Our Oasis, Peace Cafe

ជំរាបសួរ មិត្តភក្តិនិង គ្រួសារ,

Today was more relaxed than yesterday and the past few days. We are still getting settled into our life here in Siem Reap and although are far from experts, we are excited to announce that we're starting to recognize different shops and signs as landmarks around us.

This morning Sasha woke up at 5 and couldn’t fall back asleep but Leah slept like a baby until 7:30 (oh how the tables have turned). After our delicious breakfast we were on our way to our second day of school. Only seconds after we passed a group of Tuk Tuk drivers asking us if we wanted a ride, we took a turn too early and were lost. So we turned around and embarrassingly asked them if they knew where JWOC was. They all knew where it was so we hopped in one of the carts. It took us probably 45 seconds to get to the school. We had turned up the correct street that JWOC is on but we didn’t realize that the school was as far down as it was. Even though we easily could have walked and saved the $1 we spent on that ride, we weren’t too upset with ourselves— at least we gave that one driver some business!
When we got there we met with David, the new JWOC director. He went over our long term goals at JWOC, the main one being organizing the very first "JWOC’s Got Talent” talent show. After talking with David we met up with Victoria to make sure that everyone was on the same page. Today was Victoria’s last day, which we are really sad about. As we talked about in our last post she is moving back home to New England to be with her fiancee. Although we have only known Victoria for a short amount of time and only met her a few times in person we felt very connected with her and will miss her dearly. She really is such a great person and is so kind and has been to so many amazing places, so she gave us a lot of advice on places that she enjoyed visiting. We hope that we can stay in touch with her and see her when we return to Boston.

Afterwards we observed an under 8 English class taught by the amazing librarian, Nesa. She is so much fun and we could really tell that all the children were so excited to be learning in her classroom. Today’s lesson was learning to say “Hello,” “What is your name?” and “How are you?” It was really cute watching all the kids and then they asked us what our names were. Almost immediately after that class ended and all the students ran outside to go home, kindergarten students began to pile in. This class was even larger than the under 8 class and was going to be taught by the teaching assistant because the head teacher was in the hospital. Nesa began the class but then the teacher’s assistant took over. We wrote the alphabet on the white board and all of the children knew each and every letter. This class was a bit harder to observe because the kindergarten students obviously know less English than the under 8 class so we didn’t understand much of what was going on. Regardless it was still really cute watching all of the kids and we ended up grading their homework.

After observing, we hung around in the library with Nesa and one of the scholarship students. We noticed they had a lot of games in the closet— Sorry, Monopoly, etc. that weren’t even opened! Nesa explained that she didn’t know how to play any of them.. (Oh how that is going to change in the next couple of months!) We ripped off the plastic wrap of Sorry and before long were consumed in who was knocking each other back into Home. Unfortunetly, Nesa had to leave to teach another class before we could finish, but no worries… She will probably be kicking our butt in no time.

Victoria came in shortly after and gave us a parting hug. So sad.

We ended up only staying at the school for half of the day because it was so hectic.

We walked home, finding our way back to V&A without the need of a last minute-where the hell am I-save from a Tuk Tuk. We sat down at the patio tables and discussed what we should order for lunch (we are OBSESSED with V&A food… seriously, so good). Another guest, Andrew, an older man from UK, walked by and we got to talking. He ended up sitting with us for a while and giving us the names of his favorite places. He has been here 3 months, but unfortunately is leaving in just two days.

We decided to skip lunch at V&A and go to Andrew’s number 1 suggestion— Peace Cafe. Oh boy how glad we are that we did that.

Our Tuk Tuk driver pulled over on a somewhat busy road, indicating that we made it to Peace Cafe. We thought the location was pretty weird for the name of the shop… However, when we entered the gates, we found a 20-30 foot walkway surrounded by bamboo, trees, and lounging beds/tables. It was quite the oasis. When we got to the end of the walkway, there was a platform with tables to eat and then a little shop selling only fair-trade local goods (including wallets and bags made in JWOCs sewing classes! All the proceeds go back to JWOC). Peace Cafe is an NGO restaurant, training young Cambodians to cook, work retail, and wait tables. The menu is 100% vegetarian with many vagan options, not to mention HUGE and full of everything from Khmer A Mok to speggetti to paninis and fries. Super affordable too. The upstairs is a yoga studio that offers 2 classes everyday for only $4.50 a class (90 minutes long). Last, but perhaps the coolest part of this wonderful dream come true, is that they also offer free khmer lessons every Saturday and Sunday as well as free “Monk chats and intro to Buddhism” sessions throughout the week. We will definitely be hitting these up:)

After ordering lunch (which was delish), we shared a coffee and moved to a lounge bed, where Sasha journaled and Leah read (could it be true??). It was amazing.

We ended up spending pretty much all afternoon there in the little Peace Cafe. We are really excited to become regulars.

Lime juice ($1) and a Pina Co-la-la-da ($1.75)... so so freaking good.

The quotes were amazing! The one on our lunch table said "If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts."