Hello,

I don’t know how to tell you about the Centre for Children’s Happiness. It is one of the nicest and happiest places I have been in my life. I hope I can give you a sense of these incredible kids and the centre. I hope the pictures will help you get to know them better.

When I arrived the first day, the children of CCH rushed up to welcome me. It was amazing to have a stream of kids come and introduce themselves to me with a traditional bow. The kids immediately took my bags and showed me around the centre.

The children at CCH are of all ages. There are many tiny kids and many in their mid teens. The children go to class for about half a day at a local school. When at CCH, there are additional classes held to supplement the classes held in the local school. The kids all want to learn. It’s amazing to see a voluntart class fill up at 8:00am in the morning with kids who want to learn. The last two days, I have spent two hours with a young 13 year old girl. She asked me to teach her algebra. The English algebra is one year past her level, but she wants to learn it now. She comes up to me with big bright eyes and the most incredible smile “You teach to me?” and “Oh. thank you teacher. Thank you so much.” Amazing.

There a few children that do not go to school. If kids do not attend school, they have to be involved in vocational training programs and/or work. One child is learning to be a tuk tuk driver and drives people from the centre all over the town. The other couple kids are learning constuction skills and are working hard eveyday day at the centre. the kdis were laying concrete just yesterday.

The centre is about providing a safe place for these children to grow up. They do not force a religion on the children and are open to the varying beliefs of the kids. This was a key point for my in making my decision to join CCH. The majority of the children are either Buddhist or Christian. I will discuss my thoughts in this area in another blog. These are children in need and respect of their backgrounds is most important to me.

These kids are truely amazing. The kids are very polite. I children help out around the centre with everything from cooking to laundry. There is rarely a complaint. The children all smiles and are very eager to organize games. The children never watch television and are either studying, working, or playing games.

I have never felt so much love! The children are very affectionate and I get hundreds of hugs everyday. This includes both the girls and the boys. The kids make a point of saying goodbye to me, whenever they leave the centre. It is hard for me to have any alone time, because they are all over me from the time I get to the centre to when I leave. Every day with these kids is great. I am always excited to see them when I arrive and sad to leave at the end of the day. I wish you could spend even an hour with these kids.

I am doing many different things at the centre. I teach two English classes in the morning. One class is to the adolescence. I like this class because they are keen and we are starting to do some fun things like role plays. I then teach a class to the young kids. This is more of a challenge, because they are way full of energy, don’t always listen and some don’t speak English at all and others are good at English. At a school for disadvantages children, there is not always the luxury of having many classes for different ages. That said, the classes can have a very wode range of skill sets. It is a big challenge and I’m having trouble figuring out how to deal with that aspect. i am getting some older kids to help the younger kids, but that isn’t taking care of the problem.

After my classes, I help to cook lunch with the kids. Actually, the kids know more about cooking then me and the food preparation ends up being more of a fun event where the children teach me and we laugh together.

The afternoon and evenings differ each day. We usually end up organizing a game and playing with the kids. We’ve been playing a Cambodian game where people from teams have to run up and catch a tree branch from the centre before the other person touches them. It’s great. We also play circle games that I will talk about later. The kids like karoke. Everyday, they set up the speakers and the kids sign Khmar songs. It’s fun to watch them sign and dance in Khmar traditions.

All of these beautiful children come from the dump and/ore were found wandering and sleeping on the streets. It’s amazing to think that each of these children are so great and loving, given their past. Most have no family because of violence or aids. It is heartbreaking to hear their stories. It’s overwhelming to feel their love and joy of life now. I will include some of their stories on my blog in the days to come.

Luv Gerry.

Hi there,

I crossed the Cambodia border by boat. First, you need to stop at a Vietnamese border post and declare that you are leaving the country. Then, you need to stop at a Cambodian post and enter the country.

At the first stop, kids jumped on the boat as we arrived. They were frantic and trying to climb through windows to make sales. It was nuts. There was a lady on board our boat who was involved in giving tours and in community development work. She knew exactly how to deal with these kids. The kids themselves, were great, they were just trying to make money. Later I would come to friends with some of them.

We all went up to an outside waiting area. There was a security guard watching over us and the area. The kids followed us to the post. The security guard took a stick and was hitting some of the kids to get away. Like taking the stick and hitting them with it. These kids were like 6 to 8 years old. Crazy. That same lady yelled out.. “don’t hit them, they’re just children”. He continued and hit them again. The lady got more vocal and I thought she was gong to belt the security guard. I guess that what aid workers learn. To be strong and face adversity, regardless of whether they were Cambodian police or not. Later, the guards didn’t want to let a lady through the border. She had a VISA that was granted by the Embassy, but on-line. The man had never seen an on-line version. Well, this lady came to her rescue. In the end, they paid the guard and got through. I remember her saying “you have a crazy government”. I thought we would have got our butts kicked out right then, but we were fine. I learned a lot from that lady and admire her strength against the authorities, when they were wrong.

We rode to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Here, I am in shock at the despair.

Luv Gerry

Hi there,

Heading to Cambodia

….bus with flat tire….. crazy line of cars to the ferry….. hike through the rain and water to the ferry, many bags in hand….. cross the water by ferry (by foot)….. ride behind motorbike on bumpy roads for 45 minutes… take a junk boat ride in late night fog through the canals of the Mekong Delta…. home stay with a family on the river… ride through the canals with children waving and smiling everywhere… kites flying at Chau Doc…. nearly there….

AMAZING.

Luv Gerry

Hello,

I start my journey to the Cambodian border tomorrow morning. I may not be able to write until Monday or Tuesday. I will be safe.

I read this quote from another travellor:

“Cambodia is unforgettable. Don’t go if you cannot stand witness to suffering. Don’t miss it if you want the experience of a lifetime. For better or worse, Cambodia is like no other nation on Earth. It is not an easy trip to make, but it has a power that few places hold: if you keep your eyes open, when you return from Cambodia, nothing anywhere will ever look the same.”

Until we talk again from Cambodia.

Love Gerry