Margaret Walton's Observations

We are in Takeo. It is a hot sunny day and we are enjoying an afternoon off after assembling 110 bicycles this morning. It is getting easier and quicker as we hone our skills and each settle in to our allotted tasks. I am in charge of parts. Ruth and I make sure there is a basket for each bike containing all of the parts required for assembly with the holes punched ready to be installed. Ruth punches the holes,a task I do not envy. I would end up with punctured fingers but she is very proficient. If parts are missing or something is broken my job is to  scrounge through my spare parts boxes that I have been putting together and try and find the part that will solve the problem. In order to do that I am turning into quite a hoarder, picking up bits and pieces when I see them and guarding them carefully. Ron and I are sitting in a lovely courtyard surrounded by mango trees and orchids. Given that others are working hard to keep up with events, I though I would write a bit about my impressions of Cambodia. Cambodia  is chaotic, the land is flat, there is grinding poverty, the people are gentle, polite and clean (which is quite amazing given the conditions many of them live in) and those that have the basic essentials of life are working hard to better themselves and their country. Others struggle for daily survival. The evidence of poverty and the struggle for survival is everywhere.It is humbling to see how little the people have; yet the children appear to be happy. They create play spaces in the most challenging situations. They are extremely grateful but also dignified when we give them their bikes. Many of the areas we visit have limited electricity and even where is exists it is expensive so people.get up with the light and go to bed with the light. It is a novel experience to be in a city of thousands of people and see few lights and little activity after 7:00 pm. Western society could learn a lot about conservation from these people. Cambodia has an extremely young population; due no doubt to the genocide that wiped out 10% of the popularion and would have decimated previous generations. When we first arrived after spending time in Hong Kong I thought Phnom Penh was poor and dirty. However after spending 10 days in the north when we arrived back in Phenom Penh it looked like Paris. There are wide boulevards, beautiful buildings, upscale shops, a clean well organized market, residential neighbourhoods and landscaping. There are of course slum conditions and evident poverty but they are on the outskirts or interspersed with more prosperous development. The poverty appears to me to be more universal in the north. The area where we did bicycle distributions around Battenbang was no man's land between Pol Pot's regime and the Cambodian government until the late 1990's. It was obviously neglected for many years and probably heavily mined. Once Pol Pot's regime fell, the Cambodian government moved people there to settle the area. The land is poor, can only grow one crop a year(while other areas of the country produce up to 3, there has been drought for a number of years and the people have trouble growing enough food to survive. Many have to leave home to find work. The terrible conditions show in the children. Tiny children who  we assume are 5 or 6 turn out to be 12 or 13. They do not grow because they are malnourished. When giving out bicycles there is concern amongst our group when they deliver a bicycle that does not fit a child. What we need to remember is that this bicycle is not just for this child nor will they receive a larger ones as they grow (as our kids do). This bicycle is for the family and for them it is like receiving a car. They will use it for many purposes and receiving it means there is a chance that the child will continue in school. Otherwise when they reach high school and the closest school is 6+ kilometres away with no affordable transportation they will not be able to continue. There is garbage everywhere, particularly plastic, the scourage given to the world by modern society. Sanitation is an obvious problem and there are many cases of disability. Thven all of this combined with what these people have been through in recent generations,  and all of the challenges they face, I am constantly amazed by their attitude.