Living in small town Cambodia

We are volunteering at Harmony Farm. Two weeks ago, when we set out for the farm, we intended to stay for one week. Now it looks like we will be here for nearly three weeks instead. Harmony Farm is located in Beng Mealea, Cambodia. It is less than one hundred kilometers from Siem Reap.

Beng Mealea is a very small town, and is quite remote. In town there is the fantastic ruins of a temple built by Suryavarman II the same guy who built Angkor Wat (I'm sure that both were actually built by his servants and he never got his fingernails dirty). Beng Mealea temple is amazing. There are giant trees growing through the intricately carved stones.






As a result of the temple Beng Mealea gets some tourists and is able to generate some income from them, but most people in the town are quite poor. Harmony Farm is an important part of this community. It is an orphanage that houses more than twenty children. It is a free school that teaches English and vocational training to any children who are able to attend. This is really important because many kids are not able to attend the government school for various reasons including the cost of the uniform. Harmony Farm provides free breakfast for any children who come each morning. Finally, Harmony Farm is also a farm. They are starting a permaculture farm so that one day they can be self sufficient. This is where David and I spend our days. They have some big plans for the near future including building a new residence for the children, and building a nursery for plants. It looks like these projects will not get going during our stay at the farm, but we are able to help with some of the preliminary work, and we have been spending some time preparing more garden beds for planting. The work that we are doing at the farm is not that exciting, but it is giving us the wonderful opportunity to, for a short time, be a part of a charming community.

Beng Mealea is a small community. We are already beginning to recognize many of the people who we pass one the streets when we walk from the house we stay in to the farm. Many of the locals are beginning to recognize us too (not just because we are white; they can tell us apart from the other tourists). When we walk to and from the farm, children yell hello and wave to us. A group of girls has learned my name and they chase me down in the street calling out "Malina, Malina". The children of one family we pass each day get their English confused and they yell bye bye as we approach then hello as we walk away after we pass their house. Many of the locals have let us know in various ways that the work that Harmony Farm does is valuable to their community.


In a typical day in Beng Mealea, we wake up early and see the red sun rising in the smoky sky while we get dressed and ready to go. We walk down the street to have a hot bowl of noodle soup for breakfast while the restaurant owners' giggling youngest daughter plays peek-a-boo with us.


We walk half an hour to get to the farm where we work a few hours until the sun and the heat chase us back into town for a lengthy lunch break in the shade. It is approaching the hot time of year here and the temperatures are in the high thirties at midday. We often spend our break reading or catching up on little things that need to get done. In the middle of the afternoon we walk back to the farm and work again until around five o'clock when we head back home. On the way we often walk with a group of children heading home from the government school. They practise their English on us. How do you do? What is your name? How old are you? On our way we often stop to buy a mango. The shop owner peels and slices it and we use toothpicks to eat slices of mango. Juice drips down our chins as we eat. When we get home "Ma" prepares dinner: usually stir fried vegetables with egg and pineapple over rice. After dinner we bathe in a small room made from grass panels. Inside there is a very large clay jar full of water and a plastic scoop. You scoop water over your head to shower. I wear a sarong tied just below my armpits the whole time I bathe (it would be indecent not to). David can shower just wearing his underwear. The rules of modesty are not as strict for men. After we have cleaned off and cooled down in the water, we have a cup of green tea, chat with the other volunteers, and head to bed early. Bed is a mat on the floor beneath a mosquito net. It takes a little bit of getting used to. The thinsulate mattresses that we use while camping provide more padding.

We are really enjoying our time at Harmony Farm and are appreciating the unique opportunity that it provides for us to see Cambodia in a way that most tourists cannot. Village life seems happy and quiet. It is amazing that in a place where genocide occurred so recently (beginning in 1975, I'm not sure exactly when it stopped) people can seem so content.