanage itself?
There are lots of pictures on Facebook of the orphanage, so again I had little images - built from the photos I'd seen - in my mind. The orphanage is only two minutes down an orange dirt track road off Route 4.
My first night was novel and exciting. I'll never forget gracelessly climbing to my top bunk and trying to make up the bed and assemble my mosquito net! I was all fingers and thumbs and one of the older girls and the nurse in the girls' house came to my rescue; showing me how it's done they deftly balanced on the bunk neatly assembling my bed and net. I couldn't help but laugh and soon we were in fits of giggles! Curious to all the commotion the other girls came bounding in and soon joined in laughing at my ungainly attempts! It was such a bizarre moment. I progressed to getting ready for bed and proudly put on my full length, long sleeve pink cotton pyjamas - especially sourced by none other than my Mer to be mossi - proof and 100% cotton. Well, cue more bouts of laughter! I felt so funny in my less than attractive nightwear choice, but was sure they were necessary. Well, I have NEVER been so hot in all my life as I was that night - but I stubbornly kept them on, buttoned up and tried to ignore the sweaty mess I had turned to. The bucket shower was another escapade that I found hilarious and had a least 3 trips to and from the shower to my room before I had everything I needed - needless to say the shower routine took me a good few days to perfect. All in all my first night set the standard paving the way for a series of "funny moments by Joanne". Jokes aside, I look back on my first night with great fondness and it always gives me a little smile.
I don't remember a lot of details from arriving to going to bed that night; but I do remember we all spent most of it in the nursery. It was a shock - I'm not sure what hit me first, the smell or the swarms of flies or the way the babies were left crawling and rolling around mostly unattended. Bearing in mind it's intensely hot and the babies are in cloth nappies, a lot of which were urine soaked, the smell was pretty overpowering. This of course attracts flies and they were literally everywhere and all over the babies and tots and in the corner of their eyes. I like babies and it's always cute to pick them up and get a cuddle, but being blatantly honest this scene was overwhelming and having literally just arrived it didn't draw me to be in amongst them; but that definitely changed.
The nursery was the area that I took longest to get used to, probably because for the first few days I avoided spending much time there. Naturally, I knew that it would be worlds apart from a nursery in the UK or another developed country, and after all it is an orphanage, but I think it would take a particularly unfeeling person not to be affected in some way. As I settled into the orphanage I became accustomed to the nursery and it was impossible not to fall in love with the gorgeous babies there. Myself and my roommate, the other volunteer, often talked about how we wished we could scoop the babies up, give them a bubble bath, wrap them in a fluffy towel and tuck them up in bed! But of course this was only a little bit of dreaming.
Inside the Nursery: Fantastic, Colourful Wall Paintings.
There are several local nannies employed at the orphanage to care for the children 24/7, "Nanny Chun" has been there for 10 years or so and was in my opinion a matriarch figure in the nursery. I recognize that it is a difficult task caring for many babies and toddlers round the clock, but I can't help feeling that there is a slightly lazy approach when it comes to providing care for the babies and children in the nursery - I feel a simple rota for checking and changing the cloth nappies would improve things enormously for both babies and nannies, but alas the Cambodian laid back approach prevails! It has been my experience in Cambodia generally that work ethic is lacking, which surprises me a great deal considering the country's past, but maybe it's just the Khmer way of living in the severe heat, I don't know. To me, in a relatively small village with few jobs this would be an opportunity to be relished; however the director of Kais tells me it is exceedingly difficult to find good staff mostly because Treng Trayeung is considered an undesirable place to live. I was also told that in the past nannies had been known to steal supplies from the medical hut; it seems bizarre to me that they'd want to jeopardize a reliable job with a fair salary, but I guess they live a life that makes it worth the risk and I can't pretend to relate to that, but to a certain extent I do understand that poverty and deprivation drive people to take such risks.
Another thing that oddly didn't really occur to me much before this experience was the fact that I would actually be living in the orphanage - this seems a preposterous statement, but I thought of being at the orphanage, teaching there and even what the sleeping accommodation would be like, but I didn't truly think of what it would be like to actually live there. I was sharing a room with another volunteer in the girls' house. There is a boys' house too: where the older boys and Phirom the manager sleep - together with the nursery this accounts for all the sleeping accommodation at the orphanage.
Living in the girls' house was nice as I felt I grew to be really close with the girls there - there were two older girls: ~ 14 and 16, another girl aged around 12 as well as three younger girls ~ 5/6/7. Living in the same house as the girls meant that we shared little moments quite naturally together. They would always be popping in and out of our room, curiously browsing at all our bits and pieces and always managing to find something they took a particular fancy to! Whether it be getting a splodge of anti-bac. hand gel or a sprinkling of baby powder it was always received gratefully and - if they weren't already there - shown off to the other girls. Whilst this was really sweet most of the time, sometimes it could be tiring, there is a lock on the door which we used at night, but it seemed hard to use this during the day when the girls were just desperate to be around you, have fun and attention. It was a very rare moment when either of us actually shut them out.
A moment that sticks in my mind was the very first time I did my washing at the orphanage. There's an outdoor washing area at the back of the girls house or you can sit on the steps at the front. I collected the washing basin, washing powder and scrubbing brush, ready for the job. As with everything, it wasn't long before the girls were there watching me with fascination and soon helping me too. One of the younger girls insisted on showing me how it was done; taking the clothing stretching a bit of it tight across her palm and scrubbing it hard, this process was repeated on all the dirty areas and more rubbing and scrubbing in the water was done! It's a laborious process, but this little girl was so keen to show me how it's done and help me. Looking at her as she determinedly scrubbed away at my clothes she looked so much older than her years and in that moment an overwhelming fondness swept across me. I set out with the attitude that I would not have "favourites" but it's very difficult not to get attached to some of the children more than others, especially as there is so many. However, this early moment is one that will forever stick in my mind and she was one of the girls I was particularly fond of, although I was always careful not to differentiate between her and others.
Then it was pant washing time; I tried to convince the girls I was almost finished and I would do the rest, they accepted this but as soon as I brought the first pair of pants out the bag they looked on with cheeky little smiles and exchanging funny glances with one another. Now, I've generally gone with a theme of light coloured underwear to suit my mostly light clothes, but out I brought my solitary black pair of pants and completely unexpectedly the girls all erupted into uncontrollable howls of laughter, pointing at my black pants!! Who knew black pants were so funny... ? But again it was another funny memorable moment.
At night in the girls' house the older girls would sometimes come into our room for chats. They're keen to talk about their future, school, boys, all about our lives and family back home. Other times I painted the girls' nails, plaited their hair or we would all have a movie night; the girls tended to sleep out of their rooms in the little seating area where the ceiling fan is. They would push the chairs against the wall, and make sleeping forts out of their mattresses and a mosquito net all sprawled out together! Other times they would just crash out on the tiled floor sometimes without even a pillow - I would always get the urge to scoop them up and tuck them into bed, but it was their choice and for whatever reason (I never did find out) they seemed happy enough. Some of them used cuddly toys as comforts and pillows which somehow seemed to highlight their age and vulnerability.
Teaching at the orphanage was a challenge and involved less English teaching than I had anticipated. I have already done a blog post on the daily teaching schedule we followed; with the younger nursery children we didn't do more than the alphabet, numbers 1-10 and colours. We also did story time with them and educational English TV time watching (what felt like endless) episodes of Barney and The Magic School Bus. In the afternoons we set up lessons in the outdoor classroom for the older children, but it could get incredibly hot in here and more often than not the children would struggle with the heat and concentration. (If they were struggling with the heat you can imagine how I felt!) A couple of weeks in and we started lessons in the nursery TV room where there were ceiling fans and it was a lot cooler. We did lessons like 'The Body' and 'Under the Sea'. On Friday's they practised their English writing by writing a mini film review on the film of the week - which was usually a Disney film like Tarzan, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid or Mulan. When in Phnom Penh one weekend, we bought The Jungle Book film to tie in with our 'Animals' lesson: another personal favourite moment of mine was seeing them watch it for the first time. When Baloo the bear is scratching himself on the palm tree they erupted into fits of laughter, there were lots of other funny points in the film like this and their laughter was contagious! The Jungle Book in my opinion is a classic and was a strong favourite with me growing up so it was wonderful to see it was such a hit with them too! They instantly picked up the songs too and for days after they were singing 'The Bear Necessities'. Needless to say, we watched The Jungle Book again while I was there.
All in all, teaching was generally done through crafts, activities, English films and TV shows, some simple worksheets and cooking class. It wasn't the typical TEFL style teaching or in front of a blackboard style I had envisaged, but I had to adapt and in a way it was fun coming up with creative ideas. It was teaching, but just not in the conventional sense.
I found my time at the orphanage rewarding even although there was a little less English teaching than I had expected. I found the situation at the orphanage frustrating and challenging at times; I feel the orphanage would benefit hugely from a mother figure in the girls' house and father figure in the boys' house - additional to the manager and nurse - to give constant care to the children and provide structure to their day. A lot of the time the kids are left to their own devices and run wild which often ends in disaster (fighting or injuries, albeit minor). The time I spent at the orphanage really was so much more than simply walking in and out of a classroom; it involved caring for the children, disciplining them when things got out of hand and couldn't be settled by rock, paper scissors, entertaining them throughout the day, teaching and ultimately just giving them attention and time that they craved so much. I found this made my time at the orphanage even more rewarding though and being around the children constantly meant I got to know them all quite well and their individual personalities.
A huge amount of controversy and negative media surrounds volunteering just now and in particular volunteering in orphanages. This 'voluntourism' concept is one I was acutely aware of months before my trip, when it was only in the planning stages and made me ultra careful, paranoid even, in my choice of NGO and subsequent charity. I scoured the internet and did endless amounts of research before deciding on Pod (Personal Overseas Development) and Kais Kids Orphanage. I was convinced by their 'Responsible Volunteering Policy' and their 'Children's Home - Education - Cambodia' project seemed positive and ethical due to their claim that they were working towards becoming fully sustainable at the orphanage by means of living off their farm and supporting the home financially by the local mart owned and run by Kais. There is also a minimum volunteering time of 4 weeks and background checks for working with children and vulnerable adults. To me, this all pointed towards a responsible volunteering experience.
Having now completed my time at Kais Kids Orphanage I do think it is a wonderful, positive, safe-haven for vulnerable children from horrific backgrounds who would otherwise be trapped in awful situations, or left homeless on the street. I still think it has a way to go in becoming fully sustainable and maximizing its potential in terms of cultivating its farm land. I also think the staffing could be improved to give the children more structure to their daily routine; I felt that as part of a volunteer group we were watching and looking after the children throughout the day when really any volunteer should be additional to the running and operation of the orphanage. If we weren't providing activities for the children they'd be left to their own devices.
The question was always at the back of my mind: "Is my volunteering here really benefiting the children?" Anyone who claims their volunteering is completely altruistic would be in denial of the truth - I wanted this experience for myself as much as I wanted to help the children and Cambodia's development. In order for me to have a positive experience it was important to me that my time spent wasn't in vain. A lot of the children at Kais have much better English skills than other children in the local village - this is a direct result of having volunteers teach English and really fortified my belief that volunteers do have a constructive impact to the children in the orphanage.
My time at Kais was a roller coaster of emotions, full of good times and difficult times, I challenged myself, made new friendships, learned a lot about myself and experienced a very real Cambodia. I have some very special memories I will never forget from here and at the heart of all of this were the children.
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