The people at Baray homestay

David

David is an orphan who Esther took under her wing. He works as a tuktuk driver and translator at the homestay. The oldest of 8, he ended up at the homestay after his father was murdered. The rest of his siblings are in an orphanage. David is a really key part of the operation, whatever is going on he helps out, makes things run nice and smooth. Being a bit of a class clown you can't help but feel cheerful in his company. We found him particularly helpful at the medical clinics as his frequent attendance of them have given him the skill to translate many specialist medical terms into Khmer.

Pholem (pronounced po-lerm) and Samuel

Pholem does a lot of maintenance work and cooking at the homestay. She is the assistant manager of the place. Pholem came to Esther during her prgnancy as her ex-husband was having an affair. He had decided to leave her with money to abort the yet unborn Samuel. Esther took them both in becoming a grandmother figure to Samuel, who is now a beautiful, spritely 5 year old boy. It was amazing watching him play, knowing how forces were acting to prevent his little life from coming into the world.

Uncle

Uncle is an elderly Chinese gentleman, we grew very fond of him during our stay. He once spontaneously cooked us up some delicious fish. When we sat down to eat he would serve everyone's rice and insisted that he serve himself last. Once finished he would be the first to stack all our plates and tidy up. While verbal communication was sparse between us, his fine character spoke volumes.

It was great to see Uncle's refusal to sit idle during his stay. With the manual labour tasks being inappropriate for him and teaching English out of the question, he came up with his own novel idea - to raise chicks to maturity and donate them to local villages. Really lovely man.

Ivan

Ivan is a young man who currently lives in Perth, but is ethnically Malay-Chinese. He came to the homestay to teach the local kids guitar, holding intensive daily courses from morning to evening. He has such a calm aura and gentle disposition, with an open mind and a refreshing willingness to explore new ideas. If it wasn't for his schedule being so packed at the homestay we could easily have spent a lot more time with Ivan. Just before we parted he shared his Christian faith with me and invited me to believe the same. I was really touched that he wanted to share what he loved the most. I really hope to meet him again one day.

Left to right: Fiz, Mandeep, Esther, pholem, Samuel, David 

Ivan and Uncle:

Teera (teacher from previous blog) and David:

One night there was an unexpected delivery of chicks for Uncle, the coop had not been built yet and it was raining with nowhere to put them. The chicks had been bought on Uncle's behalf by a local (though the bill was left with Uncle) and the guy delivering had come from two hours away and was refusing to cycle back with the chicks!

A remarkable woman, an incredible story

Esther is the architect behind Khmer Village Homestay. A short, stout and jolly Chinese lady with a charismatic presence, she has built a safe haven in a once war torn location. Fond of reminiscing, we sat together one evening as she reclined on her chair and told us a few stories about her journey.

It was a strong sense of divine guidance that initially spurred her move from Malaysia to Cambodia as a missionary. When she first arrived nearly 20 years ago there were no NGOs in the Baray region. The now well-surfaced road outside her house was a dirt track. Two tyres burst on her first trip to her new home and on a subsequent trip a door flew open mid drive with Esther nearly falling out of the car! That might sound bad enough but it was just the beginning of her rollercoaster adventure.... little wonder she is in the process of finishing a book about her move containing tales such as the following...

She was sent to Baray, the 'black hole' of Cambodia, why? Being the centre of the main road linking the 2 major cities of Cambodia it was a major travelling route for the Khmer Rouge. Many ex-fighters and gangsters still lived in the Baray district which gave it a high incidence of crime and social issues - hence Esther's mission to help was most suited to that region. In helping the locals she had to deal directly with gangsters. Not the kind that get asbos for stealing the odd pack of fags, I mean real killers - ex Khmer Rouge.... from the same Khmer Rouge that killed at least 2 million people in the 70s under Pol Pot. This was serious stuff. 18 years ago a series of incidents reached a critical point when a man arrived at Esther's house with an iron rod intent on killing her....

Fortunately Esther was out of town at the time. She was not meant to die on that day. But what drives a man to kill someone who has come to help? It all started with Esther arranging for a well to be dug in a local village. The deal was she would employ the locals for labour but only pay them if the well gave water. They dug and dug some more but unfortunately the Earth did not give that life-sustaining fluid we all take for granted, leaving the villagers disgruntled for having done so much work. One man demanded Esther to pay the villagers in contravention of their initial contract but she understandably refused. Who knows what went through his head resulting in that blinding rage which can bring death, but his scheme failed and he had time to cool down afterwards. Esther returned to Baray once she felt it was safe enough to continue her work, and so it went for a while.

Destiny would have their paths cross again when a man was seriously beaten to within an inch of his life but was left to die outside the hospital as he couldn't afford treatment. Esther stepped in and financed his medical care such that he made a full recovery. Sounds great, except that he happened to be an enemy of the original disgruntled villager from the well-gate scandal. Things became a little more tense for Esther.

The final straw in this cumulative dispute started with a local marital coflict. An incident occurred where a man came home drunk and stabbed his wife. By now Esther had a reputation as a local go to person, so our original disgruntled villager approached her to help this couple. As it was a marital dispute Esther decided not to intervene, it was a strong and bold decision but she felt that it wasn't her place to interfere in marriage issues. Our disgruntled villager had to return to his village empty handed, breaking the villagers hopes for Esther's help. I imagine this left him feeling de-faced and ashamed, leading to a consuming rage toward Esther.

This time he wasn't taking any chances. He arrived once again at Esther's door with 2 ex Khmer Rouge armed with AK-47s. It was too dark for her to see completely but Esther saw enough to see that they were there. Imagine how she felt... these could have been her last moments if it wasn't for the miraculous events which were to follow.

Stood in a cloak of darkness, AK in hand, intent to kill, the man heard a voice. 'Do not kill Esther, everybody loves her and I love her.' Esther told us he had heard the gospel, he knew this voice could not be ignored. His hands became paralysed and he dropped his gun, his evil design was aborted. Her time had not come.

As the man reached old age he repented for his previous wrongs and when he breathed his last it was Esther who financed his final arrangements. The same favor was extended to his wife and daughter when they passed away. Kindness in life and in death, such is the nature of the one who truly gives. May we all settle our grudges before death visits us.

Esther left missionary work about 6 years ago and set up Khmer Village Homestay to do purely humanitarian work. Thanks to her contunied efforts many of the villages have wells, several schools have been built and toilets provided. It has been very humbling and a great honour to work alongside her and see first hand the difference we can make with simple things that we take for granted in the west - clean water and education. Baray is blessed to have her. Me and Mandeep certainly endorse her work and would recommend anyone planning on going to that part of the world to drop by. Get out of the city and see the authentic traditional Cambodia, where your money contributes toward enriching the locals at a grass-roots level.

Village Life

When not building a toilet we had some time to hang out with the village locals.  The village is called Pum Thumay and is home to 710 people (130 families). The toilet we helped with is the first one in the entire village!!

This little boy did not like wearing clothes so we nicknamed him 'loin cloth'

This man is head of the village:

The following group of people stared at us the whole time we were having our lunch.  When we asked why we were told  they have never seen foreigners eat before!

On another occasion where we were being stared at, it turned out they just couldn't understand why Fiz is so much darker than I am!  When i explained that we are from different parts of India, we got a huge 'ah riiight' sigh of understanding.

Whilst at the village, Village Head asked us to examine a couple of the locals, including a lady with a large fibroid and a man who had given himself a huge cataract with a swinging branch, he had also incidentally developed severe muscle wasting in his hand and arm following a poisonous fish bite.

During the consultation with the fibroid lady, Fiz got acquainted with another local:

Below are some pictures of the village, including another remote clinic:

Another clinic:

The lead doctor:

How to build a toilet

First dig out the toilet cubicle foundation and the waste disposal area:

Lay the foundation of stones and cement:

Lay down some bricks:

Position the door:

More bricks:

And rest...

We left before the completion. It needs a roof, some plumbing and a facelift... We have been promised pictures of the finished product!

Baray homestay, unexpectedness

 There are 2 big cities in Cambodia, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. We flew to Siem Reap to see the ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples in the Angkor Wat complex. It was cool from a historical point of view but major league touristy. Honestly after a few days in Siem Reap we'd had enough (although they do have a really cool night market). Everybody has the same sales pitch which gets annoying after a while.

Interesting fact about Cambodia, in the big cities U.S. dollars are used more than the local Cambodian riel. Even the cash machines dispense dollars! I don't know how they managed to pull that one off - I mean they can't print dollars so how do they fill cash machines with them? It's a sly technique as it allows them to charge way above the odds to tourists without raising too many eyebrows - I mean 2 dollars for a drink doesn't sound bad - but when you consider that in nearby Malaysia which has a much stronger economy you can pick up a nice drink for 20-40p, it makes me think somethings fishy....

The hostel guys in Siem Reap were shocked when we asked them how to get to Baray (a village between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh) - 'why do you want to go there, no one speaks English there?' But alas, we had a craving for a more authentic experience and knew of a nice sounding homestay project that we thought was worth checking out. We didn't have any real expectations - didn't know how long we were staying, what we would do there. Phalem gave us a really warm reception with her GINORMOUS smile! She is the asisstant manager of the project here - the only NGO in this region. Www.khmerhomestaybaray.com. They work to provide basic facilities for the poor local villagers - education, water (building wells), medical care. Anyone who comes can join in and you get to see real Khmer culture while you're at it. Score!

The day after we arrived there was a free clinic running for local villagers to attend. We went to see what was going on, the head doctor speedily set up a couple of tables for us, handed us notepads, arranged translators and had us examining patients with him in no time! Luckily Mandeep asked me to pack my pocket ophthalmoscope on the off chance and she had packed her blood pressure stuff for the jungle clinic. I ended up busting out about 8 eye exams and Mandeep dropped about 15 consultations. Makes me think, Vision Aid Overseas takes a year and a load of cash to organise, I just rock up at an NGO with a pocket ophthalmoscope and off I go... with a little more effort I could get a few pre-glazed specs together and do a better job. The villagers were very greatful, despite how unprepared we were!

That same afternoon Phalem arranged for us to go to a local village school. We merrily arrived in our tuktuk (like a rikshaw). Teera - the teacher started his lesson with a really catchy song (ask Mandeep to sing it to you), then he called us to the front of his class of 60 kids, all ages and abilities. The kids gave a hearty chorus of a hello, after which Teera asked us to teach them some spelling..... yep, just like that... Fortunately quick thinking Mandeep was on form. She came up with a few spelling games, we split the kids into groups and off we went. It's gotta be said, those little legends value education. They know it can break the cycle of poverty so even a class of 60 is well behaved and manageable. We had a lot of fun with the kids and it was really inspirational meeting Teera. They are blessed to have such a caring and charismatic teacher. He teaches from his home, which has become an open house for all children from surrounding villages. Few can afford the nominal fee he charges but he never turns a student away. Their education comes before his wage - what a rare and beautiful quality that is. Some of his children are victims of rape, some 12 year old boys are addicted to drugs, but everyone has a place in his school and you can see just how nourishing an environment it is.

Tomorrow we're going to help build a toilet..! It is a serious problem here that there is nowhere hygenic for the villagers to relieve themselves during rainy season as the whole village becomes a swamp - that's why the houses are built on stilts. This leads to serious women's health issues which they are often too embarrassed to share. Something as simple as a toilet in a clean environment can prevent this. Watch this space....

Above: Mandeep doing her thang

Below: Kids in class, group shot

Straight up genius!!

Just saw this on a shelf at the homestay we are currently at..

Drink that Bites

Hi (mandeep here!)

When we were in Penang with a couple of local peeps, we thought it would be safe to try as much authentic and local food as possible, take advantage of the local knowledge and not needing to interpret the menu. What could go wrong?!

So when they asked us if we wanted to try some local fruit juice, we accepted. Our experience of the food so far had only been positive, and the fruit saved the day when we were trekking in the jungle.  

I wish I could remember the name of the fruit but I absolutely can't! Anyway, I reached to take a sip, only to feel as though something had bit my lip! I inspected the glass but there were no bugs in sight, so back to sipping I went, and again I felt something pinch my lip.  Strange! I handed the drink over to Fiz, when we took a sip he apart had to spit the drink back out, same thing! 

Turns out this particular fruit actually bites you!! Although the more you drink, the more you get used to it to the point where it goes unnoticed, as evidenced by our friends.

Needless to say, I drank the rest of the drink through a straw! 

Kuching didn't defeat us!!

After the sulphur mine we had planned to do a clinic in a jungle in Borneo. This meant taking a flight from Surabaya, East Java to KL, then a flight the next day to Kuching in Malaysian Borneo. A final word about Indonesia, they have this thing called an 'airport tax'....! So you basically have to pay to leave the country!! 15 dollars each. Crazy. You still have to buy a visa upon entering too. Anyway, long story short,  we were pretty full of cold by the time we arrived in Kuching, our jungle clinic got cancelled (we don't know why) but we REALLY needed to rest anyway so it kinda worked out. On the positive side we met some lovely people in Kuching. John and Cyn are a married couple who we stayed with for a couple of nights, they totally opened their home and hearts to us. We spoke about life, spirituality, family and the like. Then you had Dave Chin, a local geezer who went out of his way to help us out for the short time we spent together.

When it was time to leave we wanted to avoid taking a taxi. See when we arrived in Kuching the airport staff told us no buses leave from the airport so our only option was to taxi at a fixed rate of 26 ringgit, way above the normal rates. This left us a little miffed and we were determined to get public transport to the airport on our way out. So we asked Dave, he explained that there is a bus terminal 15 min walk away from the airport. 'It's not ideal but if you insist you can get a bus to there and walk'. Cool, problem solved. Get a bus for 3 ringgit each and stroll to the airport. So we got to the bus terminal, as soon as we got off the bus it started raining.... heavily!! Enquiring about the way to the airport people were like, 'what?! You want to walk?' One lad told us it will take an hour..! Undeterred we trooped on with our 20kg bags and got majorly soaked. To make matters worse there was no foot path between the bus terminal and the airport so we were walking on wet grass, almost swampy at times! We were a picture coming into the airport, defiling their freshly mopped floor with every step. Our boarding passes were so wet and stuck together that Mandeep had to prize them apart with surgical precision, hanging them out to dry before we could use them. Yes, Kuching soaked us good n proper, made our journey to the airport very difficult, made the contents of our bags damp and stale, but it didn't defeat us. We flew out slow-nodding with the sweet satisfaction of proving the airport staff wrong when they told us the taxi is the only way. In your face Kuchng!

Above: Bako national park, Kuching

Below: soaked boarding passes

Below below: defeating Kuching victory pose

Ijen pics cont.

Above: a typical load of sulphur (70kg) in bamboo baskets

Below: weighing scales for measuring sulphur, miners get paid 4000rupiah per kilo ($1=10,000 rupiah)

Ijen crater, Indonesia

I'm not going to joke on this one, everything about it was hard. Our guide Augus woke us up at 1am to begin the 3km hike to the Ijen crater - a world famous sulphur mine. Sulphur occurs naturally as a gas although it is mined in Ijen as a solid. The stifling smell was apparant from the beginning of the hike, little did we know how bad it was going to get...

Walking the first 2 km uphill was much harder than a walk in the peak district, probably because we were at 2000m altitude and also because the air was laced with sulphur. Every breath seemed to constrict our chest, the closer we got the more air we needed, but the only air available was increasing in noxiousness. The final km was a steep descent down the rocky face into the heart of the crater. A BBC film maker described it as the 'jaws of hell' - there really is nothing like it. In the darkness of the night the blue flame from the spontaneously burning sulphur is visible. You can also see thick clouds of smoke, the wind carrying them in waves away from the crater, changing direction on a whim.

We approached as close as we could get and i started taking some long exposure shots of the blue flame. Now we were on the brink of the crater, the stench becoming really debilitating. Even while the wind blew the smoke away from us we had our faces covered to filter out the smoke. Then it happened ... the winds changed, and it was our turn to face the full hit of a poisonous yellow sulphur cloud. How can I describe to you how that felt? It was suffocating at a time when we were desperate for air. It was too thick to see through at a time when we needed to escape. It burned our eyes when we needed to see the most. It was horrible, burning, asphyxiating. I cannot think of a worse sensation.

God help those faced with chemical warfare.

And then there were the miners...! Those guys, the most insanely rock hard people I have ever come across. We got one hit of that sulphur cloud, they stand in it for several minutes at a time mining the solid sulphur... between 60 - 90kg of the stuff, which they then carry 3km back to the nearest village on simple bamboo baskets which rest on one shoulder. The first km back to the village is a steep rocky incline which is difficult enough with no weight on your shoulders! Some of them do it barefoot, the rest in flip flops. The average age of the miners is 55 years old! They're mental, proper mind blowing. Their strategy when mining is simply to hold their breath. No fancy gas masks, just straight up in the sulphur cloud. It goes without saying that the older ones all have respiratory problems... we walked past a loaded bamboo basket on our way back to the car and i ccouldn't move it an inch!

We left Ijen as the sun rose giving us truly glorious views of the nearby mountains. Our clothes smelt of sulphur for days later, even after having them washed. Ijen has left an indelible impression on us, it wasn't just a spectacular sight.... we tasted it. It is something I would recommend seeing but only once. Glad we did it and I hope that the experience will teach us what we can never learn through books or 2nd hand knowledge.

Experiential knowledge bringing expansion with certainty,
Certainly more valuable than 2nd hand philosophy...

Above: the Ijen crater. Below: sunrise over a nearby mountain

Bromo - reposted

Logic tells us that life forms decrease as you increase in altitude, but this place was the exact opposite. The higher we went toward the top of Mt Bromo the more life thrived - really thrived unlike anything i've seen! Endless arable land filled with prize winning veg, 2000m up in a mountain! As G our driver (yes he really is called G) knurdled through pedestrians and motorcyclists whilst undertaking around a bend, Augus (our guide) explained, "Bromo is an active volcano. When it erupts it releases hot rocks and lava rich in minerals which eventually find their way into the water cycle and fertilise the land". We we're lucky to have Augus as our guide, a passionate volcanologist and English teacher. Named after the month of August (a common and curious tradition in Indonesia is to name children after the month they were born in), he was a good match for my curiosity and excessive questioning.

We could feel the vitality in the air as we ascended, but once we reached the village where we were to spend the night, we were confronted with a clear line beyond which there was no life. A stark juxtaposition in the shape of a caldera - a vast bowl shaped blast zone around the volcanic cone where there is too much ash for life to exist. While the mineral rocks released in eruptions bring life, they only benefit the plants when they have been unlocked from their rock form into water. While they are in an ash / rock state and especially while they are burning hot they bring death, giving a dramatic appearance and mystical feeltoward the summit of Bromo.

There is one sign of life in the caldera - a solitary Hindu temple. In the 15th century the Hindu rule over Indonesia collapsed due to internal conflict. This coincided with Islam rising in popularity, so for the first time Indonesia had muslim governance. Some Hindus decided to hit the mountains and settle there, and seeing the creative power of Bromo decided to worship it as the god of creation - Brahma (which is where the word Bromo comes from). They have built a flight of 200 stairs leading to the very tip of the crater, beyond which is a steep and slippery descent into a pit of smouldering lava. Based on a 15th century legend where the Hindus angered Bromo, pilgrims flock to the crater on the last month of the year to give offerings of livestock, vegetables and money to the mountain god by throwing them into the crater.

Standing at the tip of the crater was a really profound experience. Gazing into the smokey abyss was arresting. Augus told us what we couldn't see, "beyond the smoke is a layer of hot mud, beyond which is a magma chamber which continues to the centre of the Earth". Although it always smokes, Bromo is currently resting, last erupting in 2010. I wonder when it will next display it's rage. Bromo is terrifying, but paradise lies just beyond the caldera. It is a place to meditate on life and death, war and peace, fear and serenity.

Indonesia hajj practice

The Indonesians like to know what they're doing before performing hajj, i suppose everyone does to some extent. Asking local shaykhs, reading up on it etc. But the Indonesians take it to another level, they build replica kaabas and perform a replica hajj in their local towns. These buildings are usually made from bamboo and are taken down once used, but in the city of Probolingo, East Java, there is a full size permanent replica with the hijr, maqam ibrahim and black stone! It's really surreal as it's just off the main road. As we left the place a guy even rocked up in his ihram!! Take a look:

 

Pictures - following on from last blog

Teochew temple, our friends in Penang - Luqman (next to me) and Anas, Gunung Bromo (volcano), smoking crater of volcano

Indonesian money changers

Never have I seen such high standards in money changing as in Surabaya, Indonesia.... and that's not a compliment - its a pain in the bee-hind! The bank is a 10 min walk from the hostel, so why did it take over an hour to change our USD to Indonsian rupiah? We thought we were prepared, we'd heard the stories on how Indonesians only accept US dollars in good condition, they must be under 5 years old and un-scuffed. So when we found the bank we thought it'd be a straight forward process.... the teller was friendly enough, but she didn't accept our crisp USD as they were slightly curved from being in the wallet - seriously!! Brand spanking new notes!! So we went to the money changer instead, who accepted the notes but gave us a lower rate as we didn't have any 50 or 100 dollar bills.. I've never known money changers to change their rate based on the size of note! She also inspected each note with a magnifying glass! Hence why it took so long.

Grrrrr

Due to the lack of wifi I haven't been able to post any blogs, but I have been writing them and saving them to upload at a later late. Now I have wifi I got a notification on my tablet saying 'blogger has had to close unexpectedly',  and I can no longer access 3 blogs which were ready for upload. One was about a temple which reminded me of a synagogue, it had a succession of rooms in which the sacredness kept increasing, culminating in an altar facing a shrine. The second was about the hospitality we received from the shaykh Nazim followers in Penang. Amazing guys. The third was about a volcano in Indonesia which is worshipped by the local Hindus. Really cool place. The initial blogs had a lot more information and feeling behind behind them but now i'm a bit miffed that all that bloggage has gone. Just take my word for it, we've had a really amazing experience over the past few days and seen some of the most profound things we've ever had chance to see. Her are some pictures...