Ankor Wat and the toughest week so far

Finally, I'm back in touch from Cambodia. I spent the weekend in Siem Reap, the city next to Angkor Wat, and explored the beautiful temple sites. We had to take a sleeper bus for 8 hours to northern Cambodia and then checked into a really great hostel.

There, I could finally take a breath for the first time in a week, as the time here has really taken a toll on me.

I know that part of traveling involves experiencing uncomfortable situations, but right now, I'm feeling quite conflicted. The existential poverty that people live in here is not an isolated case but prevalent everywhere. Everyone here is so poor that it's barely enough to live on, and every day, you see more of it. We hear stories of children being sent to the fields to catch frogs just to have something to eat. Diseases often play a massive role, and a few medications could help them. A cold here is life-threatening.

You really feel the fears of the people, and honestly, it affects me a lot. I believe it's because I am a very empathetic person, but every little story touches me deeply, and since we have so few distractions from other activities, I feel almost trapped in all this suffering.

When I was finally around other young people over the weekend, enjoying a coffee and having a proper shower again, I realized how much last week had weighed on me.

And it's the same for everyone here. Everyone expresses it differently, but overall, the mood is really low.

I actually wanted to share more about the weekend because it was truly awesome. We visited some of the nearly 200 temple sites in Siem Reap and strolled around the Night Market in the evening.

Angkor Wat itself is truly impressive. It's a Hindu place of worship, the towers were built by hand and still stand today. Monks walk around everywhere, and it smells of incense.

In the global voting in 2017, Angkor Wat unfortunately didn't make it to the list of the seven new wonders of the world, but it's unofficially described as the eighth wonder of the world.

Sadly, we only had one full day, and we already left for the overnight bus back the next evening.

As soon as I returned to the little village, I felt uneasy. It’s like coming back from a fun weekend to a piece of reality.

I can say that the second week was easier, mainly because six new girls who I already knew from Vietnam joined us. Among them is also my new dear friend Linda, with whom I can have truly great conversations.

She felt quite similar; after all, it was her first week, and I could tell it was tough for her to adjust to Cambodia.

Last week, we visited families from the Food Bank, which were significantly more severe than the week before. We were with a total of four families, each dependent on the organization's food, and their stories are tragic. If anyone wants, they can check out the Instagram account of @thehopeagency, where you can see some of the families receiving aid. But of course, being there in their small broken homes and looking them in the eyes is something else.

One woman told us through tears that she couldn't sell anything at the market that morning and now had to get rid of a whole bag of self-picked vegetables. I slipped her five dollars when we said goodbye, and she hugged me. Moments like that are something truly special.

But I've also gotten somewhat more accustomed to the circumstances and the issues.

Maybe it just takes a bit of time until I process everything; I can only say that I'm very proud of myself for sticking it out and not going home earlier.

I actually considered doing that several times in the past two weeks. With all the emotional chaos, I developed a really strong homesickness and longed only for peace and my warm, safe bed in Germany.

In the end, it's hard to witness such poverty, but I will always remember it and be able to put my own problems in perspective at home.

The last few days were really nice; we had a huge water fight with the kids on the last day and played funny games. Then we had to say goodbye to the coordinator Jason and drove to Phnom Penh.

Right now, I’m sitting in a nice hotel with a pool, preparing for my flight tomorrow.

So, that's it for my blog post about Cambodia. I'm letting the last evening wind down beautifully; yesterday we had the most delicious pizza and chocolate cake for dessert as a reward for the week.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Bali, and I’m super excited.

I’ll be in touch again,

For those who read my last post, you might remember that we want to start a fundraising campaign. That’s still in the works, we’re currently creating the link…

Maybe I’ll make a separate post about it; it would be great if everyone could contribute a bit.

With very friendly regards,

Your Paula