Cambodia

Well, as many of you know, I am currently in Cambodia on an educational immersion trip with the organization Not For Sale, a non-profit that works to fight human trafficking around the world. The purpose of our trip is to experience the culture and context in which trafficking occurs so that we have a better understanding of the problem and can thus implement better solutions. Southeast Asia is one of the major regions for traffiking -- Cambodia and Thailand are particular hotspots.

We began our trip in Siem Reap, one of Cambodia's main cities and home to Angkor Wat temple, one of the 7 wonders of the world (I'll put up pictures later--of everything, not just the temple). While in Siem Reap, we did a lot of tourism and really began to get acquainted with the Cambodian culture. We stayed in the Lotus Lodge, a new and very lovely little hotel. Our guide, Lily, (she is the lodge manager) is a native Cambodian and has been such a blessing to have with us. She has taken us to many exciting places, shown us true Khmer food, and we'd truly be lost without her.

As far as our service work so far, we have visited a few anti-trafficking NGO's and spoken with the respective leaders, visited numerous orphanages, a school for blind and deaf children, and a children's hospital. Aside from our NGO visits, we haven't necessarily come into direct contact with trafficking. One night when we went out for drinks and a little dancing, we definitely saw many questionable situations. We are skeptical of just about every interracial couple we see, expecially when it is a caucasian with an Asian native. At the same time, if it is a situation of prostitution, it is not necessarily trafficking, where someone is being kept against their will and forced to be a sex slave (or other kind of slave). While in the bar dancing, there was a group of older white men--who had obviously been drinking a lot--surrounded by about 7 Cambodian women. The men were having a jolly good time, dancing around, grabbing at the girls, and making them kiss them. The women were also being pretty aggressive; after all, it is their livelihood, and if they do not earn well, they will most likely be beaten by their slaveholders (if it is in fact a trafficking situation).

Aside from those few instances, we haven't gotten in the midst of the trafficking. So much of what we need to battle trafficking here must come out of a deep understanding of Khmer culture, as many of the problems are maintained through deep-seated cultural stigmas and beliefs. There is extreme poverty, government corruption, intense gender inequality, and the general difficulties of rebuilding a nation after years of war.

A bit of context...

Pol Pot's regime wiped out 2 million Cambodian people--the educated was targeted, while children were used as spies, soldiers, and sex slaves. Because so many of the older generation were killed, more than 50% of the current Cambodian people are under 18 years old. The Khmer Rouge really did an excelled job crippling the nation--murdering professors, teachers, doctors, and anyone else with any education. It would be hard enough to recover from years of war, but a regime that only left children, the poor, and the uneducated? The horrors of the Khmer Rouge aren't even really taught in school and it's still not ok to talk openly about the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, because, as our guides have told us, you don't even know if your neighbor was former Khmer Rouge.

Now we are on our first day in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia and a bigger city than Siem Reap. Tomorrow we are going to visit a recycling center, where at-risk children and orphans earn money and play a valuable role in society. On Thursday, we are going to Hagar, an organization founded by Pierre Tami, that helps rescue and rehabilitate victims of the slave trade. A major problem with much of the trafficking efforts is that once victims are rescued they are often sent back into the world with no means of stability or way to make a living. Organizations are more and more learning that to really help these women, they must have jobs for them or skills training so that they can once again become valuable members of society. Hagar (along with Night Light Designs, which we will visit in about a week in Thailand) is one of these organizations. I am very excited about our trip to Hagar and can't wait to let everyone know how it goes!

Once again, I'm taking lots of photos (so far about 400 total and it's only day 4!!!) and I will post them on Facebook as soon as I get back to the states.