Doyley's brief summary

This trip has been one like no other,  it isn't easy to put it into words, but the trip was bloody awesome, cray cray cray.... You have to really live the trip to understand the feeling of giving to those in need..
    Doyley

A life changing adventure.

Coming on this trip has been a big challenge for me. I came by myself, not knowing anyone here. Now I'm so happy to have met such amazing people and experienced such great things. Before this trip I took so much for granted, especially just the luxury of having a roof over my head and food to eat. I'm now going home with a new view on my life. Working with people, like the Tabatha group, has helped me to see that others have to earn things like education and comfortable living when we are just handed it on a silver plater. I want to strive for something more now and hope to eventually come back to Cambodia and try and help more. I'm going to miss everyone and everything from this trip. Thanks.
-Annalese Parsons

Last Day :(

This trip has been one of the most amazing experiences. It has physically and emotionally challenged everyone in the best way possible. We are excited to go home and share our trip with everyone, yet we don't want to leave. This trip has not only changed our view on life, but also some future aspirations for many people. We would highly recommend this trip to anyone who is thinking of doing it. A huge thanks to all the leaders and especially Shaz and Dave for making this possible.😊
From Maddy, Emily and Jordie

Technical hitches!!

Apologies but we have hit some technical hitches.......we have been writing posts but for some reason they are not being published on the blog and are being lost.  Frustrating for you the reader?  It's just as frustrating for us.  Hopefully this one publishes and you can read it.  Will try to get others up soon too as we prepare to leave today.
Shaz

Shell-shocked!

I have asked a few people to enter their thoughts on the blog about our day today and the answer I got is mostly the same - "where do I start?" & "I don't know how to say it".  In actual fact, these are probably the most appropriate comments that can be made given what we have done.

Where do you start when you come face to face with the history of this country?  How do you explain to young Australians that a large percentage of the population can be wiped out with a simple change in the country's political leader?  How do you explain that the first people to be killed were those with an education? How do you rationalise that a whole economy can be destroyed overnight as a result of a leader simply burning all of the money in the country?  How do you draw parallels to this when we come for school a safe place, where democracy is mostly successful?  How do you explain "fairness"?

More importantly, how do you explain that this happened (along with numerous other genocides around the world) within the one species?  That we as human beings can be so ruthless to each other!

At the moment, shell-shocked is the best word to describe most of the team.  This day will take a long time to digest and rationalise and I am sure it will raise more questions than it answers?  Let's hope that these future leaders of our country learn from what they have seen as they move through into the next stage of their lives.

Cheers
Shaz

Cambodia day seven 😀

Beginning with an awful 5am wakeup and 6 and a half hour boat ride to Phnom Penh 🚢⚓️where we literally sat on the top of the boat and held onto little rails,😓😳 yes there were seats underneath but we would have roasted ourselves if we sat in there🍗🍖. Finally arriving, burnt, hot and sweaty we made our way to our hotel for a quick swim 🏊 and shower 💦 we relaxed until 7 where we got Tuk Tuks 🚲 to the FCC restaurant for dinner. Although very exhausted we pulled through with smiles to celebrate Adams (my) birthday 🎁🎉 .
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADS ❤️💞😘
Cambodia day 7, you sure were a tough one 😅.

Adam & Maddy 😝😚

Historic Angkor

On Saturday we spent the day exploring the temples at. Angkor Wat - or some of them anyway!  The park is enormous covering more than 50sq km.  We had the opportunity to explore 4 of them.
For those that were willing, we got up and left the hotel at 4.45am to see a sunrise over Angkor Wat.  30 of us made the journey.  It started off week and looked promising - clear skies as the light increased.  Then just before the sun poked through, the cloud cover moved in.
Not to be deterred, we took the opportunity to play with the settings on our cameras.  There are some great shots of the different cloud formations and different shades of colour and light.  Not the outcome we expected, but as we've learned, when in. Cambodia, just go with the flow. (Technology is not being totally on our is dude at the moment and uploading pictures to the blog is proving tricky - we'll try to get some pics up soon).

Green Gecko visit

Green Gecko visit

The visit to Green Gecko was amazing. We began the day by helping out in their garden. We built garden beds, helped build the path and moved a very big chook pen. It took the whole team plus some of the Green Gecko crew to help move it. The students from our group sat with the Green Gecko kids for lunch before heading to assembly. After that it was off to learn how to spell our names, write numbers in Khmer and learn a bit of bokatau (Cambodian self defence). The Green Gecko kids were the teachers and they were fantastic. So friendly and always smiling. Nobody wanted to leave and we had a few of the Gecko kids running down the road after us.
Tictac and Carlee

JOB COMPLETE

DAY 3
After another 7.15 start ⏰, we headed out to our worksites to soon have the most rewarding day yet🏆. After greeted by familiar smiling faces ☺️ we made our way to the local kindergarten. With the trail of gorgeous kids following us to the kindergarten, we were greeted with even more adorable faces, curious and in joy of seeing 'burrung' (white people). After individually handing out our health packs to the children, which included hairbrushes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, scarves, soap, shampoo, conditioner, thongs and a toy, we got to see there greatful faces💕, which put things in perspective of how happy they can be with what little they have. With skipping ropes and hacky sacks we played with the kids before heading back to the site for building🏠. With the houses nearly complete today was a slower day with our main jobs being cleaning around the houses and ploughing the grass. We felt a little helpless but were happy to be playing and communicating with the children. With the houses completed around 3 PM it was time for blessing the homes. With 3 laps of the house in the rain ☔️with chanting and music we got to watch the monks complete their blessing and see the gratitude of the local families getting a shelter (And learning to dance 👯). It was very emotional and with their final thanks we headed back to our hotel to wash up our swearing bodies 😓 for dinner. With majority of us having a delicious meal at The Sugar Palm 🍚🍲🍛,we headed home with bloated tummies to play pool 🎱, rest and swim 🏊 (Or get friend request from monks on Facebook 😱😄). Day three in Cambodia was a real eye opener and did not disappoint.
❤️Jordie, Maddy and Ashleigh 😘

The projects begin!

Everyone's still alive, don't worry! After a long travel stint, we began yesterday with a trip to the military museum which was very informative and eye opening. In the afternoon we all tested our bargaining skills, having to buy necessities for the medical packs to give to the orphans. Having to buy 80 items for $80 was quite the challenge for some! Spending the rest of the afternoon by the pool, our two groups quickly became friends over games of Marco Polo. We then had a language lesson at Wat Damnak with venerable Y-Nol followed by fish massages and various khmer cuisine.

Today was an early start (too early) , heading  to the villages to begin our house building. Language barriers were quickly broken with impromptu games of charades with the monks and the locals. Sweating buckets (Jordie nearly died again) thanks to the Cambodian humidity we soon finished the floors. Varying degrees of expertise with the hammers (Chloe nailed her glove to the board) meant that some boards were more secure than others. Meanwhile Carlee and Maddy were busy figuring out ways to smuggle the children home. Covered in dirt and sweat, come 4 o'clock a shower and swim had never looked better. We left the site with one house nearly completed and another with a fair bit of work to do. Tomorrow's going to be another big day.
Jack, Corey and Emily :)

Marco Polo hits Cambodia

After a sleep in, a visit to the Military Museum, purchasing items & putting together 80 health packs, the team has an hour of chill time & it's great to see most of them in the pool playing Marco Polo!!  Given the relative size of the pool this is quite an achievement. Nice wind down before we head to our Khmer language class - the first program change of the trip.
Cheers for now

First day antics

So our trip begins at 1:05am while waiting at the Melbourne airport for our 8 hour flight to Singapore ,our flight was very rough with lots of turbulence and many people were unable to sleep and chose to have a movie marathon instead. On our arrival to Singapore everyone was exhausted and wanted sleep, but we all pushed through it and completed an amazing race throughout the airport. This consisted of each of the teams going to various parts of the airport and getting pictures with various people. It was amazing to see just how big the airport was and the fact that it had a swimming pool and movie theatre as well as message chairs that were absolutely fantastic and many members of the team were reluctant to leave them. At around 9:30 we met the team from Darwin and were shocked to see that there were no male participants from the tiwi Islands. The flight from Singapore to Cambodia was quite short and the excitement for the team started to kick in. On our arrival to Cambodia we were all shocked at how hot and humid it was. After getting through customs we headed to our bus, which we didn't think was safe as all of our bags were stacked up the front and some of the team members had to sit on others laps. After our 'safe' trip to our accommodation we were able to relax by the pool and wait for the Darwin team to arrive. After they arrived we went for a tour around the local area of Siem  reap. Most people perceive Cambodia as being a dangerous place, which may not be entirely true as we all felt safe and the only thing we had to worry about was the men on bikes. After we returned to the jasmine lodge (our accommodation) we had tea which was delicious we had grilled chicken, hamburgers, spaghetti bolognese and French fries. After this some people went to bed while other splayed a game of Marco Polo and then went to bed (a welcome relief) by 8pm.
By Sarah, Chloe and Mikayla.

Today's the day!!

Well, today is the day that 28 young adults step right out of their comfort zone (and a few leaders!!) and head off to Cambodia for 2 weeks.

Each of them has completed their year 12 studies, but their learning journey continues.
Bags are packed, tickets/passports/visas have been checked (numerous times) and the bus arrives soon to take us (the Victorian part of the team) to Melbourne.  The NT students had their graduation dinner last night and head to Darwin airport in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.  We will meet up for the first time in Singapore and then continue the experience as one big team.

Please take some time to reply to the blog posts when you read them.  Past experience tells me that the team gets a thrill from hearing from the readers and we love the opportunity to share our experiences.

Chat again soon.
Shaz

Students from Victoria

The students from Victoria have been working on fundraising for their adventure, but they have also had the chance for a bit of fun with a BBQ and canoeing afternoon.   Team shirts make the venture somehow seem real in my eyes - all of a sudden 21 people become a team.  I hope it gives the students and leaders the same feel.

I am really looking forward to spending 2 weeks with this group of young adults and sharing with them the opportunity of a lifetime.

I am also excited at meeting the team from NT.  Every year I continue to be amazed by the way 2 groups of people come together with a common goal in mind to form a single working unit, having never met each other.  Each group of students brings their individual strengths and challenges, but the friendships formed from across this great country of ours  are awesome.  I love the opportunity to maintain these friendships into the future and I hope the students and other leaders get that opportunity too.

Cheers

Shaz

Welcome to our blog.....

Welcome to the blog site for our Schoolies Alternative team for 2014.
We are proud to have our 8th team up and ready to go.....this year's team makes it in excess of 300 students and volunteer leaders we have had the opportunity to share this experience with.
Every year we continue to be amazed at the energy of youth and their ability to make a difference in this world.
This year, our team will keep you up to date (technology willing!!!) with their adventures as they step into Cambodia with the backing of Rotary International, their secondary schools, families and communities.
In the lead up, the students from Victoria have been busy fundraising within their communities to support their community service in Cambodia.  As always, the communities have rallied with service clubs, business houses and individuals donating money to contribute towards the success of the team. From our Rotary Club - thank you!
History tells us the students (young adults) will not only make a difference in the lives of others, but in their own as well.
Welcome to our team and leaders.
Stay tuned for their adventures as they take off on the 23rd November for 2 weeks.