Donations are pouring in...

Donations  for the Cambodian Monk Re-integration so far recieved:


Thank you to :
Herman and Josee Jansen- $500
Matt Anderson- $50
Richard Narain- $200 + 1 Laptop
Beth Cox- 1 Dell Laptop
Tim Hilliard- $25

Thanks!

Finding inspiration

Burmese Flag


Tamil Tigers Emblem

Asking you to donate any old digital camera's they have to be sent into Burma to document human rights abuses.

Please Donate to this address and send you Cameras to this address:

Burma Campaign UK
28 Charles Sq
London N1 6HT

Wage Discrimination Bill Passed

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/lily-ledbetter-act-the-fi_n_161423.html?page=10&show_comment_id=20191462

The Cambodian Children's Fund

Cambodian Children's Fund was founded by Hollywood film executive Scott Neeson, who travelled to Cambodia on holiday in early 2003 and found his life changed by the desperate circumstances and unlikely courage of Phnom Penh's most impoverished children.

After a 26 year-career in the film business, including tenure as president of 20th Century Fox International and a similar position with Sony Pictures International, Scott exited the industry to establish and oversee CCF.

http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/

My other blog

http://cipher4.blogspot.com/

Vietnam War Remnants Museum

Bomb used in the 70's
Agent Orange


Pics from my visit to the War Remnants Museum in Vietnam DEC 2009

THE KHMI MONKS SCHOOL FUNDRAISING UPDATE

The Cambodian School Brochure of Classes

I'm currently trying to raise enough money to help 3 former monks re-integrate back into Cambodian society and gain valuable skills in order to get jobs and help their community and family

CURRENTLY ACCEPTING ALL DONATIONS OF ANY AMOUNTS OF $$ AND ANY OLD LAPTOP COMPUTERS THAT YOU MAY HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE
Contact me at : amandanarain@gmail.com for information on how to donate!

The Khmi Monks need your help!-- The meeting of the Monks

Cambodia’s education and health care systems were completely destroyed during the Khmer Rouge Genocide and Cambodia has been unable to make significant gains in rebuilding.
Siem Reap it self is one of the poorest in the Cambodia with over 75% of the poor people living in dire poverty.


This is my travelling sh*t right here!...it was a "good" morning sunrise indeed everyday for me travelling with Thera the monk!
Morning Sunrise- Weldon Irvine




Introducing the Khmi Monks, I met.
One of whom I travelled with to Angkor Wat, who enlightened me mentally, physically and hygienically

3 of them have since decided to leave the monastery to re-integrate back into society, due to family illnesses and the need to support their aging parents but being Khmi monks for many years, they have acquired no material wealth and are currently homeless and at poverty level.
They became monks in the first place because their families were so poor, they were given away to the monks in the monastery because their families could not feed or take care of them anymore.


I took a 10 hr bus ride wit one of the 3 monks and he saved all the food I bought him and the bread the bus company gave him to eat, for the homeless children we would soon encounter when we reached our destination in Siem Reap.
And everyday that we went to tourist spots, he would find some sort of change or money to give the amputee beggars that were begging tourists for money. At times I did not give yet he found a way to give.


The proof of Bank Receipt sent to me by one of the monks after I gave him $240 dollars towards his Tuition and asked him to open a bank account so that I can continue to send financial support.
$8/ month will feed a monk while he re- integrates into society and goes to school to learn a trade in order to live in Cambodian society and help his family.

$20/month will pay his room rent until he can become self sufficient in society

$200/year will pay his University Tuition for one year.

$300 for a used laptop to help him study.

or a used or old lap top donated to help him study will mean the world

Cambodia is kingdom of extreme poverty and donating is always a good thing but helping the spiritually rich to attain a level of ability so that they may in turn help their own society could only benefit us all as human beings---anda*

So I'm asking you to please give.
Email me at amandanarain@gmail.com if you have money or an old computer you would like to donate.




In the monastery his living quarters was have been similarly simple but better hygiene, he had to leave the monastery to take care of his ailing father and wants to offer his liver to his father but the doctors wouldn't permit it medically as his father is approaching death and has limited time to live.

The living quarters of the first monk to leave the monastery due to his father having liver cancer that I am sponsoring. He sleeps on a wooden bench in shack with no electricity or running water to bathe.
For a man of extreme hygiene and mental elevation, I could see the torture in his eyes of having to live like this.



I have personally so far contributed $240 u.s dollars towards one of their University fee for $ 400 u.s for 2 years and $20 u.s to eat and rent a room. I will be setting up a fund to help these three brothers re-integrate back into society and pay their education perhaps as donations/ sponsorships or micro- loans.

If you are interested in donating an old computer or money please contact me at amandanarain@gmail.com and I will give you details to deposit money.
They plan to study IT at a city school University in Phnom Penh will provide me with all registration and tuition receipts as proof of donations going to the right cause.

So I'm asking you to please give.


They approached me in peace!





This young Khmi insisted on making me a sister bracelet on the beach after he learned I was going to help the monks. His English was not enough to explain what he was doing even as I prompted him. He had made me a red and black one and after hearing that my fave colours were yellow and tourquoise, he made a second one exactly in my fave colours.

I must be a Cambodian Girl #3

The 3rd time my Guyanese heritage crossed continents to be mistaken for a local!

Welcome to my 2 week so trekking thru Vietnam and Cambodia

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE TONS OF POSTS THAT ARE ON THE "OLDER POSTS" LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE--for my "cambodian gurrl" experience and meeting of the monks

The foods of my Travel

Cao Lau- a Hoi An , specialty in Vietnam-- chewy noodles made from fresh well water
Cao Lau with fresh coconut water

Vietnamese infused Caesar Salad
Vietnamese Espresso with Hoi An banana leaf sweet cake


Vietnamese Espresso with condensed milk and yogurt
Vietnamese Espresso and Hoi An Banana Leaf cake
Banana Leaf Steamed Fish with Cream of Pumpkin Soup and Lotus Tea
Pho!

My time at the Vietnamese Orphanage

I had the privilege of doing what I've always wanted to do for the Xmas season and my wish came true as I had the opportunity to go to a Vietnamese Orphanage to meet 150 little angels ranging from the ages 5-13, and 4 of whom I sponsored, in the orphanage in the Cuchi District of Vietnam.

Early on a Sunday morning at 730am I along with my friend Ann and her boyfriend who are both residents of Ho Chi Minh city joined a bus load of 30 other people with gifts of all calibre in red shoe boxes and took a hour trip to the countryside to the orphanage.

I've attached pics for you to see.

The Orphanage currently houses 300 children who have been orphaned due to many reasons, some being that they were born mentally handicapped.and possibly abandoned.

When we arrived we could hear from way down the road, squeals of delight and excitement as they started seeing us arrive with the special red boxes and foreign faces.

Feeding the Khmi Street kids

There are 3 little kids I met in the Market of Siem Reap that I saw sleeping on the street and hussling tourists for money. Instead of handing money I took them for a meal of fried rice and iced water.

Hoi An- Vietnam

Bike Riding in Hoi An Village
Hoi An Grandma
Hoi An street-- houses reminded me of a cross between the french quarter and spanish villas
Hoi An veggie market

Fair Trade Shop I Found
Hoi An Resident
Bike Riding my life away

My Hoi An sanctuary

Kung Fu Movies on a 10hr bus ride in 3 languages

My 10 hr bus ride from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap with a Monk

Little Khmi Children bike racing

This reminded me of my childhood in Guyana. A mini vid taken on the way to Angkor Wat from my Tuk Tuk of the little Khmi children racing to and from school on gorgeous sunny day !!Beautiful!

NYE in Can Tho on the Mekong River, Vietnam

Leaving the Kingdom of Cambodia with a smile in flip flops

Leaving the Kingdom of Cambodia with a smile in flip flops with a shaky video on the Tarmac

Angkor Wat- The Ancient Cambodian Kingdom

Many of you may know of Angkor Wat as the place that Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider. It was indeed an ancient kingdom for the Khmi People

Between the 12th and 15th centuries, the great Khmer Empire spread over what are now parts of Laos and Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Its center was Angkor, the home of the kings, temples, fountains and gold.

A series of attacks by the Siamese and exhaustion of the land by over farming led to the abandonment of the city in the early 15th century, historians believe.

That's when most of Angkor fell victim to the jungle for 400 years. There it sat, while nations rose and fell, while America was discovered, while Shakespeare wrote "Hamlet."

When French archaeologists in the late 19th century rediscovered Angkor and started pulling the vines away and looking at what remained, they were astonished. We still are.

It takes all day for even a bare-bones tour. You can start before sunrise and watch the sun come up over the towers of Angkor Wat, stay all day, then watch the sun go down from a hill nearby.

Some of the ruins have been sufficiently restored so that you can wander the halls and climb the steps. Yet most are only partly put back together, giving the ruins a tumble down feel, as if you'd just stopped by after an earthquake.

Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century by King Suryavarman II, is the star of Angkor. But I preferred the Bayon, a nearby temple with 49 towers emblazoned with nearly 200 huge carved images of a pleasantly smiling face. Historians believe the images represent either King Jayavarman VII, who built the temple in the late 12th century, or the Buddhist "compassionate being" Lokesvara, or both.

I must be a Cambodian Girl #1

Mistaken for a local whenever I've travelled in South East Asia, I encountered this man in a restaurant about an hour after I stepped off the plane into the Kingdom of Cambodia and right before I took a 6 hr car ride to Sihanoukville beach with two completely unknown Khmi Men. This smiley man was convinced I was a Cambodian girl. I give thanks to my mixed roots of African, Indian and Chinese for this International compliments. Blending in on this trip has been a beautiful experience

Vietnamese Dragon Dance on New Years Eve in Can THo

Meeting the Cambodian Monks