8 Months later, and a Presentation.

Its been 8 months, since I was in Cambodia. Actually last year, last week, I was chosen to go to Cambodia. Its been over half a year, since I saw the children, and today when I realized that, my heart dropped. I miss them but wouldn't anybody? I presented to 7th and 8th graders at the Eagle County Charter Academy today and to see the pictures, to here there voices from the video, took me back to when I was there. Today and if you asked me about 2 weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to name the 3 girls who I spent lots of time with, but today, looking back I can name them and so many more. I guess thats all it takes is that little extra push. I am disappointed with myself, how could someone like me, who cares sooo much about the girls, who this trip means the entire world to forget. Well, I came with the conclusion that I didn't forget, I just didn't remember at the time. This is such a sudden blog, and random blog but I decided that if I begin blogging again, and continue telling you guys about my trip maybe, I can you guys just as excited as I am about my next trip to Cambodia in March! I will continue to blog, but for now... GET EXCITED! Because I sure the H am. lol
Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Reflection

I can not explain the love I feel for these children, or how much I miss them, because it is too grand for words. Although I can tell you I will be back to share more love, give more hugs, and feed more belly's. Everyday I end up telling my story at least 5 times, and every time there are tears. I just have to remember that to us it is so sad but to these children it is reality and they are happy that way. It becomes so hard for me to wrap my head around how happy these children are when they have no reason to be. I went on this trip to change these Children's lives, and I came back with them changing mine. These children mean the world to me, these children give me a reason to do good in the world and to start something that will change everyones life forever.
I am so thankful for everything I have accomplished for these children, but it is so hard for me to do the most simple tasks without thinking about them. I walk around and I see children whonare so umgreatful and I can't help to think that what they are just throwing away could be given to people who it would mean the world to! Sometimes I feel as if they could be forgetting me, until yesterday morning when, I received a phone call at 6:00am. I answered only to be surprised that it was children from the orphanage. I talked to PonLeu, who said "you told me that when I miss you, to call you, so I call you" I could not help but be so excited that they were all there and wanted to talk to me. I couldnt believe it, it made my entire week, knowing that they are out there thinking about what this group accomplished with them and how much of a difference we made in there lives. I plan to go back in either December or April but I will be back and soon for that matter.

My last message

The Cambodia Trip may be over, but that won't stop me from visiting them again. I have a mission to change the lives of others, teach others about love and happiness. Over the course of my trip I learned that love is something everyone has no matter how big or how small. It is so simple to share your love with others, even if they do not want to except it. These children taught me about happiness, they taught me that no matter where you come from or what your past was its about who you are now and how happy you want to be. These children have so much to be sad about, yet they are the happiest people in the entire world. Who ever may be reading this, I encourage you to smile as much as you can, smile as a stranger walks by, smile at your cashiers, smile at your boss and coworkers but most importantly smile for yourself. A simple smile goes a long way. I plan to visit Cambodia again soon, these children hold a large part of my heart, But until then this will not be the last you here of me going and helping the people around us. If you have any further questions about anything, my blog, the children, the trip, me, feel free to contact me at ferzacca.nina@gmail.com

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."
-Frederick Keonig


Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Thats it, Our Job is done

The trip has come to an end. It has been the most incredible experiance I have ever had and 100% worth it. I came to cambodia to change the lives of the children, but I am leaving knowing that these children changed mine and taught me about happiness and love. These children have every reason to be unhappy, but yet they are the happiest people that I have ever met. I am sitting in the Korean Airport, on a 11 hour layover, thinking about how much we have to live for and how little they have to live for. Most of the children have no family, but thats ok because there new family is at the orphanage. We may be leaving Cambodia but we are not completley done yet, we still have to teach and change the lives of the people around us.

This is to whom ever is chosen for the trip next year.
 Going on this trip will change your life forever, it will make you think twice about how much you really need to be happy and how easy it is to love. You will learn the meaning of a Great Person. You will see how differant Cambodia is from America. But most of all you will find a real person inside you that will do anything in order to change the lives of others. There is no way of explaining how incredible this trip is and how grand the hearts of these children are.

To everyone else:

I am not done, you will hear about more trips I will be taking and more lives I will be changing. I have now relized I have everything to live for, nothing to be sad about and how far a little love can go. For now I have 2 days in traveling a head of me. I love you all!

Srolange (Love in Khemr)

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Last day at the Orphanage

Today was our last day at the orphanage, and the most difficult of all the days. We threw a party as our goodbye and a special treat to the children. We bought them pizza, coke, and banana splits. They were all so excited. Pizza is so excpenive so it was a huge treat for them. We were planning on dancing but we could not get the speakers to work so we had to skip that. Finally, the part I was dredding the most is saying goodbye. As soon as it got later and we slowly started to pack up, the children began crying one at a time. Kea a 11 year old boy started to cry first and he really began to cry. I felt so bad we just gave these kids 2 weeks of the best time ever only to take it away in one night. But as I sat in the tuk tuk giving out as many hugs as I could I relized it wasn't over. I am coming back, if it is the last thing I do. It was hard but I told them that when they missed me to look at the moon, because I will be looking right back at it. Saying Goodbye to these children has been the most difficult thing I have ever had to do. I wear the bracelets that they gave me as a reminder of how talented and how much they really care about me. I could not stop crying as I left the orphanage in the tuk tuk, But I know that I will come back over and over again. It was not a goodbye it was a see you later.

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Only Love

 Its been a few days, since I have blogged last. I was sitting here with writers block, trying to fill all you in on what happened on my trip. I look around and I see a young Cambodian girl to my left and outside I see an even younger one begging for the smallest amount of money. There is a lot of traffic nothing like what you would imagine. You think New York can be bad this is much worse. The difference between the traffic in America and the traffic here, is that here, there is no accidents and back at home there would be 5 easily.I learned how little you need to be truly happy. I have become really close to PonLou. Which today I learned this entire time I have been spelling his name wrong. He is my age, he is so sweet. When he was young his father died, only to be left with his mother who was  a major drug addict. She would get so sick and PonLou would care for her like there was nothing left for him. PonLou only being 10 or 11 at the time was watching his mother who was his entire support system. Finally his grandmother stepped in and took him in because she saw how wrong that situation was. His mother died soon after. Not too long after the death of his mother his grandmother could no longer care for him and took him to the orphanage. After being at the orphanage for a few months, his grandmother died leaving him alone with only a brother. PonLou's brother was never around he has gotten in to illegal things and PonLou rarely to never hears from him or about him. Knowing the story PonLou has gone through and how he is still so sweet and so loving it breaks my heart. He is the smartest kid at the orphanage. He is one of three at the orphanage that were sponsored to go to private school. He is a kid that you really just don't understand why or how he could be so happy, but he is. He tells me everyday, "when you return?" (As in when will I come back), "I come with you?" (As in can he come with me). "I will miss you".
I have one day left with him and I really got attached. I came here to give the children someone they can look up to, someone that they will remember for the rest of there lives and to share all my love with them. But, I am leaving with me looking up to these children as my role models, they have integrity, love, kindness, leadership, courageousness, and so much more, I will remember these children as the children that changed my life forever, and most importantly I am leaving here understanding how it really takes so little to be happy, and to cherish who you have around you as they could be gone before you know it.

A quote that has stuck with me is as follows:
"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car you drove, how much you had in my bank account, or what your clothes looked like. But the world may be a little better because you were important in the life of a child." -unknown

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

We don't Skinny Dip, We Chunky Dunk

 The sun is out to get everyone and so are the bugs. Us living in the mountains and being surrounded by out door activities you would think that we wouldn't be concerned with all the bugs. The mosquito's are especially bad oiut here, but they are so small it is so difficult to see them. Everyone asks us if we are from England. No one suspects we are from America. It is so funny because I am the size of a 18-20 year old here. They look at me like I am one big child. When we ride the tuk tuk only 6 can fit in the actual carriage and 1 must go outside on a metal connector. Here in Cambodia 7 people fit easily on the tuk tuk but us even being young students we can't fit. It is crazy. Us Americans look like big people compared to the tiny built Cambodians. Aside from that, today we went to the farm to visit the new pigs that we bought for the orphanage. The pigs are still young but not too small. They are so cute but terrified of humans. I think they know that I ate there mother for lunch...(jk). We just quickly stopped at the farm and then headed over to the Orphanage where we handed out more clothes and shared as much love as you can share in 4 hours. If I were old enough, and you could adopt children from cambodia, I would take:
*BonLu a 13 year old boy
*Dina a 3 year old girl
*Pol a 16 year old boy &
*Sal (Pronounced Eesaal) a 5 year old boy
I would take these 4 children in a heart beat, they are the children that would appreciate everything just that much more and the children I am getting sooooo attached to. I will be so sad to leave them on Friday. I need to make the best of my trip and share as much love as I can with these kids considering I may never ever get to see them again. God willing I will return over and over again.
That it for today it is 5:20pm here and about 4:20am out there love you all.... Good Morning
I would take these t


Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Girls just want to have sun???? Oh and a boy

Today is Sunday for you guys Saturday. We have a free day to go have fun. This morning we went to the Killing Fields about 45 minutes outside of Phnom Penh. It was very sad we were actually on the land where 30 years ago a mass massacre happened. After the Killing Fields we went to the National Museum in the heart of Phnom Penh. There was a lot of Buddhas but not the short chubby guy, these were different. After the National Museum we went souviner shopping around town. After Lunch we headed to the Russian Market to continue our souvinere shopping. This was hectic but I got a lot done. After we were all done there we stopped by the Coffee Corner a "American" Coffee Shop where we bought Smoothies. The Watermelon is delicious you can sit there watching them make you a fresh watermelon frozen dream.You think Jamba Juice is good, you haven't tried anything yet. Now we are back at the Hotel and relaxing. I will blog with you all tomorrow. Love you and Good Night.

 Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

I burn tan, I swet alot, and I am here to make a difference. What's your name?

It is amazing how the sun drains so much of your energy. Today when I woke up I went down stairs to eat some breakfast before we headed off to the orphanage. I ordered the scrambled eggs and a fruit plate. These scrambled eggs are some of the best. They put some "who knows what" spice on it and a loaf of bread. When I say a loaf of bread I mean it. The fruit plate was delicious as well it had, bananas, asian pears, apples, mango, and dragon fruit. After breakfast our tuk tuk driver Lay (Pronounced: Lie) took us to the orphanage where we played with the kids for about 45 minutes. Than we headed off to the farm to finish the other half of the chicken coop roof. While we were on the farm, all the chickens were more friendly than they had been the days before. This one specific white chicken kept following me and liked to step on my feet. I am so scared of bugs and small creepy crawly animals, and the kids have picked up on it. Pon Lu (13year old orphan boy) thought that it would be funny to pick up a tiny lizard and throw it at my hair. I was screaming and jumping and screaming and jumping, Because I was so freaked out. Later I realize I have the tail of the lizard in my hair still moving even though it was unattached. Gross. After we had finished at the farm we headed back to the orphanage where Lay had been waiting to take us to the S21 museum. The S21 museum is a memorial museum of people who died, were tortured, killed and suffered badly during the Khemr Rouge. If you do not know what the Khemr Rouge is or the Pol Pot Regime is, I strongly suggest you read up on it. It is a lost peice of history similar to the Holacaust, but had more of a influence on the people and country today. After the museum we headed back to the orphanage where we played with the kids for another 3 1/2 hours. Now I am here at the internet rental cafe. It has been a long sweaty day and I am looking forward to having a cold mango smoothie at the guest house. It is 4:31pm my time so back at home it is about 3:30am. For my parents in florida it is about 6:30am. I love you all a ton and will blog you tomorrow. Srolange

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Steamed Corn on the Cob and a cool breeze= paradise in Cambodia

When we arrived at the orphanage today, all the childrens hearts were pounding out of there chest they were so excited about all the food and clothes we brought them from the market. Our tuk tuk was full my feet were about 1 foot above my head because of all the food below them. We had quite the experiance at the market. We had to buy veggies, pork, chicken and fruit. The meat part was quite disgusting. We got to see the lady butcher the chicken and cut its head, and legs off. GROSS! I droped a watermelon after we bought it and it cracked. I felt bad but to the orphans it was still golden. We bought apples, apples are not grown in Cambodia so to the children it was a HUGE reward. They were so grateful. We hung out at the orphanage all day untill about 3 when we headed off for a tour of Phnom Penh. Cambodia is a beautiful country but also completely trashed. Its been a long day and I think I am done for now. It is about 6:30pm so its about 5:30am back at home. Blog with you soon. Srolange

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

More Meat???? and a city tour.

 Today we are headed to the market. We have to go through the meat asile again. TORTURE! it smells sooooo bad. Its for the kids so I will take it for the team. Later we go to the city tour of Phnom Penh. Fun might get to ride an elephant. Its 8:31am my time so its about 7:30pm your time. Blog you guys later. Srolange (LOVE)



Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Nailing the structure down

Today we hung out at the orphanage for a little while, but when 12:00 rolled around it was time for us to go to the VIP sports club. There is this fish foot massage there, you put your feet in this big fish tank and this tiny fish come up and suck bacteria and maybe dry skin off. Not sure. Anyway, after that we went to the farm and rebuilt the chickens coop roof. We only got half done. It was quite interesting. Well not much to tell today and we are leaving this wifi internet club thing so I will blog with you tomorrow, in more detail. Love you all! Srolange!

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Farmers Tan

 Today we had a mission. We had to clean up the orphanages farm. There was a ton of of broken ceramic and red ants. Before we headed to the orphanage we had to go pick up garbage bags, rain boots, and rubber gloves at the market. This market is not like any ordinary City Market or Farmers Market in Vail. This market is almost like a farmers market only 10 times more crammed and busy. It took us about 30 minutes to get those three simple things. Once we arrived at the farm, we began by picking up any broken ceramic pieces we could find which was a ton! Than we moved the dirt around to make the farm more level and cleaned up all the trash. After 3 hours of hard labor we headed to the VIP Sport Club. Not what you guys would assume, there was no alcohol. The sports club had a huge pool, a fish foot massage, table tennis, and a fitness room. It was quite nice, almost a vacation. Today was a hard day of hard labor out in the sun, I have the most weird sport bra tan and farmers tan on my legs. It is about 4:30 here which means about 3:00 in the morning for you guys back home. I love you all and will blog tomorrow!

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Jet Lag but worth it

We left Colorado on Sunday to arrive in Cambodia on Monday. It is 6:21pm out here which means its about 5:30 out in Colorado. The plane ride was good, although they served some weird food on the flights. Yesterday when we arrived everyone could barley sleep. We woke up today to go to orientation at 8am, where we learned some basic Khemr words (Cambodian Language). After we finished we were able to go to the Russian Market which was an experience in itself . I had fried noodles, with dried shrimp flakes, crushed peanuts, mint and some other kind of leaf on it. It was surprisingly delicious. After lunch we were able to go to the orphanage for 2 hours. The children welcomed us with big monkey arms. They were all so precious and tiny. The orphanage has a pig farm a few blocks down, which we later walked to. On my walk to the pig farm I met one of the orphans named Hen, he is a 13 year old boy, but only about 3/4 of my size. He was surprised to hear I was his age, he told me I looked about 20. That was a first for me, considering I am pretty small back at home. He told me his story briefly as it was difficult to communicate with him. He told me he had been at the orphanage for 3 years, he was dropped off by his mother who no longer wanted him, she could no longer support him or handle him. This almost brought me to tears. She dropped him off without a goodbye hug or saying goodbye. He has not heard or seen from her since. He seemed like he just needed love and someone who needed someone who wasn't temporary in his life. There is a young girl, whose name is Dina. She is very shy, and barley ever smiles. She didn't want to socialize with me, she is the same age as my younger brother Luca. She is so small probably only half the size of Luca, which surprises me. Only about half of the children were at the orphanage, the rest were at school. It has been a busy 3 days already. The time change has been a bit difficult but, arriving at the orphanage today made it all worth while. Today was surprisingly not too hot out, according to Lisa Marie it is going to get a ton hotter. Although I was sweating profusely, It still was not too hot out. But this is only the beginning to my story, there will be more in the next few days. I am so excited to go help out tomorrow at the orphanage. The children were so grateful from the start.

Chom Reap Lea (Good  Bye),
Nina Ferzacca (6:42PM Cambodian Time)

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

DONATIONS!

We are asking for donations for the children in Cambodia! So if you have a heart and have any extra or gently used children clothing or first aid things that you would like to hand over to us, PLEASE do. Anything helps.

Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

THANK YOU!

I want to send a huge Thank YOU to everyone who is supporting me! Thank You to the Vail Daily for a full page article on our mission!
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20100406/NEWS/100409730&parentprofile=search
Feel free to visit the page and check out the article!
Also a huge THANK YOU! To everyone who is supporting me through my journey!
-NF


Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

All ready for Cambodia- Shots and All

I had to get five shots but got out of it an a easy way. The flu shot was this one shot; I was able to take the nose spray. I am all diseased up and all. I have started to buy some small essentials for the trip such as a travel pillow, an adapter, and some other small things. I created a Facebook page for Children's Global Alliance as a second Blog, through our trip. Make sure to check it out!


Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

Our Flying Itineraries!

We leave Sunday, April 17, 2011 (GOING THERE)


From-To: Denver to Seattle
Airline:  Alaska Airlines
Depart:  8:00am
Arrive:   9:47am
Time of Flight: 2HR 47MIN


From-To: Seattle to Seoul Incheon (Korea) 
Airline: Korean Air
Depart: 2:00pm
Arrive:  5:30pm (Monday, April 18, 2011)
Time of Flight: 11HR 30MIN


From-To: Seoul Incheon (Korea) to Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
Airline: Korean Air
Depart:6:30pm
Arrive: 9:55pm
Time of Flight: 5HR 25MIN
___________________________


We leave Sunday, May 1, 2011  (COMING BACK)


From-To: Phnom Penh (Cambodia) to Seoul Incheon (Korea)
Airline: Korean Air
Depart: 11:20 pm
Arrive: 6:30am (Monday, May 2, 2011)
Time of Flight: 5HR 10MIN


From-To:  Seoul Incheon (Korea) to Seattle 
Airline:  Korean Air
Depart: 6:15pm
Arrive:  12:10pm
Time of Flight: 9HR 55MIN


From-To: Seattle to Denver
Airline: Alaska Airline
Depart: 6:55pm
Arrive:  10:25pm
Time of Flight:  2 HR 30MIN


Talk about Jet Leg! 

Major Jet Leg

In April, the school planned a trip for the 8th graders to go to Washington D.C. as a educational/ fun end of the year trip. I am so excited but the only thing was that the D.C. trip nearly overlaps the Cambodia Trip. The D.C. trip is April 11-15 and the Cambodia trip is April 16-30. Originally there were 3 of the Cambodia students going to the Washington D.C. trip, but 1 of them pulled out so now there are 2 (Tabor & I). Because we want to spend time with our families we decided that we were going to fly out one night early to spend with our families. So we will see. But within a matter of 3 days Tabor and I will be flying about a total of 29 hours of flying. OMG! Well we know who is going to have JET LEG... 








Remember to always Love, Believe and Dream. Help the people around you and change lives!

New Blog: One Reason

I changed my blog because my previous blog used flash and I was afraid that I may not be able to connect with everyone while my trip in Cambodia.