As part of my travels in Siem Reap, I was going to spend about 6 days volunteering at an orphanage. I had made arrangements with the owner and we emailed back and forth numerous times in the weeks leading up to my arrival date. I was excited about this and looking forward to being in one spot for an extended period of time, hanging out with some kids, and giving back during my travels. In the days leading up to it, I blatantly ignored Kristina's worries and musings that it might not be as legitimate as it appeared and that we weren't going to like what we found.
As it turns out, I should have listened to Kristina and Becs in their infinate wisdom. We arrived at the orphanage to discover that the owner was on 'vacation' in Ämerica and had been gone for a number of weeks and is not expected to be back until the 31st of October. Never did she mention this to any of us during our emails. Once we found this out, we asked the sole volunteer there who was in charge and her answer was fairly horrifying and a firm, 'No one really'.
As the other volunteer gave us a tour of the complex, we were warned about using the water in the shower. It hadn't been changed in a number of days (we would have taken bucket showers) and as a result, it now had worms in it. Taking a bucket shower is no big deal to me. I've done it before and chances are I'll do it again in my travels here in SE Asia. However, what I find disgusting is that no one could be bothered to change such water and expected the children to bathe with it.
As the day progressed, I was more and more horrified and disgusted by what I saw. One girl was violently ill after eating lunch and had been doing this for two days. After searching the 'office' for anything resembling an emergency plan or emergency contact list for doctor info and finding nothing, the four of us, through a teenage interpreter, convinced the cook to take the girl to the doctor.
The teenage interpreter mentioned above was also the one left in charge along with the cook who speaks no English and really had no control over the kids from what we could see. As a 14 year old teenage boy, he was expected to assume responsibility for approximately 24 other children and acting as interpreter for the volunteers.
Because there was no adult truly in charge, setting a schedule or routine, the kids were dirty as were their clothes because the washing machine is only used for 'going out' clothes. All of them had lice and their bedding was infected. Speaking of bedding, the only rooms that had mattresses were the volunteer rooms. The kids slept of thin bamboo mats over a slotted wooden bed frame. There were no toys anywhere for the kids to play with. While lessons were going on for one group, the others just lazing around would leave the complex without telling anyone. No security measures were in place to prevent children leaving or random adults entering. Sometimes, children would leave the orphanage to go back home but not inform anyone.
I find it disturbing that the owner would take a vacation to America and leave the children in these sorts of conditions with no one in charge. In response to our questions about why the children were living so, the owner would only say that living conditions in Cambodia are different than what they are in the America. A poor, poor excuse for someone who can afford the round trip plane ticket to America and owns property in California.
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