Living in Asia

I'm sure there are a thousand "you know you're in Asia when..." variations but I had a good example this afternoon.

I was in the local market getting my hair washed & cut. As I was lying down in the comfortable chair there were four faces looking down at me. Three were Khmer faces (one washing my hair, one holding the hose and one just looking) and one was the ghecko who stared at me from his/ her prime position of the ceiling.

A little bit of my time

Friday arvo. After my language class at uni I didn't feel like going straight home so I stopped in at my local, air-conditioned service station. I sat down on a stool with a drink, snack and a news magazine, prepared to relax and catch up on some world events. As soon as I sat down, however, a group of about ten kids started tapping on the window and calling out to get my attention. I'm not sure about the depth of their English proficiency, but all of them seemed to know, "hello...one dollar?"

I wondered how I should respond to these kids. Could I ingore them? Should I give them some money? Would it be better to buy them some milk? I decided to give them the thing they seemed to want most- a little bit of my time and attention.

When I finished my drink, I walked outside to meet the kids. They skipped away nervously- unsure if I was about to yell at them or give them something. I greeted one of the older boys and asked him a couple of questions in Khmer. He came closer, as did the rest of the group. I asked each of the kids in turn their name and one or two other questions about themselves. A girl of about eight or nine stood in the centre of the group wearing only a small, green pair of shorts and some plastic beads around her neck. When I told her that she looked beautiful with her necklace on, she grinned shyly.

I was just about to leave when a younger girl behind her started speaking quickly buy softly. I bent down and said, "I'm sorry?". She repeated the words, louder and much more deliberately,
"You didn't ask my name!"

With an apology, I asked. I then placed my palms together, raised them to my chin and greeted her in the polite manner that Cambodian people use to show respect. This produced a few giggles as adults aren't expected to greet children in this way. I knew that but figured it was OK for the foreigner to look a bit silly by acting just a little too formally. After that, I decided to break all the rules and shake her hand too. The girl smiled a six or seven year old- look at my missing front teeth- kind of a smile. I shook all the small hands that were offered and said goodbye.

If I had given these kids a dollar I wouldn't have missed it. If I'd given a dollar, they probably could have used it. But maybe all they really needed was for me to stop and ask their names.

Be Blessed!

I meet with a very small group (three people!) twice a month on Thursday evenings. We start with dinner and then have an hour or so to worship, pray and talk about whatever is on our minds. I've been thinking this week about blessings- the power we have through our relationship with God to envision good for someone else. Here's one that I found on the smallboatbigsea website. Be blessed!

The Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim.

Local NGO

There are loads of NGO's run by nationals in Cambodia. In fact, one has an office just around the corner from my house. I'm not quite sure what you'd need to do in order to get help from this crew, but the large sign reads, in English:

Association For Support The Delinquent Old Aged Orphaned Children And Death Persons.

"He will speak to the heart"

A friend gave me a bit of paper with the heading "1 Corinthians 13: A Guide to Culture" . It was a good reminder. Here are the best bits:

"...Love endures long hours of language study, and is kind to those who mock his accent; love does not envy those who stayed home; love does not exalt her home culture, is not proud of his national superiority.

Love does not boast about the way we do it back home, does not seek his own ways, is not easily provoked into telling about the beauty of her home country, does not thing evil about this culture.

Love bears all criticisms about his home culture, believes all good things about this new culture, confidently anticipates being at home in this place, endures all inconveniences.

Love never fails; but where there is cultural anthropology, it will fail; where there is contextualisation, it will lead to syncretism; where there is linguistics, it will change.

...Now we adapt to this culture awkwardly; but He will live in it intimately; now I speak with a strange accent, but He will speak to the heart.

And now these three remain; cultural adaptation, language study, and love. But the greatest of these is love."