Where is the Love?… I Think I Found it in Cambodia

“People killing people dying
Children hurtin you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach
Would you turn the other cheek?
Father Father Father help us
Send some guidance from above
Cause people got me got me questioning
Where is the love?”
– ‘Where is the Love’ – The Black Eyed Peas

Now trust me, I never thought I would be quoting the Black Eyed Peas. But like many things I thought would never happen, this too has come true. Ha.

Often, when I think of the world, I think of this song…

There is so much pain happening in the world today. (Not just today. Our world has always been screwed up). Physical, psychological, spiritual,… all kinds of pain. People are used… and abused… and then, often, excused.

So, often, I ask myself, ‘Where is the love?’ Where are people doing something about the injustices? To rescue those who can still be rescued…

Well, for once, I find myself with an answer. At least in part…

CAMBODIA.

The love is in Cambodia.

You see, when I first entered Cambodia, something about it captivated me. I could tell there was something different, unique. It’s known to be one of the poorest countries in the world, known to struggle with some of the most sickening problems of the world, known to have suffered one of the most gruesome genocides in the world…

And of course, walking around there, you can feel dark’s influence. Yet, I felt something else there… something that feels rare… And it was hope. See, I told you it was going to be a hopeful year…

Street children. Begging rings. Modern slavery. Sex-slavery. Tortured children. Killing fields. Bludgeoned skulls. Con men. Undetonated land mines. Eunuchs. Starvation. Unsafe water. Malaria. I could keep going…

But, what’s stronger than all these evils, is the hope there.

The light shines brightly in the darkness…

And in the presence of so many unbelievable injustices, I was captivated by the hope and strength of this tiny country.

SOOOOO many great things are being done.

And I got to see some of them. And that’s exciting to me. Really exciting.

And hope is powerful… I forget about hope. But it’s big.

So, while our hearts should break for the hurting, they should also rejoice in the good that IS being done. For the lives that ARE being changed…

So, let me tell you about Cambodia…

One cool thing, is that there are numerous restaurants, hostels, bars… in Siem Reap (a HUGE tourist town due to the temples of Angkor Wat – attracting nearly 2 million visitors each year) that donate a noble portion of their earnings to life-changing organizations in the country.

We stayed at a great hostel called Baca Villa. It’s owned by a non-profit called the Cambodia-Dutch Organization. One of the reasons we chose it is because they use a good portion of the money they make from the hostel to support their english school in the countryside. They also take care of 2 orphans and have built fresh, safe water wells in the village. A local family is in charge of the hostel restaurant as well as transportation for tourists. Awesome!

Also, many bars and restaurants support programs that work to get kids off the streets and/or stop child prostitution/sex slavery. Which is HUGE. Some kids steal stuff (like postcards) from stores, in order to sell them to tourists and make money either to support themselves or their families or whatever illegal organization they’re working with.

Besides all that, there’s a lot of other non-profits working in villages to educate, clothe, and provide safe water/adequate food… I saw a sign for World Vision, at one point, which was really awesome and encouraging on a personal level, because that’s who I sponsor 2 girls through (though they don’t live in Cambodia)! 🙂

Something else that I was encouraged by was seeing not only non-profits doing great things, but seeing other COUNTRIES getting involved in positive ways…

During our bike ride through a nearby village, we passed multiple signs like this one, with a country flag on the top, words in 3 languages, and some other random stuff…

This particular one is from Korea. Basically, it’s a specific Korean city called Suwon that has decided to essentially sponsor this Cambodian village called Phnom Kron. (Which is also really cool because I was in Suwon when I was in Korea, though it was only to change from the train to the bus). I don’t know if you’re able to zoom in on the picture, but if you did, you would see that it lists sort of their ‘plan’ for what they’re trying to change in the community into 4 different categories:

1. Improve Living Conditions
– Establishing a village hall
– Developing wells
– Establishing toilets
– Constructing incinerators
– Repairing roads and pavement
2. Education
– Establishing a school
– Providing scholarships
3. Others
– Introducing Korean culture
– Transferring agriculture techniques
4. Volunteering
– Medical service
– Distributing relief goods
– Haircut service

Really cool! We also saw signs in other villages from Japan, China, even one from Singapore if I remember correctly.

Now, due to the past warfare and the Khmer Rouge regime, there are still a lot of undetonated land mines all over the countryside… which means that people still lose limbs while working in the field due to undiscovered/unexpected mines. And as horrible as that is, I came across some people doing something cool about it… This picture was at Angkor Wat – the huge temple/palace I mentioned earlier. It’s a group of men who have lost limbs this way and can no longer work effectively, so rather than sit around a beg or something, they decided to use their talents, or learn a new skill, and play BEAUTIFUL music for the tourists…

Cool for a few reasons. One, because I LOVE how they turned a disastrous situation around. Though having lost limbs is never an ideal situation for anyone; how incredible that they’ve still found a way to use their talents to provide for their families. Awesome. Two, because the music was truly beautiful. I wish I could have recorded it, because I definitely can’t describe it to you in words. But let me do the best I can…

Do you know the video game Zelda? Maybe that’s not the name, I don’t know, I don’t really play video games. However, my cousins are really into it and also I used to have some friends that were super serious about… Now, there’s a certain instrument they play in that video game. I can’t remember the name, but it reminds me of a ukelele. (But it’s probably nothign close to that). One evening, in college, I was watching The Office with some friends, and suddenly, we heard a magical sound coming from the park outside… Long story short, there was a guy in the park who had ordered whatever this magical instrument is called from the game Zelda and was playing it. The kind of magical music that fills your ears with dancing butterflies and ‘calls’ you to it. It also makes you picture someone wandering in the woods, playing a small harp, wearing brown clothes and elf-like shoes, searching for magical treasure that would then allow him to fly peacefully with the white swans…

So I’m sure I just confused you because that probably makes no sense. But, my point is, it was wonderfully enchanting music that these men played. And it was cool.

Another cool thing happening in Cambodia is homes for children. Due to a random flier left in our tuk-tuk (mode of transportation – google it if you don’t know it), we found out that there was a local orphanage having sort of a free ‘open house’ informational to gain support and let others know what’s going on. We decided to go and ended up on a shady road in the middle of no where on a dark, dark night. That’s another story in itself, but we ended up at this orphanage. Some of the kids greeted at seated us as we walked in.

Other kids served complimentary tea and sweets as we watched even more kids perform and explain traditional Khmer dances.

In between dances, different teachers, workers, owners would get up and give information…

It was cool to hear about the kinds of things happening here. Also, the kids seemed to genuinely enjoy everything about the place. I observed their interactions with the teachers and vice versa as well as their interactions with each other… and from everything that I saw, this home was doing excellent things for this next generation of Cambodia in preparing them for a future bigger than living on the street.

At the end of the night, the kids tried to teach all the whiteys the hand movements of the traditional Khmer dance. There was a lot of laughter, that’s for sure.

I could probably keep going, but I think we’ll call this the end. There are also numerous organizations working to stop sex slavery in Cambodia – though not by any means an issue that seems to have a near-by end. But that deserves its own post later, because there is a lot of hope there as well.

Cambodia captured my heart. Though I in no way feel like it’s where I’m supposed to be, God used this small country to remind me of hope. Though darkness abides, hope also remains.

So, I end my reminiscing of today hopefully. Because though the world is filled with sorrow, hope will remain. Let’s mourn the tragedies that take place, but let’s not forget to rejoice for the good being done, and ask how we might allow ourselves to be a part of this hope and peace Christ came to bring to the nations.

Enjoy a few more pictures from Cambodia:

Girls at the Khmer dancing who started cracking up about something that went slightly wrong in the previously dance. They couldn’t keep a straight face for this last dance, and it was supposed to be a serious one… They were really cute.