Today, Sunday, was supposed to be our day of rest, but when LRDE director, Mr Chhiv invited us to join him at Anlong Korng, we jumped at the opportunity.
Anlong Korng is a new project for LRDE. Families in dire need of assistance have been identified and today was to be the first of monthly distributions of rice, books, toothbrushes, soap and other basic items which we take for granted back home.
We drove down red dusty roads to a remote area that used to be swamp-land and is therefore prone to flooding. The area used to be known as Refugee Camp No 17 and has a history of hardship that is, as it often is, connected to the Khmer Rouge.
A common bi-product of war that often gets overlooked is the displacement of families forced to flee their homes for safety, and when the destructive Khmer Rouge rose to power, thousands fled Phnom Penh and crossed the border to neighbouring Thailand.
When the Vietnamese eventually won the war and that bastard, Pol Pot, was deposed these people wanted to return to their homes which had, of course, been taken over or destroyed altogether. They were the new homeless and they numbered in the thousands.
The government of the day, in an effort to clear Phnom Penh of the homeless, shifted entire families to refugee camps outside the city. Over the years various NGOs stepped in to assist the communities in these camps to develop the land into permanent villages, one of which was our destination this morning.
As our van slowed down to a halt, it seemed like the entire community came out to greet us, but a second glance revealed that most of the people gathering around Mr Chhiv and the DO Cambodia team were either children or their grandmothers who care for them while the parents earn a meagre in the surrounding areas.
I feel it is pertinent here to give immense praise to the grandmothers of Cambodia who seem to feature so prominently in the stories of the children we are working with. These weathered, stoic women seem to be the backbone of many families and I imagine the social structure of the entire country would collapse if it weren't for these amazing women. God alone knows what they have been through and what they have seen or experienced in their lives.
Mr Chhiv had the community sit down right there in the dirt road in the shade of a large tree, as he took them through the conditions of LRDE’s assistance. He outlined the importance of continued education for the children and explained that they will be monitoring the developments of the supported families carefully. He is very clear about this last point because LRDE, like DO Cambodia, believes in assistance that is sustainable and will lead eventually to self-sufficiency.
We were then invited to visit the homes of three of the beneficiaries of this aid and as we started walking the children came and. took our hands to lead us along the path. That's right, the came to us, because we weren't enough of an emotional mess as it was. My guide was Rattanah, a seven-year-old with hazel eyes and perfect teeth.
I won't succeed in describing how these people live because no pen is that accurate, suffice it to say that I wouldn't be able to. These are basically one-room shacks which house anything between 10 and 16 people. The floor is a dirt floor, and beds are planks of wood with a filthy mat to sleep on. Something as luxurious as a pillow does not exist.
Cooking is done outdoors on a variation of the Maltese ‘kenur’, showers are giant pots which are filled with water and a pot and handle to pour over your head. Toilets? Who knows... Oh, as usual, I bashed my head on a beam and nearly dropped a family home to the ground. I also gracefully tripped over a piece of metal sheeting which the locals found hilarious, while the team just glared at me.
The last home we visited belongs to a young mother. Unfortunately, she contacted HIV from her husband who has since died of AIDS leaving her to raise two young boys.
She works as a policewoman but has suffered a series of heart-attacks. Whether these are related to her being HIV positive is unclear, but she is struggling to raise her sons. The good news is that her boys are not infected, and it's also good news that LRDE will be monitoring and supporting these unbelievable people.
Before posting this, I think it's high time I mentioned our two tuk-tuk drivers.
These are not the drivers of the tuk-tuks we donated because those are busy being used for the purpose they were intended. These tuk-tuks are the ones that transport us to and from work, and anywhere else we may need to go to. We can't quite catch the names of the drivers and asking them to repeat them yet again is simply not an option, so we playfully refer to them as Cheech and Chong.
Cheech has a smile that would stop traffic, and Chong has the patience of Job. The thing is, between them, these drivers can't string two words together in English so communication can get a bit iffy, especially if we want to go somewhere new so we're never quite sure where our final destination will be.
We've asked them to take us to a karaoke bar along the riverside this afternoon, but despite the enthusiastic nods, judging by their blank expression, we may end up in Malaysia!
Alan Montanaro