Gimme the Song and I'll Sing it Like I Mean it.

Can you read instructions?


Can you tell me where I am on the map?

Can you take me far away?

Let's go to where the memories are.

Can you see them? Can you see me?

Dreams live here too.

The "you and me" kind of dreams.

But you have to return to reality.

Sometimes you get forgotten.

People like to hide their bad habits. Don't trust everyone.


Take comfort in the fact that the skies are always, always blue.


And that there's always someone to hold you down to earth when you threaten to fall off.

NB: Post title consists of lyrics from The Feeling's song "Sewn".

Cambodia Photos: Day 7

Whew! It took me a long time to upload all these, but it's still a nice closure for the trip. To start off, here are some class photos. The primary 1 and 2 photos are missing because I didn't get a chance to photograph them.

This is the primary 3 class, the one YM and I taught. You may notice I am not in it...well that's because I was taking the photo. The ones the other teacher took were far too blur.

The primary 4 class...

The primary 6 class...


The primary 5 class...


More candid photos of the kids! Final final chance to take them...my Cambodian angels. Just looking at the photos makes me miss them all over again.

Such vitality, such spirit! And to imagine these children live in a country whose history is rife with suffering, as has been documented in the Genocide Museum.

Entrance to Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, which was a school-turned-hall of horrors.


Graves...


Preserved cells showing the conditions under which prisoners suffered and were tortured. Black and white photos on the walls of each cell depict the state in which the cells were found, with the bodies torn beyond repair. The prisoners were chained to this metal frame for torture, and only had a small canister for a toilet (see 2nd photo).



This wooden frame was used to hold climbing ropes for the children's PE, but was later turned into a dunking device, where prisoners were suspended in large containers of water as a form of torture.


Photos of those who died in this concentration camp are housed within the halls of the museum. Men, women and children alike died brutal deaths under the Pol Pot regime.


Another day gone, closed finally by a spectacular Cambodian sunset that betrays the cries of the dead.


And so ends the Cambodian series. I hope it was informative in some ways (though I did not intend for it to be an entire travel guide for Cambodia), and most of all I hope you enjoyed browsing. I hope to put up the New Zealand photos as soon as I have the time and patience, so look forward to that and more of my daily shots! (:

Cambodia Photos: Day 6

Here we go. Nothing much for day 6, just a few more photos of the kids and the classroom (I'm sure you can tell the difference) so I'm not going to comment much...Just enjoy!

Ok that was it! Told you it wasn't much. Well, hopefully more photos up soon! There's a couple more days worth to come. Oh and I've also added some links on the right so that it's easier to look at each day's photos without having to go trawl the archives. Yeah.

Cambodia Photos: Day 5

Hope you enjoyed that video! Here we go, day five pictures WAY overdue. Muchos apologies. Exams, school, blahblahlazyblahblah. Yes now on with the pictures. (Note to self: be more selective! I edited this post so often just to do that.) Most of them will be of children again, because the only times I really got to take photos was during recess or when I had a bit of spare time during activities.

Here're kids from my primary 3 class. The mischievous looking one at the top is Joseph. The little monkey in the centre is Pitou! He doesn't like taking photos much, so this is a rare one that is actually clear. Even then he isn't looking directly at the camera but well...I can't remember what the other names are...it's been a while. I need to go refer to that list... And this photo needs cropping.


The three...


...um, FOUR musketeers! They're so cute with their identical haircuts and the heights at a gradient...

These two are very photogenic and enjoy taking photos very much. The one on the left is from the orphanage, and the one on the right has amazingly bright eyes. The size of this photo doesn't do them much justice, but as you can see, they are really Cambodian angels.

Wait for it...wait for it...that's right, I got their names...L-R: Savuth (sa-VOOT), Somnang, Joseph! YESS. Haha. Cute kids.



This girl...I'm not sure what her name is because she isn't in my class...but she is from the orphanage too, and whenever I take photos of her she never smiles. That is, unless she's playing with the other children. Which is a little sad...you wonder what her childhood must have been like.


A primary five boy, if I'm not wrong. He was taking me around the schoolyard so I could take photos and I got this nice one. It looks like he's peering right through an invisible window. Actually he was holding on to a hanging rope. Friendly chap.


Happy kids!


They specially posed in a bunch for me to take this...

Mei Sugaya (daughter of a Japanese missionary) and Ouk Ratama, from the primary 3 class. Really sweet girls.

This photo just says: =X

The little clique from the primary 3 class...and a friend in the background who was making funny faces in the camera...I wonder if she knew I captured her in it too...Anyway. This was just before the art lesson when we got them to make themed drawings.


I don't know what this pose is supposed to be, but it looks like some WWE thing that these kids were into...at least that was the impression I got. Nevertheless, you can tell that they are vibrant spirits.


Another pose in front of the water pump (now apparently unused).

The drawing class! Two themes: "My Best Friend" and "My House". Plenty of creativity here, as you can see Joseph and Piakedey (pronounced pii-kuh-dai) did a joint drawing! You can't tell from the photos but these are really detailed drawings. (And behind you can see the recorder fingering chart that we used to teach them to play the recorder...)

And this is Phanit (fa-nit), from my sister's class, after school. He looks a little worried here, maybe it's because he knows it's almost the last day that we're going to teach them. This was the last chance I had to take so many candid photos of the children.

Well, that's all for today, and you know there's always more coming soon!