Day 6: Cambodian orphans (03/04/19)
After getting lost a couple times with my bike, I finally reached the “Bridges Cambodia International” orphanage.
As I didn’t have a phone, I hadn’t informed anybody of my arrival. When the kids saw me arrive they barely reacted. Especially, the girls gave me a very cold stare. I was not expecting a party on my behalf, and I know I didn’t look very clean, but still, I had imagined a warmer welcome.
Soon, I realized that these kids have been living here for a long time, and volunteers come and go all the time, breaking their young hearts every time. As a consequence, most of them have learned to defend themselves being stone cold. Personally, now I wouldn’t recommend volunteering in a place like this for short periods of time.
Also, the place was not what I had in mind. More than the typical orphanage you see in movies this was something similar to a farm. In fact, more than once, the kids would miss our English lessons to go feed the goats or cows on the field.
My initial plan was staying only a couple of days, but I ended up extending it to a week. During that time I tried to earn a little space in their hearts, giving them as much love as I could, trying to fix their old bikes, letting them ride mine, helping them with the early morning chores, feeding the animals, playing games and trying to inspire them to pursue their objectives in life.
Some of the boys responded well and invited me to some of their activities, including taking outdoors showers with a bucket in a nearby fountain. However, the girls hated me since the first minute and there was nothing I could do to change that. Luckily I was not alone, Sandra was the other volunteer in the school. It was good to have additional support with the kids, and she had more success than me with the girls.
I am missing several anecdotes of the 7 days I spent in this place. I still have many good memories but I also remember the pain of their constant rejection of having me around. So after the 7 days, I realized it was time to go! Also, I didn’t have much time left to visit the rest of the country so I would have to ride fast…