Note: Having some issues with PayPal – some security info I can’t verify until I get back to the US. They won’t let me withdraw, transfer or accept any new donations until I can resolve the security issues. Don’t worry, until I get home, I’m covering the money from the donations already made; the kids ARE getting their holiday!! For now, if you would like to make additional donations, please do so through http://www.wix.com/dustincathcart/ACODO. Dustin is a fellow volunteer who is handling online donations until ACODO is able to accept them directly.*

I started volunteering at an orphanage yesterday. It’s ACODO (Assisting Cambodia Orphans and the Disabled Organization) yesterday… The kids are amazing. There are 64 children here, ages 3-19 (most of them are 13 and under). They sleep on the floor or the ground with mosquito nets around them. Most days they get enough food, though they’re often a bit short on protein and vegetables.

In general, the kids seem happy; they dance and play and goof around… yesterday, a couple volunteers brought in empty water bottles, and set up a makeshift bowling alley in the sand with an old basketball and using the bottles as pins. They had a blast!!

When I arrived, I was given a tour and introduced to the other volunteers (last week there were six, which is unheard of! Normally there are one or two, tops), then helped teach a small group of children. Suddenly I had a little head on my back and two tiny arms around my waist, wrapped in a huge hug. If I wasn’t already hooked, I certainly was in that moment.

The kids are trained in traditional Khmer dance, and they do performances to try to raise money. Right now, it’s getting to be the slow season for tourists, so the older kids are staying in nearby villages, doing performances there at night. The villagers often don’t have much, but they’ll donate a small amount if they can. The younger kids will go out, dance, and then come back to sleep in the orphanage. The staff took the kids out in two vehicles: a van with more kids than seats, plus a few kids sitting on the roof of the van, holding on to the handles; and a cattle truck, where all the kids sit in the back. (It’s not terribly uncommon here, but it certainly startled me!) At the performance, some of the kids were sitting in the grass, cheering on their friends, and during a break, they saw me with my camera and started posing together. They would ham it up for the camera, then look at the picture and crack up laughing, then pose again. At the end of the night, the kids who are staying there would sleep on the stage or on the ground, and the president of the organization sleeps right alongside them. (The fact that he and his wife stay where the children stay made a big impression on me… It helps me feel more confident that money and food are going to the kids, and not lining someone’s pockets.)

This morning, we worked on English numbers and letters with the little ones, and then helped teach them to ride bikes. They were using adult-sized bikes, and the kids were all about four to six years old, but that didn’t phase them. They would tell us whether they wanted us to hold on, or sit on the bike with them, or just stand guard… and then they were off!

http://www.acodo.org/

The website has information about the costs associated with keeping ACODO up and running. It costs about $73 a day to feed everyone, and there are significant additional costs for rent, clothes, supplies, etc. If anyone is interested in making a donation, you can do so through this site and at the end of the week, I will take the money to the market for food supplies, shampoo, etc., and to help the organization with expenses. The donation can be anonymous if you prefer.

Here’s an album of the photos I’ve taken of the kids so far:
http://picasaweb.google.com/MichelleSumner27/ACODO?authkey=Gv1sRgCKjqiNuGscfBwAE&feat=directlink