The first thing that strikes me about Phnom Penh is the lack of distinction between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ areas of the city. Right next to a 4 ½ star hotel are people’s houses made out of scraps of iron and tarpaulin.
Walking down the street, you’ll see an obviously wealthy local or, quite often, a foreigner standing next to a beggar missing limbs. To say it’s an eye-opener would be a grand understatement. I feel guilty sitting down in my air conditioned hotel, thinking about what I’ll have for lunch, while outside the lobby I know there are people thinking about whether they’ll eat today at all.
Of course we saw these sort of living conditions in the other provinces we visited, but with the exception of the tourist mecca of Siem Reap, there just wasn’t this stark contrast.
I guess this sort of a shock is showing us all just how important the work we’ve done is. The $50,000 we’ve raised will help 9,000 equip themselves with some of the basic skills they need to get ahead in life. The credit unions that CUFA has built and is building are helping people save for emergencies and start small businesses. It’s only a drop in a very large bucket, but at least it’s making a start.
It’s strange being a faceless foreigner again. When we were going through the villages or smaller cities, kids would run out of their houses to wave hello or try out some English on us. Here, we’re just another tourist; another person amazed with how cheap things are and (hopefully) trying to hide their comparative wealth.
I’ve seen some people who understand the meaning of this more than others. At a bar last night I saw a group of westerners laughing at how small the bill was for dinner and (what I can assume to be many) drinks. It was $50, quite a significant amount to their waiter and here they were laughing at how small it was.
Saying no the beggars who approach us is hard and sometimes I just can’t help but give them a few hundred riel. I’ve been told that many of the children begging are forced to give their takings to other people and it’s especially heartbreaking to walk past a kid of four or six holding out their hand.
There just seems to be no middle ground – buildings are either ornate and large or small shacks made of scrap. We visited the CUFA office yesterday, which shares a block with several other NGOs, and it was certainly more comfortable than the houses just a couple of streets away. It has an excellent training room where credit union staff from around the country learn how to run a financial institution, as well as guest rooms for CUFA staff from Australia and quarters for some of the local workers.
This afternoon we’re heading down to the S21 Genocide Museum (Tuol Seng), a high school that became Cambodia’s largest and most notorious place of torture and detention under Pol Pot’s regime. It’s going to be a tough experience for all of us and it will be hard to come out of there without being profoundly touched; more than 17,000 were taken to S21 before they were executed at Choeung Ek, which we’ll also see.
For something a little more uplifting, we’re also heading out to see another school and credit union today. We only had a chance to visit the others on weekends, so it will be good to see what happens when they’re open and operating.
Pat
Great Blog Pat - it's hard to believe you are in the same world! Wonderful to hear first hand the work that CUFA is doing to improve the well being of precious lives in Cambodia. Look forward to seeing the photos, they will bring even more life to your words. Heather
Posted by: Heather | September 16, 2008 at 09:02 PM