Travel Divil: Getting Inspired at Aspire Cambodia

The next stop on our travels from Hong Kong through Asia by road and rail was Cambodia. We loved Vietnam and now we were on a bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh. Before we left home, Sue and I had decided that we wanted to do some volunteer work on our travels.

Sending pics by Wifi from a bus Ho Chi Min to Phnom Penh

We joined a group called Workaway which arranges volunteers in many countries all over the world. Anyone who can offer free accommodation in return for some help can register on the site.

Phnomh Penh

We arrived in Phnom Penh after a long bus journey although we did find it hugely entertaining to have free wifi and we could send photos back home as they happened - on one occasion when our road turned into a river during a thunder storm and later when passing Buddhist monks, rice fields and buffalos. I had been to Phnom Penh around 5 years before and was troubled by the poverty and upset by a visit to the Killing Fields and torture camp S21. Cambodia's people suffered terribly from Pol Pot's regime and lost 25% of its people to starvation and torture. The country is trying hard to recover from this horrific legacy but it takes a long time to recover from such a past.

We stayed just one night before leaving for Siem Reap where we would be helping out at the Aspire Childrens Home. Siem Reap is also close to the famous World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat which we wanted to visit. Our very sweet driver Sam Nong collected us by Tuktuk and took us the 7 km to the orphanage.

Bumpy ride in the back of Sam's Tuk-tuk

Sam would be our guide and driver for our entire stay at Siem Reap and he made sure we got to see and buy everything we needed. He and his wife and family are also part of the bigger extended family at Aspire. Sean Somnang is the owner of Aspire Childrens Home and he provides a home and education to thirty orphaned or destitute children. Five of the children in his care have already been to college or are working. One couple married and three still live and work there. With the help of donations Sean has managed to buy a piece of land and over years has put up a temporary school and several small houses and sheds.

The children with teacher Pandit love learning English

These are homes to girls and boys dormatories, a volunteer house and some makeshift homes where Sean has allowed some needy families to come and stay. It is where he and his wife, mother and children also live. Ducks, chickens, geese and dogs wander everywhere and first thing in the morning the chickens have to be evacuated from the open air classrooms! The atmosphere is happy and loving and complete feeling of one big happy family where everyone does their chores and older ones help the little ones with great love and care.

Conor and Sean with Neath and Neang

It was baking hot when we arrived and all the children came out to see us. The beautiful smiling faces were instantly uplifting and welcoming. Sean makes sure the children all learn English - not only is it helpful for getting a job but has also become a common language between South East Asian countries and enables them not only to travel to English speaking countries but also to communicate with each other in a common tongue.

Happy faces in the classroom

We helped out by giving classes in English every day and the children were delighted to have native speakers to help with pronunciation. Seans dream is to build a proper school for his own and the local poor children and to date has built the basic structure of a fine building.

With the help of donations bit by bit the school is taking shape. As soon as we saw it we realised that our friends and family back home would probably love to help out too. So we set about raising funds as quickly as we could. Incredibly in just over ten days we had raised enough to complete the dowstairs windows and doors for four classrooms. We also bought some badly needed supplies, games, books and lots of food. Cambodia is a relatively expensive country in SE Asia and the cost of supplies is surprisingly high so it was wonderful to see how well Sean spent and accounted for every cent we gave him.

Time for serious study

On our final day we had a party for the children and they danced and played traditional Cambodian music for us. It was the best of fun and a happy day we will remember all our lives especially our attempts at joining the children on stage for the fun. We were joined by Irish volunteers Sean and Conor from Dublin and teachers Neath and Neang both former children at Aspire.

The children love to go to school

To round off our memorable stay in Siem Reap, we booked a few days in the Antanue Spiritual Resort & Spa through Agoda.com. For a paltry $10 per night each we got a lovely twin room and breakfast served to our room each morning. The hotel has a nice pool and the sweetest staff who help with anything they can. From here our trusty Sam took us to the world heritage site of Angkor Wat at 4.30 am to see the sunrise.

Final day party with all the children

Not only is this the best time to arrive, before most of the throngs of tourists, but it also means getting in five or six hours of sight seeing before the burning sun zaps any remaining energy you have left! This place has to be experienced. Ancient cities and temples spread over 160 square kilometres, some up to one thousand years old, lay buried deep in the Cambodian jungles until rediscovered over the past 60 or so years. One in particular was made famous in the Lara Croft - Tomb Raider film of 2001. Major excavation work is going on to save many ruins from being lost to the jungle yet again.