Several people have asked what work we are actually doing in Cambodia, so I thought I might share it with you all. This first post on What We Do will be on the technical side. When I have more time, we'll fill you in on some real life stories.

First, we are here with Mennonite Central Committee. This is a Christian humanitarian agency engaged in relief, development and capacity building projects around the world. Our work in Cambodia is part of the peace and justice projects of MCC, while the team we are on coordinates projects on everything from soil health to irrigation to teaching English. We are very happy to be part of MCC and their commitment to social change through nonviolent means, sustainable development, simple living, human rights and equality, etc. I am a full time worker, while Holly's time is focused on taking care of and homeschooling John David and spends 10-20 hours a week in volunteer work.

As part of MCC's philosophy of building capacity of local organizations, I am seconded to another organization. (This just means I am accountable to MCC but actually work at another place in partnership with MCC.) This other organization is called Peace Bridges (PB). My work there falls into three main categories:

1. Developing and coordinating English language services at PB
2. Coordinating research and developing appropriate new programs
3. Providing support for PB staff as appropriate

So how does that translate into real world activities? Here's two of the ways we're keeping plenty busy.

1. PB offers training programs in handling conflict, whether it's personal, between individuals, or with large groups. I will help coordinate the training programs that are given in the English language (most of the training is in Khmer language). We offer an annual course in Mediating Cross Cultural Conflicts, plus supplemental seminars on communication skills, engaging injustice peacefully, inner peace, and other important topics. I also help develop resources. For instance, I am almost finished writing a 4 week daily reflection journal on peace themes.

2. The main focus in research and development is on preventing violence in the home, a serious issue here in Cambodia. Right now, Holly and I are working together on this. We are about halfway through a literature review on domestic violence and the situation in Cambodia. After we complete the report, we'll start visiting organizations here that are trying to address domestic violence and then write a recommendation outlining possible ways Peace Bridges might develop training programs to help peace builders here make a difference in homes and communities. In fact, Holly is working even now on a training seminar for battered and trafficked women on parenting skills that she will help teach on Saturday at a shelter/vocational center here in Phnom Penh.

And for those with insomnia, here's some more information about Peace Bridges in the context of Cambodia. :)

Cambodia's population is around 14 million. The capitol and largest city, Phnom Penh, has a growing population of over 2 million people. Agriculture is still the most common employment in Cambodia, but urban areas are growing, fueled by the garment and tourist industries. Cambodian society was devastated in the 20th century by colonial rule, occupation during World War II, the spread of war from Vietnam, violent revolution, and civil war. The most infamous time of her history began in 1975, when the rule of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, resulted in around 2 million deaths. Although Cambodia has made great strides in recovering from its tragic recent history, ongoing human rights abuses and a recent escalation of issues such as land grabbing and the persecution of opposition voices continues to undermine this progress. On an interpersonal level, the social breakdown has aggravated relational conflicts in homes, churches, and communities. These conditions make the importance of peace building in Cambodia even more significant.

Peace Bridges was started after a the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia (EFC), an umbrella organization representing about 80 percent of evangelical churches here, commissioned a Task Force in 2000 that determined that conflict transformation skills are very important and needed in Cambodia. It has grown from a staff of 2 to a staff of 10 and has a continued demand for its services.

No other organization provides such services in Cambodia, training people to go back to their workplaces, communities, and homes and build peace. Once trained, PB helps mobilize and coordinate these peace builders as they offer their own training programs in churches, prisons, organizations, and homes around Cambodia.

So we took a vacation.

Holly's parents visited for two weeks and I took off the second week to go to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat. For those who don't know, these are spectacular temple ruins. This first photo is in front of the Bayon temple complex.

It was wonderful getting outside again. It was the first time we really had a good walk in the woods since leaving Missouri in August. Grass, trees, and fresh air were amazing to experience again.

The one downside was a stomach sickness that went through everyone but me, kind of limiting our time together at the ruins, our energy to explore, and our chance to visit the Prek Toal bird sanctuary. But even with the sickness, it was a really refreshing trip.

Here are a few more photos.

First, on the bridge at the entrance to Bayon.

Then this one inside Ta Prohm, our favorite ruin because included the longest walk among the most and largest trees. Gorgeous!

And finally, Holly and John before Angkor Wat itself.

In science fiction and in real life, tyrants ban the music. Music is too quickly out of control. It becomes the symbol of resistance. It becomes the symbol of life apart from the world the tyrant or the bureaucrats or the parents or whoever is trying to maintain. And, often enough, the tyrants were right. Like Paul and Silas singing in the prison, music can bring on an earthquake.

In Cambodia, in the sweaty jungles of the Khmer Rouge atrocities,

Kravanh played the accordion, the instrument whose forbidden music he played to charm soldiers and somehow avoid death. And pausing often to rub his eyes, he talked of those terrible years when music was the only sanity amid the horror.

He recalled the words of a friend who was killed by the Khmer Rouge: “Play music. Music is powerful. Play until you die.”

It's ironic, of course, that Daran Kravanh stayed alive by indulging in a pleasure that was supposed to be denied, by a pleasure that intoxicated his captors into sparing his life. And maybe it's poetic that the man who once charmed Khmer Rouge soldiers is now wanting to charm a whole nation.

Daran Kravanh is running for Prime Minister under the party of his creation, the Anti-Poverty Party. For the little I know about Cambodian politics, I am pretty intrigued. Hun Sen seems to be viewed as the pillar of social stability. You might be able to do better, it is reasoned, but you could surely do a whole lot worse. The Prime Minister might not be solving all the troubles of Cambodia, but at least there is not a war. War is even worse than economic disparity and starvation, even though, one might muse, the latter often proceeds the former.

So Daran Kravanh is making his challenge. The atrocity surviving, accordion playing social worker who has been living in the USA has thrown his name out against the militarily and socially triumphant Hun Sen. Maybe Daran's tenacity runs a parallel to what he had to muster all those years ago when he had only luck and music to eke out a victory. As he puts it,

“I’m not a politician,” Kravanh said. “I’m a peacemaker.”

“A lot of people laugh at me because I don’t have enough money,” he said.

“I have the capacity, I have the ability and I have the energy,” Kravanh said. “I will win.”

Read THE ARTICLE HERE.

Adjusting to new rules and expectations is something you do whenever you are introduced to a new place or even circle of friends. Moving halfway around the world to Cambodia, we expected to be amused, annoyed, and/or confused by the culture.

In the neighborhood we live in, one lady has taken it upon herself to make all of this simple and correct our culture mistakes. This in itself is a cultural difference for us. For instance, today she told Holly that pink fingernail polish is ugly (red or orange are better) and that she should color her hair (Holly has several white hairs). In Cambodia, she said, people should not get white hair until they are at least in their 40s.

In one of my favorite episodes, she had come to the house (I still don't know why) and John wanted to avoid her. He decided the best method was to lay on the floor and play dead. I then got a nice lecture on how floors in Cambodia are dirty and we shouldn't let our child lay down on them. Of course, the longer she talked, the longer John lay there. And she could not appreciate the irony that Phnom Penh itself is a filthy, dusty city. I can't let him play anywhere if I am concerned about keeping him clean....

Still, our experiences are not as annoying as they could be. People are generally petite here, and one friend was compared to an elephant (she is not even overweight, just bigger built than tiny Cambodians). And one of my language tutors explained to me how in Cambodia it is acceptable to point out how ugly someone is (after I refused to do an exercise where I was saying 'that girl is ugly').

And then there is the fear. It is really common for people to be terrified of thieves, and we have been given advice - sometimes by people who look scared just talking about it - about how many more padlocks we need to buy for our house or the moto, or how we need to hold a bag differently so that it isn't ripped off our shoulders. It's not that there isn't crime in Cambodia - there is a lot of it. But at what point does an extra padlock become useless? Do I really need 6 padlocks on our doors? Somehow, I suspect that if a thief was willing to cut through the three locks we already have, an extra one or two would not get in his way, either.

Of course, culture cannot be separated from history, and Cambodia has plenty of reasons to make it difficult to trust or easy to denounce. It's hard to view intrusive and silly directives (dye your hair! don't let John get down on the floor!) as what they probably really are - genuine gestures of friendliness and concern. We are guests here, and I am sure that we are equally amusing, annoying, and confusing to their sensitivities.

So for any of you who are trying to reach out across cultures, remember to have compassion on the one who is different than you. It is hard to learn another language, harder still to learn another culture. It is exhausting most of the time, exhilarating at unexpected and usually rare moments. But it is worth the while.

I love Science Daily. Their e-mail news updates are much better than regular news I get.

Like THIS ARTICLE on using the anaerobic process of microbial decomposition to produce usable energy. The amount of energy that can be harnessed is small, but Girguis estimates that it could power basic lighting and charging needs (e.g., cell phones) in remote areas or developing nations. In fact, Girguis' models have an LED light and an outlet for a cell phone charger. (Now, if I could plug a laptop in, I'd be set!) Another model he has proposed attaches a public cell phone to a public trash can; the trash charges the phone.

Larger batteries can be made, but the reality of our energy consumption in developed places means this is no replacement for fossil fuels. Even so, with technology getting smaller and smaller, perhaps our energy needs can shrink alongside them.

Anyway.

Here in Cambodia, I can see even more clearly how energy is a privilege of wealth. A refrigerator is a luxury for most of our neighbors - not because they can't afford the small, dorm size fridges that are most common here, but because they can't afford the electricity it takes to run them. We use less electricity here than we did in the US (which was very low compared to average use, usually with a bill around $20 a month), but we are big consumers in our neighborhood. A fridge, a fish tank, a computer - we are obviously extravagant.

But the biggest reminder of the energy privileges of wealth come on the hot days. Our neighborhood inevitably loses all power so that the electricity can be made available for the wealthy parts of the city where they are running air conditioning. In the USA, it wasn't so obvious that my excesses took basics from others. In Cambodia, it's hard to escape.

That being said, I am going to jump on my moped now and weave through the streets between huge Lexus SUVs and naked, dirty children; between huge trucks hauling the furniture of the rich and ricketty old bicycles carrying 3 people in rags.

Along the way, I'll keep a lookout for all the places where trash can be turned into energy, and the wasted into something new....