Friends and family: greetings from balmy Phnom Penh! I have been here for about a month now, and though the beginning of my journey was an adjustment (living alone in a city where you don’t know anyone can be a challenge!!), I have since settled in.
Last semester, I was lucky enough to volunteer with a special needs education center in rural Uganda. I regard that week in the mountains as the highlight of my semester; despite the stigma the children faced for their disabilities, they created a thriving, resilient community from which I continually draw inspiration. When it came time to begin thinking about what I wanted to do for my focused volunteer placement, I realized that what I wanted was to continue working with disabled children. Thanks to Avy, my wonderful latitudes advisor, I was able to find a placement in Cambodia that would allow me to volunteer with disabled children while also living in a new region of the world.
When I first found out I would be volunteering at an orphanage, I expected something more dismal than what I have actually experienced. The hallways are always filled with music, there’s always a mama offering up an unripe mango (often accompanied by salt and chili) for eating, and the breeze in some of the rooms is an unbeatable source of natural air con.
There are around 130 orphans at my placement with a range of disabilities and illnesses at varying degrees including Autism, HIV, Down Syndrome, and Cerebral Palsy. I volunteer in one of the activity rooms with about 15 children, aged 4 to 18. My day to day volunteer tasks include feeding (yumyum is the word), changing diapers, and playing with the children to ensure that they each have the necessary mental, emotional, and physical stimulation they need to thrive. In only a few short weeks, I have come to find that each child has their own unique and distinct personality that keeps me endlessly entertained. Each day is different and not always easy, but I can always count on a walk in a wheelchair or a face painting session (gotta fine tune those motor skills) to make my day bright. I wish there was an eloquent way to describe how much I love my kids, but really I can’t think of adequate words. I miss them on weekends and I even sometimes miss them as soon as I put them down for dinner on my way out in the afternoons.
Phnom Penh is a bustling, crowded city absent of traffic rules but I have found some serious gems here. Every now and then I will treat myself to a 4 dollar massage, a 2 dollar blowout, or a fresh glass of passion juice. It’s great. I have also toured the Killing Fields and Toul Sleng torture prison to explore Cambodia’s darker past and to learn about things they don’t teach you in history class. I feel it is important to acknowledge the history of somewhere you will be spending a significant amount of time, especially when it is so inextricably linked to your own country’s history.
Aside from weekends in Phnom Penh, I have also travelled to the provinces with other volunteers. So far, we’ve escaped the heat of the city to see elephants in Mondulkiri and relaxed on Otres Beach in Sihanoukville. We have plans to see Angkor Wat and Battambang, where a movie about the Khmer Rouge is currently being filmed.
I’ll wrap it up now. Gratitude is the attitude of this blog. One of my biggest lessons from this year has been to appreciate all that I have and to express it when I can. I am so grateful for so many things. I am grateful to my parents for loving me, for empowering me, and for supporting every decision I have made on this crazy journey to self-knowledge I’ve been on. I am grateful for my friends at home, whose love I can feel from thousands of miles away and who inspire me with their drive and compassion daily. I am grateful for the kids I work with, for their precious smiles and their unconditional love, for their uncontrollable laughter and tears and everything in between.
I am grateful that I have and always will have basic necessities like food and water, grateful that I received an amazing education, for the friendships I have made with other volunteers, grateful for the lessons from last semester I hold with me today, and simply grateful for the opportunity to use the world as my classroom. There’s nothing better than this.
Much love.
Hannah