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.

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