One Bad, Three Good

There’s this community right down in central Phnom Penh close to the river called Deh Krahom. It’s basically small shacks with tarpaulin tops. Very poor people live there. Evidently the people have ownership documentd. This type of area is highly desirable for investors. Investors ( in this case 7NG ) have bribe money. Officials love bribes. Therefore the following news release was not really a shock to most people-------- “ Dey Krahom community was forcibly evicted early this past Sat, even though community members had just met with the 7NG company to provide ownership documents and determine compensation the day before. There was to be no action until all was considered. The co. and community members were still in negotiations. Yet earlt Sat. morning, Jan 24th, the community was sealed off at 6:15 A.M., hundreds of police and hired demolition workers stormed the community with tear gas, water cannons, riot shields, bulldozers and back hoes. “
The relocation site ‘ prepared ‘ by the government and 7NG has no water, no power and inadequate shelter. It will be a barren piece of land somewhere outside the main city limits. Such is the lot of the poor in Cambodia- no righta and no consideration given to them.
Susan and I watched a video taken during the eviction. It was terrible. The backhoe came along and crushed the buildings, the bulldozers shoved everything into piles, people were screaming and trying to salvage what little they had out of the tiny shacks as the demolition people came and forced them out. No quarter was given, if you didn’t leave you were gassed and water cannoned and beaten. This is just one example of how graft and corruption hurts the vast majority of poor people in Cambodia.

Went to a track meet of Alan’s ( landlords son ). The preparation and planning for these meets is not quite the same as in North America. The first track event was junior girls 60 meter dash. The girl who came first didn’t realize where the finish line was and kept right on running full out. The coach began to chase her and call out “ whoa, whoa “. What do you think those brilliant instructions sounded like? This little girl turned on the after burners and before she ran out of gas she had covered over 200 meters.
Next--- the hurdles.
Along any line of hurdles perpendicular to the track the height differed by at least 4 inches, some hurdles were 3 or 4 inches higher on one side than the other. I’m sure that the results depended on which lane you were placed in.
One young girl collapse with heat stroke ( it was 35 ) so those in charge laid her out right there in the sun where she fell. Yikes. After a while they moved her into the shade and gave her some water. All turned out well.
All and all it was a fun morning- Alan took 3 first out of 5 events entered in.


There is this place called Rahab Center. It was a brothel right in the center of a famous Phnom Penh brothel district. A couple of people died in this building and the superstitious owners were willing to sell it. It was purchased by a Christian organization, all the small one bed rooms were demolished, it was painted and wired, made into a lovely large room where
medical clinics are held, children are taught about Christianity and church services are held—RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF THE BROTHEL AREA. Some of the girls who have been rescued from this area have been taken to a Ratanak rehab center called “ New Song “. At New Song the rescued girls are given literacy programs in Khmer, are taught English, are given skill training and counseled in preparation for returning to normal society. These girls range in age from 5 or so to about 18. Some of the girls are now returning to Rahab Center to help teach the children who come from the area. Rahab Center is like an oasis in the dessert.


Did you know that elephants are intelligent? Our garage mechanic we know from our last trip was telling us that a friend of his has some elephants in a large enclosure. This friend kept the key to the gate on a nail above the gate. One day the older, smarter elephant somehow got the key and unlocked the gate. This elephant the proceeded to go into a neighboring rice field and eat 200 kilograms of rice. The neighbor was not impressed.



I’ll end with a success story. Two girls rescued from the brothels and taken to New Song are now operating a small beauty parlor close to the brothel area they came from. We had a group from Chicago out to see Rahab Center and then took them to the “ beauty Parlor “. What a delight these two girls were. The ladies of the group ( Susan included ) had their nails done. I declined to have mine done even though the group leader offered to pay. These girls have their shop right beside their aunt. Their aunt sells food etc. They all live at the back of the two shops. The living quarters are quite nice. The girls ( Yea and Linna ) seem to be doing O.K. financially. They were lent the money by New Song to start the business. They must repay the loan out of the profits. A very good success story. Goodby for now.

HAPPY NEW Year!

Well here we are again, finally.  I want to tell you about Chinese New Year in Cambodia.  Sounds strange that they would celebrate this since Khmer New Year is in April, but many Khmers are intermarried with Chinese.  Many of the businesses in Cambodia are owned by Chinese.  So about 3 weeks ago, we celebrated Chinese New Year in grand style.   Stew and I were out walking the Saturday before CNY (January 26th was the actual day) when we saw many people with tied up, dead looking trees on their motos, hanging out of cars or being carried over the shoulder.  There was an air of excitement, anticipation all around us.  I suddenly noticed across the road what looked like tree lots - just like Christmas at home - with happy looking people lined up buying the trees.  The flower vendors along the road were doing a booming business with customers walking off with armloads of bouquets.  Traffic was horrendous - we could hardly walk along the road in some spots.  The next day we were invited to join Sotheary's sister, Mom, and her family to celebrate CNY and there was her tree, no longer dead looking but beautiful with twinkling lights, fresh green leaves and little yellow flowers decorated with red and gold Chinese envelopes stuffed with money for the young visitors of family and friends who stop by throughout the 'season'.  We were treated to a feast of Chinese delicacies very reminiscent of the wonderful meals we've had with our daughter-in-law, Katie's family.  It was so nice sitting on their large balcony overlooking Phnom Penh, eating, visiting, laughing at our struggle to understand what they were saying.  We all went home very full, tired and happy.

All of the markets and many businesses were closed from Sunday through to Thursday, traffic was very light, it was hard to get a moto/tuktuk.  The sound of Chinese music would come down the street and truck loads of costumed men and boys would jump down in front of house or business and dance with Chinese dragons - how fun.  Youngsters were running down the street to take it all in, giggling and hopping up and down.  What fun for everyone.

There's another side to CNY, though and it's not so much fun.  We had an e-mail from C&MA missionary friends in Poipet where Ratanak funds medical/discipleship work.  On the Sunday of CNY, their church had just finished communion when an unbelieving father came into the service yanked his believing daughter out of her place, dragged her home and began beating her with electrical wires all the time yelling at her to recant her faith in Jesus.  She refused over and over and told her father even if he killed her she would not recant.  He finally gave up and left her in her pain.  There is persecution for believers - some find their wells poisoned, others find their dog dead and others, like this girl, are beaten &/or disowned.