Survey Week / Service Week / Super Bowl

This past week was a big one for both Leanne and myself for many reasons. As Leanne wrote about before, Asian Hope has identified the community in which it hopes to initiate its trafficking prevention program. For the past few weeks, Leanne has been working diligently with the Asian Hope staff to create and organize a survey that could be used to assess the needs of this particular community. The goal of the needs assessment was to ask the people who live in the community what their needs are instead of Asian Hope walking in and establishing programs that are not needed. After hours of meeting with the village leader, translating her survey from English to Khmer (with the help of many great people) and back again, Leanne finally pinpointed February 7th as the day to give her survey to the community.

While Leanne organized the survey, I worked with two other teachers to create a week long service trip for 35 high school students. The goal of these trips was to take the juniors and seniors from Logos to communities around Phnom Penh and help them learn about and experience servant ship. Students worked the entire week in slum communities cleaning, teaching English, painting and interacting with children. This is where the stories collide.

On Monday, my service group had the chance to work with Leanne and about ten other volunteers to survey her community. We walked house to house asking questions about their access to clean drinking water, schooling, latrines, and food. From 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the students and staff gave over 170 surveys to people living in the community of Prek Pneu, which is about 16 Km from Phonom Penh. This day was an incredible experience as we were invited into the homes of people who have myriad needs. From an inability to receive medical attention, attend school or even access clean drinking water, these families provided great information that Leanne can use in order to provide the right services. The remainder of the week for Leanne was spent analyzing the copious amount of information that was provided on the surveys, a job that is not nearly done.

The rest of the week for me brought trips with my seven students to communities inhabited by ethnic Vietnamese. My students taught English and played games with children in a variety of communities. However, the biggest impact was probably not on the kids that my students played with, but on the high school students themselves. Throughout the week, they received a real glimpse into the realities of Cambodia and its people.

The ethnic Vietnamese we worked with are essentially invisible people. They have not been Vietnamese citizens for generations as they were born in Cambodia. However, the Cambodian government will not provide them with I.D. cards, therefore they are not citizens and cannot receive education or medical treatment. These people cannot own land and all of them, perhaps 1 in 10 Cambodians, are squatters who can be removed from their homes and land at a moment's notice.

The family that took us to these communities is doing incredible work. They have created one-room buildings that serve as schools, churches and community centers that provide education and food to the people in these communities. For many of the kids, it is the only schooling they will ever receive and the only way to hear the Gospel.

My students were often taken far from the boundaries of their collective comfort zones, but it was an experience that undoubtedly helped them learn the importance of service, work and the realities of poverty and need in Cambodia.

Come Friday, Leanne and I were both tired from our weeks, but we accomplished a lot and both feel like, in a short amount of time, we have a significantly better understanding of the country that we live in.

Lastly, on Tuesday we watched the Superbowl and it was awesome. I had a 36 hour internet ban so I would not find out the score. Leanne made 7-layer dip, with only five layers as is normal in Cambodia, we had KFC and an assortment of other football food. We projected the game on a big screen and for 3 hours, I felt as if I was back in the States.

Some thoughts on the game:
1) Just because Christina Aguilera has a great voice does not mean she should get a free pass for blowing the National Anthem. Also, since when is she still a relevant super-star, I was in middle school when the song "Genie in a Bottle" came out and that was when she was in her pop-star prime.

2) I bet Brett Farve feels ridiculous for not retiring two or three years ago. He could be sitting at home a legend and making money off Wrangler commercials instead of iceing his whole body and being hated by the cities of Minneapolis and Greenbay.

3) The Superbowl is not just a game! We watched it with two Canadians who were trying to convince the Americans that the CFL is superior to the NFL. Once the world decides to stop and watch something created by Canadians then we can chat but I think that time passed with Gretzky retired.