Eastern Angkor was the last stop on our tour, this gave us the opportunity to visit an orphanage that our guide Tek supports. Instead of giving money, they asked instead if we could bring them some new tooth brushes and toothpaste, the orphanage is home to about 30 children, providing support for another 30 from single parent families. I think I have said before that in Cambodia 50% of the population is under 25 as a result of the civil war, there are some 60,000 to 200,000 orphans.
The children at the orphanage all attend school in the morning and when we arrived many were busy preparing lunch, this included the task of shaving a pigs head before cooking it. The children not involved in the cooking were making pictures from leather. I brought one of an elephant, the child who made it, in this case Chan, gets 10% commission, the rest going to the orphanage.
To say thank you for the tooth brushes the children put on a shadow puppet show, extremely funny even though we couldn't really understand what was happening. It was a story about 2 farmers arranging a fight between a chicken and a bull, needless to say who won. It was nice to spend time with the children, very humbling to see their happiness even though they have so little. In the photo below are all the children at the orphanage, the hands together is a sign to say thank you.
The roads around Eastern Angkor were pretty muddy to say the least, we would have been better with the ox below. We had to abandon our jeep while our driver stopped it sliding into a paddy field.
Highlights: Visiting the orphanage
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