Kbal Spean

On our gallivanting at the Angkor Temples with Oma and Opa, we went to Kbal Spean, a little visited site from the Angkorian era. It is not a temple, but a stream on the southwest slopes of the Kulen Hills, a ways away from the main temple grounds. Along the banks and the riverbed of the stream are carved hundreds of animals, faces and people, phalluses, and, of course, the famous 1,000 lingas. Kbal Spean is deep in the jungle, and it took us over an hour to hike up the rocky trail to find it. I'm so glad we did, it is so beautiful and amazing that the site has survived the water rushing over it rainy season after rainy season. The pictures don't do it justice, but are some anyway!

On our hike up Mount Kulen, we stopped many times along the way to rest and admire the scenery. This was just one of many gigantic boulders we passed.

There was only a small burst of water by the main part of the site; in the rainy season, the water covers the whole rock.

This was part of the 1,000 lingas along the bottom of the stream. With the reflection of the sun, it was gorgeous!

This was the biggest carved stone above the water level, although it is also probably covered in the rainy season.

Big decision?

Well, things here are winding down. We're leaving Cambodia in just over 5 weeks! In March and April, we'll be travelling around Southeast Asia before going back to Phnom Penh for a week or so, and then flying back to Canada. Our travel plans include Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand.
I'm really sad to leave, the work is fascinating and enraging, and we've found really fulfilling community here. The issues of human trafficking and sexual exploitation have grabbed our hearts and can't just let it go once we leave. So, we've made a decision about plans back home. We just confirmed with Helen, our boss, yesterday, so we haven't told many people yet. We're going to start Chab Dai Canada! It's a BIG project and we know ew have no idea what we're doing, but we're going to try to start the Chab Dai Canada chapter when we get back to Montreal. Chab Dai is already a registered charity in the UK and will be soon in the US, so we have a foundation for that already. The main activities we'll be pursuing will be dealing with domestic trafficking issues in Canada, as well as being a Canadian base for fundraising for Chab Dai Cambodia and awareness-raising about global and domestic trafficking issues. This will be a part time volunteer job for us, as Chab Dai doesn't have the funds to pay a Canadian staff member.
Are we crazy? Probably! But we're also passionate and excited and committed. Please pray as we prepare for this next chapter. Thanks!

Picture of us in a tuk tuk on our way to the Angkor temples in Siem Reap last weekend.

What now?

I've been reading through some resumes lately, and one of the issues I've had is that Cambodians love to write run-on sentences. I found this gem in a recommendation letter. I normally wouldn't put stuff like this up on here, but here's a good example of why it's difficult to recruit staff who speak Khmer but are applying in English...

"She has been a hardworking, honestly, wholehearted, transparency, accountability, and initiative employee who always carried out her duties in a patient and gentle performance with professionalism knowledge and experiences of Administrative and Financial basically system and skills in strongly of preparation the Financial Reports with the sharply Excel Accounting System to submit to stakeholders."

Enjoy!

Siem Reap with Oma and Opa

Oma and Opa Wieler are here!! We're so excited they came to visit we've gotten behind on our blog writing! They arrived almost a week ago, just in time to cheer us up from the loss of our kitten. This past weekend we went to Siem Reap to visit the temples with them. Here is one of us at Banteay Srei. We also got to Kbal Spean that day, as well as Ta Prohm. More later!

Poor little kitten

We are sad to say that last night Ms. Oroku Saki, Leader of the Ninja Foot Clan, known to most as The Shredder, our kitten, passed away. Shredder will be remembered for her affectionate biting of loved ones hands, feet, ears and exposed skin. She lived a wild and exciting life; after being rescued at the age of 2 weeks, she was slowly nursed back to health, putting on weight (especially her belly) and becoming extremely playful. She adored and was adored by Julia.

Shredder was a great companion and purred loudly if not often. We will miss her.

More training!

Last week I (Julia) was up in Poipet and Battambang with Sithy doing child protection training with our member organisations there. We had almost 50 participants is all and it went really well, but I'm glad to be home! Having completely forgotten what it was like to date Charlie long distance for three years, I missed him so much! And I was only gone for 5 days!
The participants were all really keen to learn and implement child protection plans in their programs. We learned a few surprising things about people's knowledge (or lack thereof) of their organisation's child protection policy and hopefully the training will get them on the right track. Two of the NGOs appointed child protection champions, people who be responsible for keeping staff up to date with training and abuse prevention implementation. So exciting!
Sithy and I had a good time together, it was really fun to get to know her a little better and she was a good travel buddy. Once I get my pictures onto my computer I'll post some! For now, here's a picture of Sithy and me at our colleague, Sok's wedding.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009! We hope this year bring you joy and hope! It is going to be another busy year for us and we're so excited for what's in store. Two months left in Cambodia and then two months traveling in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Laos; we'll be back in Canada in May where Charlie will work and I will go back to school in September. Looking forward to seeing you again!
Much love!