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.