Day 24

Today we got to sleep in, which was awesome for a change. We didn't actually have to be anywhere until afternoon so the sleep was much appreciated. Ok I lie, yes we got to sleep in, but we were so use to getting up early it kinda just came natural to us. Since we were up and really had nothing to do the only thing we could think of doing is internet for a while until it was time to start our day adventures. Got me on a computer and first thing I did was call mother and woke her up in the middle of the night her time.... oops. Oh well it was nice chatting with the lovely lady, even though she was right out of it.

We left the guesthouse around noon and headed to another orphange called New Future for Children (NFC). When we got there we were swormed with children, teenagers, and even adults living there. The teenage girls were the most excited because the whole day was planned around them and spreading possitive attitude and spirits for these young girls. They took us up to their room, only the girls... the boys played bball with the boys. While we were upstairs with the girls they painted our nails and talked girl talk, it was quite interesting because we learned a lot about these girls and how low their self-esteem is compared to the boys. They told us how they hate the color of their skin, how they wanted to be white because white is so beautiful, but we described how most white people stay out all day long trying to get a tan because we hate being so white. They were shocked when we told them this. More conversation was had and then we all ate lunch together before we started our workshop.

Once lunch was over we headed into a tiny room with over 100 people, no fans, no AC, we were sweaty. We put together a slideshow all about Canada cause they wanted to learn more about our country and presented it to them. They couldn't believe Canada didn't have elephants, and they also didn't understand why we thought it was so hot in Cambodia until we told them how cold it got in Canada, then they knew. After the slideshow we headed outside to the play area and got into groups. My group was obviously the best, wild ones I had. We played games with the girls to break the ice, which they really enjoyed. They were having loads of fun, my group even had our own cheer before every game. I would do that, that's the O-Crew in me I tell ya. After spending most of the afternoon playing games we sat down in our groups and talked about our goals and our dreams. This was important because so many of these girls have big dreams, but will never accomplish them, because they end up going into the sex industry to make money because they are unable to pay for proper school. Hearing the dreams of these girls was amazing, so many of them want to be doctors, and business owners, and even teachers. It was great, then they asked me my goals and dreams... well that caught me off guard, because I honestly didn't know how to answer that. Got me thinking a lot and all the dreams I thought I had meant nothing to me really, it just took a bunch of teenage girls who may never be able to achieve their dreams to realize it.

Once the discussion was over we set up a fitness workout/game for the girls. Most girls are lacking in the exercise so we decided it would be good for them to experience fitness in a fun setting. Broke into two different teams, my team was called team number one... how original, I know right. Well lets just say team number one kicked team number two's ass. I think it was because we were better at cheering... but they did have me on their team so of course. After spending the rest of the day playing around we gathered the gang... including everyone living at NFC and took them on a boat cruise on the river. While we were on the boat I got to meet some of the boys living at NFC and they also had interesting stories of their own. It so weird meeting these individuals because they will tell you their whole life story and act like it doesn't affect them while you're sitting there feeling so bad, but you know feeling bad is not what they want, they just want a friend to talk to. Its weird to me. Anyways we ended up putting some music on and they taught us some real Cambodian dances... I couldn't pull it off, but we all know my hips don't move. It was fun though watching the sun go down dancing the night away with the children/teenagers.

Once the boat was over we said our goodbyes, most of the girls started crying, which was hard. They didn't want us to go. As we were leaving they kept telling us to come back and visit some day. I couldn't say I would be back, but hopefully one day I will be back to visit. And hopefully they all remain in school and keep dreaming big dreams because I really want these girls to make it.

We got back to the guesthouse and all of us ladies went and got poutine and had a girls night. We really enjoyed not having the boys around for a change. We could talk girl talk, even though we ended up just chilling out watching movies for the night and then peaced to bed.