Cambodia: Sunflower Orphanage

Hey all,

So the day after we visited the Killing Fields and the S21 prison we decided to do something good. We were picked up in a tuk tuk by a guy named Sury. He works with an orphanage called the Sunflower Orphan Centre, and he was picking us up to go hang out with the kids. On our way over we picked up a bunch of rice, toys, school supplies and soap for the kids. After driving through some very poor alleys and backstreets we finally arrived at the orphanage, and we were all blown away. There were seventeen kids at the Orphan Centre, all between about eight and fourteen, all had AIDS, and all were AWESOME!

We spent the morning playing volleyball and hackysacking with the kids at the orphanage. We all fell in love with the kids and eventually decided to take them all to do something fun. We wanted to take them to the waterpark, but the city doesn't allow people with AIDS in the waterpark. So we figured that taking them to the Phnom Penh zoo would be a sweet alternative. We were totally right, and our trip to the zoo was way better than any water park could have been. 

After waiting out a quick monsoon we all began walking through the coolest zoo I have ever been in. All of the animals pretty much are in there natural habitat and they all looked super healthy and happy. Where most zoos are sad and terrible for the animals, this one seemed like they were actually doing good. 

Anyway, we enjoyed playing with and feeding the monkeys (we didn't have much of a choice since the monkeys just followed us through the whole zoo), seeing a few ginormous Burmese tigers, and watching two elephants dance and molest Miaken. All of the while we were all having the time of our lives. We ate dinner in a restaurant where the only seats are hammocks, and after our meal the kids put on a dance for us. The whole day was perfect and it was a really awesome experience hanging out with such amazing kids. They were all so happy even though they were unfairly dealt the AIDS card. We were eventually dropped off at our hotel in the evening and were forced to say goodbye to all of our new friends. Alrighty, more later.

Cheers,

Conor