Letter from a Friend in Cambodia - Jordan Glawe

As I type this 3^rd letter a number of things are running through my mind. The last two months of teaching and living in rural Cambodia has certainly given me much to consider and reflect on, and I regret that I haven’t taken more time for silence during my stay here. 

I’ve spent much time on the move. Classes are held here from Monday through Friday and run from 7:30 am to 7:00 pm, I spent each of my first five weekends trying to do all the sightseeing I could, and I’ve spent much of my free time in the past couple of weeks reading through the books we teach from and fixing errors so the school can continue to improve the quality of education the children in this community receive. While the tourist site of Angkor Wat played a part in drawing me to Cambodia in particular and tourist sites have continued to draw me to different places along my journey, it’s many little things in between that have provided the most fun, most interesting, and most thought-provoking experiences of my trip (though of course the sightseeing is enjoyable too). I’ve met people from many different places around the world over the past two months (Spain, Germany, France, Netherlands, Canada, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Russia, China). I’ve also got to have a lengthy chat with a Buddhist monk, attend part of a Cambodian wedding, and of course I get to spend every weekday immersed in Cambodian culture—eating Cambodian food, with typical Cambodian furnishings at the place I’m staying, watching the Cambodian kids play, and speaking with the Cambodian teachers.

Since my last letter all of the other volunteers have left. I’m not sure if I was lucky to begin my experience here at a time that overlapped with so many other volunteers or if the Christmas season is typically a less common time than other points in the year for volunteers to stay here. I noticed it even while the other volunteers were here, but it’s been more obvious since they left that being here at the school feels confining in some ways, even if it is liberating in other ways. On the one hand, it’s great to be doing something both I and the people I am helping see as valuable. I suppose it’s also nice to get special treatment, being the only foreigner in town, but I think I have enjoyed even more the fact that I am not the only person who gets treated like a Rockstar. The whole staff, really, seems to be adored by the students and were quite popular in the community when I went to the festival with them at the pagoda earlier in my trip. On the other hand, I miss having a vehicle at my disposal to be able to move about as I please and I miss having deep conversations with people who share some of my more complex understandings of the world, as well as the simple comforts of a soft couch/bed and access to a gym. 

Talking with the other teachers is sometimes difficult. A couple of the teachers seem to have limited confidence in speaking English outside of class (at least with the foreigners). A couple others are more talkative, but I feel that there is a general lack of interest in matters of spiritual perfection (if you want that you become a monk) and there has never been much interest in how my culture differs from theirs. I think all of the teachers here are very Cambodia-centric. They all seem to express an interest in making Cambodia a better place and a fairer place, with no interest in going elsewhere. One of the teachers (the one I’ve talked with the most) has spoken with his students a number of times about the importance of having discipline in their studies, mentioning how having discipline will help this generation develop Cambodia, but to him that does not seem to mean material things, rather he wants to see less corruption and more independence from Chinese and Korean investment (for example, Korean businesses helped build the main road through this town and the government anticipates them investing in more projects like that, but meanwhile they also have lobbied the government to allow them to operate casinos for tourists here despite the fact many Cambodians see gambling as unethical and it is illegal for Cambodian citizens to gamble even in their home). He also expressed concern about what we might call crony capitalism—apparently only particular businesses (and only one in this province) are allowed to export agricultural products and they take advantage of their position by buying from farmers at very low prices and selling for much more. This teacher has expressed to me also that he doesn’t care to have more Western appliances—I asked particularly about a fridge, an oven, a washing machine, and air conditioning and his response was simply that they aren’t needed. I can’t say what percentage of others in this country share his view. I imagine the residents of Phnom Penh may have different feelings about these things than rural residents still living a half-traditional kind of life. But it does cause me to stop and think about the Americans who have much more materially than most people here, yet feel poor and disadvantaged. Why is that? Is it a spiritual problem or a true material deficiency? And how should we prioritize our investments (of both time and money): help those who are poorer in spirit or help those who are poorer in physical well-being?

Another thing that has surprised me is the reaction I have seen to the Christmas holiday. I have met a number of Europeans who expressed to me that they aren't religious in way whatsoever yet were concerned about spending Christmas in a particular way (with others, or in a more Western-type place). Among Cambodians, Christmas is not a public holiday (we had classes on that Tuesday), but many of the kids still recognize the holiday by giving small gifts (mostly candy) to their friends, and even to their teachers! I was told most don't really understand the meaning of the holiday, but it was still very interesting to observe.

However, my experience here in Cambodia is now drawing to a close. January 3^rd will be my last day at the school. At that time, I will head to Thailand for one week of strictly sightseeing then I will fly to India to begin a new volunteer experience with an organization called Providing Education To Everyone that operates a couple of schools and provides some additional services for slum-dwelling children and adults in Delhi. I’m uncertain exactly how long I will stay, but I am planning for somewhere between 30 and 60 days. After that I want to have one more big volunteer experience. I have an interest in doing something with refugees if I can find a place where my abilities align with the needs of a refugee camp and where I feel safe. I have thought that perhaps Jordan would probably be a good place to go in the Middle East, but don’t have leads on anywhere to volunteer there. Perhaps there is something I could do in Mexico or the US if I can’t find anything in Jordan, but I don't have any leads there either.