March 31, 2008
This morning we woke up and went to Sherry and Debby’s house. The heat was intensifying every minute and I could feel myself getting irritated in the van on the way. When we arrived we were given a tour of the house. Right now they have 21 girls living in their facilities and these girls spend their days going to literacy classes, sewing classes, cooking classed, and dance classed. Also, they make cards, candles, and bracelets to be sold to the public. The cards were beautifully made and tugged at my heart so I bought 5 myself and the other girls with me bought a few as well. Afterwards we went to the White Lotus house. It is a huge building with 2 floors consisting of bedrooms, a kitchen, a small salon to teach the girls cosmetics, and bathrooms. One of the girls living there had a little baby girl named Easter, who basically had 21 mothers and was the mascot of the house.
We then went to lunch at a Western restaurant and met with a girl named Christa, who was a student of Nancy’s. She told us of a story of a 14 year old girl who had come forward against a Russian billionaire, accusing him of raping her 4 times. He got 13 years in jail and another 18 girls have since come forward. It was one of the first times that a young girl had ever won a case against someone so powerful and it has been making national news. Hearing her story inspired me and gave me a good example of what I can do if I ever come back to live and work here. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080314/wl_asia_afp/cambodiarussiacrimepaedophilia)
We met up with the girls from White Lotus later in the day to take them to go swimming for their first time. Because the culture requires women be modest in dress we had to swim in pants and t-shirts. Seeing the joy on the girls faces made us all completely forget about the horrors they have been subjected to. They splashed around and grabbed a hold of us; afraid of the water and what it might do to them. Melissa began to give swimming lessons to a few of the girls and not long after, they all wanted to learn. We realized just how hard it is to teach across a language barrier so huge. About 5 minutes after we had gotten in the pool, one of the staff members came to talk to Sherry. She told her that the girls had to leave at 3 because they were having a party later. At this point it was about 2:55, so Sherry said no. They negotiated until they agreed to let us stay until 4. After we left I learned that Sherry and Debby stayed, making sure that there really was a party. They soon realized that it was a lie; and that they were only being asked to leave because they were Khami people. It was heartbreaking for Sherry and Debby to see their wonderful girls being shunned and excluded because of their race and color.
After swimming we went out to dinner at the FCC (Foreign Correspondence Club) where foreign writers come to relax and eat and write their stories. It was a really fun environment and it was full of people from every continent in the world. As we were leaving to go back to the hotel there was a strong gust of wind and a lot of rain and the power went out. They came back on a few minutes later but it was kind of fun. Then we took a tuk-tuk home to the hotel.
This morning we woke up and went to Sherry and Debby’s house. The heat was intensifying every minute and I could feel myself getting irritated in the van on the way. When we arrived we were given a tour of the house. Right now they have 21 girls living in their facilities and these girls spend their days going to literacy classes, sewing classes, cooking classed, and dance classed. Also, they make cards, candles, and bracelets to be sold to the public. The cards were beautifully made and tugged at my heart so I bought 5 myself and the other girls with me bought a few as well. Afterwards we went to the White Lotus house. It is a huge building with 2 floors consisting of bedrooms, a kitchen, a small salon to teach the girls cosmetics, and bathrooms. One of the girls living there had a little baby girl named Easter, who basically had 21 mothers and was the mascot of the house.
We then went to lunch at a Western restaurant and met with a girl named Christa, who was a student of Nancy’s. She told us of a story of a 14 year old girl who had come forward against a Russian billionaire, accusing him of raping her 4 times. He got 13 years in jail and another 18 girls have since come forward. It was one of the first times that a young girl had ever won a case against someone so powerful and it has been making national news. Hearing her story inspired me and gave me a good example of what I can do if I ever come back to live and work here. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080314/wl_asia_afp/cambodiarussiacrimepaedophilia)
We met up with the girls from White Lotus later in the day to take them to go swimming for their first time. Because the culture requires women be modest in dress we had to swim in pants and t-shirts. Seeing the joy on the girls faces made us all completely forget about the horrors they have been subjected to. They splashed around and grabbed a hold of us; afraid of the water and what it might do to them. Melissa began to give swimming lessons to a few of the girls and not long after, they all wanted to learn. We realized just how hard it is to teach across a language barrier so huge. About 5 minutes after we had gotten in the pool, one of the staff members came to talk to Sherry. She told her that the girls had to leave at 3 because they were having a party later. At this point it was about 2:55, so Sherry said no. They negotiated until they agreed to let us stay until 4. After we left I learned that Sherry and Debby stayed, making sure that there really was a party. They soon realized that it was a lie; and that they were only being asked to leave because they were Khami people. It was heartbreaking for Sherry and Debby to see their wonderful girls being shunned and excluded because of their race and color.
After swimming we went out to dinner at the FCC (Foreign Correspondence Club) where foreign writers come to relax and eat and write their stories. It was a really fun environment and it was full of people from every continent in the world. As we were leaving to go back to the hotel there was a strong gust of wind and a lot of rain and the power went out. They came back on a few minutes later but it was kind of fun. Then we took a tuk-tuk home to the hotel.
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