Scott in Cambodia

Only a temporary goodbye

2007-09-20T16:09:00.000+06:00

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted to the blog – apologies to you who have been faithfully following my escapades. The last four weeks since my Aug 20^th post have been filled to the brim with activities and efforts to complete my volunteer assignment by Sept. 14, which was my last day with VSO, officially. Perhaps another assignment in the future?...?...?

This has been a life-changing experience for me, and now that I have returned to the USA I can see it even more. Living for six months immersed in another culture has had its way with me. I have had the experience of being a foreigner in my own country for the days since I’ve been home, seeing things with very fresh eyes. Sure, things are the same here as when I left them, but now many things seem to stand out.

One of the first things that struck me was the content of conversation, overhearing people on the airplanes in the USA talking about golf holidays, sports scores and all other matter, little of which I have been exposed to for quite awhile. And then the Sky Mall magazine on the airplane – full of gadgets and “necessities of life”, like motorized drink caddies for the pool, a personalized branding iron for steaks and a toy ATM for children at home that really works. It struck me how oriented toward leisure Americans are and that we have that opportunity so readily available to us. Just one Sky Mall gadget purchase would equal a major chunk of the average Cambodian family's income for a year ($280).

This is one of the struggles that I return with. I look at my own lifestyle, the home I live in, the things I own, the purchases I make - and it is diametrically opposite from how 95% of how the rest of the world lives. How I lived there is a sharp contrast to how I live here, and yet I have been truly happy, not really for want of anything.

So I leave with important questions. How will I live my life from this point onward? How will I engage with the rest of the world? What is my responsibility? How will I share what I have? With whom will I share it? And how much will I share without "neglecting" my own needs? Most all of us in the West are rich in comparison to the rest of the world and would have a very long way to the bottom when compared to much of the world. Even most of the impoverished in the USA or the UK are in sustainable and relatively comfortable situations. Not to say that it shouldn't change, but our poor are poor in relation to the American or British economic context.

So I leave Cambodia, absolutely in love with the country and its people, filled with the richness of an up-close and personal experience with a culture so different from mine, yet it is now part of me.

I leave with personal dilemmas to ponder and act upon, like answering the questions above and choosing what is right for me. I hope that I've given you some insights into this great country and perhaps raised some new questions for you to ponder about how you want to engage with this world of ours. Maybe it won't be a volunteer assignment in a faraway place, but I do know at least one of my readers who is now seriously contemplating a two year stint with VSO.

There are so many ways in which to play a part. It's about awareness and then choosing.

I also leave behind a project - conceived, designed, planned, funded and ready to be executed beginning in November of this year. This project in Enterprise Development based on market research is new for VSO and the first component will directly affect the incomes of over 500 poor families during the pilot year with an expansion that will affect a thousand or more families in the second. From that point forward, it has the potential to affect tens of thousands annually. Components 2 & 3 will will indirectly affect several thousand families in the first year alone, with steady growth thereafter. I'm feeling very satisfied with my work and very optimistic of what it will create for the poor.

I touched down in Knoxville after four flights, 9,200 miles and 31 hours of travel at 1:00pm Sunday. Katie picked me up at the airport and we went off to lunch on Market Square in Knoxville. The first thing that struck me was how overweight people are! I mean many, many people way oversized – surely exacerbated by the experience of being around very skinny Cambodians. And then my lunch came – it was HUGE to my eyes.

And the flavors in the food I’ve been eating over the last few days have been, to my palette, largely bland. Sam, the gent who takes such good care of my house while I trot about the globe, was really thoughtful by going to Kroger and buying “food that you like”, he said to me. I looked in the fridge but I couldn’t find the food I like to eat. It’s not the food I’ve had over the last six months! It was like looking in a refrigerator museum of prepackaged, processed foods. They are available in Cambodia, but they’re not as dominant (read blog post from April 1 about my first trip to the REAL market ).

One of the best decisions I made while in Cambodia was to go to a one day cooking class on Khmer cuisine. From that point forward I cooked nearly 100% of my meals based on that style and nearly all my meals out were Khmer and Asian style of eating. No cheese, limited dairy products, rare deep frying, extraordinarily lean meats with no hormones added – but lots and lots of rice and fish! As a final exclamation point on this subject of food and fat, my cholesterol score was baselined at 214 when I left in March – yesterday it was 172. 42 points, just on diet alone!

What I notice now as I sit here and write is how even-keeled I feel. My internal rhythm seems to run at a gentler pace and I feel exceedingly happy inside. Although there is a mountain of stuff to get done in the next week before I leave again, catching up on what has passed and getting prepared for what’s to come, I feel confident and quiet inside trusting that it will all come together. I’ve been touched deeply by the way of the culture, the way of the Cambodian people - a faith that things will work out.

Although my time in Cambodia as a VSO volunteer is complete, I have decided to keep open the possibilities to return in the very near future. Several opportunities have emerged and I intend to pursue them, including a very exciting consulting project that could affect many Cambodian farmers. I'll keep you posted.

One definite thing is that Lizzy and I will be married in London on March 28 at Kew Gardens! So there is lots to be done in anticipation of the big event.

In my next posting I intend to do my best to tempt you to come to Cambodia. I’ll give lots of places to go, websites that can give you working knowledge, etc. It is my fondest hope that you consider visiting this place, and before it becomes too discovered. It is a rare opportunity.

Thanks for coming along with me on this journey.

To the moon and back

2007-08-20T23:37:00.001+06:00

I’ve just returned from a 10 day trip to Japan to see Tyler who has just recently relocated there to teach English. Izu Oshima is his new home, a sleepy volcanic island about 100km from Tokyo out in the Pacific. Sleepy refers to the people – the volcano is very much alive and kicking.

Let me tell you, Japan is no picnic for the English speaking traveler. This being claimed by one who has spent six months of this year in backward Cambodia. For the record, Cambodians speak and understand far more English than the Japanese.

It was really interesting ordering my first meal after I had settled into the hotel and then ventured out into modern Tokyo. I was lured into a restaurant by its sidewalk English signboard saying “special”. That was the last English word I read. Try ordering off a menu with no English and no pictures. What I ended up with was a bowl of cold rice with a lump of raw minced and marinated fish on top. Good thing I’ve been training my stomach and tastebuds on Cambodian cuisine.

Tyler met up with me about 3pm and we ventured out into the unknown of Tokyo, visiting the emperor’s digs and old section of the city the first day before heading out to the fabby chic area of Shibuyo that night. Think Times Square. The world’s largest pedestrian crossing where when the lights go green, all walkers unite into a mass of magnificent humanity. Unbelievable.

We spent the next two nights in Tokyo as well before heading over to Tyler’s island. It’s only a 90 minute ride by hydrofoil, skimming along the water at 50 mph - a very pleasant ride indeed. Instantly, we entered a world starkly different from that of Tokyo. Oshima has 9,000 inhabitants, scattered about in 5 villages – Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world with over 35 million people in the metroplex.

1986 was the most recent volcanic eruption, but it’s not the last. To make things really real, Tyler (and all Oshima residents) has a white plastic hard hat in his closet, just in case…

Tossing caution to the wind, Tyler and I hiked Mt. Mihara – the volcano – on my second to last day. Our 8 km jaunt was like going to the moon. It’s the fantasy birthplace of Godzilla (Go-zee-ra). Imagine an ancient crater that is 5 km in diameter and then within that circumference another crater, 600 feet higher and 1km in diameter; and then within that a .5km cylindrical blow hole. We hiked it all in virtual solitude, seeing only two people at the very end. Spectacularly eerie. The photo below is Tyler standing on the edge of an extinguished lava flow on the inside of the older crater.

I’m so glad I went to be with Tyler in his new habitat. I think he was glad to see me too, particularly in a sea of change too. I’m very proud of him for taking this very big and unusual step. I’m sure he’ll do well. He’s a great adapter and knows no strangers, even when there are language and cultural barriers.

Asia is the new frontier in so many ways and does an exceptional job in arresting our comfy Western ways. Tyler is in for the time of his young life. (yes, that's Mt. Fuji on the left, as seen from "Tyler's Island"). If you'd like to write to him, his new email address is: tylerknoxville@gmail.com

Proud Dad...

S-21 Prison

2007-08-07T17:44:00.000+06:00

Two words that strike fear into the heart of Cambodians. Tuol Sleng. Once a high school in Phnom Penh, it was transformed into a horrific torture prison by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. Known as S-21, the secret prison was the most brutal and well-known evil machine of the Khmer Rouge years. Actually, there were over 200 prisons and labour camps scattered about Cambodia, with an equal number of “killing fields” where people were sent to their deaths with one swift blow of an oxcart handle to the base of the skull.

Few of us really know what happened in Cambodia during these four dark years in the late 1970’s. Even fewer of us from the free world can comprehend the atrocities committed here. Most people have heard of the Khmer Rouge, the communist movement led by Pol Pot and his Western-educated band of Western-hating revolutionaries. Most have heard of the killing fields, the expression popularized by the movie of the same name (well worth seeing). But few people really understand what actually happened in Cambodia or have a grasp of the breadth and depth of the destruction wrought here – me included.

It’s time for me to talk about this because the trouble we are dealing with in Cambodia today stems directly from this hugely destructive period beginning earlier than, but gaining traction by 1968. It’s also time to talk about this because FINALLY, the Khmer Rouge leadership – the ones who are still alive that is – are being brought to justice after nearly 30 years. You’ve probably read this in the news – only so, I’m afraid, because it makes a sensational headline that sells newspapers.

Cambodia is a lovely country filled with graceful, easy-going people, but also owns an sinister past from which questions arise as to how its people will eventually recover. Living literally four blocks from S-21, I wonder what some of the people whom I see everyday were doing back then. Were they victims? Were they perpetrators? Were they forced? Were they willing participants? It is a classic “good side – bad side” of the personality of a good portion of this population. It would be foolish to think that economic recovery will ever erase or even ease the unbearable pain of genocide, whichever side one was on.

Two million Cambodians died out of a population of eight million during the years 1970 to 1979. That’s 25% of the population. Imagine that – 75 million Americans or 15 million British citizens killed. Many of those who perished were the leaders of the country – its politicians, doctors, attorneys, teachers – anyone who smacked of Western influence. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were determined to remove from Cambodia any and all Western influence and to exterminate the bourgeoisie. The hoped for result was to be a Maoist agrarian civilization devoid of external influences and a country turned inward, dependent only upon itself.

Out of the two million that died, roughly a half million were as a result of American bombing as it attempted to cut off North Vietnamese supply lines that snaked through the eastern half of Cambodia during the Vietnam war. Ironically, it was this attempt to defeat the NVA that propelled the Khmer Rouge into eventual victory and power in Cambodia. The people of rural Cambodia became so disenchanted with the corruption laden, American-backed government of Lon Nol that they turned to the Khmer Rouge as saviors.

It is estimated that another 200,000 people were victims of direct Khmer Rouge genocidal purges. Another 1.3 million died as a result of the brutality encountered in slave labour camps and the ill-conceived agricultural revolution that literally starved the country’s occupants. Imagine, working the fields all day in the very hot Cambodian sun only to receive one cup of a watery rice mixture as your daily nourishment.

A generation of educated leadership, intelligence and culture was wiped out. It should come as no surprise that nearly 70% of Cambodia’s population is younger than age 30, 50% less than 15 – only 3% older than 60! Literally, the cultural, political and social fibre and intelligence of this society has been decapitated. No wonder the road back isn’t as easy as just being at peace or attained simply by ageing.

So, there’s some fat to chew on this week. Savour your liberty.

A Small Explosion

2007-07-30T18:32:00.000+06:00

Sunday morning, 11:48am - B O O M! Lizzy and I stop, mid-bite, lock eyes and turn quickly towards the reverberating sound. A shrug of the shoulders and back to chewing our late breakfast at Java Cafe, but with minds whirring rapidly to settle the unsettling shock.

Just on Saturday I was questioning with Lizzy about how fragile the peace is in Cambodia. After being here for awhile, if you're keen to it, you learn what happens behind the scenes of politics and daily life. The somewhat placid bustling pace of street vendors, moto-dops, half-naked toddlers and ubiquitous honking of horns masks a government that seems to keep things under control.

Most everything looks and seems okay. There are political parties - the CPP is the ruling party with Hun Sen as the Prime Minister, and Funcinpec as its main rival. Then at a distance there is the Sam Rainsy Party and now the new Human Rights Party. There is the usual and typical bickering that reverberates between back and forth between parties. But in recent decades, this is a country that is used to settling political squabbles with violence. Only recently have they had democratic elections and still learning about what that really means, I think.

When the Vietnamese pulled out in 1989 there was a void of leadership and government. The UN came in with UNTAC and troops to keep the peace until there were "democratic" elections in a free Cambodia in 1993. Open fighting in the street aside, an uneasy decision was rendered which put co-prime ministers from CPP and Funcinpec in power. For the next four years it was a very shaky power-sharing agreement between Hun Sen and Prince Rannaridh. But that changed in 1997.

On July 5 and 6 a very swift shift happened when outright armed conflict plagued Phnom Penh once again. The more or less private armies of the two parties skirmished in various parts of the capital city and in the end, Hun Sen became the sole Prime Minister as he is today. According to an article in the Phnom Penh Post, a number of soldiers loyal to the Funcinpec party were later dug up with hands tied behind their backs and single bullets to their heads. Never has there been a thought given to prosecution of those responsible. Some say it was a coup d'etat manufactured by one side; others say that CPP was only defending itself from a reverse coup attempt. Who knows.

The more I'm here, the more I read and the more conversations I have, I begin to learn more of the detail of Cambodia's history that's not easily offered up. The ruling party has the privilege of the spoils - the position of power to control the rich natural resources of the country. It sickens me to realize that so few people enjoy these resources, and yet I equally realize that peace is worth the price that is being borne by the people.

But one must understand the context from which this country springs. People have been exhausted by decades of civil war, genocide and factional fighting, which has been eased by the ways of politics today. So much better than it was and yet so much has been yielded by a populace hungry for peace.

For the casual tourist, the obvious Khmer history is within easy reach. Visitors here are typically guilt-fully shocked at their own ignorance of the atrocities committed at the Killing Fields or S-21 (Tuol Sleng Prison) where nearly 17,000 lost their lives. Or at the news that 500,000 tons of American bombs actually accelerated the Khmer Rouge's ascent to its horrific power. Difficult questions surge forth: "Why did this happen? Why did I not know about this?"

But there is even more to the story than can be easily accessed, even when one is willing to ask the painful questions about what actually happened.

What I have found is that most Khmer do not like to talk about the years and events under the Khmer Rouge. I remember a conversation with three colleagues several months ago where it was revealed that one man's father had been executed by the Khmer Rouge. As his chin nearly grazed his chest I sensitively asked the follow on of 'do you know what happened?' Three eternal seconds ticked by when the voice of another colleague came to the rescue, "We don't like to talk about those kinds of memories." All of us swallowed hard and grasped for some rare air to move on from the delicate subject. I learned something important that evening.

Cambodia is on the verge of the long-awaited and long-delayed trials of the Khmer Rouge. Two million people died during three and three quarter years of their reign. Many were executed, still more died from starvation and slave labor. The number is not even exact, but it was too many, many times over. But for almost 30 years the guilty have mostly gone free. Only Duch, the infamous prison warden of S-21, has been incarcerated since 1999. It's as if the entire KR guilt is laid upon his shoulders, but there were those who directed his actions. We'll see what justice awaits Duch and other old Khmer Rouge leaders, at least those whom are still alive.

So, as a Western visitor in this exotic country, much lies below the surface of tourism and ancient monuments. Still, I feel safe in this place and worry not about what might happen. The struggle for this country is not with me, but with them. "Safe" coup d'etats seem to happen in this region of the world, such as has happened many times in Thailand. My concern is for the people of this country who need its leaders to find a vein of compassion matched with a backbone to fight rampant corruption that sucks the blood of the economy.

Today I read in the Cambodia Daily that three fertilizer bombs, small five-gallon bucket versions of the Oklahoma City truck bomb, had been placed at the base of the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument and one had partially detonated. The blast we heard was a controlled explosion of the other two.

And life goes on.

The big green can

2007-07-20T15:50:00.000+06:00

Sitting at Flavours on the corner of Rue 51 and Rue 278 for breakfast one morning not long ago, I thought I heard a marching band, in the middle of the week. You know, a good old marching band with drums and horns and all the trimmings. No way, I thought. Then there it was again, the faint but distinguishable sound of a marching band.

I strained my eyes toward the end of the street and began to notice a couple of official vehicles with their emergency lights flashing. Then the majorettes and flag bearers, and finally the band. I could have been in the middle of Pensacola, Pittsburgh, perhaps even Poughkeepsie – but not Phnom Penh. It was a complete Western-outfitted marching band like they’d come straight from the heartland of America.

And then there were floats. Three of them to be exact. The front and rear floats had what looked like huge green cans of Raid insect spray, each about 10 feet tall. I thought, “Hmmm, I guess Raid is sponsoring this parade - how odd.” The middle float had a number of children clad in lime green raid tee shirts and a crowned queen – I suppose she was the Raid Queen of Cambodia. A colossal honor for a young Cambodian girl, I suppose.

But then after the floats came hundreds of children, during the middle of a school day no less, all clad in Raid lime green t’s. Then a few hundred more, followed by a few hundred more. It was unreal. Something big was up.

So I asked my waitress what was going on (actually I just pointed and gestured, using a few pidgin English words to try and communicate with a non-English speaker) and she simply said one word: dengue.

Dengue is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of families with young Khmer children because if left untreated - or poorly treated – it can be deadly. Otherwise known as “break-bone” fever, dengue is transmitted by mosquitoes, similar to malaria, but there is no vaccine against it. There are several forms of dengue, but the most serious form is hemorrhagic dengue. One of my fellow volunteers came down with this form of the disease and had to go to Bangkok for treatment.

So, like malaria, people of the west rarely hear about diseases that ravage children. Several hundred have died here in Cambodia this year, with tens of thousands contracting it this year alone. It is at epidemic proportions this year and it seems to recur every five years or so in SE Asia. With proper medical attention the mortality rate should be very, very low. Not so in Cambodia where the health care system is abysmal – so much so that if any of our volunteers get really sick they get on a plane and head for Bangkok, about an hour away from Phnom Penh.

The availability and quality of medical treatment here is directly related to the inhumane and torturous years of the Khmer Rouge. Democratic Kampuchea may have only lasted less than four years from April 1975 to January 1979, but the utter decimation of civil society rendered nearly all institutions essentially null, including healthcare. Because the Khmer Rouge rejected anything Western, all doctors and medical personnel either were forced to flee the country or were killed. The same fate was met by all formally educated Cambodians who were thought to be polluted by Western thought. Pol Pot wanted Democratic Kampuchea to be rebuilt on an extreme communist platform, Mao Tse Tung style, and to devolve the country into a pre-industrial agrarian society. Two million people lost their lives in this failed communist experiment – nearly one fourth of all Cambodians. (Finally, nearly 30 years later, it appears the trials of Khmer Rouge leaders are actually going to come off.)

So these kids in green shirts were marching to create awareness amongst Khmer families. Buying a can of Raid and spraying it in one's home to kill mosquitoes is one method. Having the government provide mosquito control would be another, but they seem to be too busy with other things. An epidemic is underway, but no action, no acknowledgement of a problem since November 2006 when it started, nothing. Dr. Beat Richner, an outspoken doctor, has been referring to this (and other ignored diseases) as the “passive genocide of children”.

Nearly 20% of Cambodian children don’t reach their 18th birthday. They suffer from a toxic range of threats that children in Western or developed countries simply don’t face, not in large numbers at least. Personally, I was shocked at the huge outcry of support for the young English child, Madeleine, who was abducted in Portugal recently. She is just one of a number of Western poster children who symbolize the high value we place on a Western child’s life. But what about the two to three million children that die each year from preventable diseases such as malaria? Where is the public outcry and outrage over that?

It starts with awareness, and it continues with action. If you'd like to help, one small act you can do that has impact is to support the mosquito net program sponsored by the Cambodia Daily, the local Phnom Penh newspaper. Each $5 contributed buys a mosquito net that provides protection for three family members and will be distributed for free to the most in need Cambodians. Although dengue is the current major threat, malaria is still Cambodia’s most deadly disease. Click here if you’d like to find out how to contribute. 100% of the money goes directly toward buying mosquito nets.

And don't worry about me - I take mosquito borne illnesses seriously. The DEET people are doing very well off of me for these six months.

Now THIS is news!

2007-07-11T13:26:00.000+06:00

I have left planet Cambodia for eight days to be with my honey, Lizzy, in London. As I write this entry I’m sitting in the Dublin, Ireland airport getting ready to board a flight back to London. I was here, just for the day while Lizzy was working with one of her clients.

I arrived in London on Friday from Phnom Penh after flying a cool 14 hours in two flights while chasing the sun. It’s a great flight because it isn’t overnight, which is the bane of my international flying experience. Plus, jetlag is never bad for me when I fly westward – this was just a six hour time difference. The downer was that as I got on the plane to fly west, Tyler and Katie got on their plane and flew east, back to the United States. We had a great “final” two week holiday before Tyler officially becomes an independent income-earning adult, teaching English on the idyllic enclave of Izu Oshima, a small volcanic island off the coast of Japan. Big changes for all of us.

It is so good being with Lizzy. It’s been over five weeks now and that’s about four and a half weeks too long for me. We just celebrated her 40^th birthday on Sunday and as a special surprise, I asked her to marry me. She said yes, so we are officially engaged!

I was a bit nervous doing this in front of 30 other people, but all were close friends and relatives. Many of them were expecting us to get engaged, but all were surprised by the occasion. What was absolutely wonderful was that we have it all on film, thanks to many cameras that were present. You can click here to see some of the pictures. You’ll be able to figure out the proposal – it’s toward the middle of the photo album, just after a series of 8 photos of Lizzy and I standing outside the restaurant having a conversation.

When I was at home in May for Tyler’s graduation I went to my jeweler, the same one that Lizzy and I had visited back in February when we began looking at stones. I knew what she wanted and all, so I made my selection and asked them to hold it until mid June when I would let them know. After I gave the go-ahead, my daughter Katie picked it up and couriered it to me in Cambodia. Then I brought it to London.

Now, how to do the deed?! I thought long and hard about it and settled on Lizzy’s birthday party with everyone present, at the same small, lovely Italian restaurant where we had our first date. Very poetic.

I designed a “special birthday crossword puzzle” and inserted the printed copy in a $2 crossword magazine and wrapped it up. The funny clues all added up to the proposal words. I thought this would be a good way to honor Lizzy’s dad as well, since he loved to do crosswords and she would sometimes join in with him. And the guests at the party jumped right in to help with the puzzle’s clues. Then Lizzy read the completed answers in no particular order and then everyone knew what was going on.

So that’s how it happened. We’re thrilled and I hope you are too.

My trip here is short and I’m returning to Cambodia on Sunday to complete my assignment over the next two months. I’m sure it will fly by and before long I’ll be back home, first in America for awhile, then in London for some time, while Lizzy and I sort out our next steps, together.

Water, water everywhere

2007-07-01T21:27:00.001+06:00

Imagine a residential neighborhood, perhaps your own, except there is one difference: all of you are floating on water. Instead of grass and streets you have water, rather than taking a short stroll you take a short paddle instead. Welcome to life in the floating villages around Tonle Sap Lake.

Tens of thousands of people live this way and everything has been adapted to a waterborne way of life. Door to door sellers of produce, household goods, clothing, charcoal, ice – everything floats directly to your door.

Children attend school in floating barges and play football on the roofs of their schools in fenced in areas. Churches, stores, work areas, repair shops all float. There are two reasons. First, these people make their living from the water, mostly as fishers. Secondly, they are largely Vietnamese and are landless, so this is one of few alternatives. And above all, a floating village makes complete sense when you realize the water table fluctuates by as much as ten meters.

The Tonle Sap Lake floods annually and expands beyond its normal 1,300 square kilometer borders to nearly nine times its size. At the height of the flooding in August, brought on by the combination of the monsoon and the snowmelt of the Himalayas delivered by the Mekong River, 60% of Cambodia’s land mass is covered with water. And it is around this swollen lake that a miracle occurs: little fingerlings grow up to be adult fish because they find refuge from predators in the shallow flooded forest areas.

Tonle Sap is perhaps Cambodia’s richest natural asset. It is the second most biodiverse natural freshwater body in the world, home to nearly 400 aquatic species. Annually, nearly 340 million tons of fish are harvested from its waters, serving as the livelihood and nutritional backbone of the Cambodian people.

Tyler, Katie and I got a good up close view of life on the water during our trip last Wednesday when we crossed the northern tip of the Tonle Sap and cruised down the Sangker River on the way to Battambang. This was the second time I’d done the cruise which is conducted on a non-US Coast Guard approved boat. Ignorantly charitable, the safest thing about it was that it had no life preservers. And the ultra hard wooden seats made the journey anything but comfortable. This boat dredged up images and stories of the many boating disasters that we often hear about coming from SE Asia.

Safety and comfort aside, it was an experience. The first remarkable thing happened in the first hour. The man directly across from me was hit in the back by a largish, two foot long catfish that jumped into our boat. It caused quite a commotion but eventually the crew tossed it back into the water so it could live to fight another day.

We cruised along the Sangker River and passed through floating villages which appeared about every five kilometers. The boat did double duty as a water taxi by uploading and off-loading locals who paddled out in small canoes to board, many with old rice sacks serving as luggage. We stopped halfway, about four hours into the trip, to have lunch on a floating dock. Little did the rest of the westerners on the boat realize there were still four hours to go!

Amazingly, the Lonely Planet Guide to Cambodia lists the trip as 3-5 hours, but longer in the dry season. Well, the water was way up this time and it still took 8 hours. Of course, that did include the 30 minutes or so we were stranded while the crew finally figured out we were out of gas. No problem, just scurry up the bank to buy a five gallon can of petrol from a farmer and we were on the way again. The Cambodians are terribly practical and resourceful people.

It’s been really fun sharing this experience with Tyler and Katie. Both of them exclaim how wonderful this country is, even with its quirks and inconveniences. They really understand why I enjoy it so much and what I mean now when I say it is a different pace of life entirely.

On Saturday, Tyler and Katie bumped into their tuk-tuk driver, Moul, who had taken them around Angkor Wat on the Tuesday before. Amazing! 25o kilometers away and the same guy turns up on our street visiting his family who live the next block down from me. We invited him to join us for dinner that night, as well as Eddie and Marie (Indonesian and French, respectively), our neighbors from across the hall. So we had quite an international gathering with differing degrees of understanding one other. And this was the first time I have cooked Khmer food for a Khmer person - I think it was also the first time Moul had had an American cook for him!

So now we’re back in Phnom Penh after having visited Siem Reap and Angkor Wat temples for two days, then Battambang for two days. The bus rides on Mon and Fri were 6 hours each and the boat ride Wed was 8 hours, so it can be a wearing experience. Each day of travel, however, is part of the experience.

I’ve uploaded several pics on the web from the floating village to share with you. Perhaps you’ll come here one day and see for yourself.

Three Roys in Cambodia

2007-06-24T12:39:00.000+06:00

Yesterday, to my great delight, Tyler and Katie emerged from Pochentong Airport customs and into my life in Cambodia. They are here for two full weeks to enjoy some time with me and to learn about my surrogate home for six months.

They arrived at 10am Saturday after having left Atlanta at 6:30pm Thursday, which sounds horrendously long. But after you realize the 13 hour difference in time and crossing the International Dateline, you come to understand it was only a shade under 24 hours travel time – only semi-horrendous.

Tyler and Katie have always been great travelers. Tyler went on a cruise ship in the Caribbean when he was just three months old and Katie went on her first international trip to the United Kingdom when she was just 15 months. Since then they have traveled so many places, including the typical suspects near America, like Mexico and Canada, as well as extensively in the USA. But international trips include the UK several times, Ireland, France, Mexico; and South Africa, Australia & New Zealand (Tyler), Spain (Katie). Now Cambodia. Tyler, soon to be Japan.

Hmmm…when I was 21 years old I had been to Canada when I was 9 years old and that’s it!

I’m really glad they’re here. They are such fun and easy to travel with. Whatever comes their way they adapt and roll with new challenges that pop up. We’re on our way tomorrow to Siem Reap, which is the gateway to the Angkor temple complex, which is over 70 square miles of nearly 300 temple ruins from about 800 to 1300a.d. Simply magnificent. The granddaddy of all is Angkor Wat, which is the largest single religious complex in the world, even bigger than the Vatican. The picture at the very bottom of the blog is one of Angkor Wat, which I took back in January.

We’ll stay there for two days and then take a very long but scenic boat ride to Battambang, a town I’ve written about on the blog on several occasions. We’ll spend two nights there as well. I’ll be working during the day while they are out and about exploring. I’ll join them after work hours to explore as well, but since I’ve seen much of what they are about to see I’ll be able to give good advice on what to see.

I’ll have plenty of pics to share with you next time, as well as tell you more about amazing Angkor.

The REAL rain returns

2007-06-15T17:37:00.000+06:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an entry entitled “Today’s forecast: Monsoon”. Well, since then it’s been dry, really dry, and hot. This afternoon that all changed.

I was sitting on the porch, two floors up this afternoon enjoying my new splurge – WiMax – internet in my home, finally. Expensive, but I want to make communication with the family much easier. Cost is $110 per month(!!) and that’s for only 500mb per month. It’s .10 per mb thereafter. In one hour this morning I burned through 28mb…oh boy (I'm taking donations!). If you want to Skype me, my handle is “scottroy” without the quotation marks. I’d love to hear from you.

Anyway, back to the rains. The clouds built up and I thought, ‘gee, I sure wish it would finally rain!’

Be careful what you wish for!

All it took was 30 minutes of hell-bent-for-leather breaking loose and the streets were completely flooded. I mean F L O O D E D. My lovely little intersection below the balcony had 18 inches or more in the center. Bikes and motos being pushed by hand and people strolling up to their kneecaps in the stuff. The curbs had disappeared. The occasional automobile threw waves into the adjacent properties. Now I understand why there are so many SUVs in town – to simply clear the water!

But what amazed me was the laughter I heard – and not from just a few children. From the depths of this “big problem” came a guttural joy of the highest order. Lightning crackling all around us, thunder rumbling like a freight train, and yet sheer mirth infused the masses.

Once again, a lesson in Cambodian life. From people who really know what struggling is all about, I learn that life’s little (and big) inconveniences are to be accepted, embraced, and even celebrated.

It’s like the multitudes are chanting: “It is as it is, so why not enjoy it?”

Half Way Home

2007-06-10T11:09:00.000+06:00

I can’t believe that it’s June and I’m nearly half way through my assignment in Cambodia. Time has flown.

I’ve really enjoyed my time here, so much so that I’ve even considered how I might stay here and work for awhile longer. VSO has liked what I've brought to my work and has asked me to extend my work here as well. I must say, the pace of life and the impact of my work are two really enticing realities.

Studying and researching Enterprise Development has been a very unique project for me rather than building enterprises. Actually, what I’ve been doing is creating a business plan for VSO to get into the business of building businesses. But I can see why VSO wanted an experienced entrepreneur to design this intervention. Who would know more about what to look for and to design a workable plan?

VSO is really thinking outside of the box on this one, seeing that it usually focuses on capacity building in other organizations. They are aligning with current development approaches which very reluctantly embrace private enterprise as probably the most sustainable and effective solution to poverty. A major problem is that it is one thing to recognize what needs to be done, but it's another thing entirely to actually be able to do it. NGOs are not business builders per se. But they do have the right aim at trying to help poor people, so we must also design this into the project so that we don't just assume benefits will trickle down to the poor automatically. We must take the best of both business and NGO approaches.

My role here is to develop an executable plan that will support the development of enterprises owned by relatively poor people in small villages. That means study the problem, understand the enabling environment, find strategic partners, uncover money, and formulate a detailed plan that will create more financial opportunity for poor families. They’ve scheduled six months for the project so that I can take my time, what with the cultural differences, the relative alien quality of the economic and business conditions here, and the nature of NGO work.

Coming here, I thought, ‘Great, let’s help some fishermen make a little more money by helping them build their businesses better…(yadi, yadi, yadi)’. What I now know are two things: one is that I am a spoiled business child reared in the American garden of business Eden and never knew it. And two, while the Cambodian business context has formidable problems there are still some very significant and impacting strategies I’m seeing.

Can you imagine operating a business in an environment where your government is a serious predator? Where the judiciary makes such erratic decisions that you know you’d better only do business with people you trust? Where contracts are nearly unenforceable? Where property rights are cloudy? Where access to credit has such a high threshold that you must have three times the amount of assets to the size of the loan you take, and you have to pay it back in one year at 18% interest? Where paying bribes to police and government officials are part of the business plan? Where you avoid becoming too successful for fear of reprisal?

Yet even in the midst of all of this there is still opportunity. It comes in the form of problems to be solved, which is an entrepreneur’s dream. Businesses and entire industries are formed to solve problems and Cambodia has a lot of them!

I look forward to sharing my plans for enterprise development in the next few weeks as the project comes together. I’m very excited about its possibilities and impact on poor people who depend on fishing, as is VSO, about the preliminary recommendations I am making that are currently under consideration. After a conference call on Wednesday with VSO’s international Livelihoods Programme Director and then a planning meeting with the Livelihoods Team in Cambodia we are now ready to proceed with writing up the project proposal and identify donors. Stay tuned.

What's cookin'?

2007-06-06T16:36:00.000+06:00

One of the best things I’ve enjoyed here is noodle soup for breakfast. Take really fine Chinese noodles and choose your meat. Simple as that. It comes to the table piping hot with a side of spicy sauce, fresh bean sprouts and a wedge of lime. Mmmm good.

The eating technique is also pretty cool. Chopsticks in one hand, Asian spoon in the other and you use both implements simultaneously. I must say, I am getting really good with chopsticks. Funny though, most of the locals use forks and spoons now. Really easy to spot barangues (Westerners).

And there is always a pitcher of hot tea on the table, free of course. You can order coffee but it isn’t the greatest. It’s usually thickish stuff with a consistency like thin latex paint. Milk is almost always sweet condensed milk that sits at the bottom of the glass like a parfait. I didn’t like it at first but have gotten used to it.

Lunch is a big thing here. It’s a full two hours long, with eating in the first half and grabbing a nap in the second half. There’s this really good locals place just down from the office with excellent food. They even have the menu with English translation for the occasional barangue that wanders in. But me, I’m a regular. The one girl on staff who speaks English always waits on me. It’s just automatic.

The food is excellent with all sorts of soups, curries and stir-fries, from vegetarian to every kind of meat you can imagine, including eel, frog and snake (I haven’t ventured into that part of the menu yet). Of course, rice is always served in a big side bowl that sits covered on the table.

Khmers share their food with their friends. Typically they will dish up a mound of rice and then just a spoonful or so of the ordered food, unlike the rest of us who typically think the thing we’ve ordered is the main thing you eat. Khmer’s, and I suspect most from SE Asia, are here for the rice. It’s not uncommon to see leftovers on the table from the main course but the rice is gone.

Here in Phnom Penh you can eat Western style but it will cost about 3 to 4 times the cost of traditional foods. Both breakfast and lunch as described above cost about one dollar each, including tea. You would pay about 3 to 4 times or more than that amount if you insist on eating in a place that caters to Westerners.

There are the REAL local places which consist of a totally portable restaurant with mini-trestle tables, small plastic stools and portable barbecue stoves – I don’t eat there because hygiene is of reasonable concern. But many, many Khmer’s eat at these informal eateries. I prefer an open air restaurant spilling out of a business space onto the sidewalk, surrounded by potted plants, trestle tables, cheap plastic seats and loads of Khmer people who act somewhat surprised at my presence, and who seem genuinely pleased I’m there.

And of course there are more exotic foods to eat here. Take prahoc for example. It is known affectionately as fish cheese. It is made from very small fish that are gutted and deboned, then minced into a paste. The mince is put into large ceramic jugs (60 gallons or more), salt is added and it is allowed to ferment for 45 days. Yes, that's right, can you imagine the smell of this stuff as it breaks down and ferments for a month and a half? I've actually been to the fish paste factory in Battambang where there are about 200 of these vats going in various stages. After fermenting it is ready to be processed and so flavorings like chili are added. I have eaten it twice and it is really pretty good. After all, I eat moldy French cheese - same thing, right?

Another group of delicacies are bugs, deep fried and coated with different flavorings. It is really something when you see a vendor walking down the street with a large flat basket of deep fried bugs! I saw an entire vendor stand of at least eight different varieties of critters, including tarantulas and smoked snake. I haven't been there or done that one yet, nor am I likely to do so. However, what I've been told is that out of survival necessity the Cambodian people turned to eating bugs for protein during the Khmer Rouge holocaust. They developed a taste for them and now they can't stop eating their bugs!

Other than the previous paragraph the food here is delightful. I took a cooking class here for about 5 hours and learned how to cook Khmer style. I thinkI do a pretty good job of it too. And my rice cooking skills have been perfected. I can't wait to cook for many of you when I get back. Bon appetit!

Today's forecast: monsoon

2007-06-04T10:47:00.000+06:00

Right now, Lizzy and I are sitting on our lovely broad balcony two floors hovering above the street and it is pouring with rain. This is no sissy rain mind you. It’s a good ol’ huge droplet, high wind, pummeling that is starting to become a daily occurrence.

We’ve come through the dry season which goes from November to April and the hottest month of the year, April, and now we’re through the one month transition to rainy season. The rains will continue to intensify and get longer over the next few months until they crest in September.

One might think it is inconvenient and nasty, as in, “Oh, it’s monsoon season, how terrible!” But I find it terribly refreshing and somewhat exciting. I like rain, and I love big thunderstorms. Looks like I won’t be disappointed. It’s cool out now, like low 70 degrees Fahrenheit, so it’s a very welcome relief to the heat which daily seems to scrape the paint off 95 degrees or sometimes more. Add in the heat index, which is a formula that considers both temperature and humidity to arrive at what it actually feels like. 95F usually translates to 110F or more.

But you know something, you adapt. I’m generally pretty comfortable here. There are times when it feels hot, particularly when the air is not moving. The businesses here have strategically placed fans and sometimes air conditioning that increase one’s personal comfort. Generally speaking, I think I’ve just said “yes” to the heat instead of resisting it.

This storm will pass and the temp will pick up again, but it’s 5:30pm and we’ll probably land around 75F overnight. From my colleagues at work I understand that the rains will be in the afternoon for the first couple of months, but then gradually move into the evening and overnight hours, and eventually, after a couple months, the rains will happen every day in the morning.

Rain is good. The Mekong floods and Tonle Sap Lake expands to nine times its dry season size – nine times! It brings an abundance of fish from upstream in Lao, Thailand and China which feed this country the protein it needs. And the rains grow rice and other crops that are vital to the Cambodian people.

But rain can be a hardship on certain populations. Here in Phnom Penh it is a daily ritualistic inconvenience. Plastic sheets come out, people run for cover, ponchos abound. Life keeps moving, albeit a bit slower. But in the country the rains bring a mixed blessing of a rich harvest of fish and rice, but major inconveniences of washed out roads that remain impassable sometimes for weeks and months.

Keep up with the weather at www.weather.com and simply type in Phnom Penh, or you can look on this blog in the righthand column for a quick link.

Ptea Teuk Dong "Tree-House-Coconut"

2007-05-30T07:34:00.000+06:00

I spent a great week just last up in Battambang again. Seems like my favorite haunting grounds, up near the big lake. The first two days I was in the field on the back of a moto, slashing through puddles, dodging crater holes in the weather-worn dirt roads, and choking over the fine laterite dust. 100 km in two days on the back of a moto is not my tricky back’s favorite thing to do, but I had a blast.

The first day we visited the WOW group, a community based organization of women who have formed a Self Help Group. SHG’s are small organizations of villagers who want to save money or start a business and collaborate with others to do so. Hai (in purple top on left), the leader, is a quiet mannered woman who has a strong backbone and the respect of her fellow villagers. She has engaged in enterprise development and she, along with her fellow villagers, have enjoyed a better lifestyle because of it.

I met with a group of about 10 women for about 90 minutes. Not a word of English was spoken, but my interpreter did a pretty good job. He and I had OUR moments of trying to understand each other as well! Working through translators is really challenging. Occasionally I’ll pick up on words that are being used, which helps immensely with context, but it is an experience that evades me often.

The next day Albert, a VSO volunteer from the Philippines, and I drove way out into the sticks to visit another community fishery and its leaders. They are working on creating alternative livelihoods because fishing only happens for several months of the year. The rest of the time they farm rice or grow the occasional green crop. Most people in rural areas engage in several income generating activities to make ends meet.

A huge problem for them is getting a decent price for their goods because they live so remotely and are so far removed from the markets that they have to depend on middlemen to do the trading for them. Thus they get a very low, often less than subsistence price for their produce. It’s a story that is played out over and over across all livelihoods in Cambodia and a key problem that I am working on in my project.

The rest of the week I was involved in meetings of the VSO Livelihoods volunteers and Programme Office staff. 24 of us met at Ptea Teuk Dong, a center that houses, rehabilitates, and retrains street families, many of whom are the long term fallout victims of the Khmer Rouge days. This is an amazing place, where families get proper nutrition, medical care and bankable craft training so they can leave in 12 months and restart their lives on their own.

PTD houses about 140 people, 80 of whom are children. At the end of one year they are given a plot of land and a modest traditional house on stilts with a little money to start their business, such as mat making, rattan furniture building, sewing, or another trade. The cost is less than $2,000 per family to do all of this, for an entire year AND setting up the family in their home! They have a 95% success rate. If any of you are interested in donating to this worthwhile charity I can provide more information.

Motos and Cyclos and Tuk-Tuks (oh my!)

2007-05-19T14:27:00.000+06:00

How could one live in Phnom Penh and not be awestruck time and again by the transport here? I’ve written before about its extraordinary perplexity, simplicity and audacity, but today I want to talk about public transport. Yes, today is dedicated to those moto-dops, tuk-tuk drivers and long-legged cyclo guys who keep the traffic of this great city moving beyond a monolithic traffic jam. So I went right out on the streets around my house today to grab these photos for you. You can click here for even more photos.

First some definitions: a moto is a low-powered motorcycle, what we might call a motor scooter, and ones for hire are driven by “moto-dops”. Cyclos are like three wheeled pedal-powered rickshaws with the driver in the back. Tuk-tuks are two wheeled covered carts with two padded benches and pulled by a moto or motorcycle.

Motos are by far the most common form of transport. They swarm on the road like bees in a shaken hive, totally responsive to anyone on foot. Step out of the gate at my place and within seconds there’s a guy zipping up and saying “MOTO SUH?” You negotiate a price which is usually half of what they ask and then hop on the back. Cost-wise, I can zip from my door to the office, about 2km away, for 1,500 Riel, or about 38 American pennies. I can go anywhere in town for R2,000 ($0.50) or to Pochentong Airport, 20 minutes out of town, for R8,000 ($2.00).

Back in January Lizzy and I rode probably 100km in total on motos. They’re really fun and cheap, but ridiculously dangerous if you ride without a helmet. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that we neglected that little detail back then, but now I always wear my helmet (it’s part of my agreement with VSO). A few moto-dops wear helmets but they prefer baseball caps over safety. I suspect the ones that do have had their brush with reality at some time in their driving career. Actually, the law just changed in January where everyone is required to wear helmets. Hah! Where is the enforcement?!

Motos are the family Volkswagen of Cambodia. Inexpensive, maneuverable, cheap to operate, they are a staple of Cambodian life as well as SE Asia. So I just now went to the railing on my balcony and did a quick sixty second survey of moto-mania. I saw probably 200 motos in that short bit, two cyclos, one heavy truck, two cars, one van, three handcarts and a couple of bicycles thrown in. Most were solo drivers, but a number of them had passengers, one of which had three. I’ve seen up to five on one! The women usually perch sidesaddle which to me looks precarious but they do it somehow.

Tuk-tuks are what black cabs are to London. They transport families and tourists in groups of up to four comfortably, two facing two. The cost is about double that of the moto and a bit slower. The only time I use a tuk-tuk now is when I have a large item to transport or if a group of us want to go somewhere together. Or if I don’t have my helmet with me it’s my only real option. Tuk-tuks are fun but more sensitive to the potholes and tend to jar you more than the agile and shock-cushioned moto.

Now if you want a leisurely ride through the streets of Phnom Penh then taking a cyclo is the ultimate. There is a different feel to this mode of transport, devoid of the pinged puttering of the mechanized options, the cyclo is almost meditative. Cool breeze brushes against your face as you slide by the street scenes. The depth and richness of life here is suddenly more accessible to your senses.

And the cyclo drivers are really amazing guys. With weather-worn faces, tatty clothes and spindly lanky legs, many of these men live in the elements 24 hours a day. What is an income-generator during the day serves double-duty as home and bed at night. Simply park your moto on a sidewalk under a tree and instantly you have your home for the night. Many of these men are rice farmers who come in from the countryside to earn a few thousand riel a day ($1 to $3) during the dry season. Rarely any English spoken here.

Funny enough, I’ve had more than one experience where I thought I’d explained well enough where I wanted to go in my pigeon-Khmer and my cyclo driver didn’t get it. He smiled, nodded and started pedaling away, but had no idea where he was taking me! Better to have a paying fare going somewhere than an empty seat. I love these guys.

Monday morning I go to Battambang, which is near the lake, about five hours by bus. I’ll step out my door at 6:30am and hail a tuk-tuk. He’ll take me to the bus station where I’ll catch my ride in air conditioned luxury. Sort of. When I arrive at my destination I’ll step off the bus and hop on a moto and zip to my hotel. I’ll step out of the hotel at 1:45pm to go to my appointment. At 2pm we hop on the back of a moto and head out to the village for a twenty minute ride. That’s a taste of how accessible transportation is in Cambodia, even in the villages. So there you have it, a salute to the men (literally) who keep things moving in Cambodia. Enjoy more pix of motos, cyclos and tuk-tuks here.

What about the monks?

2007-05-14T13:38:00.001+06:00

Advice freely given: don’t fly two transglobal flights within one week! I’m a pretty seasoned traveler, but leaving Phnom Penh on a Wednesday night and flying to Knoxville – then returning exactly 167 hours later the following Wednesday – some 70 hours of travel/connect time, proved to be a bridge too far. I’m pretty clever with planning flights that work, but sometimes drop out on the human being who has to survive the ordeal. Jeeeze!

I’ve decided to tell you some stories about life here in themes. First up, I’ll tell you about the ubiquitous Buddhist monks. By no way am I an expert about Buddhism and monks mind you - far from it. But I do want to tell you about what I have observed.

Cambodia, like its neighbor Thailand, is 95% Buddhist, Theravada Buddhism to be exact. About a millennium ago the Khmer Empire was Hindu, but that all changed with the emergence of Buddhism in the region. All the fabulous stone wats (temples) were refashioned and Buddha-cized. End of story.

I’ve been told that it used to be a tradition for all boys between the ages of 12 and 16 to leave their families to take on the monk’s austere lifestyle and study Buddhism for two years. This was sort of a coming of age thing for all young men in Cambodia. It was a way for them to study their faith, to become formally educated, and to learn discipline. Sort of a military service without the guns. I’m thinking, wow, what a thing for a young guy to do. The discipline it would take and the humility it would foster.

And then along came the Khmer Rouge with their punishing form of austere communism. Pol Pot and “Angkor” decided that Cambodia needed to go back to the Stone Age by de-Westernizing and becoming a great self-sufficient rice producer. No need for education or schools, no religion, no Western influence, no cities. So, along with the thousands of educated people slaughtered were the peace-loving monks. Gone were the saffron robes and Buddhism from Cambodian lifestyle. Monks were either purged, went underground, or escaped across the Thai border.

As soon as the Khmer Rouge disappeared, back came the monks and Buddhism began flourishing everywhere again. Except this time the tradition of all boys entering the monkhood for at least two years was no longer. Shame.

I don’t know what monks do all day, but I do know they live and study together at their respective wats. Clearly a monk’s lifestyle is purposely unworldly. As I understand it, their only possessions are a saffron colored robe, a pair of sandals and a gold umbrella. That’s it.

One thing they must do daily is support themselves by asking for alms. I usually see them in pairs on their assigned routes stopping briefly at homes and businesses. One carries the shoulder bag into which money donations are stuffed and the other carries a multi-tiered metal catering device to hold food offerings. Occasionally a much younger “apprentice” boy follows along carrying either the bag or the metal food containers. Each donor bows as they make their offering, then kneels with head bowed and hands in prayer position to receive an oral blessing from the grateful monks.

I must say, it is still an eye-catcher for me when I see the bright orange saffron robes. A few wear gold robes and yet others wear burgundy ones. I think it might have to do with their stature within the wat. Many times a day I’ll see them walking along or propped on the back of a motor scooter. They seem to be steadily busy, never in a rush, but always moving at a calming and steady pace, the sight of which instills calmness and steadiness in me. Interesting how that works.

I’ve uploaded several photos of monks I’ve taken since I’ve been here. I hope you’re as touched by their presence as I have been.

Graduation Day

2007-05-07T18:37:00.000+06:00

Today's posting is a bit different and for a very good reason. It's Monday after a whirlwind trip from Cambodia back to Tennessee. My son Tyler graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in English and a minor concentration in Sustainable Development. So where else would I be than in Boone, NC?

19 family members came from Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana and Tennessee (oh, and Cambodia!) to honor Tyler's achievement. We all ate lunch at a Japanese hibachi restaurant, attended two receptions and witnessed the graduation ceremony. We took lot of pictures!

Let me tell you a little bit about my son. Tyler has been a very bright light in my life. He has a sparkling personality, brains the size of a whale, and a compassionate heart. When he finds his passions, and he has many, he has laser-like focuses and brings an insatiable curiosity and creativity to bear. His positive attitude and generally joyful temperament are contagious, which add to his powerful leadership abilities. He's absolutely lovable.

Tyler wants to make a big contribution in his life - he's a big player. For instance, one day he proclaimed, "Dad, I want to be the Secretary General of the UN." I don't know if that is where he's going to end up, but it wouldn't surprise me. He has a huge vision for the world and a heart of service.

On Tyler's immediate horizon is his forthcoming job as an English teacher in Japan. The JET Programme. This famous program is designed to improve the spoken English of Japanese students. He can spend up to five years there, completely immersed in Japanese culture and language, living in a rural area and teaching at the local school. This is an amazing opportunity for Tyler and a very bold, courageous step. We'll miss him terribly, yet fully support his life-changing journey. I've thought more than once about staying in Cambodia so that we can be relatively close. We'll see... If you'd like to send Tyler a note his email address for a little while longer is: tr61670@appstate.edu

I must say, it was somewhat strange being back in Knoxville. 30+ hours of flying with four connections along with an 11 hour time difference, it has all been a bit surreal. Plunging back into the mainstream of my life has been a bit shocking actually! Interestingly, I found myself feeling much more agitated and tense than I have over the past two months. I don't think I can attribute it all to fatigue or jet lag. There is a palpable difference in the pace of my life in each place. Hmmm...

So today I get back on an airplane to travel over the top of the world (literally over the North Pole) and return to my other home for right now. I leave today at 7pm, spend the night in NYC and then fly out the next day, arriving in Phnom Penh on Wednesday evening at 725pm. Jian, my sort of regular moto driver (motodop) will fetch me. I wish I would have had more time to spend with family and friends. I'll be back sooner than I probably can imagine.

A little slice of life

2007-04-29T20:19:00.000+06:00

Just what is life like here? I've had some people ask interesting questions about what it's really like here, so I thought I'd write a little about what comes to mind.

Taking a shower is really interesting. Cambodian bathrooms are very efficient items. Toilet, sink and showerhead all in the same room with a drain in the floor. I didn’t like it at first, but then I began to see the practical advantages of multitasking.

Brushing teeth is a fairly simple maneuver, except its like camping out. One does not drink the water directly from the tap over here. So we have a two liter bottle of water just for that purpose. We boil about a half a gallon of water a day to kill any critters in the water and then pass all of it through a British Berkefield filter to back up the boiling. It’s really not a big deal, but you have to watch those old habits, like rinsing your brush under the tap after you’re done – darn!

The fruit here is fantastic. It’s mango season right now which is terrific. Nothing like a mango-banana-yogurt smoothie for breakfast. Or sometimes I’ll treat myself to a fresh hot baguette on my ride to work, a legacy of French colonialism. There’s a vendor I’ve gotten to know through my increasingly frequent purchases of his specialty. Now that I’m a regular he even smiles and always reaches under the top baskets of bread to give me one of the fresh hot ones. All for 500 Riel, or about 12.5 cents.

Work starts at 7:30am. We knock off at 12 and take a two hour lunch break. Lunch is a big thing here. Yesterday I went to a non-Western restaurant because the food is the best and it’s incredibly cheap. I had stir fried chicken with ginger and rice, along with iced tea, all for the incredibly steep price of one dollar. You do have to be aware though – only have cold drinks that have cylindrical ice cubes with a hole in the middle. They are made with purified water. You don’t have drinks with the 'other' ice. That's the sort of ice that is delivered on carts and sawed into chunks for each customer. I imagine this is what it would have been like back when people depended on the ice man for the real ice box. It's a way of life for many, many people, even in Phnom Penh.

Truth is that I live in a city of 2.4 million people and many things are different than the western world, but there are conveniences here that one would find in most big cities. But 80% of the population is rural and 35% live below the poverty line, which is $0.42 per day per person in the family. Most of the rural poor have no electricity except a car battery to run a simple light bulb after dark or maybe a black and white TV. That's a big maybe. There is no electric grid in Cambodia. Each city has its own power and then, in addition to car battery power, there are 660 RE's, or Rural Electric "companies", which consist of a diesel generator and lots of extension cords - literally - that run to the houses in the villages.

I really can’t believe I’ve neglected to travel to this part of the world up until now. I have to say that it is becoming a favorite place for me. As I've said before, the pace of life is so comfortable here and the people very genuine and engaging. I understand there are a good number of VSO volunteers who have stayed on and are living here, and I must say I think I have a sense of why that is.

Wedding Day

2007-04-27T08:02:00.000+06:00

This morning was like no other morning. At 5:45 I awoke to incredibly loud music. Rock concert loud. Then as suddenly as it came it went away. I thought I’d dreamt it. Okay, roll over, go back to sleep.

Then a few seconds later there it was again. I was not asleep. I followed my ears out to the balcony and then realized it’s wedding day, Khmer style.

I saw them putting up the tenting the night before, draped with very bright satin. Shimmering panels of pink, red and gold flapping in the breeze. This morning started the big day, ushered in with deafening music played with utter disregard for the other 99 percent of the neighbors who are sound asleep.

Weddings are very big in Cambodia. They usually erect a tent occupying an entire lane of the street in front of the parent’s house. Makeshift catering is located nearby with huge woks the size of airplane tires. And they can go on for two days.

As I peered over the balcony I saw guests arriving at 6am, dressed to the nines. Women in slinky silk gowns, the men less so. At the sound of a rather odd clamoring gong people began gathering about 100 yards away from the pavilion. In just a few minutes they all began marching in a double file line to the tune of a one-man stringed band. All of this happening just below my balcony. It was amazing. I felt a bit disrespectful standing there shirtless in my North Face gym shorts.

I’ve not been to a Cambodian wedding but over the time I’ve been here I’ve encountered countless weddings. They really do weddings big here. As I understand it there are up to eight changes of costume for the bride and groom. I mean full regalia. It is perhaps one of the largest industries in Cambodia.

By the way, no pictures for this one. I took my camera to the office yesterday and left it there overnight. Never again.

back to Cambodia

2007-04-21T09:22:00.000+06:00

Right now I'm writing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during a stopover from Bali back to Phnom Penh. We've had a good week, albeit at a very different pace from life in Cambodia. I spent most of my time in a meeting room while Lizzy was pretty free to explore Bali.

The seminar was conducted by VSO and geared toward introducing a market-sensitive approach to how we can support poor people to engage in commerce more robustly. It is proven that economic development in countries translates to decreases in poverty, more than international development agencies can ever deliver through compassionate support. However, that's not to say that there isn't a place for them. VSO is choosing to align itself with promoting economic growth that is pro-poor so that disadvantaged people can improve their position in the market chain.

This is a difficult thing for a non-profit (NGO) to undertake because it counters their beliefs and approaches toward eradicating poverty. But you can't argue with the fact that people need jobs and they need to feed their families and because of this economic development and private enterprise need to take hold. It is the major difference between the countries of the world that are well off and those that are struggling. But, VSO's approach is that we need to keep the disadvantaged at the heart of our considerations. We can't simply expect that improvements to the macroeconomy of a nation will automatically trickle down to the lowest levels where we find the poor. We can work at creating enterprise that is considerate of the poor as well, not for handouts, but for involvement.

I'm reading a very good book right now that I recommend for anyone who is interested in the subject of poverty reduction. My good friend Will Kidd gave me a copy of The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs as a going away gift because he thought I could use it. Well, I am. And I thought I understood poverty! It is a very good read with some very surprising and inspiring elements.

Spending the week with my colleagues from Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Netherlands, Mongolia, the UK and Guyana was a rich experience. We had interpreters and earpieces so we could dialogue with one another. Bottom line is that it was inspiring to meet and be amongst people who are so committed to the cause of ending poverty.

And as far as Bali is concerned, I'll be back to see the sights some day.

from Cambodia to Bali

2007-04-14T13:30:00.000+06:00

Ready for this? Lizzy and I are now in Bali, Indonesia - a bit of a break from Cambodia. On Thursday morning we flew into Malaysia and then onto Bali. I'm here for a conference beginning Monday for VSO with delegates from a number of countries, including Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Guyana.

So we decided to come a few days early to have a mini-holiday over the Khmer New Year and to celebrate my 50th birthday, which is on Sunday, April 15. Bali is a very special place that is like paradise in Asia. From what I've seen these last couple of days it is a place that is very beautiful to the eye - lots of culture, stone buildings and sculptures, all very primitive and encapsulated in a rain forest atmosphere.

Two things have been noticeable here for me. First, the people are serene and hospitable - so welcoming and gentle. They know tourist dollars are important but they seem to be satisfied that if you say "no" they will accept that as okay pretty easily, which makes for a more pleasant experience for me. Contrasted to Cambodia, Bali is so much further developed for traditional tourism, but it also means the stuff I don't like about a place that has already been discovered - tight obnoxious traffic, oodles of "toot" in endless strings of stores, and higher prices. Still, this place is amazing and worth a good visit because of its intense beauty.

The second noticeable thing is how tightly configured things seem to be. Different from Cambodia, Balinese seem to use every square inch of things and yet tastefully done. For instance the houses are more like compounds with several small buildings and always double doors. And there are a number of stiles for offerings to the gods (Hindu) on every property. So very different from the way things are from where I come from, both places that is.

We're staying at a very nice place in Ubud, which is up in the center of the island away from the coast. It's very mountainous here and steep terrain abounds. Just today I was sitting on the porch reading when I noticed a pair of rather large monkeys playing on the thatched roof next door. No need to go to the zoo here!

So, tomorrow I'm 50. I didn't plan it this way, so far from everyone, but here we are. It's just another year, but NOT just another one too. I get it's significant if for the fact that it gives me a place to look back and see what has been, as well as look forward to what will be. Probably a good practice to do everyday, eh?

My first visitor

2007-04-06T14:08:00.000+06:00

Last night Lizzy came in from London for her first trip here. The flight was 2.5 hours late, but all the better to finally have her in my arms. Very quickly it seemed as though we never left in January. We feel very relaxed and at home in Phnom Penh and now I'm really glad I have Lizzy by my side if for only a few weeks this time.

This week I've been in the office reviewing my work so far. It's been a steep learning curve about the economic landscape in Cambodia which is influenced by so many factors. Although I've been in business for the better part of 30 years, this is a very different context when compared to America and the rest of the Western world. I'm advising VSO Cambodia so that it positions itself most effectively to play a role in developing small scale enterprise. As in America where small business employs nearly 50% of the people, the same is true in others parts of the world as well. It is a strategy that most of the economists in development work have signed off on as being the best way forward.

The classic problem here is that 85% of the population is rural and depend on fishing and rice farming to create their subsistence. That which they don't eat for themselves they take to a village market to sell. Or, more likely, they sell it to middlemen who in turn give them a token amount compared to what it will sell for. But the challenge for the small fisher or rice farmer is how do they transport it to the village or town to sell it? Instead they simply take the lower amount offered on the spot. This is just one very little snapshot of a symptom that we need to address if we are going to make an impact at the furthest reaches of poverty.

Then there's the fact that Cambodia has over 75% of its population under the age of 30. That's due to the enormous loss of life during the Khmer Rouge years. So there is a real deficit of experience and know how that somehow needs to be made up.

And the "enabling environment" - the macro economic, legal and political forces under which business and society operate - is very challenging for small businesses to form and grow. Take the statistics I ran into this week from the World Bank that ranks 175 countries of the world in enabling environment terms. Cambodia ranks the following: 159 in ease of starting a business, 143 ease of doing business, 124 in employing workers, 100 in registering property, 159 in obtaining and dealing with licenses, and 174 in financing and obtaining credit. Compare this with the US rankings: 3, 3, 1, 10, 22, & 7 and you can see there is a dramatic difference in the context of creating free enterprise.

There is a direct correlation between the economic growth and prosperity of a country, driven by private sector (business) activity, and the well-being of people in terms of income, health, education, etc. It's fairly simple: businesses are willing to take risks and invest because they have confidence in the government and the enabling environment. Otherwise they'll take a defensive position or go elsewhere where they'll feel safe to invest.

I could say a lot more about this but it gives you a flavor of how I'm having to calibrate my knowledge and experience. On one hand I shake my head in disbelief at the enormous obstacles, and on the other hand I'm confident we can find a way through the obstacles to create a sound strategy. I'm totally inspired that I get to play a role in shaping long-term, sustainable strategies that can and will affect so many people. And I believe we can make an effective impact even in the face of these, and other, adverse enabling environmental factors.

I'm moved, daily, as I see people in their struggle to make ends meet.

Laborers working on construction projects earning 3,000 Riel - about $0.75 - for an entire day's labor is a shocking reality. Driving to the airport to pick up Lizzy last night I saw many buildings under construction and there in the darkness of the massive concrete skeletons, the workers huddled together in their makeshift homes, resting before the next day's work.

A young boy, probably 9 years old, slides under my table at the restaurant with a beat up shoe brush, grabs my foot and vigorously shines my sandals.

Two little girls come up to our breakfast table, not more than 6 and 8 years old, with wide eyes locked onto the food that remained on our finished plates, and the satisfied smiles as they emerge from under the table after having feasted on our leftovers.

Daily images of life in Cambodia challenge my sense of fairness in the world and fuel my sense of purpose of why I'm here and, I suspect, why there are so many others from around the globe who are making Cambodia their home away from home for awhile. There is much work to be done.

The market

2007-04-01T11:26:00.000+06:00

Okay, I'm really proud of myself today. I went to the market - the open air market that is - where the locals shop. Open air isn't an accurate description though. It's situated in a square with stalls configured into a sort of serpentine arrangement with lots of cover overhead from the hot sun. They trade just about everything here. It's not a place where many Westerners come to shop for consumption - they go to the Western supermarkets. Not me, not today at least.

Fruits, veggies and meats, household goods, sewing shops, countless hairdressers, moto repair, DVD's and CD's, mobile phones, and lots of mini restaurants. You name it, you can buy it here. But no one speaks English and, quite frankly, much of the food hygiene is a bit scary for a Westerner to stomach. And yet I came here on a mission today: to shop like the locals and buy local food. After all, I am a new neighbor living just down the street.

So there were a lot of hand gestures and pointing to things. I do know numbers in Khmer so I can tell them how much of whatever I want: 200g of fresh coconut, a small handful of Kaffir lime leaves, two chicken breasts, a knot of fresh turmeric, some red and green chillies, limes, 100g of long green beans, etc. By the end of it all my backpack was full and I spent less than $7, a very good deal for what I got, but probably 100% markup because I have a white face.

I went home and prepared my dinner which was a Khmer curry dish I learned how to prepare when I was in Battambang in January. This includes pounding my own curry paste from fresh ingredients. I must say it came out just divine.

I'll return to the market again and again. The fear is now gone and the experience was worth it all. Check out the new pictures.

Life in Battambang

2007-03-28T21:18:00.000+06:00

I'm on a three day trip upcountry, near the lake, but beyond where I went last week, about 5 hours by bus from Phnom Penh. Battambang is the second largest Cambodian city at about 150,000 people. Today I went out to several villages along the river, which is the lifeblood of transportation and commerce (fishing) in the area. Let me tell you, I'm not in Kansas anymore.

I just wish you could be with me for an hour to experience this country on the back of a moped, to see for yourself what flashes before your eyes as you pass life by...a narrow dirt lane, a group of naked children swimming in muddy water, two saffron-cloaked monks holding umbrellas in the scorching sun, children swaying to and fro on oversized bicycles, mopeds with three-four-five passengers, three goats blocking traffic, disbelief and yet wide and smiling eyes as the "barangue" passes by (colloquial for Westerner), a massive tent being erected in the yard for a coming wedding (big deal here), ramshackle shop after shop in the small village market area, thatched homes on 8 foot stilts, men wrapped only towels, ancient pagodas dotting the landscape at the heart of each tiny community...

Behind each "snapshot" of life is a rich story of how life is in this part of the world and how it has been for centuries. It is life being lived out in the simplest ways but with incredibly purposeful action, a response to life's challenges so that man can survive. I can only tell you that it is a depth of experience for which words come not easily.

I love Battambang because it is Cambodia in daily life, not for the tourist, but for themselves. Nothing spectacular, simply life being lived in a way that is truly not of the world as I have known it. And what a treat it is for one who takes the time just to behold it.

first week on the job

2007-03-24T14:55:00.000+06:00

I’ve just spent my first week working in my new job. The first couple of days doing the things that happen to most people – feeling a bit awkward with new surroundings, including learning Khmer names that don’t have an easy rhythm for a Westerner.

On Wednesday I headed to the field with my two Cambodian colleagues from the Programme Office, Piseth and Yanat. We went about three hours away to Pursat, one of 24 provinces in Cambodia, situated on Tonle Sap Lake, which is the heart of Cambodia in many ways. Geographically it sits centrally, backfilled by the Mekong River during the rainy season, and also at the heart of Cambodia’s economy because of its abundant fish and natural resources.

We visited a mushroom farming project waaaaayyyyyy out in the country. I mean way out. This is where people stared at me in friendly wonderment because very likely many of them had never seen a western white man before.

The mushroom project was started by one of our volunteers, Biro from India, who is supporting very poor rice farmers to supplement their incomes by growing a second crop out of rice season. 20 families have now learned how to increase their incomes by about 50,000 Riel, or about $12 for one month’s work. This translates to about a 5% increase in ANNUAL income for these people. Hard to get your head around that one, isn’t it?

The second day we visited Kampong Chhnang which is known for its clay pots. I’ve uploaded a photo of a woman who was taught to make these simple but amazing water jugs by hand. She makes them entirely by hand, as has been handed down by her elders. You can see the unfinished one on the ground while she completes the one in her lap. She gets 3,000 Riel ($0.75) per pot.

Last night VSO had a welcome party for us new volunteers. Nearly every volunteer from around the country attended, some traveling 10 or more hours to get here. A “snapshot” moment I remember was simply seeing the crowd of 100 heads or so and feeling such immense gratitude to join forces with people who are committed to make such a difference here.

2007-03-24T14:52:00.000+06:00

A couple of you asked about traffic here. Well, it’s thick and horrific to my Western eye. Which side of the road do they drive on? BOTH! I mean it’s the most confounding experience I think I’ve ever had, and yet it works. Forget traffic lights, stop signs or one-way streets – these are all optional and grossly ignored. But I’ve gotten used to it – the trick is to keep moving and just get in the flow! I’ll take some pictures during rush hour from my balcony so you can get a sense of it. Unreal.

Settling In

2007-03-17T09:53:00.000+06:00

It’s St. Patrick’s Day morning. I haven’t checked it out yet but I don’t think there’s a parade scheduled for today anywhere in Cambodia! Having a wee bit o’ Irish in me I think I’ll find a quiet corner and toast St. Pat with one Guiness, if I can find it.

I arrived on Thursday in Phnom Penh at 7:30pm from Bangkok. That was the fourth flight of 26 hours of flying & connecting via Cincinnati, New York City (JFK) and Bangkok. Let me tell you, that was a loonnnnggggg flight to Bangkok – some 17 hours airborne. But, believe it or not, it wasn’t that bad. I saw five movies that I had wanted to catch up on, had three fine meals, excellent service, etc. Our flight took us directly over the top of the world, crossing the North Pole and cutting diagonally across Europe and Asia. We even flew directly over Kabul, Afghanistan. What a trip.

I was greeted at the airport by Pisit, an administrator for VSO, who delivered my special visa. We drove straight to my flat, which is on a somewhat bustling street corner in the downtown area of Phnom Penh. It’s Cambodia’s capitol and largest city with over 2.5 million. The next biggest city is 155,000 – it is a very rural country.

Yesterday I awoke pretty refreshed considering the length of the flights. Although I crossed 11 time zones I am surprised at the speed of my adjustment. I do have a few tricks about handling jetlag that seem to work very well. Both nights here I’ve had very restful, complete nights sleeping.

Khmers (Cambodian people) tend to go to bed early and rise equally as early. I think they like to get a lot done in the coolness of the morning and then coast during the really hot times of the day in the afternoon. Right now the street is buzzing at 7:45am and has been doing such since about 6am. Fine with me because I do like to rise early. Amazing how this bustling street down below will still to practically no noise by 9pm.

I went by my office yesterday to collect some personal things I had left here during my holiday time in January. I was also given my official transportation – a bicycle. This will be my primary mode of transport to and from the office and around town to do my things. Most transport here is two-wheeled, either bicycle or motorbike (the Khmer family car).

Traffic is thick and very confusing to the Western eye, in fact it’s downright terrifying until you understand what is going on. Then with a deep breath you just hop right in and realize that even with few stoplights or stop signs, it all works. It is a sea of humanity that has an easy flow to it where people all seem to work together. Cars, trucks, buses, motos, tuk-tuks, bikes, pedestrians, cyclos – you name it. There’s space for everyone, but you have to keep moving, varying your speed to accommodate what is happening all around you. A good metaphor for a well-lived, connected life, I think.

2007-03-13T19:43:00.000+06:00

It's Tuesday morning, the day before I leave and I have more to do in the next 12 hours than usual when I go overseas. This routine is unfamiliar to me because I've never packed for a six month trip. And how can I possibly put all of my life in two large suitcases and a backpack?

I'm feeling a bit blue this morning, truthfully. Yes, I'm excited about what lies ahead, but a bit sad of what I'll miss here. My family, my friends, my dog, my homeplace... This morning I sat and read the paper on the front porch, the one that overlooks the valley and mountain range in the distance and simply enjoyed my last sunrise in East Tennessee for awhile.

I added a couple of elements to the webpage in the upper righthand corner. There you can click on the weblinks and learn general facts about Cambodia from our friends at the CIA and also check out the current weather and satellite pictures.

So I'll sign out for now and sign back on after Wednesday, March 15 when I've landed in Phnom Penh.

getting ready to go

2007-03-08T09:33:00.000+06:00

It's just a week from leaving for my assignment in Phnom Penh. I'm a bit anxious for what lies ahead, yet very excited at the same time - it's the thrill of doing something very new and at the same time doubting whether you have the ability to do it...you know what I mean? And there are a thousand thoughts about what needs to be done at home before a long absence - trying to anticipate all that needs to be handled while I'm gone, like bills, chores, etc.

I'm leaving next Wednesday morning and will be arriving in Phnom Penh nearly 31 hours later. Four flights and many, many shifts in reality. I'll have four days to recover the 12 hour time difference and then my work will start on Monday, March 19.