Home again

Well we're back in the cold fresh air of Vancouver waking up in the morning with cold noses and feeling like we need mittens and toques on to stay warm. Can't even imagine having one of those cold bucket showers that we actually found relieving and refreshing in Cambodia. It is so odd that temperatures can be so different and yet we can be transported between them in a matter of hours.

It's strange to be back. There is a fear deep inside me that we won't be able to integrate our experience into our life here. It is easy just to step right back into how things are here and yet I find myself often thinking of our host family. Despite all the communication barriers and cultural misunderstandings, they burrowed deep into our hearts. We were so grateful to have a couple from the Servant's team that can speak both English and Khmer come over a few days before we left the community to translate first the logistics of our leaving and second the emotions surrounding it. I told Ming Kin that we would never forget their family, that they had impacted our lives with their radical hospitality and their lives. As we drove off on April 12, the last thing I saw Ming Kin do was put her hand on her heart and then make eye contact with us. A precious memory. We are friends, despite the disparity in wealth, the distance, the language, the culture.... May we be faithful in supporting our friends in whatever way that means in our lives.

We were hoping that somehow we could "leave well" from our community and we are grateful that we feel we were able to. On the Saturday morning that we were to leave, we went to the market and bought shirts for each of the kids, a few nic nacks for the family and some fruit. We also got some little things for the kids in the community and some fruit for the families. We had a lot of fun going around and trying to express our thanks for the welcome of the community. As with all of our interactions, we never know exactly what we have said but we trust in the language of smiles and laughter and hope that we were an encouragement to them as they were to us. It was beautiful to see their gratefulness for our very small gifts of thanks. The little girls each got one small hairclip and the boys got a very tiny car and they treasured them. This is one thing that has stood out for me during our time here. Their ability to value what they have is amazing. I hope that somehow we can learn to not live in such abundance that we don't even notice when we get something new or are given a gift. Times of celebration and abundance were so meaningful in the context of simplicity.

Probably many of you have heard about the rising rice and petrol prices in Asia. It all became much more meaningful to us after a conversation we had with our host family a few days before we left. We were talking about work and what they got paid (a very common question that everyone knows about everyone else there). Ming Kin makes $60 a month cleaning five half days a week. Vesna and Naree work anywhere from 8-12 hours per day six days a week at the bottled water plant and make $25 each per month. Om Poan's income would be a bit difficult to sort out because he is a motodop driver but we figure maximum $20/month. Adding it all up amounts to $130/month for the whole family. While we were in Cambodia, the price of rice rose to nearly $1/KG. We have been told that each adult family member needs about 20KG per month because it is their staple food (breakfast, lunch and dinner with little else). So for their family, that amounts to $120 per month just for rice, not including any vegetables or fish or other meat. We finally figured out that that is why, between the start of our month and end of our month it was more difficult to eat the rice there. They were likely buying the cheaper rice for $0.50/KG which has many little rocks and almost seems a grey color. It strikes me hard that in the Western world we complain often about rising prices of food or gas but it doesn't even really cut into our way of life. For these people, these price increases can become life or death situations. We're keen to look into some of the reasons for these increases. The main reason for this is because there was a bad rice crop recently, mainly in Vietnam, which has significantly decreased the food supply to Asia. Background to this problem though is Western countries using prime farmland for their own purposes - ie - in Cambodia this land may be used to produce grass seed for lawns in the US and new varieties of wheat seed for NZ and Australian farmers. It could be argued that this brings money into a poorer country, but if it is at the expense of food production maybe it's not so good. How are we involved in this crisis?

My sister came up for our last four days in Phnom Penh. She stayed with the family for one night and then we stayed at the team center for a few days. Her night with our host family was a bit eventful because there was a big fight outside. It sounded like they were throwing things at our house and the yelling was very loud and of course not understandable to us. Ben and I weren't too worried because we had been there long enough that we had a pretty strong sense of safety in that house but it was all a bit much for Crystal. When we asked our family in the morning, they said that people were drinking and playing cards so we're still not sure if it was a fight or if it was a game. We heard our family members moving around during it and the next day we found out they they all went outside to watch. I don't think I would have been game to venture outside of the room personally but the way they were talking about it the next day, it seemed that it was like going to a live theatre performance for them. This fight and yelling happened to coincide with the final buildup to Khmer New Years. Lots of the factories had closed and I think even provided alcohol to help the festivities along that afternoon (the water factory did).

Our time at the team center with Crystal was very relaxing and rejuvenating. As it was Khmer New Year, people had told us that the city almost shuts down because everyone goes to the province (the rural areas of Cambodia). I was a bit skeptical but of course they were pretty much right. It made our time more relaxing though because even the markets were closed. We were able to visit the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace is where the King lives and where they have lots of ceremonies. It is incredibly extravagent and frankly hard to understand when people don't have enough money to eat. We don't really make good tourists so it was good that it was short lived.

One evening we were eating at a place that was very Western in it's prices and food selection. The area that we were sitting in was outside and there were many street kids walking up and down the sidewalk asking for money and selling books. We chatted with them in our broken Khmer (it is beautiful how people's faces light up even if we don't really know that much Khmer) and gave them a little money. The back of the menu had instructions not to talk to any of them and for sure not give them money, a way to shelter the patrons of the restaurant from guilt and interruption. I could see where they were coming from and yet it seemed quite heartless. That judgemental attitude came back to haunt me the next day when I found myself saying to my sister that I didn't think I would choose to go to that restaurant again because then it feels like I can never get away from the poverty. Yikes - I noticed pretty much as soon as it was out of my mouth. Poverty does not come and go depending on whether we feel like dealing with it. It is a reality and a tension to live with and we must face it head on.

So here we are back in Vancouver. We have been back for a week and a day. The first few days were a bit rough, adjusting back but we are feeling "human" again, enjoying connecting up with people we haven't seen for a while. We are staying with the Servants community here. They live live just beside China town, close to the Downtown Eastside. There are two single girls and a couple with a 3 year old and a 6 year old living here and their intention is to develop relationships and offer hospitality to the poor in this area. This has been a good environment to be in as we are starting to understand more fully how life in Canada could look, living simply and intentionly with the poor. Each Tuesday night they have a Creative World Justice group meeting to talk about global issues which has been inspiring also.

In the midst of meeting up with people and getting life in order, we are in the process of discerning what the next step will be. Likely next week, we'll set out to look into a few places for settling long term. We're also looking forward to going to Alberta to meet up with my family before we get back into "real life". Actually this is real life, having time to relate to people, sharing of our journies and hearing of other's. We cherish this time.