First Week At Wat Opot 2010

On My Arrival I spotted Wayne Mattyse Founder and Director of the children's communinty.

He was over in an area that was being worked on. Upgraded living quaters for Adults with HIV living in the community and helping with the everyday running of it.

It was great to see Wayne again and he seemed in a motivated spirit.

Wayne filled me in on the progression of the Jewellery project from last years beginnings and on some of the areas it fell down it, also the state of it at that point.

He explained that after the tempory project manager, who had been appointed to help it along, had left just two months earlier...all the tools and materials that were left were put into a locked cupboard awaiting my return. He also explained to me that the project manager had become such a perfectionist around the product being made that she had become very stricked on the children to make the jewellery perfect...hence the children no longer enjoyed the process of what they were apart of.
Wayne also advised me that the jewellery project had got moved from one space to another a fair bit...due to the changing needs of the Childrens Community.

So with this information all registered into my brain, I was now able to look at what was needing to be done to reignite interest in this craft project.

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First I located all the tools and Materials and then I then discussed and negotiated with Wayne for a new space to set up the project again. Wayne happily came to the party for me and allocated a rather spacious room to be of use...........the only catch was that it would be one week before I could get into this space to set it up.......as One of the woman living with HIV was using it as her sleeping quarters until her newly made one was being completed. Who was I to be the westerner and start being demanding........

But I found that this was going to turn out to be a week of reconnecting, not only with the children but some key people I felt guided to talk to.
I also used the time to formulate what was needed to be done to the room to personalise it and make it into a space where it not only could be used as a space for Jewellery Making, a shop for selling the product made to visiting volunteers .......................but a space that was somewhere the children could come to try their hands at any crafts that volunteers would like to teach at a given time.



I looked at the room provided with a Cambodian friend and we both agreed that a new color of paint was needed to brighten up the room...also I felt it would give the craft room an identity of its own and less likely that it would be moved.......but we'll see.
With monies I had raised from fund raising efforts back in Christchurch.
I purchased 4 litres of white paint, 6 tins of tint and paint brushes and a roller for the children who wanted to help with this activity. So by the end of week 1 of 2010's visit we started preparing the room for painting. It started off with just me and Peeip the empolyed handy man and one of the boys who he recruited and within just a couple of hours I had the wonderfully helpful and enthusiastic volunteer Melinda and many of the children were showing interest in what was going on in this room.




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Getting back to the Jewellery Project 2010

I had just boarded my flight from Auckland to Bangkok...............not only feeling very shattered by experiencing sleep deprivation from the 7.1 Earth Quake that hit the Canterbury region two weeks earlier.....I was excited and nervous as what to find with the jewellery project I had started and nurtured into fruition back in July / August 2009. Here I was off back to The very community that has seemed to have captured my heart and my attention to want me to help them in the best ways that I can.
I arrive in Phnom Penh to the familiar sights and smells of a city with many people in it, many in poverty, especially comparison to the poor of New Zealand. Hundreds of people riding or being transported by the Moto or Tuk Tuk to work or school. Trucks with the back try crammed full of people going to work in the garment factories.

I am picked up from the airport from the driver I try to use when in Phnom Penh. Mr Sok. Its good to employ Sok for a few hours , as he has good english I am able to pick up any supplies needed for the Jewellery Craft Project before heading off to Wat Opot.
I have 2 days in Phnom Penh to get the supplies and try and get over any jet lag etc before my stay with the children.

Mr Sok was able to help me locate a place where I was able to buy rolls of copper wire. Cambodia is a place that uses all the resorces they have to create new resources. The place I was taken to, was a place where they pulled apart or rebuild electrical items....these items having cooper wire in them is handy for my needs. So after some pigeon discussion and good translation of Sok I was able to buy 2.5 kilos of various sizes and lengths of copper wire. Only $38 US dollars.......

I also had Sok take me to where there are Art Supplies and Paper. I wanted to get some supplies of Art pencils , acrylic paints and the likes for the Art students at the Childrens community.

Like wise I got Sok to take me to the russian market to see if I could get some sand papers etc for the Jewellery project.

The morning of Day 3 in Phnom Penh I headed for Wat Opot Community.

Trip to Wat Opot 2010

Another year of fundraising went by and before I knew it it was time to book my next visit to help at Wat Opot. This was booked for departure from NZ on the 21st September for a visit of one month.

Earlier in the year 2nd May 2010 I found myself busy not only making and selling Paua Flowers but also undertaking yet another fund raising golf tournament, of which I was able to raise $900. see Golf Tournament Link.

After this was achieved I realise that this kind of fund raising that I had under taken and solely organised myself would take its toll and left me feeling quite exhausted. I put it out there to the big wide universe that......If it was divine and right for me to be doing this work with Wat Opot then it was just simply not possible to be doing this alone. And low and behold it was only just 3 weeks after a supportive article in the Bay Harbour News, for what I am doing with Wat Opot and the Golf Tournament, that I received a phone call from Ronald Rodger from Christchurch Polytech College of Film and Documentary.

Ronald heads this department of Polytech and he said to me that he was very touched by what I was doing for Wat opot in Cambodia that he too felt compelled to help. So after some fundermental conversations it was agreed that he would come to Wat Opot Cambodia during the time I would be there. His mission was not only to film some of what I was doing there with the Craft project but also to Capture Wat Opot childrens community and in doing so hopefully a a special documentary would take shape to share with New Zealand.

So here is 2010's visit back to Wat Opots Children's Community.... Follow the post I put on this for a more indepth understanding of this children's communit, and this time I will share some of the individual children's story's of which I feel privaalged to know and feel heartened to spend time with these children on my visit of 2010.