We had found a location and facility for CFI to set up its new center. But before we could begin renovations we had to clear the old garden and clean up the general backyard area. Fortunately we had the help of the students from Chrey, the village we previously worked in.
I was hoping for a couple dozen volunteers but when I arrived in the truck I was surprised to find nearly 50 children and teenagers ready and excited to work; in some cases kids I hadn’t seen in nearly a year.
After a ride along the bumpy dirt roads we finally arrived at the new facility. I tried to give the kids a tour of the house but they were too excited to listen. They ran up and down the stairs and in and out of the different rooms. And it wasn’t just the younger kids. The older, 'cool' kids were having fun too.
Our task for the first day was to cut down the banana trees. Abundant in Cambodia, they bear fruit only once and are not very strong. We’ve all used the expression, “It’s a jungle out there.” But when it came to the backyard, really, it was a jungle out there! Wandering merely a few yards from the house one immediately became disoriented and lost sight of the house. Cutting down the banana trees in the backyard would clear out a significant amount of space and create a safer environment for the facility.
From the moment we began work the entire garden was full of children kicking against and jumping on the trees until they fell, pushing down and cutting the trunks, digging out the roots. Once the trees were down and chopped up, we dragged them to a hole at the end of the garden which gradually filled up with banana-tree-trunks and leaves.
It was a typically hot Cambodian day; the sun beating down on us for hours. When we tried to wipe the sweat from our faces we only smeared dirt into the sweat. All of our hands and clothes were covered in mud and banana-tree-trunk juice. Carrying the trees away, the kids managed to avoid the half-inch long red ants scurrying along the discarded plants. In fact, I think I was the only one to yelp when they tried to bite their way through my flesh.
"Everyone is hot and dirty and smelly," said Fong at the end of the day. Already the backyard looked like an entirely different place. We could actually start to imagine a garden with flowers blooming and children playing. Eventually there will be swings for play time and benches for studying. And while the children who helped us that day live some distance from the new facility, we plan to arrange transportation a few times a week so they can benefit from what on this day they helped create.
- Jenny
i like it
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