Little Angels in a Hell on Earth

Of all the things we heard and saw in Phnom Pehn, the most shocking was poverty in the form of 500+ families living at the city dump. We read a flyer about trips to the dump and investigated.

A British man working out of a bar he runs, arranges trips to the dump to bring food, and some basic medical care (aparamedic and trained on the fly first aid guy). He showed us a slide show that had us upset. His passion and his stories were so riveting. "This is hell on earth" he started. "These kids and families live in conditions that if we kept animals in we would surely be locked up for back home." "Rats and mosquitoes won't live there," he continued (but lots of flies do, i noticed).

2 years ago he started going by himself with a truck to hand out food. (the government tried to prohibit him from going because they don't want people to know about this) He kept going anyways. Now its grown. They rent a truck, have about 8 regular international volunteers and like to have the same amount of visitors come too. Whenever they get enough money they go. Rain or shine. Currently this is about every 3-4 days.

There is a free school near the dump entrance lots of the kids now go to. With funds they've raised the mandatory $3 uniforms were purchased for th kids. (As soon as the truck comes, however, the kids clear out from school running!) There are also surgeons that have done free work, and they have linked up with a clinic that they bring people too if needed.

This is what happened... We all piled in and went to the wholesale market where we stocked up on hundreds of loaves of bread, bananas and oranges. At the dump the women handed out the food, and the men tried to keep lines. It is mad chaos otherwise. They have made a boys and a girls line to try to teach that boys and girls are equal. Chris was watching the boys line.. They loved playing games and having him boot them to the end of the line. They would fake bud in line for attention.. They would get him talking and then others would try to sprint up and sneak in line..so funny.

Chris had some stories of incredible generosity. He said one little boy waited in the line and as soon as he got his stuff he turned around and offered half of his orange to Chris. He watched one little boy fight and struggle the whole way in the line trying to keep his place, get his stuff and then start handing it out to the other kids on the way back. They all said, No No! Thats yours.... Some of the girls had bags to carry the food, lots of the boys wrapped it in their shirts. No one ate. They brought everything back to share with their families. We learned a lesson in generosity that day.

Once they were finished getting food, anyone who wanted to could be seen by the paramedic/first aid. I volunteered what I could, which was not much since I've only worked in the hospital. Most complaints were foot wounds, as the kids and adults run around barefoot on broken glass, dirty needles and hospital waste, and who knows what else. When people have tried to donate shoes, I was told they were either stolen, or sold by the people themselves for money. Some kids wore crocs. These families stand in the garbage all day scrounging for bottles or anything else they could get money from.

Only the paramedic could speak Khmer and he was off trying to distribute vitamins to children and pregnant women, so me and the first aid guy were totally on our own. I washed feet, disinfected wounds and dressed them the best I could. I'm sure they would be dirty by the end of the day. A woman with a baby that couldn't have been more than a month old uncovered her her child to show me his infected bellybutton. The parents pierce their babies ears with dirty wires or thorns so ear infections are pretty common, we saw this. I came across a little girl with a bad case of Norwegian scabies that we sent to clinic.

Mostly, the kids just wanted some attention. Little girls would come up to me and put their arm around me with a big smile, just watching. Little boys would point to their owies, sometimes nothing at all. But we'd wash up their feet anyways to have a look, and they'd giggle that it tickled and then everyone wanted a turn. You try to keep things clean.

It was an amazing privelege to be a part of this. Those volunteers that bring food tirelessly are wonderful. The excitement and the thankfulness is truly gratifying. Here is a view into our day at the dump.

Loadin Up at the market

These guys had Chris talking, look at the kids in the back sprinting up while he's distracted lol

So Cute

A new spin on rural nursing

A day's work

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