the last stretch

I’m sitting (yet again) on the floor of a church taking notes at a conference for Cambodian pastors and lay leaders, this time not for Cambodian Methodist Women at their 2^nd Annual National Assembly in Phnom Penh but for Community Health & Agricultural Development (CHAD) at an annual gathering of all the “group” leaders in Kompong Speu province. I’m “data girl:” everything I learn I’ll try to incorporate into CHAD’s files, which we refer to when writing grants for future funding. There are still fans, Khmer dishes, the all-necessary Cambodian version of “eleven-sies” (and “three-sies”), the required hour nap on the church floor after lunch, and everyone’s conducting business in professional clothing while sitting cross-legged on the floor (my body’s still not used to this...), but the focus is now on rice banks, savings & credit groups, and cow groups rather than women empowerment.

 Kompong Speu Tree of Life Church, sponsored by Korean missionaries (so pretty!!)

Before this spring, the phrase “community development” meant nothing to me. I didn’t know what on earth a “rice bank” or “cow group” even was (and I’ll assume you don’t either), so if you’re a curious soul like me, let me give you a little bit of a run-down.

First, rice banks. CHAD has quite a few of these because they’re highly successful and sustainable. So here’s the scenario: A few friends smack in the middle of Nowhere, Cambodia decide that they don’t want to go hungry this dry season when their fields are dry and the price of rice skyrockets. They’ve heard something about CHAD at church, so they ask their pastor about how CHAD can help them stop and begin to reverse their annual no-rice crisis. Representatives from CHAD (i.e. the people I work with) visit their church, meet with the interested members, and provide funds for a rice group, at least matching (usually in USD) the personal contributions that the members make (usually in kg of rice) to get their project off the ground. The members buy rice with CHAD’s funds, build a storage shed for it, eat it and loan it out to non-members and others in the community during the dry season, add to it during the wet season, and voila! A self-sustaining rice bank is born.

Cow groups aren’t much different – basically, insert the word “cow” for “rice” in that last paragraph and you get the gist. Since cows are basically walking savings accounts, one cow for one family is quite something – but, unlike savings accounts, cows can easily “lose their owners,” get sick, die, or have babies…so they’re always a bit of a gamble.

Savings & credit groups operate a little differently. Some friends would like to have the ability to loan out money among themselves and to community members during periods of crisis or to start small businesses, so they pledge to contribute a certain percentage of their income per month (this ranges from a few cents to a couple dollars per person) to a general fund, in which they have a share. As a group, they decide who can borrow from it and whether they’ll charge a low interest rate (as for a business start-up) or no interest (as in times of disaster or crisis). CHAD sometimes contributes start-up money, sometimes not; either way, the members of savings and credit groups tend to be phenomenally responsible and very influential in their communities.

So you may be wondering: where does the gospel come in? Well, everything’s church-initiated: CHAD shares the ideas for these groups with local pastors, pastors share the ideas with their congregations, and the church members enjoy the support and training they receive from CHAD. Suffice it to say, the concept of rice banks, cow groups, and credit & savings groups are brand new to rural Cambodia – and you can bet that the 97% Buddhist, 1.5% Muslim communities notice when “that bunch of Christians” don’t go hungry during the dry season, have walking savings accounts in their backyards, and are able to loan out money to friends and neighbors. They see the church in action like it was in Acts, and it’s pretty shocking.

Beyond that, these groups are not “Christian-only” clubs; a few have more non-church members than church members, actually. And that’s okay. But when group members who are not Christians attend CHAD’s trainings, they learn some things they’ve never heard about before. Remember Ed (see my last blog on Mami Irene)? Remember his misdiagnosis by multiple NGOs who treated his material poverty as his main issue rather than restoring his sense of self-worth and potential by giving him the tools and resources to earn money to support him and his family? Well, there are a lot of Eds here in Cambodia – and a lot of recovering Eds, too. When the many Eds come to CHAD’s trainings, they learn about their unsurpassable worth, that they were created for a purpose, and that they have the potential to live a full life. Furthermore, they learn that these foundational truths are compatible with solid business ethics every small business should know (how to keep records, conduct meetings, be accountable, recognize opportunities that allow your group to grow). They get interested. Ask questions.

Ta-daaaa! That’s Christian-based community development. Isn’t that cool?

Katherine, Vannak, and I have just one more day here in Kompong Speu until we head back to Phnom Penh. Get this: two weeks from tomorrow, my dad is joining me in Singapore to hang out and get in some seriously awesome beach/father-daughter time in Koh Samui, Thailand (!!! I think he’s gonna miss me after I get married ;) ). Three weeks from today, I’ll be HOME! Very exciting.

Until then, however, my plate’s rather full. The missionaries here go on “itineration” in the States (a few months where they visit their supporting churches and make presentations on how their work is going) once every three or so years, and it’s about time for a few of them to go again. That means we’ve got some newsletters to write and send, banners to create and print, brochures to design and publish, biographies to update and upload, PowerPoints to make and edit, grants to finish and submit, policies to wrap up and implement…all in addition to making sure each missionary that I’ve worked with this summer knows how to continue the work that I’ve started with them (a daunting task in itself).

My time in Cambodia has been a good run, though, and I can already see how much I’ve learned about community development, missionaries’ dynamics, Asia, how the Methodist Church works on a global scale, how my gifts can be used in majority world mission work and, of course, my own many “areas for improvement.” But I have to say…it’s only ten weeks until I get married to the most amazing man in the world, and that’s certainly worth coming home for. :)

As always, thank you for your support, thoughts, and prayers, and many blessings to you all!

Stephanie :)

This list is a little overdue, so my apologies! But here it goes:

You know you’re still in Cambodia when…

1.       You have to describe to a Cambodian friend who just got back from a trip to the US that Las Vegas is not representative of the rest of the United States.

2.       Your stomach flu could be just a stomach flu. Or it could be malaria. Or dengue. Or parasites. Or worms. Or a severe unidentifiable virus that seems to be going around. Or…well, you’ll never really know now, will you?

3.       You’re starting to differentiate when the three-day, all-day, all-night, megaphone-blasting, dance-and-drink-till-you-drop party that blocks an entire street is a wedding and when it’s a funeral.

This one's a funeral, by the way

4.       Raw chicken legs poking out of a plastic bag in the office fridge no longer surprises or disgusts you – it means, quite simply, that you should be very excited cause there’ll be chicken for lunch.

5.       A PBJ with an apple and water for dinner is a dish full of delicacies – the peanut butter’s imported, the jam’s imported, the wheat’s imported, the fruit’s imported, the water had to be boiled and chilled…

6.       You begin to appreciate with renewed fervor when the gas, water, electricity, and internet are all working at the same time.

7.       You can ride side-saddle in a skirt on a moto like a true Cambodian: skirt tucked in, purse in front, two plastic bags in each hand.

8.       You can officially write your first name in Khmer. :)

9.       International schools (whatever that means) are everywhere: “Hello American Kindergarten,” “Rockefeller School,” “The Rockefeller School,” and “Learn American School.” Wow.

10.   You drive through New York City on the way home from Kompong Speu.

 Ohhhh, New York's that way...

11.   You recognize that sand flies are very concrete evidence of the Fall of Mankind. (I really hope that the scars fade by August 4^th!)

12.   You spend an afternoon with Windex bottle in hand following a dense line of ants that go from your front door, through the foyer, literally 360 degrees around the couch, under the kitchen table and chairs, into and out of the bathroom, up a wall, into one electrical socket, out another, up another flight of steps, across the landing, under your door, up your dresser, across a string of Christmas lights…and finally into your trash bag. For half a neglected breakfast bar. It was epic.

13.   You realize you’ve used an entire bottle of Raid (the big one) in three months.

14.   The shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and cart-pushers on your regular loop around the neighborhood have stopped looking at you like you’re a nut when you do your twilight jog and now actually smile and wave as you run past.

15.   Paying more than $0.50 for a kilo (maybe 4-5) of mangoes is absolutely ridiculous and finding a small jar of peanut butter for less than $4 is a steal.

16.   It takes an entire bottle of Windex and four rolls of toilet paper to do “spring cleaning” in your kitchen (and you just cleaned it 2 weeks ago).

17.   Your American friend gets engaged to a Cambodian guy seven months after you yet there’s a significant chance she will get married before you…twice, actually, once in the US and at once in Cambodia. Phew, and I thought that planning one wedding was a big deal!

18.   You wonder why they call it the “rainy season” rather than the “monsoon season.”

I had the blessed privilige to take this wet pic of Phnom Penh "factory" traffic (everyone gets off at the factory at 5) from inside a car. Although if you're not on a moto in PP, you might as well add an hour to your commute.

19.   You get very, very excited that you’ll be staying in a guess room that has air conditioning.

20.   You quickly learn that Cambodia’s sun is much, much stronger than Africa’s, Peru’s, and certainly Texas’ sun. And that your roof is an excellent place to lay out on sunny days. (I’m now officially darker than a number of city-dwelling Cambodians.)

 SW Phnom Penh from the roof of my apartment

21.   Your landlady begins to point out how you’ve become “less beautiful:” your hair is bleached from the sun, you have a colony of freckles on your cheeks, and your skin is several shades darker than it was three months ago. I choose to take those as compliments. ;)

22.   Paying more than $8 for a dress is just plain prodigal.

23.   The thought of a bed that actually gives a little when you sit down on it brings tears to your eyes.

24.   You see a truck bed full of monks, little yellow umbrellas and all, on the way to the province.

25.   A cow on a moto doesn’t startle you anymore.

26.   Seafood-flavored crisps (think Bugles, only tasting like shrimp, crab, or oysters) are integral road snacks.

27.   You haggle for five minutes with a moto driver over a thousand Riel (a quarter) because it’s expected.

28.   Mexican, Italian, Indian, Greek, French, and American restaurants all have just as many Khmer dishes as anything else.

29.   You unwittingly start an “eat less rice” dietary trend at work because you only have a bit of rice with lunch and someone caught wind that you don’t eat rice at all for dinner (shocker!!).

30.   You get in the habit of double-checking that the eggs you’re buying from the market aren’t already half-way cooked…halfway developed baby chicks are a delicacy here, apparently. (Ew.)

31.   The concept of eating a spider isn’t quite as gross as it was three months ago.

32.   Your jicama girl, potato girl, tomatoes lady, mango lady, apple guy, and egg guy at the market all know you so well that they start weighing your produce before you even reach their stand.

33.   You realize that, surprisingly, women you’ve only just met who are now stroking your arm don’t bother you quite as much as they used to.

34.   Everywhere there’s a television (i.e. every Cambodian restaurant), there’s Taylor Swift, Adele, and random Japanese boy pop bands… in karaoke.