March 11, 2010

• Poverty like I've never seen before

  The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than USD $1.25 per day.

  According to the UN, 1 in 3 Cambodians live on less than $.60 a day.  (But what does that MEAN? How do I even begin to grasp, comprehend, or contextualize that?)

  I would eventually find out.  In person.

  ~ ~ ~

  "Tomorrow, you're going to Svay Rieng to see the work we do there," our supervisor informed us.

  "Okay, sounds good." I had never been, so I had no expectations.

  Later, my cousin prepared me.  "Svay Rieng? There's NOTHING there.  It's so poor.. reaaallyy pooorrr...that people walk really far from their village to beg for food or money because they have no jobs or livelihood."

  And the next morning, we set off.

  ~ ~ ~

  I immediately noticed a change in Cambodia's landscape en route to our destination.

  It looked charred. Burnt. 

  "You know why people are so poor here?" my coworker asked.  (She went to Svay Rieng once a month to help keep stock and inventory of the drugs used at the HIV/AIDS clinics.)  "Because they can't grow anything.  The soil is poor.  It is dry.  It can't produce anything to eat.  No rice fields.  No fruit.  No nothin'."

  It started to make sense.  Outside the capitol city, Cambodia was mostly farmland.  But not in Svay Rieng.  It was a barren, dry, infertile land.  The soil was red and brittle, with worthless trees and shrubs scattered throughout.   How can one survive as a farmer who cannot farm?  You can't. 

  No farming =>no crops=> no food => no money to buy/sell => starvation => weak immune system => (and high risk for HIV/Aids/TB) => death. 

  (In response, I just googled Svay Rieng and discovered that the historical reason the land is scorched because of the Americans bombing Cambodia during the Nixon campaign from 1969-1973. )

  The homes we drove by were poorly constructed to protect them from the blistering heat and scorching sun.  Some of them had aluminum roofs- can you imagine living in a home with an aluminum roof, without A/C, and it is always 100F outside?!!  Some were worse, like roofs made of mud and cow dung mixed together. *shudder.  Can you imagine living in a house with cow dung as your roof?

  It was overwhelming. 

  And I hadn't even stepped out of the car, yet...

  • 3:45 pm
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