Villages Around Siem Reap

Today we drove around several of the small rural villages surrounding Siem Reap that are the villages from where many of our students hail.  Again we saw poverty that is simply unmatched in America.  The homes on stilts to avoid annual flooding; the small "gas stations" selling homemade fuel; family shops selling vegetables, soda, water, chips and only they know what else; rice farmers working in their fields; water buffalo; duck farms; a rural (and filthy) medical center where a baby was delivered two days ago; and the local school we visited where no teaching or learning of note was taking place were more eye-opening than any experience we've had since arriving in Cambodia.  There is no way I can begin to list or even describe everything we say today.  Everyday I am in Cambodia I become increasingly aware of how fortunate I am simply by birthright - because I was born in America I was afforded opportunities that most Cambodians could never imagine.  As I type this with a heavy heart I realize that I am a no more than 15km away from them and live in a completely different world.  Here are some images of what we saw, no camera can truly capture the true essence of today's experience.

This is a video of the countryside we drove through today.

(the audio is just wind noise, sorry)