Outside the Banteay Meas restaurant, where I had my breakfast each morning, in Svay Rieng.
By juxtaposition, I do not refer to the truly engaging student-run global health webzine from my alma mater, the University of Toronto (http://juxtaposition.sa.utoronto.ca/), but to how I have realized the dynamics of development in Southeast Asia, or even much of Asia itself. But first, please do check out Juxtaposition, not because a number of my friends serve as contributors, editors or donor-relations, but because it is a truly well written and insightful publication by future leaders in development.
I also know it's been a while since I've written. I just culminated 3 weeks of travel between and within Thailand and Cambodia. For work, play and work again. It's been a head-rush seeing everything in the past weeks. However, home is where the heart is, and my heart is in Cambodia at the moment. It's nice to be sitting in front of my computer, in my flat in Phnom Penh; not sprawled among my bags in the Suvarnabhumi Int'l Airport in Bangkok, frustrated at a cancelled Air Asia flight back to PP. Although that flight cancellation did allow me to put these thoughts on paper.
Getting back to the subject, I'd first like to quote the insightful writer and anthropological commentator, Suketu Mehta, from his book, Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found,
"The growth of the megacity is an Asian phenomenon:Asia has eleven of the world's fifteen biggest. Why do Asians like to live in cities? Maybe we like people more." - page 17.
Urban growth in Cambodia is stunning, especially in the last 6 months that I have lived here. I believe this is why work in development, here, can be considered particularly unique in its comfort; compared to settings in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. In these regions, I have heard from colleagues that there is less available in general. Simultaneously, I'd also like to quote my friend, Danny, a former fellow Cambodian expat, who recently left for greener pastures in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Cambodia is 5 minutes outside of Phnom Penh" - Danny Whitehead, Jan 15, 2008
Within a nation, you have your rural quiet and your urban sprawl. Or, your rural poverty and your urban wealth. In Cambodia, the difference between the 2 settings could be no greater. For the first time in mid-January, I made my first trek out to a rural village near the Thai border to visit a friend's community-based tourism project. This involved a 7 hour bus ride from PP to Sisophon (in Banteay Meanchey province), and then a 1.5 hour ride in a pick up truck over dusty and bumpy roads that need to be relaid each each after the rainy season. Mid journey, our pick up truck's suspension actually broke; this was likely due to the weight of 12 people and goods riding on the truck bed. So, on the side of the road, serendipitously next to a roadside mechanic, the driver dove into the problem. During this 1 hr blip in my journey, not a single vehicle passed us by on National Road 69, aside from the single remorque.
Jan 19 - roadside mechnical failure on National Road 69.
Cambodia was and is truly 5 minutes outside of Phnom Penh. For the first time I had been in Cambodia, I was in a place where virtually no one spoke English, aside from my barang* friend, who was actually a francophone. I still really enjoy those memories of waking up to the sounds of farm animals outside the house I stayed at.
March 3 - Crossing the Mekong on a ferry in Neak Luong, Prey Veng Province, on my way to Svay Rieng.
I spent March 3-7 in Svay Rieng (SVR). The eastern-most province in Cambodia and bordering Vietnam, SVR is considered one of the poorest. Regular yearly floods, in the wet season, droughts in the dry season, and inset infestion in harvest season, descend upon the province. Income generation methods, once dependent on agriculture, become limited due to low education and skills. As a result, many residents migrate to Phnom Penh, seeking employment as garment workers, and to Vietnam, where they turn to begging as a form of income generation. Two of my developing projects in Cambodia seek to reduce health vulnerabilities faced by these mobile groups, such as poor hygiene and exposure to HIV/AIDS, complementing efforts that seek to reduce the need for migration itself.
One of the nicer homes, in Tuol Ampil village, Chantrea District, Svay Rieng province.
My familiarization with SVR invovlved visits to the villages of Kbal Thnal, Kbal Spean and Tuol Ampil. In Tuol Ampil, the village-based case worker gave me one of those "poverty tours" to familiarize myself with local living conditions. What I saw in these villages shocked me: huts made of dung and hay, not raised from the ground to protect from the rainy season. Some huts didn't have walls, let alone sources of water. The land was also extremely dry.
Access to these villages is limited. Vice versa, the access of villages to resources and health services is limited. Roads are incredibly shoddy and our IOM Land Cruiser even tipped over on the way back from Kbal Spean. Suddenly the malnutrition, gastro-intestinal disease, maternal morbidity and the desire (read: need) to migrate made more sense.
Comparatively, I live and do most work in Phnom Penh, where there are a series of Chinese and Korean structures being build, like the Golden 42 Towers at the corner of Sihanouk and Monivong Blvds. Expats and rich Cambodians find it wonderfully comfortable to live in Phnom Penh. One can purchase all the foreign groceries one needs at Lucky Supermarket: liverwurst for the Germans, cheese for the Italians and French, Kraft Dinner for those few Canadians.
Roads are generally bumpy but still paved and there is constant activity on them. The Karaoke bar next to my flat, while still operating, would continue blaring until the early hours.
Phnom Penh, street 102, near Sharky's
Something that also amazed me was the amount of choice in PP. Down Kampuchea Krom Street (Plav 124), I once counted 30 stores which sold TVs and speakers.
Regionally, you have the juxtaposition of countries like Thailand, with Cambodia. It is also remarkably different. I wrote this post, originally on March 12. I had just spent the weekend beaching on the island of Samet in Thailand. However, just before and after the beach was the drive to and from the port and Bangkok. It was ridiculous how many times I needed to remind myself that I was driving down a Thai highway, and not one in Florida.
The cities are no different.
Bangkok is rife with mall culture. At the Siam Paragon, were temptations like Balenciaga, Zara, Porsche and Lamborghini even! At the more bourgeousie Siam Centre, my friends and I succumbed to home-y comforts of a 6oz cut of prime rib at the Outback Steakhouse.
Instead of a predominance of motos and cheaper toyotas streaming down the bumpy roads, you have a greater selection of cars. And then there are the hotels! Himawari and Hotel Cambodiana - eat your heart out! I should also mention that a purchase of an issue of Vogue or Nylon would have also helped me alleviate feelings of inadequacy concerning not being dressed more a la mode. After that weekend in Thailand, I was more than ready to return to my considerably more limited diet in Phnom Penh.
I expect my year in this region to continue to be full of these strange observations. I often forget that the poorest can be found a 5 minutes drive and not 10 hours away; and that the even richer can be found less than 1 hour's flight away.
To conclude, I'd like to quote Suketu Mehta, from Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found, once again,
"Fifty years ago, if you wanted to see where the action was in India, you went to the villages." - page 17.
I think the same can be said of Cambodia, but the action is in the now. Much of Cambodian culture remains rooted in the rural areas; only slightly injected with Western cultural subjects that development has brought.
* Barang is a colloquial Khmer term that describes a foreigner. It has its roots in French expatriates due to France's former colonial position. It is used as a term which refers to any non-Cambodian expatriate.
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