Cambodia

Tonight, I was stricken with tears in my eyes…and even as I write this, my eyes water. I had a conversation today with a lady who lives in the same house as me. She’s tiny, short, and loves to laugh. Tonight, I started viewing her differently.

One of the things that I have realized is that the more you get to know someone, the view of them usually shifts, and changes. Tonight, I started viewing Daravy differently. I once viewed her as a young lady, 26 years old, who simply wanted to get a higher education. She was getting her masters at “uni” aka university in Sydney. Since the conversation at dinner, I have viewed her as a woman who longs to see change in her country of Cambodia.

In America, we are built on freedom and liberty. [who doesn’t love a story that is built on freedom with the hope of a brighter future?] We has Americans, really have no fear of anything, not government, or anything in between. I was telling Daravy tonight that my worst situation that I can think of is someone breaking into my house or something on those lines. Even with me possibly living in one of the worst neighbors in America [let’s hope it works out…fingers crossed], my fear is that I will be mugged. But that’s it. It’s funny, cause in Blo/No, your worst fear is getting a drinking ticket or getting a speeding ticket. In America, we feel as if justice isn’t always shown justly, which is probably true [can justice not be just?].

With all of this said, I asked her about some killing that I heard about in Cambodia. Honestly, I had no idea what I was talking about, I just wanted to spark some conversation so it wound not be awkward silence anymore. Anyways, she started talking about how there were around 2.2 MILLION people who got killed during these years (1970’s). Basically, what happen was the government was unstable and a group called Khmer took over. Both the Khmer government in the 70’s and Cambodia’s government today are corrupted. The Khmer group started killing people who were educated because their mindset was that if someone was going to try to take over the Khmers, it would be an educated person. One of the stories I heard Daravy tell is about how her aunt was a teacher, and one day she was simply gone. The Khmers had come and killed her because she was an educated teacher. This happened repeatedly throughout Cambodia (2.2 million people died).

She talked about most of her friends wanted to move to America, Australia, or Canada. In my head, I’m thinking about how we always hear other Americans complain about immigrants that are in our country, without knowing their story or why they even want to come to the USA.

Another story she told was how her friend’s dad was a journalist and he criticized the government in one of his articles. One morning the dad was “taken care of.” He was shot and killed because of his comments toward the government. Daravy talked about how the government has their hands in every cookie jar, including the newspapers. The government changed around the story and said his daughter’s friend killed him, which simply was not true.

Lastly, Daravy talked about how if you want to be “successful” in Cambodia, you have to bribe the government. All in all, the government is corrupted. Here’s how I view Daravy differently, most of the last educated generation is gone due to the killings, and the government is still corrupt, even today. She is going to school here in Sydney to get a higher education and go back to Cambodia. She wants to restore Cambodia with her knowledge. She is writing her thesis something on the lines of agriculture and creating Cambodia to use their resources more effectively. Despite the constant fear that she lives in due to the corrupted government, she only wants to live in Cambodia. This is the place that she feels she can be most effective and start restoring Cambodia.

While most of her friends are studying in Australia so that they can gain full residency, she is studying there to bring the knowledge back to her homeland. Knowing that the government is not stable, she wants to help her people. For this reason, I look at Daravy differently.

Sometimes labels don’t matter like “Doctor” or “Christian”, sometimes it requires a helping hand.

It’s a shame that too many people today are “too busy” to lend a hand.