Beng Melea Ruins - A surprise school for orphans.

Photos by Amee Evans Godwin - more photos here!

After a few days exploring Angkor Wat area, we left Siem Reap town to go to a temple complex 40K away. Beng Melea is known as the true ‘jungle’ complex. Where Ta Prohm is the nearby temple the forest has tried to reclaim, Beng Melea is truly part of the jungle. It has not been restored and is only navigable with a local guide. Ours was Mai, a landmine victim who spoke only a few words of Engish but was expressive and patient, repeating each Khmer phrase until we could get it. She had lost her lower leg at the age of 15 in an area explosion. This complex is completely de-mined but until recently was considered on the risky side without a guide. It is deeply mysterious, quiet and shady with huge broken stone blocks that you must navigate.

While having a bite of lunch back at the small village road we were approached by a handsome young man who handed us a small flyer about his orphanage/school across the street. He described himself as a lifelong orphan who made his work with children, orphans and teaching English. The flyer invited any visitor to check out the small school and garden and donate any needed items including rice, fruit, notebooks, toothbrushes, clothing and especially a big smile and an open heart. On a deeper level, they need yearly sponsors for the boys.

Mr. Vannak led us across the dirt road to a small courtyard where some 6 or 7 dusty boys kicked a soccer ball. He showed us the small but vital schoolroom where he had been teaching English related to perma-culture concepts. He had recently taken a perma-culture class that some Australians gave in a nearby village. Amee toured the garden which was very good looking, while Bodhi began to play with the boys. We had a Cambodian hackeysack which many of them seemed new to (though it is ubiquitous in the cities), Bodhi began to show them.

Mr. Vannak told us that they had a small piece of land nearby where they hoped to farm vegetables, he wanted to show us. We got in the tuktuk and left Bodhi playing with the boys, he was thrilled to be playing with some boys his age and very comfortable to be left alone there.

We drove out to a dirt track that led to a pagoda with a few monks hanging around outside with a few ‘monk boys’ – they are helpers for pagodas. The track led past the pagoda to a nice plot of land including broad leafy fields and a fish pond. The little fish he had seeded the pond with were jumping furiously. The sun was very bright as Vannak told us of his plans to clear the land, which would require a tractor and cost some $700 for the acre. He wants to grow vegetables there in a perma-culture method. They are beginning to compost and reuse other materials such as animal poop for fertilizer. He wished to grade the road as well so that visitors could easily come to the land and he could access the vegetable plot more easily. I asked where they would get their rice and he told me that it was not enough land to cultivate rice for them, they need to buy their rice.

Some internal decision had gone on between Amee and I by this point, we recognized that this project, the Cambodian Children’s Rural Development Organization or CCRDO was very very worthy and very in need. Many projects we have visited were further along than this one and it struck a chord with us. Here was an orphaned boy, like our Bodhi, who had dedicated his life at a young age to helping other orphans in a place and situation that had very little help or other resources. We could see it with our own eyes, and perhaps, we could help.

Back at the school, Vannak told me that they needed a water pump and pipeline to bring water from the river across the way, to the school so they would have running water. The pump would cost $50. This I could manage, I thought. I am a supporter of Heifer International which uses the method of identifying one farm animal as a gift for a needy village or family - the supporter purchases one goat to give to a child, and is told how much benefit that goat will provide to that one person. I felt that here was a similar and accessible method of helping, I could see the benefit with my own eyes – for $50 I could buy a water pump that would bring running water to a school housing 17 orphans run by an honest and hardworking orphan himself.

I agreed to buy the pump and Vannak followed us on his moto into the town, Dundek, some 30K away. When we got to the town he was at the hardware shop, but the news was not so great. The pump he wanted was not in stock, the only one they had was matched with a higher powered generator than he could afford. I sensed the downward spiral approaching. We picked out some other supplies for the kids including blank writing books, pens, toothbrushes, toothpaste and some Cambodian hackeysacks! We gave him the $50 so he could buy the pump in Siem Reap on another day and bid him farewell. We hope to help him build a website so he can show the world the great work they are doing in Beng Melea and increase their support. Right now 80% of their budget is from passing tourists at Beng Melea, he wants to turn this into only 10% with the remainder from more reliable steady sources such as sponsorship of the children. He has a full non-profit setup with the proper forms and bank accounts. Meeting Vannak and the boys and helping just a little was a nice surprise for Christmas Eve.