Goodbye Big City; Hello Angkor Wat
Sunday, August 19: Today we left the big city of Phnom Penh and headed by van to Siem Reap - home to the famous ancient temples of Angkor Wat. Leaving the city was bittersweet. On the one hand, I was ready to explore the ruins and dig in to the culture of Siem Reap and its surrounding villages; but on the flipside after two weeks, Phnom Penh was starting to feel like a second home - Caroline and I got pretty attached to our tuk tuk driver, who lost both of his parents in the Khmer Rouge regime when he was just two years old. He now has kids of his own and runs his tuk tuk business to support them. We gave him some crayons for his kiddos, and the next day he told Caroline they were so excited they stayed up until midnight drawing :) Here are some random shots from our last few days...
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| Our tuk tuk driver, Mr. Vannak |
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| Two of our fabulous hosts - Soren and Sok En |
The Killing Fields
Saturday, August 18: I believe certain things unfold at opportune times - things with deeper meaning, things that require a depth of understanding that perhaps wasn't achievable until this very moment, because any minute before would have altered its power or impact. Viewing "Lost Loves" on Friday was our fateful segue going into Saturday morning at the Killing Fields. The 20-minute drive via tuk tuk was a blur of dust strewn with the smells of sewage and fish - it seemed to prepare us for some contemplative time at the tourist attraction. When we arrived, everyone received headphones for a tour guided by the recording and numbered signs - as soon as we started to walk, a hush fell over us. And that's how we remained for a good hour. One of the most powerful moments actually occurred at the end of the tour, when we stood around with our Cambodian hosts as they recounted family members who had been affected by the Khmer Rouge regime. Out of respect for them and their families, I won't relay their stories here. They had never been to the Killing Fields before, and I feel honored to have had the opportunity to experience it with them. I will never be able to imagine the pain such suffering causes on a people, and I continue to be impressed with the strength of character and spirit each Cambodian I have met demonstrates.
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| Where the Killing Fields took place. |
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| A commemorative stupa for the victims. |
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| Nead buying flowers for the stupa. |
Contrasts and Parallels
Thursday, August 16: Our packed day started out at Room to Read - Cambodia's Phnom Penh office, where we had the opportunity to meet with the organization's country director, Kann Kall. He spoke to us about Room to Read's mission and the importance of using education "as a tool to solve problems and tackle any issue." He said the objective is not just for the organization's participants to be on a linear track - graduating from high school, obtaining a master's degree - but simply being educated. This notion is something I think many take for granted in America, instead getting caught up in competing for the best and most reputable education. It was humbling.
Room to Read stays in touch with its participants with an alumni network, and some young women are invited back to the provinces to give testimonials about what they learned from RTR and how their life has shifted as a result of the program. Nead said this is one of the ways that they recruit girls into their programs. This is not unlike how the YWCA works to engage women who have been participants in our programs - we have a testimonial speak each year at the fundraising luncheon as well as at other miscellaneous events that come up. Also, the GUTS! program utilizes the same method in various ways.
Kann said in Cambodia, half of the population lives below the poverty line, which is determined by earnings of less than $.50 a day. Room to Read, which is implemented in 11 countries, is only 10 years old, but has a $15 million budget. Although it's an international NGO, the entire Cambodia office is run by Cambodians. RTR has one office in each of the provinces they serve. To reach the provinces, Kann said all RTR employees use public transportation (we noticed this in Sihanoukville - Nead and all of her volunteers took the bus there and back). They want to be a part of the community and not seen as separate or other. This builds trust between the organization and the people they serve.
A huge thank you should go out to the U.S. Embassy, which met with us Thursday morning - it was such a privilege to have some time on the Embassy grounds getting to know their work and sharing our experiences of the exchange thus far and our goals for the Women's Empowerment Program. On our way in, across the street from the Embassy, Cambodians held signs reading, "U.S. please help Cambodian workers." It looked like there were reporters interviewing the protesters - there had been a similar scene a few blocks earlier, but the protesters were holding up photos of the King and Queen, and one woman was in tears as she spoke profusely to what looked like a reporter. I wish I knew more about the situation and what was going on in order to recount it here. There is so much that I feel I miss because of the language barrier, plus there is so much that gets lost in the translation. I would love to revisit this place after studying Khmer so that I can just entrench myself in the culture and truly begin to understand who Cambodians are.
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| Women’s Empowerment Project participants with U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia William E. Todd |
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| Cambodian non-profit, Help Our Homeland |
Royalty and Monks
Tuesday, August 14: King Norodom Sihamoni resides in an elaborate and "huha" (Khmer word for "fancy") we recently learned from Soren who likes to use it often) complex that spans 500x800 meters of walled grounds overlooking Phnom Penh's Mekong River. The Royal Palace was constructed in 1866, shortly after the French Protectorate and the capital was moved from Oudong to Phnom Penh. Many of the buildings were constructed using traditional Khmer architectural style woven in with some European influence. During the Khmer Rouge regime, former King Sihanouk (Soren said he is now about 90 years old) and his family were held as prisoners in the palace. King Norodom is now 60 years old, single, and as Nead explained, shaves his head once a month on the day of the full moon.
The afternoon was spent getting some prayers from a monk and learning about the monastery life. It was neat learning about the life of a monk, which is what I've been interested to know. Many of them have lost their parents and end up in the monastery, while others are sent to study. Cambodians have practiced Theravada Buddhism since the 13th century (though it was banned during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s). Theravada is sanskrit for "The Teaching of the Elders" and there are 200 million practitioners. It is one of the earliest forms of buddhism and is considered conservative.
That evening we had an entirely different experience - one that truly made us feel like we're locals. Since I arrived in Southeast Asia, I haven't worked out once. I've been scratching my head trying to figure out what the heck they do to stay in such great shape (aside from eating quite healthy). Cambodians like to dance. I read in one of the guidebooks that many of them go to the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh to swim, run on the track, play tennis and basketball and... dance aerobics! I mentioned this to Soren and her eyes widened in excitement. Every night, she attends dance aerobics at a local elementary school. So off we went, Caroline and I in our workout clothes - me riding on Soren's motorbike and Caroline supposedly following on a motodriver. We got there a bit late and didn't have a chance to learn the workout moves the instructor teaches in the beginning, so you can imagine we had a good time laughing at ourselves. After the dance workout, they played traditional music, and we felt right at home since we had learned the moves at the beach a few days ago. It's nice to get into a routine and really get the feel of life here.
The University and Roe Eats a Fried Cockroach
Wednesday, August 15: The main campus of Pannasastra University is no more than a city block, yet the energy and enthusiasm of its students feels much larger than the classrooms. Young people in Cambodia face many challenges if they do get to the University level - in the provinces they rarely gain skills in technology and English language. At the Universtiy, many of the materials are in English, and for some assignments they are expected to use computers or other technology. Also, there are often not enough computers to serve all students' needs. Panasastra has about 7 to 10,000 students at the campus we visited, but there are 200,000 students studying at its satellite locations focused solely on English language study. Sok En, who is a student at Panastara, arranged for me to give a presentation on communications and fundraising to students studying social work and marketing. Many of them showed an interest in our thrift store model and what goods and services we advertise. A few had heard of the "Four Ps" (price, product, promotion and place), so we discussed how to apply them to non-profit marketing and promoting services versus a tangible product.
Before moving on to fundraising, Sok En leaned over to me and said, "Maybe we can play a game?" "Like a GUTS! game? Like at the beach?" I asked her, and she nodded. OK! I quickly put on my Roe hat and got everyone up out of their seats. The first two games that came to mind were the human knot and the birthday game (where everyone lines up in order of their birth month without speaking). It was fun to get up and have a bit of silliness and hands-on team building after sitting for an hour - how nice it would be to carry over this method to my presentations in the states!
In the evening we anxiously awaited Roe Erin, GUTS! coordinator at the YWCA, Sarah Rossi of the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, and her sister Anna's arrival at the Phnom Penh airport. To their surprise, we brought some very special gifts for them. Apparently, Sarah had been looking forward to some adventurous eating here in Cambodia, so we decided to help her along in the process. Soren, Caroline and I cooked up an idea to bring her fried cockroaches and request that she eat at least one before leaving the airport. To our delight, Soren not only bought a fried cockroach, but found a grasshopper, whole frog and a worm all fried to a crispy golden brown. We took bets on which insect she would choose to eat - our van driver was sure she would choose the worm because it might be the smallest and easiest to digest. Personally, I think I would have taken a bite of the frog's leg. Sarah, the brave soul, seemed to ascribe to the "Go big or go home" philosophy and ate the entire grasshopper! Then Roe jumped in, grabbed the cockroach and didn't even blink as she swalloed. To say the least, I was impressed.
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| Fried treats! |
Cross-Cultural Empowerment: A Background
A reminder of what this project is all about:
In February, YWCA Missoula had the pleasure of hosting two impressive women leaders from Cambodia and Vietnam - Ms. BUNNA Soseihak Nead and Ms. NGO Thi Thu Hang, respectively. Nead is employed with Room to Read - Cambodia and Hang with the Center for Community Empowerment (CECEM). Their visit was truly eye-opening for all of the YWCA staff who had the opportunity to interact with them - it was beautiful to watch such cross-cultural learning unfold. I think we can all say that we were happy to welcome them into the YWCA family.
The Women's Empowerment Project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Professional Fellows Program and hosted by The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center. The focus of the project is on increasing local capacity and connectivity with themes including the environment, economic development, health, safety and security, strong families and education. Twenty English-Speaking Southeast Asian women and 22 Americans will travel to a partner country (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand or Vietnam) as one of four cohorts between March 2012 through Winter 2013. The program provides a hands-on approach to issues in women's leadership and maximizing the potential of technology. The project goal is to teach emerging leaders to engage in collaboritive action to address women's concerns that have global repercussions.
We are now in the midst of Phase Two of the project - Patty Murphy, the YWCA's Pathways and housing manager and myself, the communications and development associate, have traveled to Vietnam as part of this cohort of women from Montana. I will also be visiting Cambodia in about a week, while Patty will stay here for another week. In Cambodia, I'll be joined by two women leaders from Helena (an attorney and policy director for the Coalition on Domestic and Sexual Violence) and my colleague Roe Erin, who manages the GUTS! program at the YWCA. We'll be visiting with Nead at Room to Read, Soren with Help Our Homeland and other project hosts.
My role is to share my knowledge and experiences in non-profit marketing, communications and fundraising. I'm looking forward to soaking in as much as possible both culturally and professionally and discovering creative ways to bring that knowledge back to my position at the YWCA as well as my daily life.
I am so thankful to the U.S. Department of State and the Mansfield Center for providing and organizing this amazing opportunity! I am also very appreciative of YWCA Missoula for being supportive of this trip and my time away from work.
