first day around.

this place is filled with stuff that is so entirely different from home, it's crazy.
for the first part of my morning so far, i've gotten through a lot... i went downstairs for 7:30, had breakfast and then did a overview i guess of what i'm doing and of the culture and whatnot...
i found out a bunch of things that are pretty sad...
- people really don't retire, they continue to work.. those who get a pension get about $5 A MONTH
- i walked through the school area... yes, you can do that. the children there are all types of ages and the government doesn't support this school... there are a bunch of schools in the area of all types, but this one is supported only by donations, i have a picture of a wall-type thing that shows the monetary amounts that people have donated. it's so crazy and it isn't supported by the government because the government itself has no money for it, they go to other places and ask for money.
- each class has roughly 40-70 children... they're big rooms, i have some pictures of the outside that will go up eventually.... the classes are so big because they don't have many teachers
- in the area with the school, they have a pagoda (a temple where the monks are, where you can pray), they have big buildings that store bones of people.. mostly the rich have these, there was one that was worth $50,000 (i think thats what meng said)... the rich put a bone from a deceased person in it... there are also big caskets around the area (right by the school too, eee)
- there is a pond(?) in the middle of the place and today there were people in it... it's a small canoe type boat and guess what the person was using to move it? ... plastic plates.
- on the streets there are a bunch of gas stations... but! on the side of the road, there many places that have two big barrels full of gas that people who own those stands put gas into old liquor bottles to sell... i was told they go for cheaper than the gas stations and there are many around.
- it's unbelievable as to how many children are here, there are hundreds (roughly?) in the school area where i went and then kids all on the streets and there are a bunch of different little schools and orphanages around, it's nuts!
- i don't think i wrote about the dogs before... there are stray dogs everywhere, but not all of them are actually stray, but there is enough around here.. but i was told not to go near them because they'll probably bite. i was also told that they actually eat dog MEAT here... and if you have wine (i think thats what it was) and dog meat, it's considered to work as a pain reliever. i think i'll skip out on that and just have a $5/hour massage!
- i also found out some things about the orphanages... some of the children are there because when they were born, their parents escaped from the hospital and just left them... i was told a story about a boy whose mother was raped and she was crazy and she left the child, he was only about 4 in the picture i was shown... it's insane what goes on here


it's crazy because of how different and poor it is here and how sad it makes me but these people are generally happy because they don't know any different. i went for my first bike ride alone around the area by my hotel to look for lunch and it's filled with little shops and people are everywhere. it started to rain on me, like it does whenever i'm outside so i came back to the hotel foodless...i think i'm going to have to go into 'downtown' to get food... something i'm kind of scared of doing because the street is so long. it's like our yonge street in toronto, it just keeps going forever, right through the city and it's so busy and hectic with all the tuk tuks, mopeds and cars, i'm scared of getting hit or something lol, i have a video of the craziness.. it'll definitely go up.
later on, around 2, i'll be going to the orphanages and checking those places out.. hopefully i'll be able to find some food. if not, i'll be living on granola bars and nutrigrain bars haha and only breakfast in the morning...
i guess that's all for now