Cambodia Orphanage Fundraising Efforts

School House

15 year old boys absolutely loving picture books... they were starved for books!

Last summer while traveling through Southeast Asia I spent some time at an the OEO orphanage in Cambodia. The children there stole my heart and I vowed that when I returned home I would do what I could to fund raise to help provide the children with basics like rice, soap, toothbrushes, etc. I am in the process of setting up, with a friend, a non profit which will directly benefit the children at the orphanage.

I can't do this alone and am asking for a little time and support from each one of you as I try to reach my goal of helping to sustain the, newly established, OEO orphanage. My hopes are to return next summer to work with the children and see to it that the funds are placed in the correct hands. In order to fund raise and afford the trip back I have started selling Stella and Dot Jewelry.

I'm simply asking each of you to consider hosting a jewelry show at your home or another place of your liking, I've seen people have them at restaurants.

30% of the profits from each show will go directly to the orphanage to supply the children with food, basic toiletries (toothbrush, soap, etc), help to offset the housing rent, school supplies, and bikes (needed to help the small children travel the 5K to and from school each day).

Learning new English words

The colorful alphabet they created during class with Mimi and I!

For more information please visit the OEO orphanage site
 https://www.facebook.com/cambodianoeo

and

Stella and Dot website,
http://www.stelladot.com/sites/ColeenMegan/profile

Please contact me and let me know a date you would like to host a party or if you would like to purchase a piece of jewelry!

I truly appreciate your help and support!

xo Coleen

Awesome!

Ok... I know it's been a while and I haven't even come close to finishing postings about my summer adventures but first I must share two awesome things happening right now!

1.  The least awesome of the two but still pretty exciting... my shipment from India has arrived so needless to say I'll be spending the day unpacking and organizing my life at home with hopes that it's completed before my school craziness begins on Monday.

2.  Background first... When I was in Cambodia I spent some time at an orphanage there, feel in love with the children and since then can't stop thinking about how I can help.  One of the first ways we've been able to help is to get this beautiful little girl dental work.  Her two front teeth had rotted out and the adult teeth were growing in towards her upper lip.  Though some internet searches I was able to get in touch with a dentist in Cambodia who is going to work with this little one and check in with the rest of the children at the orphanage! There are some amazing people out there!

***Stay tuned this year as Mimi and I continue our efforts to develop a non profit to help benefit this orphanage in Cambodia, before our hopeful return next July :)

Ho Chi Minh and the Mekong

All the motorbikes at the light ready to go!

Sleeper bus #2... much better than sleeper bus #1. Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was our next stop. Here we spent time in the Vietnam War, or American War as it’s known in Vietnam, museums. It was remarkable how little animosity there was towards us as Americans. When we asked our tour guide about it he explain it as it’s in the past, no need to dwell on it and carry on hate… He also said that a lot of the population is young (born at the end of the war or after), a lot of the older generation stayed mostly home, not around in the cities (as their family cared for them) so we weren’t interacting with them as much. It was heartbreaking to read about and see all the images from the war, definitely led to lots of questions and reading more to find out more about the war.

Floating down the Mekong

Our homestay dinner!  YUM!

After a few days in the busy motor bike filled city of Saigon we made our way down the Mekong river towards Cambodia. We spent two days touring the Mekong, making stops at the floating markets, rice noddle making factories and enjoying one night at a homestay (where you stay with a local family, eat and cook (some) with them). Doing the homestay is definitely a great way to see the daily life of the locals and enjoy some good home cooked local meals.

Happy lady at the local market near our homestay.

Early morning coffee while floating down the Mekong... no problem!

Floating Market... the pinapple on the top of the boat shows that they are selling pinapples :)

Most of our time in Vietnam was spent in the cities and extremely touristy areas so it was exciting to see the daily life of locals on the river as we floated past.

Happy to help make some rice noddles :)

Facing My Fear

Biking past the rice paddies on our way to the beach!

Exit mountain trekking enter beach time! We traveled south to a small town called Hoi An, the home of tailors, anything and everything you would like can be made for you here. We weren’t terribly interested after seeing and trying on a few of the completely unflattering flowered jumpsuits they had for sale in the windows. Instead we rented some bicycles, $1, for the entire day, and biked our way to the beach along the rice paddy fields. The best food I’ve had in Vietnam was in Hoi An at this gourmet style street food restaurant called Morning Glory, amazing!

Fried Wonton... so amazingly good!

The next evening we were hoping on a night sleeper bus to Nha Trang, a beach town along the skinny center part of Vietnam. Our arrival at 6:30am in Nha Trang with a check in time for our hotel at 12pm meant that we quickly found ourselves longing on the beach and enjoying breakfast at the ocean front restaurants. Our time in Nha Trang was a bit of a recovery time spent lazing on the beaches and surprise, surprise scuba diving! I have strangely feared scuba diving and have attempted a few times only to bail before barely even starting. I say strangely feared, because you would think after being a competitive swimmer for 13 years I wouldn’t fear the water but it’s just the opposite, it’s my biggest fear! I had a one on one instructor and he was wonderfully patient, dealing with my million questions I threw at him. I think it also helped that he was a cute, French and had beautiful blue eyes, couldn’t bail… haha! Anyways, I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go again, if we had had more time I probably would have taken the time to become certified! Maybe next year, I already can’t wait to go back!

Next up… Mekong river delta exploring!

It is a small world...



After our trek on Cat Ba island

As we complete our hike on Cat Ba island we climb up the viewing tower to enjoy the views and breeze and recover before our trek back down. As we are sitting there other trekkers are making their way up and doing the same, we begin chatting with a few of them including 3 boys who are deaf, coincidently Mimi knows sign language. As we or should I say she introduces us and ask all the introductory questions, names, where are you from, how long are you traveling, etc. I discover that they go to Galludet University in DC. A few moments later I wonder if they are from the area or just go to school there, quickly I discover that they went to the MD School for the Deaf, in Frederick, the one guy lives in Baker Park area and had Michelle Shearer (Ms. Meredith) as a teacher while attending the MD School for the Deaf. Incredible!

Halong Bay Cruzin'

Back in Hanoi off the night train at 6:00am we are greeted with a rain storm and dishonest taxi drivers trying to charge us three times the amount it should cost to get back to our hotel… grrrr, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and go with it. Back at our hostel in Hanoi they are so gracious to supply us with a room to wash up in before we catch a bus to take us to Halong Bay. The next 3 days will be spent on the water, exploring caves, climbing to the highest point on Cat Ba Island and relaxing on the beaches.

The caves @ Halong Bay

After another long tour bus ride we arrive at Halong Bay and hop on the boat which would be our home for the next 24 hours. Already we can see the huge limestone cliffs towering above the waterline. The water isn’t the blue turquoise color that you would expect in the tropics but the limestone cliffs more than make up for the color of the water and as we get further and further from land the water does start to clear up some but never turns that beautiful turquoise color. We enjoy another delicious meal on the boat for lunch before spending the afternoon exploring caves and jumping off the boat for a cool afternoon swim. The boat tour isn’t quite the party we imagined it to be but we certainly make the most of it. Just before dinner we are to shower when the boat’s generated cuts out… no problem the top of the boat has sun beds and a stunning view to enjoy! Soon everything is back in order, showers completed and dinner on the table, complete with spring rolls we created, well rolled up! After a long day I was exhausted and quickly fell asleep. About mid way through the nigh I shot straight up in bed to the loudest thunder I have heard in my life, by morning the clouds had cleared and given way to another beautiful blue sky for our trip to Cat Ba island.

We made it!  Top of the mountain!

Day two on Halong Bay had us transferring to a different tour boat which we took to Cat Ba island. The morning hours were spent hiking/climbing up to view the green mass of the tropical forests of Cat Ba islands. We begin the hike ahead of the others in our tour group after our tour guide assured us that it was an easy straightforward path to follow, about 5 minutes in we hit a crossroad. The man standing there tells us to the left is hard and to the right is easy. We decide to take the easy way, which was far from easy. We get to the top and someone else tells us we went the hard way… oh well, the views are just that much more rewarding. On our way down we decide to take the “hard way” which they are telling us not to take… so maybe we did take the easy way up. We’re always up for a challenge so we dive down the hill towards the “hard” side. I wish I had had a video/pictures of this hike/climb down the mountain. The nigh before there were torrential downpours which left the mountain side extremely muddy and slick. As we made our way down I barely used my legs to climb down, I spent the majority of the time sliding and swinging from one tree to the next, including a few moments on my bottom… it was wonderful and we had a great time!

Incredibly crowded beaches on Cat Ba Island!

The afternoon we ventured to the beaches of Cat Ba which started as a relaxing afternoon/early evening on the beach but soon we discovered that the time to be at the beach in Vietnam is from sun down. For us we go to the beach to enjoy the sunshine, play in the cool water during the hot days but that isn’t the case for the Vietnamese. Around 4:30 when the sun starts to sink lower on the horizon and we find ourselves exiting the beach to clean up and go home for dinner the Vietnamese are flocking to the beach. No sun equals perfect time to venture outside and keep their skin beautifully pale and milky colored. To the same extreme that some of us tan our skin the Vietnamese work to keep their skin as pale and white as possible.

View on the trip back!

Sapa Trekking

Cities are great, new foods are delicious, the people are so intriguing but my favorite part of travel is seeing the beautiful landscapes around the world. That is exactly what we are off to do on our overnight trip to Sapa. Getting to Sapa required an overnight train, which I’m a total fan of considering it saves daylight travel hours. Upon our arrival in the tourist driven town of Sapa, high on the hill we were ushered off to begin our trek through the rice paddies. We were quickly introduced to our tour guide, who was dressed in the traditional village clothing. As we exited our hotel and began on our way we quickly realized this trek was going to be much different than other we had taken. Mimi and I are very accustomed to doing things independently or with only a few other people, especially when trekking. This day was vastly different, fist off our group was about 20 people full followed by nearly a 1 to 1 ratio of village women. In our truly American way, we are fiercely independent and want to do things on our own even if that means falling on our asses and getting a little muddy along the way. The trek through the ride paddies was muddy and some steps became a little precarious at times but nothing we couldn’t handle on our own. Every step of the way there was a local woman there to take your hand… you can imagine how much we cringed each time they tried to help us “I can do it, I’m fine, no, no no,” ripping my hand away each time. They were nice and it wasn’t anything they were doing I just can’t seem to let go of that fierce American independent attitude. Besides the hike being crowded the scenery was beautiful. The terraced rice paddy hill sides, the green green grass, the turquoise river rushing through the valley below us, it was all stunning.

That evening we stayed not in a hotel in town but at a home stay, which consisted of a mattress on the floor in the attic in a village home in the hills. We stayed there with an older couple from Malaysia/Australia and a young guy traveling on his own from Denmark. The evening was spent relaxing on the patio, exchanging travel stories and taking in the fresh air and sounds of nature. The family we stayed with was nice complete with a small giggling little girl and cute little puppies to play with. The next morning we awoke early had a quick breakfast and were off for another days trekking through the rice paddies.

Our homestay for the evening.

The cutest puppy!  I got to play with him all night :)

Bamboo forests covered in butterflies!

This day was much more enjoyable as it was only the 5 of us who stayed at the home stay the evening before. The beautiful sights continued on and it seemed that every time we looked up from where we were stepping the view was even more beautiful than the last time. Bamboo forests lined a lot of the trail during the second day and once they opened up it gave way to the beautiful sights of the river rushing through the valley below, stone walled terracing for the rice paddies, women bent over in the ride paddies, men driving the water buffalo through the fields and children skipping around selling items to tourist and jumping on backs of water buffalos.

Bamboo forests

Upon our return to Sapa we caught the bus out of town for our night train back into Hanoi. I find myself repeating how much I love my life and these adventures.

My favorite from the hike.

Loving Vietnam!

After a long, night flight which was partly spent sitting outside the Kuala Lumpur airport in an open air restaurant trying to stay awake at 2am until our flight 5 hours later, we finally arrived in Vietnam. We were greeted with friendly faces at the Little Hanoi Hostel and quickly shown to our room even though check in was nearly 4 hours away. A shower and nap was our first priority, once our feet hit the ground in the early afternoon it was non stop, so much to see and do! Hanoi is a great city and our hostel was located just next to the lake in the center of town.

First on the agenda, check out the sights and get our first taste of authentic Vietnamese foods, we are loving it! The food is so fresh and nutritious, my favorite is the unexpected burst of fresh mint in so many of the foods.


We swear each time we do a tour on a trip that we will never do another… it’s too structured, we don’t get to stay long enough or we stayed too long, the tour guide talks too much or doesn‘t tell enough… all the typical complaints of a tour. But once again we find ourselves booking another structured day trip, this time to the Perfume Pagoda. As we exit the city and enter the country side the scenery, of course, changes drastically from streets buzzing with motorbikes, cyclos, expensive cars, and street vendors beckoning to streets quietly lined with rice set out in the hot sun to dry, children carelessly skipping to one another’s homes, and old women sweeping their front steps.


Just like most trips I’ve taken it wasn’t a simple hop on the bus and a few hours later you’ve arrived kind of deal. Two long hours on the bus were followed by a 45 minute boat ride. This wasn’t any fancy luxurious type boat either… imagine a National Geographic documentary on the life of those that live on the river in Vietnam… that’s what we were riding in! Six western people and two Vietnamese ( I mention the nationality because for us 6 western people you could have probably fit 12 Vietnamese in our place… I feel like a giant here) Back to my point… we were gathered or should I say squeezed on this tiny boat and one single tiny Vietnamese women rowed us to our destination while we baked in the sun. Sometimes we joke about it or giggle inside when we see someone from Asia shielding themselves from the sun, keeping their skin as white as possible, completely opposite from our culture where we do almost anything to get a good sun tan but my oh my on this day I was one of the first to join in on this fad. Just like any other white girl from the US I love my sun tanned skin but on this day if not for the umbrella shield I was using I would have had quite a bit more then a beautiful glowing tan, more like a red lobster.

Perfume Pagoda cave

Our small row boat docked and we hoped off, hopeful that we had arrived at the Perfume Pagoda… not yet! First you must climb the hill… see that way up there… that’s where you’re going. The climb wasn’t the only option we could have taken a cable car up the hill, which most did, but of course we needed to be “tough” haha. Actually I’ve found from the past two years of travel the climb is usually the best part, especially when you get to the views at the top, besides the natural exercise you get from it gives you a high for the rest of the day and usually into the next. So after 30 minutes of powering up the hill, totally covered and dripping with sweat (probably the hottest day we’ve experiences in Vietnam), to the shock of our tour guide, we made it to the top of the hill and into the wonderful naturally cooled Perfume Pagoda cave! After 20 minutes inside the cave cooling off we made our way back down the hill, played with some puppies on the way, enjoyed some more wonderful Vietnamese food for lunch, hopped back in our tiny boat, onto the bus and back to Hanoi. It was a wonderful start to our adventure in Vietnam, little did we know it was only going to get better and better!

Catching snails

Wung Update

I have had the pleasure of seeing Wung and his sister Chon a handful of times over the past month.  During the summer holiday Wung and his sister have been staying with teachers while the other children have returned to their hometowns and families.  Wung has been in high spirits!  He had an appointment with a reputable neurosurgeon last week and everything checks out.  He's back to running around and playing, I even saw him at the pool this Friday showing off his swimming skills!

Thank you once again for all the generous donations and thoughts you've sent this way for Wung!

This was taken 1 year ago, while staying with a teacher on their summer holiday.  FUN TIMES!

    

Goal Met!!!

BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped us reach our goal to afford Wung proper care and a full chance at recovery!  Wung has been in much higher spirits, and is continuing to recover from his fall.  He has some more issues than initially expected, it seems as though his vision has been compromised and his skull cracked.  We are all working together to get him to the proper doctor's appointments for his eyes and brain.  As more updates on his conditions become available I will keep you posted!  Thank you again everyone who donated to help with Wung's recovery!

Help for Wung

Wung playing with the printer cartridge after printing pictures one day at the House of Hope!

As many of you know, I am working at the American International School in Chennai, India.  About 13 of the teachers here volunteer at House of Hope (HOH).  This is something like an orphanage to help children and families affected by the tsunami. The middle school 'Reaching Out Club' also works with the HOH.

Wung, a 9 year old, energetic, mischievous, fun-loving, big smiling and bright-eyed boy is in the hospital.  He had an accident last weekend and required brain surgery to remove a blood clot.  This is no minor issue.  He was in a government hospital where little attention, medical communication or care was provided due to limited resources, ratio of staff to patients and money.  Once he was physically able, he was transported to a private hospital.  He has another week or so before he will be released and will then require a calm and uneventful summer.

The HOH and associated church were able to cover some of the cost for the government hospital, but there are no funds for the current and future care he requires.  We are told he will require somewhere between Rs. 80,000 ($1,800 USD) and Rs. 100,000 ($2,250 USD).

A few teachers who volunteer and have moved on from Chennai, along with those currently volunteering at HOH are trying to raise funds to help cover the cost of his stay.  This is a grass roots effort to help the orphanage and Wung, it's such an immediate need that a bonified charity hasn't been set up but I can promise that any and all monies are going directly to the Wung's hospital bills and his summer care.  If you could spare some rupees/dollars for little Wung, we would all be grateful.

If you would like to donate please click on the donate button on this page.

Please don't hesitate to e-mail me Coleen.McIntyre@gmail.com if you have any questions.   

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Coleen 

and all the HOH staff and volunteers

Wung getting his picture taken...  www.dogmeetsworld.org 

Milky Way

Just wanted to share this beautiful time-lapse video of the Milky Way


The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.


or click here it will show better on the website

Forbidden Crowds

China is home to 1.4 billion people, 20%, of the world and Beijing alone houses 20 million of those people which doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of tourist (mostly Chinese) in the city on any given day! This can only partially explain the crowds of people we encountered at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City early Sunday morning. Imagine living in a country where you are 1 in a billion, personal space is slim to none and nobody is going to help you find your way through the crowd. Pushing and shoving your way to the top, I mean front, is a way of life. Sorry, excusing me, opps, or pardon me do not exist in China, not in English definitely and although I don’t speak Chinese I’m certain not in Chinese either.

This is something I swear I will never ever be able to get used to as a Westerner. I can get past the food and the traffic (sometimes) and the clothing and the language (with some struggle) but the pushing and shoving, the standing right up against me and cutting in line will always be foreign to me. It’s amazing how much I learn about my own culture by visiting other cultures. Often I think about what amazing cultural history the countries have that I have visited and find myself thinking how cultureless America seems at times. But as I have immersed myself into these 3rd world, culture rich, countries over the past two years I have come to realize and understand that America is rich in culture, although it may not exist through sights like temples and statues it does exist in the people and how we interact with one another, we have so much social culture. Yes there are the exceptions, there are always exceptions to every generalization but as a whole I find we are friendly to each other, give each other space when walking through the streets or lining up, wait our turn, and say our pleases and thank yous.

Inside the Forbidden City

Now that I’ve ventured much further from my original topic then intended I regress back to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Mimi and I planned to arrive at the Forbidden City at 8:30am, opening time, to avoid what we were certain would be mass amounts of crowds. Well we weren’t the only ones with this plan. It seemed that half of China was thinking the same thing! The only comparison I can closely relate the crowds to is the starting line of the sold out New York Marathon. I’m sure everyone has seen the Chinese tourist groups in the US and other places with the tour guide carrying the flag and everyone on the tour in their matching hats or shirts, well multiply this times 1000 and you have sight seeing in China! It was un real!

I wish I could say that things got better once inside and we got to spread out and enjoy the sights of the Forbidden city quietly. Although the crowds continued throughout our time inside the Forbidden city it wasn’t unbearable. The sights and sounds were refreshingly new and unique to anything we’ve seen on any of our trips in the past two years. Everything was so uniquely China and designed just how you would expect it to be. As we walked around the Forbidden city and the streets of China we realize more and more that China towns at home aren’t quite as hokey as we had thought, it’s really how it is!

Front of Forbidden City

Next up the Great Wall… it was stunning more than I had imagined!

Yangshuo

The limestone hills just barely visible through the fog.

 The first 2 days in China were spent in a beautiful town named Yangshuo.  We had looked into renting bicycles, taking a hot air balloon flight, and rafting down the river while enjoying the stunning views Yangshuo had to offer... well it was rainy, cold and foggy the entire time we were there : (  Although we didn't get to do any of the things we had planned on doing our time spent in Yangshuo was not a total disappointment.  Most of the trips we have taken have been so rushed and hurried that we are exhausted the whole time (not a bad thing) but this time we were able to relax, drink some tea, and walk around leisurely.

The hills lit up at night.

Next stop Beijing!  Enough relaxing, now onto busy days and nights... 

Sleeper Bus

A little background...
Hong Kong was under a 100 year British rule until 1997 when the land was handed back over to China.  When the British lease of the land expired in 1997 they made a deal with China that things in Hong Kong would stay the way they were for 50 years.  So to visit Hong Kong there is no visa needed.  Many people actually apply for their mainland China visa while in Hong Kong.

Leaving Hong Kong and entering mainland China was much easier then either of us expected.  We jumped on the metro, took it to the end of the line where we literally walked across the boarder (a first for both Mimi and I).  We walked right to the bus station where we were off on our next adventure... overnight sleeper bus to Yangshuo.  As we were standing there waiting for our bus to arrive I wasn't sure what I had gotten us into.  Surprisingly it was MY idea to take the 8 hour overnight sleeper bus.  I thought I had remembered reading somewhere that there would be beds on the bus but as bus after bus pulled up with just normal charter bus style seats I began to second guess myself.    Shortly after loosing hope that we would have something semi comfortable to sleep in our bus pulled up and amazingly was full of beds!  It was surprisingly comfortable, each little bed pod had a pillow and blanket, it was clean (we had to take off our shoes before entering the bus) and there was safe storeage for my purse in a compartment under the matress.

We were pleasently surprised at how much we were actually able to sleep and if my memory serves me correctly there are the same style buses in Southeast Asia which we are looking forward to taking advantage of the overnight travel/accommodations this summer.

Mimi on the bottom bunk

Top bunk!

Land of Shopping...

Pretty much explains Hong Kong, We spent three full days walking the streets of Hong Kong ogling the high end stores and shopping the lower end stores and street markets. After two years in India, land of no western shopping we were definitely having trouble holding back and not buying everything and anything we saw that we liked.

Behind our hostel, Ah Shan, the streets were lined with sports stores filled with any and every kind of sneaker you could ever want! Next to that also in Kowloon, the neighborhood we stayed in, there were markets lining the streets.

I managed to hold back the first day didn’t buy anything. That of course didn’t last long by the second day we found a Roxy store and by the third day found our way into an H&M… JACKPOT!! I loaded up on some summer clothes for my trip this summer to Southeast Asia, pretty excited to get out of the same old clothes I’ve been wearing for the past two years in India.

The Taj

Mimi and I both had pretty low expectation when we started out on our adventure to see the Taj.  We have been in India for almost 2 years now and have avoided Delhi at all costs because of the horror stories we have heard and read about western women visiting.  Well I can't say those stories were all false, we had a few uncomfortable encounters but overall we had a surprisingly excellent weekend in Delhi. 

5:30 and we were up and out the door to catch a two hour train to Agra.  The train ride was suprisingly pleasent and involved beautiful views of wheat fields.  By 8:30am we arrived in Agra and were able to beat most of the crowds and within an hour or so the skys blued up to make a beautiful backdrop for the pearly white Taj Mahal.

After our Taj visit and a wonderful lunch at The Silk Route restaurant we thought we would try to change our tickets and ride home with Kate and Billie on an earlier train... well things didn't go according to plan.  Kate had accidentily booked a train ticket home for five AM instead of five PM...  Well long story short we got Kate and Billie a ticket back on our 8:30pm train and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in a cool coffee house killing time.  10:30pm we arrived back in Delhi to a packed train station, Inida was playing Sri Lanka in the World Cup finals and before we were able to get an auto home the game had come to an end and India had won.  The streets went crazy, people cheering and chanting as they drove by on motorcycles and out windows of cars, dancing in the streets, and fireworks going off in each other's faces.  AND Billie slept the whole auto ride home!



The train station during the cricket game!

 The next day to be spent in Delhi was the surprise... we actually enjoyed our day and not just a little bit a lot.  Check out some of the sights we saw below.



The President's Estate



The India Gate.... facing the President's Estate.



Janta Manta... an old astrological measurement building using the sun and shadows.



The Lotus Temple