I'm going to throw all of these together in this one blog post. The safe haven was supposed to have the grand opening this past Friday. I'm waiting to see pictures, but I can hardly wait!!
In Cambodia, most children are required to work to help provide for their families. This is how the sex trafficking rings are successful. Parents need their children to work and people prey on that offering their children "jobs", but they end up in these rings. So, CHO (Cambodian Hope Organization) has these schools to give kids a trade so that they can earn money for their families.
The first one is a Motorcycle Repair School. These kids come to this school every day and take the motorcycles apart and put them back together. On the way to the school, we passed by several sweat shops where Wayne said there were kids sewing away inside these metal barn kind of things with I'm sure no air circulation. The kid in front is 14 years old. There is a kid that is hidden in the picture that is 8 years old. He is learning how to repair the motorbikes. It was amazing how clean they were. When Aaron is working on a project in the garage, tools and nuts and bolts are spread all over the place! These kids had a pan that they put EVERYTHING in -- their tools and whatever they took off of the motorbikes were in their pans.
The sewing school is another way that kids can learn a skill. This boy is 10 years old and he has been in the sewing school for 1 year. Their sewing machines are the footpedal kind and his little feet were just flopping away. One of the older boys said he could sew 10 pairs of shorts per day and they would sell them for 35 baht each on the Thailand side market. This is about $1 per pair. So, if the boy made and sold every pair, he would make $10 per day.
They also have an agriculture project where they help people start a business. The people are responsible for renting the land and working the garden. CHO provides the seeds, fertilizer, and a watering can. A CHO person checks in with each farmer once a week. They have 125 farming families. The gentleman who oversees this project is 25 years old. He looked like he was 16!! Their land does not have a lot of square footage, so they grow most things on a trellis system. Their cucumbers and watermelon grow off of the ground! It was interesting!
This is the lady whose garden we went to see. She gets the water for her garden from that river/water in the background. She walks down (just kind of a steep hill) with her watering can on a stick balancing across her shoulders. She fills it up and walks it back up to her garden.
This is her hoe. . . pretty pre-historic looking.
Long beans in the garden
Their trellis system
Here's a picture of Cambodian school children. You notice them because they have the white shirts and the navy pants/skirts. I'm not sure what is on their face, but when I got home, I heard something about talc powder because it helps cool you off. Could have been, but I'm not sure.
I took this picture at the CDC (Center for Disease Control). This is the AIDS and TB hospital. The first time I went, we went in and walked around talking to people and just looking around. We talked to a woman who had been their 6 years. Her daughter sat on her bed and they told us she had been there with her mother since the beginning. . . the girl couldn't have been but 14 or 15 years old. I didn't take any pictures inside because I didn't feel like that would be respectful, but that had to be the hardest part of the trip for most of us.
The lady on the left (with the blue shirt) has AIDS. That is her son standing in front of her. They told us that she will stay there until she dies. Her son will stay with her. the lady on the right has TB and that is her son sitting on her lap. TB is very contagious, so when you think about it, these little boys are just sitting in a very contagious environment, but there isn't anything they can do about it.
Like I said, the first time I went to the CDC, we went in and walked around. There was another lady on a bed who was just a skeleton. Laying on the bed with her were 3 little kids. Her husband stood by her bedside. We prayed for a few of them and Steve laid his hands on some.
A couple of days later, I went back with Trish & Dr. J. They wouldn't even go inside!! Dr. J put his phone inside the door and took pictures that way. They talked about how contagious TB was and how they weren't going in. I panicked for a second -- we went in and Steve touched people! But, I think we're all fine. . . ;)
One last tidbit about the hospital. Chumno's wife has a restuarant that the workers eat in. Her and her girls did a fantastic job feeding us!! They make 3 meals a day to take to the hospital patients. How amazing is that? Their kitchen isn't very big. She had just a few pots and pans. But, she's using what she has to bless others that people might just want to discard. That blessed me!!
So, there's my trip. Trish got some good pictures of some kids that I'll probably post next. . . . might show a few from the Angkor Wat temples.
