Hi everyone! Ive gotten a few messages from some of you asking why I'm not responding to any comments and it's because I can't see any comments for some reason. I'm not sure why, but I apologize for not responding.
Yesterday: Yesterday was pretty packed with some great things. First, I missed the bus to the dump site where all the homeless people were living. I was upset about it, but hopefully I'll get some pictures from some friends. Because of the time difference, I couldn't fall asleep until 7am here! I overslept until literally 1:59 pm and the bus left at 2:00! I ran outside but the tour had just left! Bummer!
I decided (since I was all alone at this point) that I would go on a little adventure. I took a tuk tuk into town to the 'Russian Market'. I have no idea why it's called that because all I saw were Cambodians. I bought some little flutes for the children at the worksite as a gift. I've been really excited about doing anything here that involves exchanging money. Pretty much everything (with the exception of going to dinner and such) is negotiable. I found out that bargaining and negotiating is a very big part of life here. Things aren't at a set price, and for tourists that can be unfortunate at times. Yes, I learned the hard way. The first day I was here our tuk tuk driver was cheap! He asked for $20 for the day! I immediately thought of how much a taxi ride into Logan airport is... Around $60. It takes no more than a half hour for the driver and then they are gone to another job. This guy took us everywhere that day, and we felt bad that when we gave him a $10 tip for the day, he almost freaked he was so excited. The next day though, I got in a tuk tuk and didn't ask ahead of time how much the ride was going to be. I went out for about 30 minutes and when we got back the driver asked for $10! It wasnt a lot by our standards, but he was clearly taking advantage of me. Needless to say, I've been using the first guy since then and hooking him up for being so honest.
Last night I went out with Britanny; she accompanied me on my quest to find fried tarantulas. When the attempt was a bust, I simply asked the tuk tuk driver if he knew where we could find them. He said he didn't, but he had a friend that did. I got excited, but the excitement soon turned to slight fear. He took us to a place really far away from where we had been used to going. There were no tourists in this area, and he brought us into a local place that was clearly frequented by the same individuals day in and day out. He brought us in a sat Britanny and I down at a table with five Cambodian guys. One spoke English quite well, and as soon as we sat down the questions started. He was asking where we were from-what we were doing here-how long we were staying, but his tone was overly friendly and it gave me a weird feeling of insecurity. At this point I was ready to throw down at a moments notice, but nothing was happening. Sooner or later our tuk tuk driver asked for $10 and left! We were alone not really knowing what was going on, but to relieve all of your fears, I made it out alive! I ended up that the tuk tuk driver went to try to find me the exotic food I wanted to try, and the 5 gentleman were actually being awesome people to us. The one who spoke English well told us about his life and what it was like to grow up following the Khmer Rouge. He gave us further insight as to what it was like to be poor and living in Cambodia, how he works long days and how he would love to get married and have a few kids. In some ways it was so similar to what you would hear in the US, but in other ways a complete juxtaposition to our lifestyles here. In the end, we had a blast and met some real authentic Cambodians, shared a lot of toasts, and learned about the real lives of the people here. However, Brittany doesn't want me to plan anymore adventures. She will plan the rest of them!
Today: Today was the first day we went to the sites. Oh my goodness I cannot wait to upload these pictures! W are building row houses, and there are 350+ packed in such a small area constructing these amazing homes for our residents. The process is interesting in the sense that all of the professionals that are guiding us only speak Khmer. All of the correcting and teaching are done through body language. It makes for an interesting couple of seconds when you're trying to find out where the bathrooms are!
My team is fabulous; there is a group of professionals from Daimler Corporation but each one if from a different country. I'm having a great time chatting with them, and because I'm here without friends, I sat down with them for dinner tonight and had a fantastic time asking them all about their various countries and lives. I learned so much about South Africa, South Korea, China, Singapore and Australia. The one thing we discovered is that each country has some weird food that the locals eat, but seems disgusting to foreigners.
There is also a famous movie actress from Germany in my group. Her and her friends are a riot, especially Christian the coordinator from the group. Ive never met anyone as sarcastic as him and it was a ball going back and forth in conversation with him!
Today was amazing; I'm starting to really appreciate what kind of an impact this trip is going to make on me when I'm done and I'm looking forward to the motivation and inspiration that will help carry me through the challenges of dedicating my life to philanthropy and serving others.
-Jared
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