Stories From Cambodia - A Land of Sensory Overload

Everyday I see children living in ways that no human should have to endure. I know about things that shouldn’t happen but do, and things that should happen but don’t. I think of the injustice, the challenges to helping them, the inequality to everything about my life verses theirs, the mounting problems I can’t fix; the disease that is spreading from one child to the next, their beautiful faces, their playful souls, their emotional needs that I can’t even scratch the surface in fulfilling, and the impossible task of ever saying good-bye.

I only recently thought of eventually saying goodbye - I simply can only see myself in hysterics looking at a line of faces, even the adults who are so hardened. The solutions to their problems are so far off. They are destined to untold suffering for their lives, to creating more problems in their children’s lives, and I could never be so idealistic as to think I can change all of that. There will be successes, and I can feel pride from these, but I know there are many barriers and overcoming them will be too slow, and in time, some of their lives will be quite sad. As Christian working in the area said, “there are always more problems than we can fix.”



Scandal, corruption, vices and sad realities are everywhere, including with the ex-pat population here. An American on trial for pedophilia let it be known that he had contributed a large amount of money for good causes during his time in Cambodia. It seemed his only defense. His pathetic statement really made me think.

Recently I was pulled over on my motorbike for the 5th time. Each incident of getting pulled over has been crazy, kind of fun, and every time the fines have been settled on the spot. To date, I have shelled out $9 for my lack of adherence to the traffic laws (it was supposed to be $8 but the cop shortchanged me once). On the last stop, the officers didn’t speak English, unlike all the previous stops. I had a boy on the back from the Center, Loun Ngoun, who has an outright sickly appearance.* The cops were forced to talk to him, and he explained that he is sick and I was taking him to the hospital. They let me go, despite my blatant breaking of the law.

* Loun Ngoun is 16 and is very weak, constantly tired, skinny, and has a persistent cough. He was on his way to get some blood work, which came back negative on all accounts. We are chalking it up to anemia/malnutrition, and I got him some supplements. I’ll try to feed him some as well, and hope for the best.

Some random stories:

Of all of the bizarre things I’ve experienced since arriving in Cambodia, my mom coming to visit is up there with the best of them. At 64 she had never left N. America, so to my family and me, it just didn’t seem possible that she would come here. She came, had a great trip (though she didn’t like the kids playing with her excess skin on her elbows), and will hopefully come again soon. Me, my mom, and her friend Sandra all went to Angkor Wat, which was amazing.

One day I noticed a child with a band of human hair tied tightly on his finger, which I could see was covering a cut. I’ve begun pulling out my first aid kit regularly, so I called the kid into the bathroom, and with Chin’s assistance got him to take off the improvised bandage. As always, there was a large crowd of kids. It immediately began gushing blood, and the kid was screaming. We ran some water and soap over it, and squirted iodine into the deep gash, but the kid was hysterical and it was a challenge to get him to stick around until I got a band-aid onto him. He was a kid from the neighborhood and ran away from me like I was the devil. I wasn’t sure if I made the right decision to try to help him. I asked his friend to deliver some band-aids to his house. I’m sure there’s a great analogy here, something involving looking below the surface (or not)… I just saw him after weeks and his fingered healed well.

Across the street from the Center was a community that was even poorer, which was mind-boggling. They have recently been evicted, forcibly (after the riot), and have been dumped into a field outside of town, where they have no services, income, or food, but many [often sickly] children. The village where the Center and schoolhouse are will be moved soon as well. The protests are beginning, and some hope that the government will look out for it’s people still exists.

I am studying Khmer, and can put together some phrases that often are understood!

The rainy season has begun. The monsoon rains are a sight to see, and cause all the streets to flood. Everyone here seems to like it when it rains, and often take in a shower under a downspout. It is still often hot, but much cooler than March – May.

I do sometimes feel sorry for myself for having to deal with the slow Internet connection speed here.

And now, some incomplete stories, which I may never take the time to write fully, but here is what I got:

Disease of the week – scabies. It’s a heinous mite that lives on your skin and clothes, causing pussy sores that are highly contagious.

I met a little young girl who’s mother tried to abort her (her adopted mom told me), first by drinking too much alcohol, then using red ants and honey (where did she put the red ants and honey, you might wonder?). The beautiful girl is emotionally challenged, but physically fine and in great hands.

A pregnant woman, Sitha, asked me for money. She really needed it for food, but I had to say no, mostly, and will always remember her looking me in the eyes, scared for her and her baby.

An older boy, “Lucky,” was bit on the foot 3 times in 2 weeks by rats while sleeping.

My translator, Chin, comes from a family of poor rice farmers (as are most people in Cambodia), and recently had 3 chickens and 2 cows die. His brother lives directly above the chickens, with just a bamboo floor separating him from the foul. We spoke to someone from the Pasteur Institute here and they said it was not likely Bird Flu, since all of the chickens didn’t die. See pictures from my visit there.

I saw the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen, and hope nothing ever tops it. Begging by the waterfront of the Mekong River, was a family with a baby with a head that was swelling from spinal fluid not draining properly. The 1 or 2 year-old looked unnatural, to the point that if a sci-fi movie replicated it, viewers would think it was really fake looking. I estimate the head was 20 inches in diameter. I was paralyzed by the sight, and immediately began to pray.

Some university English-majors have formed a club, “A to Inspire,” and have come to the Center as volunteers to lead trainings. It is inspiring, and I hope to work with them more.

A bat flew into a restaurant where I was eating one night, and the staff casually chased and trapped it, then took it outside.

I went with one of the staff from the Center, Ta, to see the breaker that was causing the electrical failures. We entered an apartment in a dilapidated building where a family lived, and electric meters and breakers were attached a piece of wood at the end of a bed, where a topless, 80 year old woman was waiting to die. I was told she hadn’t left her bed for 2 years.

A friend told me how his Khmer colleague returned to work after lunch one day, and was distraught because he had just killed a man on a motorbike with his car, and had to pay $500 to the family, which he didn’t have.

I watched a drunken man get beat by 2 women (one at a time).

We took kids to the mall for pizza, and afterward, out on the street, they ate fried bugs for dessert.

My friend Isaac had a recent encounter that is better than any story so far in my life (ask me to tell you someday).

People here do jobs that the rats and ants do in your country. I often watch the people process the garbage from my apartment.

The stories in the paper are amazing; land mines kill people regularly, sometimes carloads, a recent prison riot (where they buried all of the casualties in the prison yard) should be worthy of a movie script, people are constantly hacked with machetes and hatchets, jealous wives attack mistresses with acid to the face, which literally melts the skin, mass evictions, constant violations of human rights by the police and military… The legal trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders are about to start. Ta Mok, AKA “The Butcher,” a suspected Khmer Rouge military chief died of TB after years in prison, just weeks before his trial and possible valuable testimony.

Top 10 things I am grateful for;

10. Don’t have TB, AIDS, Malaria, Typhoid, Dengue Fever…
9. Never lived in a Khmer Rouge or refugee camp
8. Eat protein with every meal
7. Don’t have lice or scabies
6. Didn’t lose any family to war in my lifetime
5. Drink clean water
4. I’m literate
3. Have all my teeth
2. I didn’t get in a motorbike accident today1. My great apartment