Decorating

We have just recently had three American guys voluntarily come to paint the dorm. Two of them were professional house painters and they did a fantastic job. The dorm was previously a kind of communist blue.... the shade of aqua that you'd expect to see a metre-and-a-half up the wall of a socialist state hospital (the rest of the wall being white as if to remind you that it would be a capitalist crime to paint the whole thing). Our walls, I will admit, were painted to the ceiling. Just. I mean the paint was only just hanging on. It was dirty, blistered, cracking and starting to fall off in places. Now the walls have been stripped, sanded and coated in a new blue. It is a stronger blue- a unisex sky blue that gives a greater sense of freedom and space.

The transformation motivated me to finally get some frames and put up a bunch of pictures this past weekend. I bought a mat and some cushions too. I hung some fabric on the back of a bare cupboard. I threw a battery in the plastic clock someone gave me for Christmas and put that on another wall. (A clock for Christmas- is that a hint?!) My room looks much better and I’m enjoying it already.

So...my tip for this new week is that if you want to change your life maybe all you need to do is paint a few walls.

A 57 word story that shouted at me

A young man beginning his work with the Coast Guard was called with his crew to try a desperate rescue in a great storm. Frightened, rain and wind pounding in his face, the man cried to his captain, "We will never get back!" The captain replied, "We don't have to come back, but we must go out."

Being right

I love being right. Some time around 11pm Saturday night I was sitting with a couple of friends watching an Indian version of American Idol called Launch Pad. I couldn't understand a word of what they were singing and the last time time I was asked to choose some Hindi songs for a party it was because "you know what the white people like." What do I know about emerging Indian singing sensations? Nothing. But I critiqued each one- "poor song choice", "narrow range", "trying to hard"... and I praised a few- "amazing tone", "passionate and controlled", "wow". As I spoke my friends seemed to be convinced that I knew what I was talking about.

Earlier during the day we had argued US politics. I was thoughtful and balanced but pretty much right. They had questioned me on Cambodian culture and Asia in general. I had happily responded to their questions and given my opinions on regional issues. Yet the moment that was most satisfying was somehow being the expert on something that I have no idea about. The more trivial the better; I just love being right.

Love Day

This month at the dorm we are studying the topic of love. (...and the students love it!)

Last Monday night I prepared some questions for the girls to answer personally. They didn't have to discuss their answers- just think about them and respond individually. I asked one of the students later about the process of answering the questions. (Were they unusual? Were they difficult to answer?) She said that those that touched her were the points about family relationships. For example, "In what ways did your parents show their love for you when you were a child?"

My friend continued, "My parents showed their love for me by making sure I always had money for school...and that we had water. Our source of water was a long way away. We had to make many trips to collect water for ourselves as well as our animals. Other families wouldn't fetch enough water and they would run out in the middle of the day. They couldn't even cook rice for lunch. But we always had water in the middle of the day. In the dry season my parents would get up at 2am and start carrying water. They would let me sleep until 4 or 5am before waking me up to help."

Today I remember that it is love that gets people up at 2am to fetch water for their kids (as well as thirst). Love and wisdom moves an illiterate farming couple to prioritise their daughters' educational needs in their family expenses. In time...when their daughter has moved to the capital to pursue tertiary education and when all she has to do for water is turn on a tap...what is left in common between this young, urban woman and her parents? Love.

To translate directly from the Khmer, happy "Love Day"!!

Lost

Last night I was talking with an Australian who teaches Third Grade at a local International School. Recently the class was working on a module themed '"Lost and Found". They were given a writing tasks to create an advertisement or notice for something that had been lost. One girl's response was to write an ad for her mum.

The teacher checked with the student after class, gently questioning, "Is this your story?" The girl said that one day her mother walked out of the house and never came back. Her greatest desire is for her mother to be found.

Blog Cambodia

Open Forum of Cambodia is an NGO involved in "promoting and strengthening people's share of ideas and expression of democracy". How do they do it? They train people who train others how to blog. They also offer awards to Cambodian bloggers. Cooh huh?

86 billion serves of instant satisfaction

I have a bit of a love/ hate relationship with instant noodles… love them when I’m starving but hate to think about what is in them. The January 20-26 issue of The Economist reported that Momofuko Ando, inventor of instant noodles, died on January 5th, aged 96. Here are a few quotes from the tribute:

For centuries men and women have turned to the east for the secret of life, health and happiness. But Momofuku Ando taught that there is no need to climb half-naked up a mountain peak, or meditate for hours on a prayer-mat, or knot one’s legs around one’s neck while intoning “Om” through the higher nasal passages. One should simply

Peel off lid
Pour boiling water.
Steep for three minutes.
Stir well and serve.

…In 2006, 86 billion servings of instant noodles were eaten around the world. And all this began with a vision…One cold night in 1957, walking home from his salt-making factory in Osaka, in Japan, Mr Ando saw white clouds of steam in the street, and a crowd of people gathering. They were waiting for noodles to be cooked to order in vats of boiling water, and were prepared to wait a long time. Why not make it easier? thought Mr Ando. And why not try to do it himself?

…The road was long. It took a year, working day and night in a shed in his back garden, to find the secret of bringing noodles back to life… The secret, picked up from his wife as she cooked vegetable tempura, was to flash-fry the cooked noodles in palm oil. This made them “magic”.

In 1958 instant noodles went on the market, yellowish wormy bricks in cellophane bags, and were laughed at by fresh-noodle makers all over Japan. They were just a high-tech craze, costing six times as much as the fresh stuff; they would never catch on. By the end of the first year, Mr Ando had sold 13m bags and had attracted a dozen competitors. He never looked back. In 1971 came noodles in heat-proof polystyrene cups… The Japanese voted instant noodles their most important 20th century invention… Mr Ando’s firm, Nissin, became a $3 billion global enterprise… In 2006, a Japanese astronaut, on board the space shuttle Discovery, supped Mr Ando’s noodles from a handy vacuum pack. He appeared on TV ads weightless and smiling, his enlightenment complete.

Updating the Stats

Yesterday I was checking some of the statistics we use for Big Brothers and Sisters of Cambodia (BBSC). 77 000 is a number we print a lot. This is the number of children who are orphaned because of AIDS in Cambodia (UNICEF, 2005). I didn't realise that the figure 470 000 appears in that same report. This is the total number of orphans between 0-17 years in the country. (Oops... and I'd been thinking it was around 77 000...silly me...) From the latest World Vision country report (2004) I read that there are 616 023 working children aged between 5-17 years. Some 15 000 children in Phnom Penh spend more than 6 hours per day scavenging and begging.

Yesterday the staff of BBSC met briefly with a visiting team from the United States. I told them we have just over 100 Big Brothers and Sisters matched with orphans and children at risk. They were impressed. I am encouraged by the dedication and compassion shown by the young people who volunteer, yet there is little room for boasting compared to the great need. Updating the statistics for my own understanding motivates me to keep going. However, next time I do a significant amount of research on any one of the world's poorest countries, I might just have to soften the blows by bringing some quality chocolate with me as an immediate reminder that there are good things in the world.