Day 2: Mangrove Adventue

Day Two...

     This morning around 8am, we checked out of our hotel and left Phenom Penh; our journey taking us to the coastline towards the mangroves in Kampot province. After an about 5 hour bus ride, which the majority of us spent sleeping, listening to old throwback songs, playing games and looking at the country around us, we walked about a quarter of a mile and arrived at the village. We were warmly welcomed by leaders and families of the village.

Eating lunch that was prepared for us by the community.

Parker students and villagers

     As we were the first visitors to their village, they treated us like dignitaries. We enjoyed a nice, plentiful lunch which included rice, chicken, fish, shrimp, squid, octopus, and mini bananas. The leaders of the community then gave a presentation on the mission of SAMKAY and how important the mangroves are to their community. The mangroves are vital because they provide environmental, cultural, and economic benefits.

     After the presentation we traveled on 3 boats to go to the location where we would be planting the mangroves, which were surprisingly farther away from the village than we thought. The boats were difficult to ride on because we had to arrange ourselves in a a certain way so that the boat wouldn’t tip over. When we got to the mangroves there were bamboo sticks poking out of the water labeled with our names. We hopped out of the boats into knee deep water and were standing in thick mud that felt like quicksand. We each got to plant at least two trees by digging a small hole and placing the tree in it, then covering it with surrounding mud.

Mr. Gass and leaders of the village.

On our way to the mangroves.

Parker students hard at work, planting their mangroves.

Emma, Lily, Michaela, and Kitzia are all smiles after planting their mangroves!

     After all the trees had been planted, we took the boats over to a fishing house on the water, where the village people explained to us about the methods used to catch the fish and crabs. We then got back on the boats and went back to the village. Before departing, we took a group picture with the leaders of the community in front of a sign that they had made commemorating our visit. After we washed our feet off, we headed back to the bus and started our journey to Sihanoukville! But before we did so, Coach Z gifted one of our bouncy balls that we brought with us from lower school donations, to the children of the village. The smiles on their faces were priceless, and their gratitude was evident. The bus ride was about 2 hours long and almost everyone had fallen asleep because we were all so tired from an eventful day. 

                                       Walking with village children back to our bus.                                       

Coach Z playing with the village children before we departed.

     After arriving at our hotel in Sihanoukville we had about 20 minutes of downtime to get ready for dinner; We went to a local patio restaurant where we had traditional Cambodian food. When we got back to the hotel everyone got cleaned up and went to bed. We are looking forward to a day at the beach tomorrow!!

Written by: Kiley, Emily, and Taylor