Taiwanese Tuesday with HOPE Worldwide.... and food, of course!

Today, Amy and I had an opportunity to volunteer with HOPE Worldwide.  HOPE Worldwide is a Christian organization from all over the world, in Asia, Taiwan was the place to have the connection with Cambodia; therefore, 17 Taiwanese people were there to help as well. The project that they are working now is to build a house and toilets for a local primary school in Udong.

That primary school has 800 students total and they only have 4 toilets, however 2 of them are broken.  HOPE Worldwide is building another one for them, so that the children can have their privacy.

We start everything from scratch, they have started it on Monday, and yesterday, when I went, we put dirt on the steps of the toilets and also we put the ring like stones behind the toilet in order to separate the solid and liquid of human waste.

When we start to do our toilet work, we all would gather together in a circle and put our hands out together and all will say "1,2,3... toilet" in Chinese! It was really fun!!!

These were the ring like stones that I was talking about.  They are super heavy, it takes about 10 people to carry them, it takes 3 local Khmer people to carry one. The workers did not wear shoes, they all were bare foot. PPE is important! :)

At the end, we put 12 of them behind the toilet. It was a lot of work.

While we were breaking, we saw a lot of cows walking on the street!!! :) It was fun!!

Then we went and visited the house that they are building. So, one of the finished house costs about 10,000 HKD, so about 1,500 USD including materials and laboring fee, it takes about 3 to 7 days to build one house. Its impressive!

This is our TEAM!!!! 

This is a labor group as well as eating group! We eat, we work, and we eat, and work, then we eat again! :) This is ALL about being Asian!! I LOVE IT!!!

This morning, I had a good start with Chinese steamed buns, bought by Ohm! :) It is very interesting bun!! There is a white part and a yellow part on top.  The yellow part is like a cake, and inside, it is meat and half a boiled duck egg.  The bun helped me to become a true Chinese! :)

Then, for lunch, we went to a place... This is what we had! Some veggies, grilled chicken, and soup. Coke as a side. It was good!! I was very satisfied with the veggies we had! It was REAL veggies!!! I can have 10 more plates of that veggies!! And later on, we had some dragon fruits and jack fruits.  Amy and I also ordered Milo while other people ordered coffee! :)

In the group of HOPE Worldwide, I met a guy named Duncan Ng, he is from HK as well!! I was so happy and excited when I know he is from HK! We talked and laughed and had lunch together!! He is such a nice guy! I wish I could have more time to be with him and get to know him more! There's another girl named Karen, who is from Macau.  She loves speaking  English, so she spoke with Amy the whole time! Both of them are really sweet!! Good people!

When we were done for laboring today, they had a tradition to stop by a corn shop to get some corn.  I had this whole entire corn by myself.  The corn in Cambodia is different from the corn that I had in American, HK, or in Thailand.  Cambodia corn does not have a sweet taste onto it, it is rich in corn taste though, but it is the most starchy corn I have ever had in my life! 

The corns are very cheap! 10 corns for 800R, it might be 8000R, but Tee said it was 800R. :) They also gave us pickled radish, it was salty and spicy with a bit of sourness.  We were supposed to eat the radish with the corn together and not separate. But the radish itself was pretty good. I personally would not put the radish and the corn together in my mouth.  Maybe next time I'll try. :)

After we had corn, of course its for DINNER!!!!!

We went to this fancy place by the riverside! It was beautiful!!!! The food was decent. We had firing fish with curry sauce, sweet and sour pork rib, egg omelet with onion, and beef.

After we eat, drink, its now time to be marry.... Everyone was drunk, especially with Ohm! :) He chuck the whole entire beer, and he is in his late 60s. He also taught us some traditional Khmer dance! It was A LOT OF FUN!!! Look at Amy and me behind her!

Here are more pictures of the group and the area.

Ohm's food & Western food!!

We are back to Phnom Penh now... Back to Ohm's house!! For some reasons, I miss Ohm's cooking, maybe it feels like home! 

This is what we had for dinner. Its a welcome dinner from Ohm!! We had fried pork and chicken, pineapple with beef, and Khmer curry!!! I LOVE Khmer curry, I love it so much that I bought Khmer curry power so I can bring Khmer food back to America! 

The cleaner in AIP is so awesome!! Though she doesn't speak any English, I tried really hard to speak Khmer with her.  She loves us so much that she bought snails for us to eat one afternoon.  2 lbs for 75 cents.  These snails are small but I like them more than the big ones. It was good! :) 

 This is called Bang Seung. They say it's Vietnamese noodles, but I think it has a lot of Khmer influence on it.  It has peanuts, fish sauce and coconut cream, along with fish cake and fried taro. It is one of my favorite things to get for lunch everyday! :) Only a dollar!

Ohm fried some fish for us and made eggs and veggies.  So good, maybe because she puts a lot of MSG!! I see her cook everyday and she always, always, always put MSG into the dishes. We always have left overs. 

Wifi in the office was down for few days at one point.  We could not do anything, therefore, we just watched movies.  We requested some pop-corn, good colleague, Ellen, popped some on her stove!! It was really nice of her, some of them were burnt though. It tasted better than the pop corns at Aeon Mall.

One day, I helped cooking, they wouldn't let me help, but I finally took over, this is a mixture of a lot of ingredients, it had curry power, cumin, garlic, chili, and organ ginger, and young ginger in.  I helped to get the huge red chili seeds out, the next morning I did laundry, I cannot feel my fingers.  The chili were TOO powerful! 

After the mixture is ready, the fried the fish and set it aside, then they mixed the power with coconut milk. and fry it with the fish. Put basil and chili to garnish.  It was good!! It took a while though.

  

Almost every morning, we would have this purple red dragon fruit! It is delicious to the taste and it will stain your fingers, tongues, and teeth! :) Its fun to eat!

 Brown Coffee!! It's 30% off everyday after 5pm!! We ordered cheesecake, passion fruit chocolate moose and chocolate, it was good, but it wasn't that great.  The cheesecake was very lemon, they put too much lemon zests in the batter, and it did not taste cheese at all. But it was a good environment to chat and have tea time! :)

We ordered the burrito to deliver! It was a GOOD GOOD GOOD burrito!! Its huge!! But it was good!!! It tasted like I was in Mexico!! I cannot believe Cambodia can have these food!! :) 

FOOD in my tummy! :)

How can I not talk about food when we are in Siem Reap?! :) I love food! And I love sharing it with other people the happiness I get from delicious food!! 

First night, the deliciousness from this "pancake" is what they called.  I call them crepes!! It was so good that Cody got 3 and after I ate the first one, I needed to get another one! :) 

This is a traditional Khmer dish, called Amok Fish! It tasted like Khmer curry with different spices, it had fish, carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, and other veggies. It was delicious!! I loved it!! It was not too wet that the fish fell apart, it was cooked just right that the fillet stayed like a fish, and the curry and other spices stick onto the fish. It was good! For the drink in the picture, it was a a coconut with lime shake.  It was refreshing!

According to our van driver, this place is the best place for Italian food.  Since the program is paying for it, we get $10 budget; but we paid the program before we come here in Cambodia. :) Therefore, the pizza was $10 dollar.  We had the Four Fromage Pizza, it was the BEST pizza I have had in my life!!! The 4 cheese pizza was SOO good that I would go back and order it again.  However, if I had to eat the whole pizza, I would not enjoy it as much! 

We asked for spicy, the waiter gave us a jar of olive oil full of green and red peppers.  The oil was a good spicy that you want to eat that spicy again, and yet, it goes with the pizza really well, although it was a bit weird when we know it was oil.  At the end, half of the jar of oil were GONE!! ><... 

This is from the cultural center night, it was a buffet. I had FIVE rounds for food!!! :) I shouldn't have eaten that much!! But I did! The food was OK, but not too bad, lots of different types of food, Vietnamese, Chinese, Khmer... it is more like a mix culture of food. 

Then we went to the RED PIANO!!!

We ordered the Lasagna, "French Fried" (is what they called), and a mango shake.  OH MY HEAVEN!!!! The Lasagna was the BEST lasagna I have ever had in Cambodia, it is comparable to the BEST lasagna in the States!! OK, I might be exaggerating... But I am not! It was way Good!!!! Except it was super super hot!! 

For dessert, we ordered the Dame Blonde, and Chocolate Moose. Oh MAN!!!! The Chocolate Moose was... AMAZING!! It was made out of REAL high quality chocolate!! It was SO GOOD!!! At first, you can taste the smoothness of the moose, then you can taste the chocolate, then you can taste the bitterness of the chocolate, and finally, you tasted the sweetness of the chocolate moose.  It was heavenly!!! I can still taste it in my mouth now! 

The ice-cream that we had was a high quality ice-cream, it was smooth and rich in milk, It was the perfect sweetness between ice-cream and the chocolate.  It was good!! 

This plate of food was only $2.50 USD... Can Cambodia food price come to America? It was good, with the duck egg on top.  For some reasons, they LOVE duck eggs AND pepper.  They put everything with pepper!!! 

FOOD in Pub Street are INCREDIBLE!!!! I love it so much!! Especially their shakes on the street! It was really good!! :) 

Walking down the Pub Street and seeing this little boy sleeping on the cart of durain breaks my heart.  My first thought was this boy is really cute, but as I think deeper, I know life is not easy, who does not want to sleep on a bed, where it is comfortable.  I am sure this little boy is so tired, but his parents need to find money by selling durian to support the family.  Little boy had no choice, this is the only place he can sleep.  

All Terrain Vehicle!

It was the BEST day of my life!!!!! Going through all the puddles and mud holds with my RED ATV in Cambodia!!! It was a greatest and funniest adventure ever!!! We were able to go into the rice fields and see the villages and markets, it was beautiful and fun!! I can feel the peace in my heart while I go through the creation from Heavenly Father. 

At the end of the ATV, I was very wet, dirty, and muddy, I was ready to shower! I am grateful for the times that we had to explore and see Siem Reap.  I realized how blessed I am to born with goodly parents; life in Cambodia is not easy, I am grateful for what I have. 

We went to Khmer cultural center, they had a performance of traditional Khmer dance, it was really fun to see them, it reminds me the experiences that we had in Chiang Mai.  It was fun! 

In our trip, we also went to the Saturday Cello Doctor player, Dr. Beat Richner.  He is the founder of children's hospital in Cambodia.  He plays cello every week and encourages people to donate to the hospital.  He said 85% is from donation.  In between songs, he would talk about the health of Cambodia children and the government.  He said "what we are doing is beyond politics, we save lives!" He also said because of corruption, children are dying.  I am grateful for Dr. Richner, who is so brave and have a heart to save children's lives in Cambodia! And share his talents to everyone around him!! (He talks more than he plays... :) )