Pics

The Pictures are not in order when I published the post don't no why, But you can figure out what pictures go with caption.
1 how dry and crappy the field is
2 mighty girls home
3 My bike check out the light
4 just a road to an orphanage
5 the house mother in her kitchen - it is a normal kitchen in Cambodia
6 the river that I would never ever touch
7 team dinner (a visitor paid to take the girls and the volunteers out for dinner for his birthday- one of my favorite nights so far)

****** - in pics below in the volunteer post- the boy I am lifting has only one shoe and that is how he plays. He was so cute and funny and pretty dang good at soccer.

Cambodia volunteer

Salt stands for sport and leadership training. However salt effects what I would say in a big long run the world. It has affected me and it has been one week and one day now. With out a doubt it effects Cambodia. With extreme it effects battabang ( the city it is based in) and most importantly it completely changes the life's of every Cambodian involved and saves life's and minds of many young girls.


To learn threw my eyes
The first day I started. I learnt how trafficking works. The main reason I learnt it is because one of the up coming Mighty girls ( mighty girls - they are the girls that stay at a house and are the main Cambodian girls soccer team. half of them have been in some type of trafficking and the other half would of had the likely hood of it) was sent off to child labor. Which then usually forms into trafficking. Trafficking is very grey. No one ever knows how it exactly happens. In All most all cases it dosent happen how you think it does. They don't get kidnapped. Examples of how it happens: girl comes to practice and says Susie went to visit her uncle in phenom Penn. We never see Susie again. Girl dosent come to practice so sam (founder of salt) goes to her house and the mother says she has gone to grandmas house never to hear from her again. Example on Monday ( yes this happened my first week) Susies family sent her to go work bc her father is in debt. She now works in a factory or a rice field or both. She works anywhere from 12-20 hours a day making 100 a month. Sam talks to the father to try and get her back and get her in the program somehow or get him another job. The father was hard to track down but finally found him he says no not tell I pay off my debt. Then world vision offers to help the family but they won't help the family in tell the girl is back but the girl can't come back In tell debt is paid so sadly to say currently she is still working and not back.
Girls that have been trafficked sexually usually start off young selling flowers on the street or some form of labor like this. Then they get more and more brain washed and make more money threw sex so who ever is in control of them then pushes them into some sort of sexual activity. There is more trafficking in thialand then in cambodia. however they get the girls from cambodia, but make more money and harder to track in thialand.

Now cambodia is extremely corrupted mainly due to the Khmer rouge.( see last post) if you think about it that means everyone right now that lives in cambodia is effected by it. The parents of the kids went Threw it. Naturally you will not be the same when you go Threw something like this. Also if you think- they tried to kill every intelligent person. Every head person and destroyed all schools churches. There not very religious here they don't no who to trust and they are extremely poor. It's a third world country. Description- a few paved roads zero street lights , 50 percent of homes have electricity, cows chickens dogs everywhere; garbage everywhere-- it's all set back 900 years ago or more. They are just so poor. That is why they sell there kids. They can't afford to have them with them.
Culture- girls are suppose to have there shoulders covered and knees or shorts that go to knees. They are raised to never show affection towards a boy in public. They aren't suppose to smile and be out spoken.

Back to salt and how it helps change the community
Salt is also a football organization. They have 1200 kids enrolled. These kids mostly come from other organizations. The other organizations are orphanages, schools, churches, and clubs. Salt rents the field space and gives the kids jerseys and try's to give out shoes as well. ( I say try bc it's hard to give some kids shoes bc they may get stolen; sold, or grey area Susie quote on quote lost them) salt also employes coaches and refs. This is a huge deal that salt employees them. They get trained and they often times have a co volunteer coach with them to coach. With doing this they learn responsibility, they don't get paid if they don't coach or ref. It also creates a job for people and allows them to stay in school or let there family stay in school. All of the mighty girls do this. It also creates respect.

Soccer field- you have heard the saying : when I am playing ..... Hockey soccer bla bla I love to go to the field or rink bc it is the only time of day where I don't have to think about anything else. Now I want you to take that expression and times it by a million. That is what soccer means to these kids. (9-20 ages) boys and girls play together. They show affection. They don't have to have shorts or pants that go to there knees. When there at the soccer field its like all of there rules have disappeared. It has started to rub of in battabang. The city is hundred percent different then other parts of Cambodia I believe it is due to salt and the other amazing organizations in this area that are helping to make a change.

What I do:
In the mornings I ride my bike to the office. The first few days my butt Hurt from biking everywhere. ( side note- ha I have a sweet light on my bike for at night. It only works from friction. So I push it onto my tire and it rubs and turns the light on) ok so at office I am in charge of data- this is a new project for salt ( I create a data sheet to send out to all of the kids in salt. I make it in English. Then I am working with a Cambodian salt employee who then translates it into Khmer) the data sheet is to track the kids. We want to know when Kids mainly girls are quitting school or soccer and why. We also ask if they have siblings (if we know they have a sister that is 10 and not in school then we can help to get her in school) So the data sheet is made its basically a big chart asking age and gender school grade ( so if for example if they check yes for sister they will have age and what the sister dose- then we will know if she needs help. Also we ask about the mom and dad to figure out family income. now the data chart needs to be put into khmer. Then I go out and give the sheets and collect which is cool bc then I get to see all of the orphanages and what not. We then once get the info put it into a big data base in the computer. But ha the info will need to be in english in the computer bc other people may use the info and yada yada. Then after I work on that I am learning Khmer to better help these girls then I go teach English. After English class I go to soccer on tues thur Friday with the mighty girls. I play with them and add advice when I can. If I choose to I can then after there practice go to coach with one of the mighty girls at the other organizations. I also can choose to do that on Monday' wednesday and Saturday's After this I sometimes chill with the girls and eat with them. They enjoy my company and some like to practice there English.
So far I have only went to one orphanage to help coach. It was to fun! it was a boys team. They were an under 11 team and looked about 7. Some with shoes some with out. some with shorts down to there knees. My favorite is when they are wearing one shoe and other bare foot????
Sundays are game days. I go watch the kids show up in the back of trucks with about 60 kids in the back.

Things that may interest you or random info
Rice rice rice so much rice that's all they eat. The mighty girls for lunch and dinner always have protein. They get weighed in once a month and I this week am very interested to look at that chart. I compared some old photos and wow : ) they look so much stronger all ready.
The smoothies are so good here!
The eggs on the street have the embryo in it so like a little chick ahhhh nasty.
They eat frogs, spiders and eye balls view blog next week for pics of that.
It is hot. Mornings 80 day 85-105. Right now it is there dry season it's dusty and the field is all cracked. They dont have winter and summer season they have rain and dry. April is the hottest month it will always be 100 even at night and morning.
The girls are typical girls and ask me same silly questions as the girls back home- Jess do you have a boy friend? Jess do you like him? Jess .... Hahaha
One of the girls tricked me today. This little young buck, everyone tells me she is shy but um not to me. Ha so she goes Jess ( khmer something) I say what does that mean she says it means your pretty then she grabs her friend ( a mighty girl) and try's to teach me words and she says Jess you lap lap I say I lap lap ( something not close to that) she laughs and says yep then I say what does that mean she says it means your happy I go um are you lying she goes no tell Susie( by the way no one is named Susie I just say that for you readers because there names are Nhi pa, kun tea, and such) so I tell Susie she laughs and says cha ( cha means yes) then I tell Jamie Jamie laughs and says nothing so I go back and she goes hahahaha it means crazy so I was telling people ( I am crazy)
They don't like to be tan and would like to be fat because then that means they have money. ( similar to way back when)
Part of there culture is to always touch you. It's hard for me. They want to always hold my hand or touch me or squeeze my arm wile speaking to me or riding in the truck. I am all most use to it. Even boys do this but it is boy to boy or girl to girl.
They are always telling me how strong I am and touching my skin as well. Not just the soccer girls. when I bought my bike the Bike girl was squeezing my arm muscle and trying to say strong. Also when I went to orphanage the little boy squeezed my arm muscle and they were in amazement at how big my shoes were.
Cambodia country is very raciest. They only let black people have a visa for 2 weeks.
In general white people are loved here.
They eat on the floor.
The mighty girls shower 2 times a day
I haven't smelled any people on streets even thou very hot I rarely smell Bo
In my free time I plan English lessons, hang out with some other volunteers aka my pals, workout, surf the web, and ya no normal stuff.
They use USA dollars and Cambodian riels. If I go to an ATM it gives me dollars. Which is Weird. 4000 riels equals 1 dollar
I don't think Cambodians consume dairy.
I of course found every store that sells peanut butter and catch this the last one I went to had natural. I mean it's 3 dollars for a tiny jar and 3 dollars is extremely expensive here for one item of food.

Cambodia history

Entry - Jess and Randy

Today was really sad first I have to back up and let you know that we had to go back to the airport to get a working Visa for Jess so that would be one less thing to do later and I'm glad we did it right away since it takes 2 days to process. Then off to killings point I have to tell you not knowing alot of what happened here in the past was really bringing me to a place I knew not much about, any way we get their they have an audio tour that you put a number in at the stop of which you were with some little exerts off to the side if you wanted some more information so we started walking and boy how sad. here's a guy much like hitler a dictator that was paranoid well educated and of course a control freak he shut down all the schools, churches, all places of worship destroyed the buddest temple destroyed the main banks papers ect basically placing the country in a state of panic and being paralyzed. His army became the entire population and anyone that showed any type of rebellion was imprisoned and later killed. as we walks through this place you could see where their was like open areas where they had dug a hole about 25 by 30 by about 7 feet deep and these were the graves for the people that were imprisoned they would be tortured to a point were they would sign a form stating that they were spies or detectors and this gave them the right to kill them. It started to be like 30 or 40 per 3 week period as time progressed it was like 30 to 60 per day they were not shot they would be decapitated or Beaten to death with hoes sticks knives bats ect then stripped of their clothing and thrown into the pits they would sprinkle DDT over the bodies to cover the sent of the decay but the DDT also would kille them incase their would be one that was still alive when put into the grave kids women young adults didn't matter nation wide their are like 10 know grave sites like this and get this as many as 3 million people were killed by their own people that was 1/3 of their population. Can't believe this happen in 1975 through 1979 before the government was finally driven for Cambodia so hard to believe that that could happen in this day. VERY VERY SAD they had a monument that had all the bones and skulls that have been found to date at this site.
Then off to the placed called prision 21 this is where all the people were tortured and sentenced to finally end up at killings point not a lot here to see nor at the killings point for when the government was finally removed from power and people started to rebuild they had little or nothing to start with so they pillaged anything they could to start over so not much for building or history other than the fact it was real and very painful there was a song on tape that I played going through the grave site sent goosebumps and chills and very possible brought tears to the eyes of many unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!

Famous posters/ jungle/ elephants

Phuket ( a well known wall poster is photographed here)

Very western or meant for any kind of tourist. They had most well know restaurants, and big name resorts slash hotels. Was fun to see James bond island. I'm getting sick of the Thailand transportation or tour or there system of getting you to buy stuff. We get picked up for our tour and of corse they make us sit on a dock for an hour and half trying to get us to buy stuff from there store on the dock. Every taxi asked you to go to there store that they receive gas from.

Chang Mia
Into the jungle : )
Went on a three day jungle trek.(yes mt dad dad did this he is still with me) Of course you get picked up and they bring you to a market for an hour to buy stuff. ( dumb) despite that it was so good. Went bamboo rafting. We stayed over night next to big water fall. We stayed in bamboo huts. It was freezing and hard but was fine for one night. Our guide said it was the first time he wore long sleeve in a long time. he also said he couldn't sleep along with the rest of us. It got down to about 35 and that is out of the normal so I had not much cloths. During the day it is about 90. My dad complained a tiny bit and said "thought you said it dosent get cold."The next night we stayed at one of the only Christian villages up in the mountain in the jungle. Thailand is 70 percent Buddhist so I was shocked, and then was able to ask all these questions to learn about the monks and silly questions like how to properly use the Asian toilet. (granny would be hard for you) ( I see why they stay thin they have to squat all the time) in the village they truly live off the land and we watched them get the husk off the rice and they always cook over a wood fire. We again stayed in a open bamboo hut. Day 3 we hiked down and went on elephants. They are massive!

Mass confusion

Bangkok is the craziest city I have ever been in.

,Learning experience for my dad
: ) so happy my dad is here to see new things and just get out of Brainerd. This is so good for him. I love just watching and laughing and scolding him. Scolding bc he dosent understand that people are different and do things differently. Not everyone is like a good ol Minnesotan. So I always catch him shaking his head or being rude and not even knowing it. He is learning thou. 

Guest entry

in the craziness
mister randy bye ( he dosent no I did this i took it out of his notes)
What a experience! It's market day actually a day to see what happens everywhere. We started out going to china town,damm for people cars motorcycles,did I say people and food carts and venders of all sorts kinds shapes you want it you can get it if you want 6 you can buy six only they will not all be the same size ( shoe that is or any other thing you buy on the whole sale side) so what I am saying is you go throughout the streets up and down front to back to buy what you would like then you go into the alleys and you can buy in bulk like for instance if you liked a particular pair of jeans you would buy them all the same only different sizes best have a good variety of friends!
One could barter a little their but Jess is the action model here wow how do you start out at 10 and sell for 2. "????? What ever! Fun though! then we walked around a little then to the grand palace that was incredible oh but first did you know a man cannot wear shorts a lady must have here legs covered and a shawl to cover all bare skin for it is disrespectful . That was weird it's a tourist place but We got it and when in their world do as they want and al will be good. Any way what a place the eye for detail is incredible the gold the cut ceramic the glass ext.
was just unreal the guards, were in fatigues in the day and formal after 4 look at the pics does not do it justice but wow. Then we went back shopping sort a kinda Jess wanted to see backpack alley that was really fun would be like Nisswa in June for the festival only the majority of the people are 30 or younger from all over the world having a great time listing to music eating drinking and venders everywhere and its 24 hours a day like the city that never sleeps thank god we did. crazy it did rain put a little damper on things but that was short lived. They were much more eager to barter than earlier or maybe we were just getting smarter what the hay!today was not a waste learned a lot. Oh did I mention that a liter beer and a blended daiquiri was like $6. Night had a great time.

Happy b day to me
Went to a floating market was real neat - you go in a gondola type boat threw canals where people have there homes and set up on there dock they have stuff to sell. They also are in there boats and are selling food and stuff out of them.

Day 3 Bangkok
We now see what the bad part of Thailand is all about. We went in a tuk Tuk (taxi) for 2 and he made us stop 2 times. To go buy crap from his relatives or people he works under or being threatened by. So my dad getting mad says we want to go to are place. He goes a block says ok right there. We said thank you and paid him. Turns out nope we were 20 min away from were we wanted to go. ( welcome to thialand)

Thia boxing - it was fun to go to a local sporting event. The Thailand people really get into it and they have little dances and music to go with it all. They are Screaming and betting and counting the hits. A must see when here.

Second bad encounter
After boxing we went into a restaurant/bar and we didn't like it so turned to walk out and they wouldn't let us leave with out paying them. We were circled by security and the owner. unsure what they would do if we just walked out so we paid them half of what they wanted.

Bangkok- over all was a great experience. I have scene some good amazing unreal things and I have scene some really bad things- that I choose not write about. - makes me appreciate what I am doing in Cambodia that much more.

Game time

Let's play a game. Where am I ??

I get on a bus I am crowed and surrounded by looks with me being the only white English speaking person on the bus. The feeling of being the minority sets in as I understand nothing and am in awe of everything I see and hear and not so much always smell. As I hit the streets to go into china town I take in smells of incense, spice, and here and there sea food being mixed in with some spice, and the smell of chinese or Indian scent. This is not a raciest comment this is a game remember and I am giving you clues to where I am. The majority of people are the nationality of Chinese and then followed by Indian then a small part of ... ? China town had crazy people everywhere trying to sell you stuff in chinese. Everything looks red with there decoration. Food food food food everywhere - I must of tried about 20 new things. I also denied about 20 samples of I don't no what it was i figure i would just start with 20 and see how my stomach handled it. being it was new years they had tons of new year cookies for 50 cents everywhere which is about 30 cents. Now this cookie is not a cookie Cookie. It is like gooie sep for it's not gooie by looks. Comes in about 6 inch diameter circle. There are loads of different flavors. It's gooie once you bite it. Your teeth sink in and it's almost like a gummy worm at first but then way softer turns into not as creamy as fuge but a mix between Turkish delight a gummy worm fuge yeah. Nuts were surprisingly cheap : ) : ) yay went into a temple where of course I had to cover my body, light a incent and try and figure out what was going on bc I didn't understand anything. After an amazing strawberry real fruit smoothie. ( girl talked me into getting it with some kind of vaporized milk i hesitated, she spoke little English just enough to say it is best with milk so I went for it and it was good choice) I headed to little India.
Have you figured out where I am yet ?
little India- I am one of those crazy travelers where if I only have one day to see a city or country ( huge clue right there for ya) I am going to try and do it all in that day. Even with being jet legged. Not only am I going to do it all I also am going to do it on a budget aka I am doing what the guy at hostel and girl on plane said I couldn't do- I walked all this by foot) with a few wrong turns ( when I ask people where to go I try and find a 13-25 year old they no English and I just point at a map) i arrived in little India where it had all the same scents as china town just a little more spice and Indian scent.
I of course got my photo with the famous half lion and Half fish. Looking out there is a huge building of a ship in the air. I hung out on a beach for 30 min and watched all the heathy little Asians run/bike/blade on by. The mrt ( subway) was so packed at 1800 I thought someones tiny little foot or arm was going to get cut off. I went to the night safari. Were I saw the animals of Asia and Africa come alive at night. At that time I also was falling asleep. I skipped out on orchestra road where they have top name bran clothing. I did see markets full of camera after camera for very little. Or computer after computer for not so much. When I say one free the other I mean like billions of electronic stuff like picture a decent size mall filled with all electronics it was nuts.
If you still don't no where I am maybe the pictures will help you

Singapore Singapore