I forgot to mention this and post the link in my last blog post but my friend Travis Hellstrom (Yes, THE Travis Hellstrom who is helping me donate money to Agii and Aiman) is looking for help on a project he's working on in Mongolia. Here's the email with a bit of information from Travis and the link to his site where you can learn more and help if you'd like. :)
"Hello my family and friends,
I want to share a project with all of you that I helped start which means a lot to me - one that I know will be a huge help to our small community here in Mongolia and change lives for years to come. It's a community fund for social businesses which helps people bring themselves out of poverty and improve their community from the grassroots. It's like Kiva.org without interest.
It works because people come together to share a little of what they have to help those who don't have much, and then that money is repaid and shared again and again. We have raised a lot, but still need about $1,000 more and I wanted to ask for your help. I understand it may be hard to give much - as a Peace Corps Volunteer I live on $140 a month and I know I wish I could give more - but if you can even give $5 it will make a huge difference. The beautiful thing is that donations will be used over and over for decades. And even if you can't give, if you could just share this with people you care about that would mean a lot to me.
Thank you all so much. I've never asked for money before and I'm not very good at it, but I've never believed in a project as much as I believe in this one. To learn more please visit www.advancehumanity.com/projects/socialbusiness and email me anytime at travishellstrom@gmail.com. Thank you for your consideration, I hope we can chat soon!
An update AND a great song from fantastic back in the day artist Raffi! If you've never listened to 'Bananaphone', you are missing out.
Where to begin..where to begin. I often find myself putting off my blog updates, procrastinating over and over until eventually I force myself to sit down and type up an update. It would probably make more sense for me to write snippets a few times a week, collect my thoughts, edit them, and then paste them to the blog, but that would be too easy.
A couple weeks ago, our friend Brian came to visit Cambodia after finishing his service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia. The first weekend he was in town, we took the five or six hour (I was passed out for most of it) bus ride down to Sihanoukville, a beautiful beach town and popular tourist destination, and spent a couple days enjoying the beach, a nice, cheap guesthouse, and some much needed time away from Phnom Penh. I'll get more into why time away from Phnom Penh has been much needed, a bit further down in the post. Anyways, it was a nice couple days away, the food was good, and spending some time near the coast is always nice. During the week we took Brian to some of our favorite restaurants, enjoyed a bit more beer and unhealthy food than usual, and spent a lot of time sitting in the apartment, doing nothing, because as Brian would say, "It's bloody hot." It HAS been pretty hot lately, even for Cambodia. April and May were supposed to be the hottest months and while they were pretty hot, the past few few weeks have had some days where the heat is almost unbearable. I've been in some hot weather (29 Palms, Iraq, Kuwait) but the heat and humidity here just suck all the life out of you some days. Taking a nap in the afternoon almost makes things worse as waking up becomes a sweaty, exhausted struggle.
The next weekend we spent two and a half days in Siem Reap, with the intention of taking Brian to see the beautiful temples of Angkor Wat and spending some relaxing time in Siem Reap, a much more relaxed, cool and fun town than Phnom Penh. Our plan was interrupted by a first night of drinking far too many delicious beverages at the Island Bar in one of Siem Reap's many night markets, preventing any of us from waking up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning. Resigned to spending the day in town and putting off Angkor Wat until Sunday, we set about doing some shopping. We managed to pick up a few souvenirs, trinkets, gifts and what not and then found ourselves standing in front of a Mexican restaurant advertising (if I can recall this correctly) "the best Mexican food in Siem Reap" along with 50 cent draft beers, dollar margaritas and dollar tacos. Seven hours and 48 dollars later, we pretty much had to call it an early night. Fun and delicious? No doubt. Smart? Debatable.
Once again, our inability to resist cheap drinks had thwarted us. Needless to say, the next day we were struggling again. Hanna, having been to Angkor Wat twice, decided to stay back and Brian and I decided to grab a tuk tuk and take the short tour of the temples, so that he could at least see it and make it seem like his trip to Siem Reap was productive. ;) To me, Angkor Wat was just as impressive the second time and I was able to take some great pictures and see a few things that I didn't see the first time(I'll put some pics up in my next post!). We came back on the night bus with some type of 'sleeper' compartments instead of chairs, which was a bit more comfortable than the usual buses. The weekend in Siem Reap was great and I wish I was able to spend more time there. If you plan a trip to Cambodia or stop in on part of a bigger trip, you should spend more time in Siem Reap and not bother too much with Phnom Penh. Everything that is worth doing in Phnom Penh can be done in two or three days, if that.
Speaking of which, I'd just like to say that the novelty of living in Phnom Penh wore off a long time ago. I have found myself becoming increasingly cynical, angry, bitter and frustrated with the city, the people, all the things that are 'wrong' with the city and it's not exactly doing wonders for my over all disposition. Some of these frustrations find their roots in the details that I posted in my blog post "Cambodia, two months later" on June 27th. It gets old having to make comments or stare back at the countless men who leer disgustingly at my girlfriend as we walk or run anywhere around the city. Men here have absolutely no shame and it's not limited to one particular group, it's pretty much every single guy in the city, poor, rich, young, old, well dressed overachieving businessmen, teenagers dressed like Japanimation characters, skeezy, dirty tuk tuk and moto drivers, etc. Even lams (Buddhist monks) have no self control and will shamelessly oggle (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=oggle)Hanna (or any girl wearing shorts, a skirt, a tank top, etc.) until I give them the trademark Matt Becker look of death. Shit, it doesn't even matter if they are wearing something remotely revealing or not, men will stare anyways, it's pretty disturbing. If it was just me that was bothered, I'm sure it might be partially chalked up to some type of insecurity but it really bothers Hanna and makes her uncomfortable.
I also find myself straining not to scream at every other tuk tuk driver or moto driver who thinks that either A) if I ignore their repeated calls, I must not be hearing them and they should yell louder or B) my response of a firm 'No' or 'No, thanks' means they should continue to ask me if I want a tuk tuk or moto, if I want to buy marijuana, cocaine, or heroin, or if I want to go get a 'massage'. Annoying and aggravating most of the time, also a bit creepy.
Both Hanna and I have had enough of Phnom Penh so we recently made the decision to quit our jobs early and do a bit of traveling, outside of Cambodia, before we head back to the United States of Awesomerica. The tentative plan is to head to Vietnam around the 17th of August and spend a week or more there, depending on how much money is being burned, then to head to Laos, spend a few days there, and then back down into Cambodia for a few days before flying back to freedom land. I'm very excited to see Vietnam and Laos. Hanna has been to Vietnam once before but never to Laos. It will be fun and interesting to visit two new countries before coming back home.
In other news, we've reached almost 800 dollars to donate to Agii and Aiman, which I'm very excited about. I'm hoping to reach a thousand before I transfer the money next week but we'll see. :)
I am currently reading "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World" by Tracy Kidder and just finished up the 2006 book "Losing Our Democracy: How Bush, The Far Right, and Big Business Are Betraying Americans For Power and Profit' by Mark Green. I'm still running in the mornings, six days a week, working out with dumbbells and doing a lot of calisthenics in my free time and trying to catch up on news and movies. I just started watching the miniseries "Generation Kill" about Marines in Iraq and it's pretty good so far. I read the book it's based on a couple months back and really enjoyed it. If you haven't checked out either, I highly recommend them.
Hopefully this blog post wasn't too all over the place. I'll put up some pics from Siem Reap and a link to another photo album asap. My new main picture is from the Bayon temple at Angkor Wat.
I'm writing another quick post, not to be a nag, but just to see if anyone is still interested in donating to help out my friend Agii, his sister Aiman, and their family. I am waiting on a couple transfers this week and will be transferring the money to Mongolia by no later than next week, hopefully. I want to do it all in one big transfer, to make sure we're paying the minimum in fees for the transfer/ATM withdrawal, etc. I'm waiting to hear back from Agii on the results of the procedure and I will send an update email, write a FB note and will update the blog as soon as I know more.
If you are still interested in donating, please let me know through a message on Facebook or an email (matthewbecker82@gmail.com).Every little bit helps and thank you very much to those who have donated already. We've raised a little over six hundred dollars so far and while in the grand scheme of things it doesn't seem like much, every little bit we can get to help them out will make a difference. Unforeseen medical emergencies can bankrupt Americans very easily so I'm sure you can imagine what kind of stress and financial hardships this could bring to someone in Mongolia, with very limited access to affordable, quality medical care and significantly lower working wages. Thanks for your time.
New posts to come very soon, along with some new pictures!
I received an email from Agii today, updating me on what's going on with Aiman. I'll just past the email here, mind the mistakes, English is his fourth language ;)
Dear Matt,
First of all I'd like to thank for your kind feelings to my family and your effort trying to help me when I was in desperate situation. Your quick response made me and my family feel confident and think positively even the situation was not promising.
You know that I've been doing research for more than a month with a few results. I contacted several hospitals and doctors in Korea, Thailand, India, Russia, Turkey, China, US and Kazakhstan.
Korea and Thailand gave positive responses but were too expensive for me to afford. India is still being contacted but last decisions aren't made yet. If there is a better cance in India there is a possibility to fly from Almaty to India.
The only place which gave the most positive response is Kazakhstan and my sister is flying there next week. Doctors also strongly recommend to do gamma radiation after the surgery and it is easy to go to Moscow from Almaty. ( there is a Gamma knife center in Moscow.) Aiman and Marua ( my elder sister, a doctor who is taking care of Aiman ) is flying from UB to Kovd on the 17th and they will fly to Kazakhstan on the 21st of July.
Generally the surgery cost in Kazakhstan is estimated for about $10-12 thousand and gamma radiation in Moscow is about $10,000 not including travel expenses and accommodation. But the doctors will tell if there is real need to go for gamma radiation or not after the surgery.
I am not flying to Kazakhstan myself ( I was going to go with Aiman in case I needed as a translator), but my elder sister speaks Russian, she graduated university in Kazakhstan and quite familiar with medical system there, also she definitely can take care of Aiman (girls) better than me. Aiman's condition is getting worse and now she has difficulties in dressing herself. But her baby is in good condition. I will inform you with the results of the surgery.
I strongly believe with all of your kind feelings and wishes my sister will be back to her routine life in a couple month.
Thank you and all the best. Agii
I'm glad to hear Aiman will be on her way to get treatment but I still want to contribute as much money as we can to possibly help them with the costs of the operation, the gamma treatment if necessary or at the very least, to help with some living expenses after things are done. Thanks for reading.
Hey everyone, just a quick update on what's going on with the fund raising to help Agii. I've received one more donation since my last update, from my friend Ryan, who's a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, finishing up his last months in the country. Just keep in mind that Peace Corps volunteers make chump change (a few thousane per year) and if one one PCV can make a small donation, plenty of you can afford to make one as well. :) I'm still waiting to hear back from some family members and friends but I did receive some good news from my friend Lauren, who was a Fulbright scholar in Olgii, studying eagle hunting and Kazakh eagle hunters. She was in Olgii for a while and did some other traveling around Mongolia for her studies and work and my site mates, local friends and I spent a lot of time with her in Olgii. While she was living near Deloun soum, a small town south of Olgii, she lived with a family whose child had a cleft lip. Through donations from family and friends, Lauren was able to raise a few thousand dollars to pay for transportaion to UB, an operation, and medical care for the child. Because the whole deal cost less than originally anticipated, Lauren has quite a bit of money left over, something like a couple grand, maybe more. Because Lauren is also friendly with Agii, she has decided to donate the remaining funds to help Agii and Aiman and their family out.
Lauren is in Olgii until until the 23rd and in the meanwhile is trying to find the best way to get those funds to Agii. Hopefully she'll be able to withdraw the cash or make a transfer to Agii's bank account in the next week. I was very excited to hear that Lauren can donate so much to help them out and hopefully, that money plus whatever I can raise will make a big difference in getting the proper care for Aiman and making sure Agii's family doesn't have to give up everything in the process.
I'm still taking donations to my Paypal account, probably going to wait another week if I can, before making the first transfer. If you have anything you can donate, please do, every little bit will help. Thank you.
In other news, our good friend Brian is coming into Cambodia tonight from Mongolia. He just finished his Peace Corps service and will be spending close to two weeks here before flying back to the U.S. to be with his wife and family. We're heading to a beach town called Sihanoukville tomorrow morning to spend the weekend and are planning on heading back to Siem Reap next weekend.
I took on more hours at work and I'm teaching TOEFL ibt classes in the mornings and evenings. I switched classes and now I'm teaching the some of thesame students I had last term, a group I grew pretty close with and had a lot of fun with. I'm teaching them the next level of TOEFL at New World Institute and teaching another group in the mornings. It's nice because it gives me something to do for a few hours in the morning, I still have a lot of free time during the day and I'll be able to save a bit more money before I come back to the U.S.
Just wanted to throw in a quick update before the weekend. We'll only be gone for a day and a half, should be back home by Sunday afternoon. I'll update again with more pics asap. Hope everyone is doing well.
I just found this post/article written on another blog about Cambodia, from January of this year, about the children of the wealthy, unbelievably corrupt, so called "elite" upper class of Cambodia. Interesting read, albeit disgusting and disturbing. How do you get rid of this type of corruption? How about responsible aid distribution? What does that even mean? I don't know. This is just one of many reasons I don't see myself working in development work ever again, it's all but hopeless. The more I've read about this and similar situations in other parts of the world (especially the Middle East, check out "Sleeping With the Devil"), the more I lose my faith in humanity.
I just copied and pasted this from an email I sent out recently, regarding the situation with my friend Agii, who's sister has a very serious, life threatening brain tumor.
Hey friends, family, blog followers,
I originally sent this email to the people who emailed me back or wrote in response to my blog post about my friend Agii in Mongolia, who's sister has a life threatening brain tumor. My good friend Travis Hellstrom, who I trained with as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, has agreed to help me out in getting some funds to Agii. I worry that there isn't enough time to set up anything really 'official' or more professional, so there won't be any tax benefits to come with this donation, but I hope you can still donate some money. Because it's in Mongolia, our only real option at this point is for those who are interested in donating, to transfer money to my Paypal account. After I receive the funds in my Paypal, I will transfer them to Travis' Paypal account. Once he has them in his Paypal account, he's going to transfer them to his American bank account, withdraw them from an ATM in Mongolia, then deposit the cash in Agii's Khaan Bank (local Mongolian bank) account. If I set up a 'donation' account on Paypal, Paypal takes a 3% fee so I'd like to avoid that.
I know this process sounds a bit complicated and maybe unprofessional but I can assure you, this is our only option at this point, especially given the seriousness of the situation. I am donating $100 to Agii, which I just transferred from my bank account to my Paypal account. I will evaluate my money situation again soon and see if I can donate more. I don't know that I can raise enough money to buy his sister a plane ticket or not but I think at this point, anything will help. Agii has already expressed to me that he is willing to sell everything he owns in order to help his sister.
Please feel free to email me back if you have any questions. For those who don't have Paypal and would still like to donate some money, email me and I'm sure we can work something out where you could maybe use a friend or family members' Paypal account. My email address for my Paypal account is matt98ta@yahoo.com. If you transfer money to my account, email me or send a message to let me know.
I'm going to make another blog post about this to see if I can find more people interested in donating and brainstorm with Travis on other ways to raise money and transfer it to Agii. I will probably also make a guest post on Travis' blog as well.
My email: matthewbecker82@gmail.com
Travis' blog: http://blog.advancehumanity.com/
Thank you for reading and thank you for anything you can donate to help a great friend of mine,
Matt Becker
UPDATE: So far we've raised $450 to donate to help Agii !!!!
A couple weekends ago, Hanna and I took the bus up to Siem Reap to spend a nice weekend. The bus ride was about six hours, overnight, so we arrived in Siem Reap pretty early in the morning and hired a tuk tuk to help us find a guesthouse or hotel to stay at. We found a decent place pretty quickly and prepared to enjoy a nice weekend away from Phnom Penh. The first day was pretty lazy, mostly spend wandering around the town of Siem Reap, avoiding annoying tuk tuk drivers, eating good food, enjoying 50 cent draft beers (after a month of not drinking any beer), and just relaxing. We checked out the night markets, some restaurants and bars, played pool, and even got a "Dr. Fish Massage". Basically you pay a couple bucks, sit down with your feet in a pool or aquarium and a bunch of tiny fish nibble at your feet for 20 minutes. It tickles and feels really good, it's almost impossible not to laugh and smile. The fish basically eat the dead skin off of your feet. Also, the 'massage' comes with a free beer. Heck of a deal if you ask me.
The second day in Siem Reap, we rented bicycles and rode the 5 or 6 kilometers from the town to Angkor Wat. We spent the next six hours checking out the vast array of temples, riding the bicycles from temple to temple, just enjoying and appreciating the beauty and history of the whole experience, taking pictures and stopping for a cold drink or some fresh fruit here and there. The whole experience of riding bicycles around one of the seven wonders of the world was so surreal, just absolutely amazing and beautiful. It's difficult to find the words to accurately describe the experience, but I can easily say that it's one weekend that I will always remember. Despite my frustrations and inability to understand/accept the many problems in Cambodia, I still believe it's a beautiful place to visit and I think anyone who has the chance, should definitely take a trip to Angkor Wat. We are considering going again before we leave the country. Here's a link to my Facebook album of pictures from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.
Speaking of leaving, I've booked my travel arrangements to come back to the U.S. I'm coming back in early September, spending a week in Los Angeles before flying back to Colorado. I've been to the U.S./Colorado twice in the past two years since I left but neither trip was very long. I feel like, after being away from the U.S., my family, my friends, my dogs, and just life back home for so long, I need to come back for a lot longer this time. I legitimately feel homesick and eager to be back in Colorado for the first time in over two years and I am excited about spending more time at home while I plan my next moves in life. More on that as the time gets closer. In the meanwhile I am going to continue to teach part time, work on reaching my personal fitness goals, read, and enjoy life. More posts and pictures to come, as always.
