Oct 2006

They call it "Smokey Mountain": over 100 acres of mountainous trash where roughly 2,000 people -600 of whom are children -spend the greater part of their lives. On Tuesday, I took a brief ride on a moto to the edge of the city, crossed rivers of shit and dump runoff and saw a glimpse of the most horrible place I have ever been to in my life.
CCASVA (the NGO I'm working for for those who haven't been following) doesn't work at the Steung Meanchey Dump, but after asking them about it at our last staff meeting, they decided they would take us there to show us. I had read about it, but I was completely unprepared for what I would see. Where the Killing Fields and S-21 prison are a chilling glimpse of tradgedies past, the Steung Meanchey dump is a harsh sense of reality.
The first thing you notice is the smell. I could barely make out the towering hills of trash in the distance when I noticed the rank smell that saturated the air or the surrounding blocks. The road leading up to the dumps main entrance was litterally a river of dump runoff -it seemed to actually have a current. The rain from monsoon season and the natural decay of years old trash created a deep thick, gray-brown mess and the dump trucks that passed through it sunk up to the top of their wheel wells. As we carefully navigated our way into the dump, we saw children walk past us, wading in sludge up to their knees. At times we had to back up, run and jump between dry pieces of land to get into the actual dump itself, knowing that if we missed, we would end up lying in liquid trash.
The full impact of the scene didn't hit me until I was standing on a giant heap of trash, looking out around me at an endless stretch of garbage, where men, women, and children were diligently collecting plastic and other recyclible materials. The dump itself is actually constantly burning since the waste creates methane as it rots (hence the name "Smokey Mountain." I've been told that on average, an adult makes no more than a few thousand riels a day (about 75 cents.) -And yet, its the stories of the children that strik me the most. Most of them walk through the heaps of trash (which includes glass, used condoms and needles) with only flimsy sandals or no shoes at all -but the risk of HIV is hardly the end of their worries. Every year, several children are killed when they are run over by garbage trucks and bulldozers. Most of the time no on notices -they simply don't show up to meet their parents at the end of the day and die alone in an endless heap of trash.
I appologize for the dark sincerity of this post but it is something that I couldn't leave out. I'll be posting pictures of the dump on an album on my dotphoto site (site at the top of the page.)

Last weekend we were invited for a day trip to the Svey Reng province, to the homeland of some of our staff, for the Katan festival. Svey Reng is a little over three hours SE of PP, near the Veitnamese border. We all got up at 6am Sunday morning and piled into a minibus, which was at least 15 yrs old, with Sophan (assistant director), Peseth, Sitar, Donnai (who cooks for us), and some more random Khmers. -a bit cramped, but I wasn't complaining (beats a cramped, broken pickup with spitting babies, a pee pot, etc...!)
The whole experience was really sweet. When our van pulled up to the pagoda, we were swamped by at least 50 kids, many of whom had never seen white people before. After warm welcomes from some of the villagers and relatives of Donnai and Sitar, we sat down and were served an interesting meal of fish (whole, with the works: eyes, bones, skin, etc...), fish paste (didn't even try this one- but it was apparantly so good a friend of mine almost spit it out on the table- shes so polite!). There were Khmer noodles (thank god for starch!) It was pretty amusing...also there was a crowd of people standing around our table watching us crazy caucasians eat!
After lunch, we watched the festivities inside the actual pagoda. There were about 5 monks chanting a prayer and every so often the people praying would join them in the chanting. It was pretty cool to watch. When they were finished, we joined then for a cerimonious walk around the new temple being built. Some nice lady gave me incense sticks to carry around like everyone else so I felt like I fit right in! More chanting and then it was off to Donnai's house for lunch. Wait, didn't we just eat lunch a couple hours ago? Nope, apparantly that was snack! Overall, the trip was really an awesome experience and definitely not something I could have done as a tourist!

It's hard to believe i've already been here for over a month!! On the other hand, I've gotten so used to the way of life here that home seems soooo far in the past... Last weekend was a really sweet time. We (about 8 of us) went to Sihanoukville for the long weekend. Sihanoukville is west of PP, on the coast (yep, the BEACH!) The bus ride was quite luxurious compared to our mondulkiri adventure- yes! we all had our very own seat! We left early Saturday morning and I slept most of the 5 hour ride there (well, as much as you can sleep with the driver constantly blaring the horn.) Drivers here insist on using the horn to warn slower cars, motos, naked children, cows, etc... that they're flying down the road behind them. Anyway, we stayed at a pretty nice guesthouse. There were no bed sheets and only cold water but it was right on the beach which was really nice. It had such a different feel than the dusty dirty streets that are PP. So we spent Sat, Sun, and Monday morning lounging on the beach soaking up the sun and avoiding "madame, madame you buy bracelet!"..."Oh you buy fruit from me...oo ok maybe massage yes you buy -ohhh why your friend buy and not you- you buy from me?"
But really though the beach was nice. It was nice to go back to work on Tuesday though. I missed the kids in the center. It's been a tough week working in the slums though. Yesterday I went to a slum that's predominantly Vietnamese and saw a couple shooting up while their newborn baby was being looked after by a neighbor kid. It rained a ton last night and so parts of the slum were completely flooded. Several houses (shacks really) had a foot of water in them. We got one boy into vocational training today though. He's 16 and is going to learn how to cut hair. He'll earn a decent wage and hopefully be able to open his own shop someday.
Still trying to decide what to do during my 3 weeks of travel time. So far the plan is to go to Vietnam for a bit under two weeks, then head to Laos, and then end in Bangkok for a couple days before flying home. Plan is still in the works though.
I'll be uploading some more pictures to dotphoto (address at top of page) in the next few days. Also, if any of you use skype, my username is jmalsch - call me, its free!- if i'm on its early in the morning your time or maybe at night on weekends.

I've been here almost three weeks now and I figure its about time to write a bit about work. I work for an NGO (defined above) that works with street children in phnom penh. In the mornings, I go out with a field worker to various parts of the city to look after street kids and help some get vocational training/school. The problem is parents don't want their kids to go to school because if they do, they aren't on the streets making money for the family. To make matters worse public school in cambo isn't really free and the teachers demand money from the kids to pay their salary. Boils down to lack of gov support but we won't get into that...

Yesterday, I was in the most unbelievable slum area. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before in my life - even worse than some of the slums I've already been to in cambo. It was made up of alleys (narrow walkways really) lined with dirty shacks made from whatever materials people could find (usually tin, wood, and debris.) The ground, including that inside the houses, if a mix of mud, shit and trash. Some of the houses are on short stilts that actually sit on heaps of trash. As you walk through the alleys you pass by dirty naked children running around playing with scraps of plastic and trash. There are flies everywhere and you bat them away at first but then realize that it's not even worth it- there are too many. The people living there don't seem to even notice when they land on their faces- they just let them sit there. We stopped to talk to a girl who had stopped going to school. But how do you explain the importance of education to someone whose family relies on them to beg so they can eat. As the field worker spoke in khmer to the girls mother, I listened- but I could only make out that the mother had AIDS. I've since visited slum areas almost every day and you do get a bit hardened to the scene- but hardened isn't to say that you arent appalled or will ever forget it.

On a lighter note, I absolutely love it here. I've been here almost three weeks and I can already tell that it is the most unbelievable experience I've ever had. This crazy country, with all of its poverty- but also beauty, is really starting to grow on me.