EWOW in Cambodia

Our work is done... for this year.

2007-11-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

Today began early as we left for Kompong Phhluck around 8:30-9:00 with Lourm, her husband Davuth and their son Dawin. Korm Pung Pluck is about 1 to 1.5 hours outside of Siem Reap a 45 minute very bumpy back-road drive and then another 35 minute boat ride brings us to the homes on stilts.

We met with four children and their families today, Phany, a 12 year-old boy with 4 brothers and 3 sisters, Sina, a 13 year-old girl with 5 sisters and two brothers, Caaiep, a 13 year-old girl with one brother and one sister, and Raath, a 6 year-old girl with 2 brothers and two sisters. The kids spent the better part of the day photographing their life on the lake as we toured more of Tonle Sap and broke for lunch.

Late in the afternoon we met the children at school to collect their cameras and see their class rooms. Overall today was a great experience and I look forward to seeing the developed photos in the morning. Lourm, our friend/translator is making sure the children receive a copy of the photos. We fly out tomorrow and are unable to make the rounds to return the photos ourselves.

Today has been a very long day and the festival does not begin until 10pm tonight. I highly doubt we will still be awake to make the exhibit. For Shannon and I we are extremely exhausted after a day of working with the children. I believe it is due to the emotions that we go through while working with them and seeing their life. They are very happy, proud people but it is still very difficult to see how these families live on a day-to-day basis.

To see more photos of Kompong Phhluck Please Click Here

To all of you who have been keeping up with our adventures via the blog, thank you and we will see you home soon.

Love,
Ty & Shannon

Recovering the cameras

2007-11-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

Monday afternoon we made our way back out to the Tonle Sap. Our boat guide from our first trip was there waiting on us. I feel very comfortable with the people I now call my friends even more so than before. Not only did we meet with every family that participated but we spent time on the lake just enjoying our time with one another. Shannon has some good photos of this. I was allowed to drive the boat which was pretty cool. The boats on the Tonle are a bit more primitive than the boats we are used to. The steering is attached to heavy wire that is connected to the rudder of the boat and the throttle is a heavy cord that you hold between your toes and push down to accelerate.

Today we begin our trip to Kompong Phhluck to work most of the day with four more children. We are also making sure all photos are processed before we leave so that children and their families have copies of the photos. I am leaving a link to photos of the children and their families from Tonle Sap. I hope to post one more blog on our work at Kourm Pong Pluck before heading back to the states. It has once again been an incredible trip and I look forward to bringing the experience back to Springfield. Photos of children and their families

Festival Hopping

2007-11-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

It has been a few days of attending photography events and networking. As usual I always meet some of the most incredible people here at the festival. I have been able to speak to few very affluent people about EWOW and our mission and I am working on a potentially very exciting exhibit for the Cambodia project(s). I cannot discuss the specifics as it is the infancy stages. I also want to take a minute to thank a very good friend of ours from the festival. Her name is Smith, she is originally from San Fransisco but is working throughout the world. She is a huge advocate for EWOW and has introduced me to some incredible people here. Please check her documentary film work out at www.cinesmith.net and her photography at www.shuttersmith.net

This afternoon we will be returning to Tonle Sap to pick up the cameras from the children. This is very exciting. It reminds me of Christmas when we pick the cameras up to be processed. Tomorrow we will be in Kourm Pong Pluck for the day working with children. This area is very similar to Tonle Sap except the homes are not floating but built on stilts throughout the lake. Until then stay warm back home. We have been able to enjoy 70 degree mornings and mid 80 afternoons. Every day has been dry and beautiful. We did have to purchase a hospital mask for Shannon. There is a lot of dust and dirt in the air and it has gotten into Shannon's lungs. Here cough has become increasingly worse so we felt it was time to mask her. She is doing fine though.

Here is a link to some more photos of Siem Reap. Street Vendors of Siem Reap

Take care,
Ty & Shannon

Life on the lake... our work begins.

2007-11-23T17:04:00.000-08:00

Friday started out pretty much like any of other day. Up very early for breakfast at our hotel. The hotel restaurant is on an outdoor patio with a very intimate jungle-like feel. The landscaping and man made ponds are gorgeous. We are always greeted by the croaking of bullfrogs and the squeaking of geckos. Shannon very much enjoys the extra company during breakfast.

We spent the morning taking in a little shopping in the markets. We now know if you are going to shop it is best to start early in the morning. Everyone is a bit groggy and not attacking you to
purchase something from them.

Friday afternoon we met up with Lourm and her husband Davuth. I wanted to begin work at Kourm Pong Pluck today but found it was too far away to begin in the afternoon. Since I am at the mercy of Lourm and Davuth I must wait for Lourm's day off to work at Kourm Pong Pluck. Eager to begin our project I asked if we could begin part of the project in the Tonle Sap region. So we headed off to the great lake. Tonle Sap is about 25 minutes outside of Siem Reap and it was like nothing I had ever seen before in my life. To see these homes floating in what seemed like the ocean was breathtaking and somewhat uneasy. Lourm and Davuth quickly found us a boat guide who was cooperative with assisting in our project. Let me back up a bit and explain why a cooperative boat guide is imperative. Guides make their money by the amount of tours they take out. When you purchase your ticket to enter Tonle Sap you have 90 minutes allowed on the lake and then you must return to shore. Our guide was more than willing to not only skip the tour but help us find four children on the lake, enter their home (boat) and talk with their families about our project as well as teach the children how to use the cameras and explain what we would like for them to document. This was a big task to take on and he did a great job! Our first priority was to find an area of the lake that was home to Cambodian families. As I have told you in a previous blog the lake is shared by Cambodians and Vietnamese and they do not seem to play well together.

After 20 minutes in the boat we had reached an area of the lake that was home to Cambodian families. Our driver and Lourm begin to signal and speak to the families and one by one they allowed us to enter their homes. I cannot begin to explain what the experience was like. I really believed I had seen some extreme poverty inland in Siem Reap but nothing compared to seeing a family of 10 living on a 6'x12' floating vessel. To see how they made use of their space was simply amazing. Hammocks in tiers from ceiling to floor to conserve space there was actually a TV in one of the boats with an outdoor antenna. I was told later they have batteries on board to generate electricity for the TV.

We were able to meet with four children and their families. I was able to show them some basic camera skills via Lourm's translation and the children said they would document their life on the Tonle Sap for the next three days. Our participants from Tonle Sap are Kun, Rath, Rado and Hong. Kun is seventeen years old and has six brothers and sisters. Kun has to do a lot of the everyday upkeep on the boat. Her mom's leg was severely deformed due to being tortured by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge during the genocide period. Rath is nine years old and has seven brothers and sisters, she is an incredibly beautiful child. Rado is fourteen years old and has three brothers. Rado is very excited to begin photographing his life on the lake. Our last child is Hong. Hong was our assistant on the boat and was a child you instantly wanted to know more about. Hong is 12 years old, has three brothers and sisters and attends school on the lake as well. One very interesting note about school, you must be able to swim. If a child cannot swim they cannot attend school.

On Monday we will begin our journey back to Tonle Sap to gather the cameras and to discover life on the Tonle Sap through the eyes of a child. Over the next couple days we will be attending the photography festival and I will be documenting some Cambodian traditions.

If you would like to see more photos from Tonle Sap Please Click Here

Up at it very early

2007-11-22T08:02:00.000-08:00

Well I must say the time change has finally taken its toll on us. This is the first night we have been able to stay awake past 7:30. The last two nights we were asleep very early and up by 3:30am with nothing to do. This morning I took Shannon out to the temples of Angkor and showed her around a few of the more well known temples, Angkor Wat, Bayon and Tah Prohm. By mid-morning the temples began to fill with buses from South Korea and tours from the Phenom Penh area. Tourism is growing at an alarming rate and it is much busier in the city of Siem Reap this year than last. Due to the heavy tourism most of the temples are under restoration and much of the accessible ares we were able to visit last year are now closed.

After morning temple tour we met with Juliette Collineau, who is the new director of Anjoli. This is the new name of the center the Angkor Photography Festival manages. Juliette is working with 50 plus street children daily. Her and the three assistants teach the children Khmer, their native language as well as English. Photography and dance programs are conducted at the center throughout the year. This is the same center we visited with last year and it was very nice to return and see two of EWOW's photographs displayed on their main floor. While meeting with Juliette we donated back the proceeds we had earned from our March 2007 exhibit.

Our evening was spent at The Heritage Hotel for the Angkor Photography Festival. It was another night of meeting up with friends from last year and viewing some incredible photography.

The Internet has been a bit difficult to access this year due to connectivity and finding a cafe with a solid connection. Our trusted cafe from last year that T. (Teresa) and I spent many late nights at is closed. They seemed to have the best connection even when the Internet was down in most of the city you could still get online at LK.

That is it for tonight. We are planning to begin our project tomorrow afternoon. I will keep you posted. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Ty and Shannon

We made it and all is well!

2007-11-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

We finally landed in Cambodia Tuesday 11/20 around 12:40pm. After 23 hours of flying and 13 hours of layovers it is nice to be on the the ground for more than a few hours. Our driver from the hotel picked us up by tuk-tuk (a moped with a small cart attached to the back of it). Normally, I like to use tuk-tuks for transportation around Siem Reap but it was a bit humorous and uncomfortable to put all our suitcases, carry-ons and Shannon and I in a cart. We are staying in a newer hotel in the downtown area called The River Gardens. It is a very nice, quaint hotel with only nine rooms. The hotel is not really located in the tourist area of Siem Reap and donates a portion of the hotel costs back to an organization that is trying to provide clean water filters for the Cambodia citizens... very cool!

Tuesday late afternoon I met with Lourm Voeng. Lourm is the lady who helped us last year with part of our program by finding children in the village area to work with. She will be assisting us again this year by providing translation for the Tonle Sap project. We have mapped out an area we would like to concentrate on. We will be working in a city called Korm Pong Pluck. This city is in the Tonle Sap region and is home to 100% Cambodians. I am learning that Tonle Sap is slowly becoming home to many Vietnamese and is causing feuds between the Cambodian citizens and the Vietnamese. Lourm suggested this area as it is off the tourism radar and will be more acceptable to working with us as it only Cambodian Citizenship.

Tuesday evening we headed out to the Wat Athvea Pagoda for our first night at the Angkor Photography Festival. The Pagoda is home to a small temple, an orphanage and a school for the orphans. The title of Tuesday night's exhibit was "International Children's Rights"and EWOW was one of the exhibitors. It was a perfect location for our work to be projected. We had a very good crowd and a lot of children on hand for the nights festivities.

Wednesday morning started very early, 5:45am to be exact. While meeting with Lourm on Tuesday she had mentioned her brother Vanna Voeng would be getting married on Wednesday and would like for us to attend. We were very excited to be asked to be a part of a traditional Cambodian wedding and couldn't turn it down. A typical Cambodian wedding last 2 days and begins very early in the morning hence the reason we were up. Lourm and Soeng picked us up outside our hotel and we were off to Lourm's grandparents house for the beginning ceremonies. What we didn't know is Shannon was going to be a part of the ceremony and would be wearing traditional Cambodian clothing and makeup. Yes, I have pictures. I on the other hand was permitted to photograph the ceremony. This was a great privilege and I felt very honored to be a part of my friend's family wedding. We spent all of the morning at the ceremony and broke away around 12pm so we could catch up on some email and I could update everyone with our tip thus far.

Tonight we will be back at the festival for more projected exhibits at the Carnet D' Asie. I hope to have some pictures posted to the blog in the next few days. I am having some technical difficulties... Cambodia. T., I am sure you understand what I mean.

Take care everyone,
Ty and Shannon