April in Cambodia is undeniably HOT (the feeling of sweat running down the back of my legs is no longer a remarkable event).
But, it is also mango season. Due to the unseasonal rains, it has been a bumper crop and we can buy them ripe for as little as 500 riel (US$0.12) each. My upset belly tells me that it had better end soon, while my mouth waters for more.
It's just another one of the perks of living here, I guess. Not that I expect it will be enough to attract workers to the following urgent staffing needs...
* Teachers are needed for Hope International School, beginning in August 2009, specifically a Year 1 and Year 5 teacher as well as a high school maths teacher.
* Our Christian Care for Cambodia team needs a leader. The job would be ideal for someone with management and pastoral care skills, committed to missions but with limited capacity for learning language.
All positions require an ability to moan loudly about the horrible heat combined with a large capacity for pigging out on copious amounts of fresh, juicy mango.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Pancakes...
That’s what the unconscious lady on the road (previous blog) sold for a living. Selling yellow pancakes with dried shrimp and bean sprouts along the road, she earns enough each day for her daughters and her to survive. When she managed to turn a profit, she bought a necklace (the most common form of savings here).
Unfortunately, it was only a gold-plated necklace so the thieves will be very disappointed that they robbed someone so poor.
She is poor. My slum-living Aussie friend who coincidently lives on the same street described her place as a “hovel”. (My friend lives in a two room, tin roofed “toilet block” so she would know a hovel when she saw one.)
My friend also tells me that the equally-poor neighbours on the street took up a collection so that the public hospital would agree to do the necessary tests. It took 14 hours – the doctors finally agreeing to look at her at 2am in the morning when the initial US$100 was delivered. They operated soon after.
The next morning my friend heard the two daughters discussing whether to go out selling pancakes or stay with their critically ill mother (who would have no nursing staff waiting on her). They chose to sell pancakes to help pay for the mounting hospital bills.
My friend’s husband visited the lady last Friday in hospital and says that she is improving but her speech is not yet recovered. It will take time to know how serious her head injuries are.
I could tell you this has been a good opportunity for our children to learn how to pray for and give to others in need, but it would be hollow.
I’d just rather it never happened.
Unfortunately, it was only a gold-plated necklace so the thieves will be very disappointed that they robbed someone so poor.
She is poor. My slum-living Aussie friend who coincidently lives on the same street described her place as a “hovel”. (My friend lives in a two room, tin roofed “toilet block” so she would know a hovel when she saw one.)
My friend also tells me that the equally-poor neighbours on the street took up a collection so that the public hospital would agree to do the necessary tests. It took 14 hours – the doctors finally agreeing to look at her at 2am in the morning when the initial US$100 was delivered. They operated soon after.
The next morning my friend heard the two daughters discussing whether to go out selling pancakes or stay with their critically ill mother (who would have no nursing staff waiting on her). They chose to sell pancakes to help pay for the mounting hospital bills.
My friend’s husband visited the lady last Friday in hospital and says that she is improving but her speech is not yet recovered. It will take time to know how serious her head injuries are.
I could tell you this has been a good opportunity for our children to learn how to pray for and give to others in need, but it would be hollow.
I’d just rather it never happened.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Think you're safe?
Without fail, visitors to Cambodia comment on the crazy traffic.
Drivers use rear view mirrors only for personal primping. Stop lights are optional and lane markings only suggestions. Large, shiny 4WDs flash their lights while careening towards you in “your” lane. Dodge them along with the motorbikes, bicycles, carts, pedestrians, police, potholes and piles of rubbish and you may reach your goal safely.
The lady I saw on Friday lying unconscious in the centre of a main road didn’t make it.
She had been riding a motorbike taxi when her necklace was ripped from her neck by thieves on motorbikes. She fell, hitting her bare head on the bitumen of the busy main road. Her motorbike taxi driver took off while a crowd of men collected around her, their curiosity protecting her from being run over by the midday traffic. A Good Samaritan with some knowledge of first aid laid her in the lateral position and phoned the ambulance.
Road accidents are horribly common here. I’ve seen more bleeding, twisted bodies than I want to remember.
The Road Safety Committee here in Cambodia reports that road accidents seriously wounded 32 people and killed 4.5 on an average day. This is an annual rate of 11.5 deaths and 82.25 serious injuries per 100,000 people. This is in a country where helmet wearing was only recently made law (however the US$2.50 ice-cream bucket impersonators used by most are colloquially called “helmets that protect from police” rather than “safety helmets”).
For interest sake, I decided to google Australia’s stats (yeah, insomnia again) and found some interesting results. In comparison, the most recently available data shows that 4.42 people die and 138 are injured on Australia’s roads each day. This is an annual rate of 7.7 deaths and 248 hospital admissions per 100,000 people.
On the surface (not accounting for under-reporting), it would seem that more bravery is needed to venture onto the roads in Australia.
Happy Easter!
Drivers use rear view mirrors only for personal primping. Stop lights are optional and lane markings only suggestions. Large, shiny 4WDs flash their lights while careening towards you in “your” lane. Dodge them along with the motorbikes, bicycles, carts, pedestrians, police, potholes and piles of rubbish and you may reach your goal safely.
The lady I saw on Friday lying unconscious in the centre of a main road didn’t make it.
She had been riding a motorbike taxi when her necklace was ripped from her neck by thieves on motorbikes. She fell, hitting her bare head on the bitumen of the busy main road. Her motorbike taxi driver took off while a crowd of men collected around her, their curiosity protecting her from being run over by the midday traffic. A Good Samaritan with some knowledge of first aid laid her in the lateral position and phoned the ambulance.
Road accidents are horribly common here. I’ve seen more bleeding, twisted bodies than I want to remember.
The Road Safety Committee here in Cambodia reports that road accidents seriously wounded 32 people and killed 4.5 on an average day. This is an annual rate of 11.5 deaths and 82.25 serious injuries per 100,000 people. This is in a country where helmet wearing was only recently made law (however the US$2.50 ice-cream bucket impersonators used by most are colloquially called “helmets that protect from police” rather than “safety helmets”).
For interest sake, I decided to google Australia’s stats (yeah, insomnia again) and found some interesting results. In comparison, the most recently available data shows that 4.42 people die and 138 are injured on Australia’s roads each day. This is an annual rate of 7.7 deaths and 248 hospital admissions per 100,000 people.
On the surface (not accounting for under-reporting), it would seem that more bravery is needed to venture onto the roads in Australia.
Happy Easter!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Language learning and dishwashing liquid
I love language learning. I know that most people hate it and they think I am mad … but I love that having a chin-wag with my teacher for three hours a week is considered “work”.
My current lessons are actually more productive beyond just learning new words and developing greater cultural understanding. Since taking up study again last year, my language teacher has not only persevered through the marketing text book with me, but he has been inspired to start his own business.
“Green Cleaner” is a dishwashing liquid that he sells in 500ml water bottles with a laser-printed label. Produced on a shoe-string budget, the product doesn’t look much, but he has trained all his salespeople to groom themselves well and speak beautifully to even the rudest customers.
His unique selling point is that it is made in Cambodia and is very successful with the current climate of increased antagonism towards neighbouring countries. Old ladies are patting him on the arm and saying “If I can’t support Cambodian business, who can I support?” So business is growing fast, and he now employs 7 full-time staff and another 15-20 people on the weekends.
Priced at only 1,500 riel (US$0.37), his staff earning 300 riel (US$0.07) with each sale (up to US$80 per month), are making more money than he is… but he is not concerned. He is delighted to be helping out young people in his neighbourhood who have just lost their jobs in garment factories due to the global financial crisis. He is also committed to tithing 10% of his turnover to the local church, despite my protests that tithing off profit is sufficient and will leave more money for re-investing.
My role in this has been so insignificant but I can’t help wondering if my motivation and advice has been more effective than if I had tried to start my own business from one of the many business ideas swimming around my head. My teacher is far more committed, motivated and skilled than I could have ever hoped to find in a business manager because he is investing his own money, energy and ideas in a business that he (not a donor) controls.
He now needs at least US$6,000 to take the business to the next level which includes registering with the Government, buying a tuk-tuk for transport, buying moulds and producing bottles that cannot be copied by others (there is already some con-artist selling identically labelled green-coloured “water” in one market for 1,000riel).
I have no troubles advocating for him as this would be money very well spent.
My current lessons are actually more productive beyond just learning new words and developing greater cultural understanding. Since taking up study again last year, my language teacher has not only persevered through the marketing text book with me, but he has been inspired to start his own business.
“Green Cleaner” is a dishwashing liquid that he sells in 500ml water bottles with a laser-printed label. Produced on a shoe-string budget, the product doesn’t look much, but he has trained all his salespeople to groom themselves well and speak beautifully to even the rudest customers.
His unique selling point is that it is made in Cambodia and is very successful with the current climate of increased antagonism towards neighbouring countries. Old ladies are patting him on the arm and saying “If I can’t support Cambodian business, who can I support?” So business is growing fast, and he now employs 7 full-time staff and another 15-20 people on the weekends.
Priced at only 1,500 riel (US$0.37), his staff earning 300 riel (US$0.07) with each sale (up to US$80 per month), are making more money than he is… but he is not concerned. He is delighted to be helping out young people in his neighbourhood who have just lost their jobs in garment factories due to the global financial crisis. He is also committed to tithing 10% of his turnover to the local church, despite my protests that tithing off profit is sufficient and will leave more money for re-investing.
My role in this has been so insignificant but I can’t help wondering if my motivation and advice has been more effective than if I had tried to start my own business from one of the many business ideas swimming around my head. My teacher is far more committed, motivated and skilled than I could have ever hoped to find in a business manager because he is investing his own money, energy and ideas in a business that he (not a donor) controls.
He now needs at least US$6,000 to take the business to the next level which includes registering with the Government, buying a tuk-tuk for transport, buying moulds and producing bottles that cannot be copied by others (there is already some con-artist selling identically labelled green-coloured “water” in one market for 1,000riel).
I have no troubles advocating for him as this would be money very well spent.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
My enemy my friend
The Economist Intelligence Unit last month rated Cambodia with a very high risk of social instability (fourth out of 165 countries) due to economic challenges, underpinned by other social factors such as unemployment, inequality, lack of trust in institutions, corruption etc.
It’s not surprising at all really. Increasing reports of land grabbing, justice systems that are simply an oxymoron, a large population of youth with low education, a country rich in natural resources and a growing base of people with nothing left to lose are all factors that could lead to violence. The global economic crisis only turns up the heat further in this pressure-cooker environment.
Then last week I attended a workshop organised by the Advocacy and Policy Institute (a locally-run NGO), supported by the British Embassy. There were around 200 people there, amongst them I was one of only five foreigners (hooray!). The workshop followed a three day training course in the development of lobbying in Cambodia and culminated in the establishment of a Civil Society Lobby group.
As the speakers summarised their training presentations into bite-sized bits, I was greatly encouraged by an ongoing theme – developing relationships with people in power to advocate change.
Chris Baker-Evans, the instigator of Christians for Social Justice, comments “The more we are willing to see our opponents as part of the solution the more we are able to find creative and effective methods of addressing the underlying issues, which exist no matter who is in charge.”
It is easy to demonise the “enemy” but Jesus commands us to “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Building relationships and seeking a common ground help us humanise the perpetrators of injustice and work together towards change.
I have no idea if this is possible in Cambodia for I find it hard to put this into practice in my own life. But it is imperative that we try.
The Economist Index claims an impressive 70% hit rate or in other words, there is a two in three chance of social instability spilling over into violence in Cambodia over the next year.
Let’s pray they are wrong.
It’s not surprising at all really. Increasing reports of land grabbing, justice systems that are simply an oxymoron, a large population of youth with low education, a country rich in natural resources and a growing base of people with nothing left to lose are all factors that could lead to violence. The global economic crisis only turns up the heat further in this pressure-cooker environment.
Then last week I attended a workshop organised by the Advocacy and Policy Institute (a locally-run NGO), supported by the British Embassy. There were around 200 people there, amongst them I was one of only five foreigners (hooray!). The workshop followed a three day training course in the development of lobbying in Cambodia and culminated in the establishment of a Civil Society Lobby group.
As the speakers summarised their training presentations into bite-sized bits, I was greatly encouraged by an ongoing theme – developing relationships with people in power to advocate change.
Chris Baker-Evans, the instigator of Christians for Social Justice, comments “The more we are willing to see our opponents as part of the solution the more we are able to find creative and effective methods of addressing the underlying issues, which exist no matter who is in charge.”
It is easy to demonise the “enemy” but Jesus commands us to “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Building relationships and seeking a common ground help us humanise the perpetrators of injustice and work together towards change.
I have no idea if this is possible in Cambodia for I find it hard to put this into practice in my own life. But it is imperative that we try.
The Economist Index claims an impressive 70% hit rate or in other words, there is a two in three chance of social instability spilling over into violence in Cambodia over the next year.
Let’s pray they are wrong.
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