Day 9: Final Thoughts

Hello everyone it's Liav and Brandon summing up the thoughts of the trip. Throughout the trip, we have had some amazing experiences with mixed emotions. We have been able to both help out people in need and get a greater understanding of the hardships most Cambodians have faced the in the country's turbulant history.

Our 3 days of work, building a house in Siem Reap, has shown us how hard life is for many people. This experience has caused us to think about how we take so many things for granted, and that some people can't afford the necessities to live (such as a roof over our heads). The building we constructed has hopefully given the family a new lease on life, and shown thier community that there are people in the world that care and understand their hardships. 

Touring Phnom Penh (although the Pol Pot Regime took place all throughout Cambodia), we attained a greater understanding of Cambodia's shocking history. The thing that disturbed us the most was how the Khmer Rouge differentiated itself from other totalitarianist regimes; their ways of torture and   killing people were literally man on man, where the army officers were commanded to kill with knives and bayonets. The knowledge we gained will remind us that humans can be disgustingly immoral and despite these experiences, the Cambodian people are some of the nicest people in the world; a lot can be learnt from this.

This Cambodia Trip is one small step against poverty in Cambodia but a giant leap in our individual life journeys. Cambodia 2013, over and out.

Day 8: Shabbas

Hey guys, it's Zoe and Idan! Just letting you know guys know that we have no photos today as it was Shabbat!

This Shabbat was a change of scenery for most members of the team. Everyone had to take time away from their 'important' electronics and had to get intact with the Jewish culture of Cambodia, no matter how small. The long hours we spent in shule, at the time, felt as though they were dragging on, never to end. However it was all worth the wait as we experienced our first meal in Cambodia.. with meat involved! Eating meat after waiting eight days was not the only part of Shabbat that we benefitted from. We journeyed to the chabad house to take part of their Shabbat minyan and to join them for dinner and lunch. While at chabad, we started to notice little differences between the typical Melbourne Shabbat and the typical Cambodian Shabbat, such as different tunes in davening and even eating carrot cake between entrée and main course. During our  meal we came to meet a number of different people form around the world; some tourists and some residents living in Cambodia. Meeting different Jews from all over the world and experiencing a Cambodian Shabbat is an experience we will never forget.

Killing Fields and S-21

After the huge task of building a house, it has been a nice change to immerse ourselves in some touring, history and culture. We began the day at S-21. S-21 was a school, which was converted into a jail that was used to hold and torture the educated and wealthy people of Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime. This experience was quite solemn and eye opening as before this, we hadn't heard of or known about this terrible time in Cambodia. We, as Jewish people, can relate to this as our ancestors went through a similar thing as they went through a genocide of their own. After learning about the prison we went to the killing fields where tens of thousands of Cambodians were brutally murdered during the regime. This killing field was traumatic as we saw mass graves and skulls of innocent people scattered before our eyes. We even saw some remaining human bones sticking out of the graves.

Tonight we are going to the local Chabad house were we will spend Shabbat and have meat for the first time in just under a week! Really looking forward to to that :)

Thanks, Lachie and Josh

Memorial tower, filled with the skulls of murdered Cambodian people.

Royal Palace

Day 5: Arrival in Phnom Penh

After an early start this morning, of 5:30am, we boarded the 8:40am flight from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Many of us were worried because of the small size of the plane and there were heavy winds and storms. Once we arrived, we met out tour guide, Mr Hong. We took a small bus to the Ohana Hotel where we were dissapointed to find that the power was out. We took advantage of the darkness by having a silent doof and brought out all the iTorches. Because there was no power, it was very hard to get boiling water to cook our noodles for lunch. Mr Hong then took us to the Central Market where we shopped for just over an hour. We all bought t-shirts which we took to a printing shop to get our names written on them. This took a while because they were busy printing t-shirts for the upcoming election. After a short break at the hotel, Mr Hong took us to the Royal Palace, which is where the king of Cambodia lives. We learnt that the king has never had a wife and he is 61 years old. We toured around the palace with a guide and took photos where we could. From the palace, we went straight to the Tonle Sap River where we took a boat ride and witnessed the beautiful vast range of small house boats along the side belonging to the poor Cambodians. Our highlight of the day was lying on the front of the boat, at eye level with the water, and singing songs. We are currently dodging the small bat that is swooping our open corridoor and listening to everyone screaming like little girls. Xoxo Geoff and Mia

Day 4: The Big Reveal!

Hi everyone it is Josh.V and Eli here. We are glad to say that the house is complete. Our contributions to the house today have been to help install the roof and finish the floor boards, to help build the walls for the extra room inside and the doorways. We were very grateful to have the opportunity to help build the house for the poor family, they were very hospitable and let us into their homes and lives.

The previous house, which you can see part of in the bottom right hand corner of the first picture, was unstable and it was dangerous to be in during strong weather. Now, they can live in a secure home with the assurance of safety and stabilty for the longer term future.

At the completion of the house, our tourguide, Yous Sa, held a traditional ceremony which involved the Cambodia team moving the family's belongings from the old house to the new house. We also lit incense sticks which we placed in the four corners of the home. We thought we'd give them one of our blessings too, so, together with Rabbi Shamir, we recited the Cohenim's blessing.

It was hard, physical labour. But the reward, the reactions of the family (the father was holding back tears as we handed over the house!), was well worth everything we have done up to this point.

Tomorrow: We are off to Phnom Penh! Very early wake up call, so must go to bed now!!

This is the house!

Eli gets to work

Josh V gets handy with a hammer

Gallery - Tuesday

Team 2013

Hard at work

Dean lends a hand

Idan cools off Cambodia style!