Life in Cambodia

Training the herd of monkeys?

Where might we have been you may ask? Traipsing around the luscious Cambodian rainforests? Touring the ancient temples at Angkor ? Perhaps training the herd of monkeys? Alas, it is not so. For the most part, the past month has been spent plotting and scheming in Svay Rieng, and enjoying the fruits of our little village. Though, as I write this, Maggie is down on the coast sunning herself on the beach, though I know she will come back claiming it was more work than play. Why are you not there as well, you may wonder? Well, since you ask, I’ve found myself a little job here in Svay Rieng, though admittedly it is more like Peace Corps...but without the monthly stipend. I currently volunteer as the proposal writer and “Project Management Advisor” to a small organization called The Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights (CCPCR). I’ve weaseled myself into the upcoming funding though, and if Buddha wills it, we’ll get the new cycle of funding in October. And that’s when the cash starts rolling in! Do I hear $300?.... In fact I do. Oh yea, with all my back-patting, I forgot to mention that that gets you a month of my time; I come pretty cheap. But at least I get to be in Svay Rieng with Maggie, which is more important than making more money in Phnom Penh (cue the “Aaaaaawwwww”). Anyway, I digress. CCPCR, in a nutshell, is an organization that rehabilitates and reintegrates children who have been forced into prostitution, trafficked, sexually abused or exploited, or who are at risk. We hold trainings and workshops, but the bulk of our work is running a shelter that houses the children for anywhere between six months and a year. At the shelter, they receive an education, vocational training, food, medical care, and reintegration assistance. The office and shelter are one and the same, so its nice to be there with the children, to actually see the people that I get to help. The proposal that I finished tonight, assuming we are funded, is enough to operate the shelter for the next year. $35,000 gets you a year, housing 60 children for six months apiece, feeding them three meals a day, and providing them with an education and vocational skills. I chuckle to myself because at my old job, I would have spent $35,000 without thinking twice, or for that matter, even once. Ain’t no money like Gov’t money! Ok, so you're thinking: quit babbling and tell me why you’re not in Sihanoukville with Maggie! Two of the three organizations that we are requesting funding from are visiting our office this week, and I have to be on hand to show my face. Anyway, enough about me….Svay Rieng Town was rocked last week by a near doubling of foreigners in town with the arrival of Beth and Jessie (for my people – Maggie’s sister and sister’s friend respectively). It was good to see them, always nice to have visitors and we had a good time, especially with all the goodies they brought from the states. We got to spend some days in Phnom Penh when they arrived, and they got a good taste of that, but the real excitement began in Svay Rieng. Ok….not really, but it was a good time. Maggie had to work during the days, so I entertained them. We took a couple of bike rides, wandered the market, and drank a fair amount of iced coffee under an awning in a field near the market. Nothing like coffee with half a can of sweet condensed milk-syrup to rot your teeth, but ummm-umm they are good. I took them out to a place across the river, which I will henceforth call The Spot. Svay Rieng is a town, albeit a small one, and one does not have to go far to get out of it. But if you cross the river on the small footbridge, take the first right and then the first left, and go for about a kilometer, you’ll get to The Spot. A place where you can park your bike, walk out into the rice paddies, and sit below the palm trees sprinkled amongst the fields. A place where the growing rice is so green it hurts your eyes, where you couldn’t imagine a bluer sky, where the wind blows the rice fields, sending little waves rippling across the paddies. Svay Rieng may not have much to offer, but it has peace and it has quiet, and there are times when that is enough. Beth and Jessie have left us, and I expect them to be wandering the temples of Angkor now, which, if I may, in my mind, are one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen, and I feel like I have seen a lot. So here I am in Svay Rieng, killing time until Maggie returns, though with luck and a bit of skill, I’ll get down to Sihanoukville by the end of this week, or at least meet Maggie in Phnom Penh this weekend.

posted by Life in Cambodia @ 6:32 PM