Wealth Amongst Poverty- An Interesting Read

The following article is one I found by a freelance Expat blogger who lives in Sihannoukville in Cambodia's south. I found I really connect with his ethics, and he pretty much outlines spot-on my own take on how to act as a wealthy foreigner amongst such poverty. Having experienced beggars, child vendors and the like while growing up in Phnom Penh, they really are things that are in your face and that you have to make guidelines for yourself of where to draw the line. One cannot give to every single beggar, and supporting mothers who whack their babies to make them cry for your cash is just plain off. But many are really in need, so where do you draw that line? For Ben and I, our whole reason for moving overseas is to help said people, through more formalised mechanisms of education and development. For those however who fall outside the system, Dvoretz's article outlines our mantra. 

Keeping a Clear Conscience Living in Cambodia

As I sit here sipping at a cappuccino at a local cafe in my little town of Sihanoukville, my mind wanders to the strange and unusual things that surround me on a daily basis. Life as an expat in Cambodia is full of juxtapositions. I am reminded of the days I would go to downtown Miami with my parents as a young boy. I would be happily walking along, make one wrong turn and glitzy Miami turns into the straight up ghetto.

Take for example my current situation. Here I am sitting at a fancy café sipping on an incredibly tasty cappuccino served in an elegant class with fresh chocolate shavings on top. If I so choose, I can go to a stylish French restaurant for dinner and order a juicy filet mignon followed by a glass of red wine. Yet, just around the corner people are living in aluminum sheds and living hand to mouth. When I stand on balcony of my beautiful spacious apartment with all the western amenities, I am looking down on the third world. I regularly see some of my Cambodian neighbors across the street washing with a bucket of cold water pulled from a well.

Living as an expat in a developing nation, you will get hardened to extreme poverty. It’s inevitable. If not, you couldn’t survive in these countries. The guilt of living a lifestyle you have grown up accustomed to will weigh heavily on your shoulders. You quickly realize you can’t change the world. The best is to do what little you can.

I think every expat has their own personal way of handling it after moving to Cambodia; dealing with the beggars and the poor selling useless items. Each expat reacts differently to paying a little more at the market than a local might. You’ll find many westerners here bargaining over every little penny. Believe me though, that seller needs it way more than you. That’s not to say walking around getting ripped off left and right is okay either. There has to be a fair line that works for you too.

So for once, why don’t I tell you a little about your author? I am always writing authoritative pieces for my loyal readers, I thought it would be fun to give you all a glimpse into my psyche.

How Do I Handle Life in Cambodia?

The Beggars

I know that I can’t give to them all and, in truth, at this point there are many I don’t want to give to anyways. As a general rule, I don’t give to any able-bodied person under the age of about 55. In my eyes, if you are young enough and strong enough to be working, you should be. This includes those pathetic looking young girls with sedated babies. Now I know this next part sounds cruel and you are all going to groan and moan at me, but I also never give to children beggars. I have a long drawn out explanation to my theory that perhaps I’ll examine in another article if I get some comments inquiring, but let’s just say that I believe giving to a begging child perpetuates a bad cycle. In all honesty it's hard not to give to all the Cambodian beggars.

So who is left? Well, I give to the old and the infirm; the ones that can’t work even if they want to. The ones that remind me of my grandparents who shouldn’t have to work anymore even if they can. This country has been through war and genocide just thirty odd years ago. Many of them lost any chance they ever had at a prosperous future during those horrendous years. Others lost their chance perhaps while farming or digging and accidentally hitting a leftover bomb from the US. These are the beggars I give to. Their chance was taken away.

Child Vendors

Touching lightly again on my theory of children beggars, I have a much higher respect for the children selling trinkets and things. There is a whole campaign of people who try and convince others not to buy items from child vendors in Cambodia as they should be in school, but I am realistic enough to know that is not a luxury everybody can afford. In the real world some children in developing nations need to work to help their family. I will regularly buy stupid bracelets, key chains, or good luck flowers for my car from these children. I don’t need these items, but I can afford them and it helps the child and their family. I also believe it helps to reinforce a good work ethic.

On the flipside, I don’t let the children rip me off as they do many of the tourists. We agree on a fair price where they make some profit, I don’t get ripped off, and everybody wins. It helps that I speak Khmer so even the children that don’t know me by now learn quickly not to rip me off. It was amusing having a talk with one girl the other day. I bought a key chain off her for $1.50. I could have bought it for $1, but I didn’t mind. I decided to ask her how much she sells them to the tourists for and she told me they will pay $4 or $5 for them. I did my part, but I ain’t doin that much.

Domestic Help

Sounds fancy doesn’t it? Well it’s true. Living in Cambodia I actually have a maid who cleans my house regularly. Yeah, yeah, life is sweet here I know. Anyways, my maid comes twice a week. Do I need her to come twice a week? No. It’s just me living here, but do I need that extra $6 it costs me to have her come back and clean a second time? Is $24 a month really going to affect me?
It will certainly affect her life. She and her family need that money. Every day she leaves my house, the first thing she does is go to the market and buys food. I know because I regularly offer to give her a lift home so she can save the cost of the moto ride.

Waiters, Security, Etc

Tipping in Cambodia is highly appreciated as many foreigners don’t do it. Funny enough, most of the rich Khmer do. I treat tipping here the same as I would in America. They have to work for it, but if they do, they get a tip. Albeit my standards of good work and service are lower here so it doesn’t take much, just a little bit of attention. Tipping waiters $0.25 or $0.50 will not only get you an appreciative expression or look, it will also get you great service when you come back. My tips in Cambodia are usually between the 5% and 10% range.

Security guards/ car park attendants are another person that usually gets tipped here. Generally it is a pointless job as Cambodia is a relatively safe country for vehicles unless it is real late at night in a dark part of town, but the man stands attentively outside , or perhaps sometimes snoozing a little, watching over my vehicle. Then when it is time for me to leave, he runs out into the street blocking the chaotic traffic through daring force of will alone. He is also usually standing in my blind spot within inches of my car making pulling out more difficult than the traffic would have, but hey, how can you not reward an effort like that? $0.25 is a reasonable tip and everybody leaves happy with the encounter.

My Conscience is Clear

In my small ways, I do what little I can where I can. I reward the behavior of the hard workers that are trying their best to piece together a life in this tough country without squandering my bank account irresponsibly. I buy the things I don’t need, I tip when I don’t have to, and I try and give a little extra work to the locals when I can. Maybe others do more, I am sure many others do less, but this is how I sleep at night living in a third world country.

Article written by Brett Dvoretz
http://expatsandaliens.com/articles/keeping-a-clear-conscious-living-in-cambodia

Life in Boxes (Part II)

Well this last week has been hectic. For me anyway. Ben's always very calm and cool-headed about these sorts of things. I spent the week packing the house and moving the majority of things into our study, which turned from a decent study into something out of "Hoarders: Buried Alive"...

After the movers were finished it became a 100% empty room with an incredible echo that Ben and I have been sneaking into to sing mini choral duets, because the resonance sounds more like a cathedral than even a cathedral! (We mostly burst out laughing half way through at how ridiculous we are singing at each other in a weird room). Our favourite tunes include those haunting ones from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (hehe!)

On Friday the movers arrived, exactly at 8.00am- two burly looking European guys- and after 2.5hrs our home transformed into a maze of walls made of boxes stacked high.

It was a pretty stressful business, mostly because Ben and I felt helpless to do anything and seemed to just be getting in the way if we tried to help. The best we could do was to have prepared the house in advance like we had, and then just supervise. I still have no idea where actual items went though. Our beloved ice-cream maker that we wanted to lend to my family could be in any one of 5 large kitchen boxes, packed tight and wrapped in paper. They'll never find it.

I think the saddest thing is that this was our home, we'd built this place (not literally) and filled it with ourselves and our memories, things that we'd collected before and after we were married. It was comfortable, homey, and it was ours. Now we will not see many of our things again for 2 years or more, and by then, we would have accumulated more 'things' and more 'stuff' that could leave our original belongings redundant. We hate ourselves for being so consumerist and defining ourselves by our possessions, but that is just the way it is. Now, we are living in the empty house for 1 last week while Ben finishing teaching at the school and I give the house a jolly good vacate clean. We have a suitcase each, an air mattress on the floor and a couch (that belongs with the house) as a bed, as well as 1 cooking pot and 2 bowls between us. We're going to be living like this for the next month or so anyway as we jet down to Perth for Christmas and then to the UK to visit family, before finally leaving for Cambodia.

 It definitely feels refreshing to be so minimalist, I just wonder how long we will keep it up once we actually settle again for real! Most of all, we feel like this is definitely 'it' now, there's no going back on our decision. Our new life begins now!

Our Life in Boxes

It's been a busy week for us in Hedland- we finally finished getting our medical forms done after many trips to the doctor and the hospital, and our attention has turned to getting our unit in order.  Pretty much everything we own is either being prepared for boxing or getting sold.  Ruth has been very stressed and sneezing a lot from all the dust (it just appears, we swear!).  Having to plan for multiple trips has made it a bit more difficult, as we need to have clothes for our last week here, a box ready to go for England, and a box ready for Cambodia.  We've been quite fortunate to have good luck at our online sales, with most of our things going for very close to the price we paid for them, and I'm using this as evidence to Ruth that my online shopping habits aren't so costly after all.  After Ruth put in a solid afternoon of vacuuming and organising the house, we're now seeing mostly empty space, and we're a bit more hopeful about getting this all done without much more stress.

We Made a Thing

Ruth and I made a video to help answer some questions about this whole Cambodia idea, so if you're interested, watch the video below to have a bit more insight into exactly what we're planning to do and why.  It was a lot of fun to record/edit, and there are many many bloopers (not included in this cut, obviously).  Hope you enjoy it!

5 Reasons Why NOT to Move to Cambodia

I recently found this article on one of the Khmer expat forums. It is very sombre and slightly disheartening but certainly an interesting read. As long as Ben and I are aware of the various risks and implications that this decision will have on our lives, health and future finances, we can try to tackle them one problem at a time. We have some idea of what we are getting ourselves into, and are counting on the Big Man Upstairs to look after us so all we can do is trust Him, act smart and stay safe. Overall, I think our experience will be quite different to the one outlined below, particularly for the support that we will have from family and friends back home and from the organisation over there, and for the whole reason we are going. Unlike the article, we're not moving to simply 'teach English or open a bar' and live like backpacking kings, we're moving to make an impact on the country and its people through quality Education and Development. It is meaningful, well guided work that is supported by numerous NGOs over there who understand that such development is the way forward for Cambodia to pull itself out of poverty. On reading the article, I also have to say that I do disagree somewhat with point no. 2; I was raised in Cambodia and I turned out fine.... sort of..... anyway, take a look....

5 Reasons Why NOT to Move to Cambodia

Lately, there have been a lot of Westerners moving to Cambodia or making plans to move to Cambodia. This is partly due to the difficult job market in many Western countries, and it’s partly due to Cambodia becoming a more “mainstream” destination for tourists and expatriates. Some of the recent interest in Cambodia has come from Westerners living in Thailand. Rising prices in Thailand and stricter Thai visa regulations have already contributed to a noticeable influx of shifty-eyed, tattooed sexpats creeping across the border into Cambodia. Fortunately, a lot of those dudes haven’t made it past Sihanoukville.

There has been such an overwhelming interest in moving to Cambodia that two recent books have been published on the topic. Lina Goldberg published the excellent “Move to Cambodia: A Guide to Living and Working in the Kingdom of Wonder” in late 2012. Earlier this year, Khmer440 contributor Gabi Yetter released her own very well-received manual, “The Definitive Guide to Southeast Asia: Cambodia.”

Both of these books provide helpful information and optimistic encouragement to readers who are considering relocating to Cambodia. It’s the optimistic encouragement that I have a problem with. I personally believe that there are significant drawbacks to moving to Cambodia that could probably fill an entire book. Maybe not a real book, but definitely one of those silly e-books.

Unlike Ms. Goldberg and Ms. Yetter, I don’t have the necessary work ethic or attention span to write a whole book about anything. So I’m just going to offer these 5 Reasons Why You Really Shouldn’t Move to Cambodia.

1. You will die younger in Cambodia.

This is a big one. The average life expectancy for Westerners living in Western countries is about 75 to 80 years old, depending on the country. Unofficially, the average life expectancy for Western expatriates living in Cambodia is 57.4 years old.

There are a number of reasons why moving to Cambodia will shave about twenty years off your life. Cambodia has a lot of common diseases that you would never catch in your home country, like Typhoid, Dengue Fever, Hepatitis, and Malaria. The medical care in Cambodia is atrociously bad. The ambulances are unreliable; the doctors are unqualified; the hospitals are unsanitary. Even easily treatable illnesses can quickly become life-threatening if Cambodian doctors get involved.

Sometimes expats in Cambodia succumb not to illness, but to traffic accidents or other hazards. Expats like to ride motorbikes, often helmetless, presumably because they think it makes them look cool. This can be rather dangerous in a country with reckless local drivers, no enforcement of traffic laws, and poor emergency medical care. Private ambulances in Cambodia will actually refuse to take patients who are seriously injured, because they don’t want to risk transporting a dying patient who won’t be able to pay the hospital bill.

But perhaps the primary reason why expats tend to die young in Cambodia is that many of them “lose the plot” and develop unhealthy habits involving drugs, alcohol, and prostitution. This leads to weekly reports of expats in their forties and fifties being found dead on their bathroom floors from a “heart attack” or “fall.”

Cambodia is full of dangers, and very few of the locals even know basic first aid. If you start choking in a restaurant in a Western country, your waiter or another customer will quickly perform the Heimlich Maneuver on you. If you start choking in a restaurant in Cambodia, the locals will all stand around dumbfounded and stare at you until you turn blue and collapse on the floor. Only then will one of them spring into action and attempt to revive you by vigorously rubbing tiger balm on your forehead.

2. Cambodia is a horrible place to raise a child.

If you have a child or you are planning to have children, you definitely should not move to Cambodia. World Health Organization statistics show that a child born in Cambodia is ten times more likely to die before the age of 5 than a child born in France. All of the diseases that kill adults in Cambodia are even more dangerous to young children. Kids are also more likely to be involved in accidents requiring emergency medical care, because kids are fragile and kind of stupid.

While children may be coddled and overprotected in Western societies, they are simply left to their Darwinian fate in Cambodia. Cambodian children are often seen wandering the streets without adult supervision or perched helmetless on the front of passing motorbikes. Last year a “mystery illness”killed 60 children in Cambodia. Nobody really cared.

Raising any child in Cambodia presents grave risks that you wouldn’t have in a Western country. If your daughter develops acute appendicitis in your home country, you can take her to the emergency room at a modern hospital. A knowledgeable doctor will promptly diagnose her condition, a skilled surgeon will remove her appendix before it bursts, and she’ll be back to normal in no time.

If your daughter develops acute appendicitis in Cambodia . . . well, she’s probably screwed. Just start over with a new kid.

Let’s assume that your children are lucky and that the Cambodian diseases, traffic accidents, and poor medical care don’t kill them. Their future will still be quite bleak. The educational system in Cambodia is absolutely dire, from the primary schools through the universities. The only way to properly educate your child in Cambodia is to pay about $15,000 per year to send her to a top international school. This is going to be hard to afford if you moved to Cambodia to teach English for $9 an hour.

You may fancy the idea of moving to “wild” Cambodia, but the true test of being a good parent is whether you place your child’s safety and security above your own interests. That’s why many devoted parents from third world countries will do anything possible to sneak their families into Western countries where their kids will have a brighter future.

As young Western citizens, your children enjoy the same wonderful opportunity that you had to grow up in a civilized country with good schools, quality health care, free speech, seat belts, career prospects, democracy, Fig Newtons, and long life expectancies. They would kindly appreciate if you don’t fuck all that up for them by raising them in a corrupt, oppressive third world shithole. Your choice.

What amazes me is that the Westerners who decide to raise their children in Cambodia remain in total denial about what terrible, selfish parents they really are. Some have even started a Yahoo group called the “Cambodia Parent Network,” where they exchange tips on how to raise their doomed offspring in a country where no responsible Western parent would ever voluntarily raise a child. Cambodia Parent Network? Good grief. That’s like starting the Chernobyl Gardening Club.

3. The infrastructure sucks.

Even compared to neighboring countries like Vietnam and Thailand, the infrastructure in Cambodia is truly appalling. The schools, hospitals, roads, and utilities are all of very poor quality. Trash piles up in the street. Rats and roaches abound. Main roads in the capital city are now gridlocked during rush hours, and traffic only gets worse each year. There is no mass transit system and nowhere to park your car. Sidewalks are impassable. Internet connections are relatively slow. The tap water is dodgy. There are no zoning laws and no effective law enforcement. The noise pollution from karaoke parlors at 2 a.m., barking dogs at 4 a.m., and construction workers at 6 a.m. can be unbearable.

Many expats report regular power outages in their neighborhoods, sometimes lasting 3-5 hours a day. That will put a major damper on your online explorations.

Cambodia does have excellent nightlife, but there’s absolutely nothing to do during the day – no decent parks, cinemas, museums, malls, libraries, etc. Just walking outside between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. can be quite unpleasant due to the heat and humidity. Oh, and Cambodia smells really bad. If you’re thinking of moving to Phnom Penh, you need to know that the entire city stinks of garbage, smoke, urine, and rotten fish. Not just the Walkabout.

4. Living in Cambodia will destroy your financial future.

Let us agree that the hallmark of a successful life is living as long as possible while simultaneously acquiring as many material possessions as you can. Like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, but with a hot young wife too.

You may be able to find a hot young wife in Cambodia, but unless you are transferred there by a multinational company, you’re not going to make any decent money working in Cambodia. If you’re one of these guys who just decides to move to Cambodia to “teach English” or “open a bar,” you will guarantee yourself a life of relative poverty. You’ll likely start out making about $8 – $10 per hour, which would be the bare minimum wage in many Western countries.

You may be thinking, “But I heard I can teach English and live like a king making $1,200 per month in Cambodia.” You can’t. You’ll be able to afford a relatively crappy Khmer-style apartment with tiled walls, bars on the windows, unreliable electricity, and loud, annoying neighbors. Near Russian Market, of course.

You won’t be saving any money, and you won’t have health insurance. So if you get sick and and can’t teach for a few weeks, you’ll be on the verge of selling your passport for noodle money.

Unlike the minimum wage earners in Western countries, you won’t even be paying into social security, or a pension plan, or any kind of retirement benefits. So just plan on working in a low paid teaching job in Cambodia until the day you die. Of course, your lack of retirement planning will be the least of your concerns when you’re lying on your deathbed in a dirty Cambodian hospital at age 57.

Because you’ll have no savings, you won’t even be able to leave money to take care of your wife and kids when you die. Keep in mind that your kids will already be well behind the financial eight ball because you raised them in an impoverished country with an inadequate school system and few legitimate career opportunities.

I know what you’re thinking now. “I’ll just move to Cambodia for a few years, then I’ll move back home and get a good job that pays well.” Not a chance. The job market is extremely competitive these days in most Western countries. Cambodia still has a notorious reputation, and it’s hard to get a good job when the hiring manager who reviews your application says, “This candidate has a fascinating resumé. I wonder if he’s a pedophile.”

5. Your mother will be so disappointed.

If you move to Cambodia, you’re probably going to have to tell your mother at some point. Of course she’ll tell you that she supports your decision, because that’s what good mothers do. But deep down, she will be crushed that you are moving so far away from her.

You have a moral obligation to help take care of your mother in her later years. Don’t be a selfish ass who passes that responsibility off on your siblings so that you can live 8,000 miles away in Cambodia.

And what if you eventually have kids in Cambodia? Are you going to deprive your mother of the pleasure of seeing her sickly, under-educated, half-brown grandchildren because you’re raising them 8,000 miles away from her? That’s a cruel, selfish thing to do to your mom. She may justifiably respond to this affront by cutting you out of her will. And since you’ll be working for peanuts in Cambodia, that inheritance would have been your only chance of acquiring any real money during your lifetime.

(Taken from 7 reasons why you really shouldn't move to Cambodia)

http://www.khmer440.com/k/2013/07/7-reasons-why-you-really-shouldnt-move-to-cambodia/ 

Human Pin-cushions

So the official preparations have begun. Today we started our vaccinations, ouch :( I was lucky, i've had most of the important ones from living overseas before, so I just have to have a couple of boosters. Poor Ben has to have the whole shebang! He had 5 shots today alone. Between us we've got to have Hep A (x3), Polio, Tetanus, Whooping Cough and Diptheria, Typhoid, Influenza, Measles Mumps and Rubella.... yikes.

When we get to Phnom Penh, we will both also get Japanese Encephalitis (x2) and Rabies (x3) which are much cheaper there than they are here. We've also started arranging the house and booking the movers to help take our things back to Perth. It's turning out to be quite tricky to determine what we need to take with us and what we should keep for our return- and where to store it all! We will only be able to have a few suitcases to bring on the plane so we're hoping to get most things in PP. However, the main things we'll be taking over will be Australian-grade motorbike helmets (the main form of travel there is by 'moto'), medications, some personal items and some Australian foods that we will try and make last (you can't take jelly and tim-tams for granted!). The international community in PP has grown quite strong, so there are definitely places to get some imported goods, particularly from the US. From now on though, even simple things like bread and milk will be put in high regard in exchange for rice and tea and MSG -.-

Heading out your door...

Ben and I are big Tolkien fans, and one of our favourite quotes is certainly serving as inspiration for courage right now...

Logos International School

The school Ben will be teaching at is Logos International School in the capital of Phnom Penh. It is the high school of Asian Hope in Cambodia, with about 70% of the kids being Khmer and the other 30% International students. This video is a little insight into the school and its greater mission in Cambodia that we will be a part of. 

Wait.... Where?

Ah Cambodia... The Kingdom of Water, home to the splendor of Angkor Wat and the brutality of the Khmer Rouge. I am fortunate enough to have lived there as a child from 2003-2005, but this place will be new to Ben, and the rapid changes the country has seen from development in the last 10 years means it will be quite new again to me too. So here's a little run down of Cambodia..

Basic Information

Area:  181,035 sq. Km

Population: Over 15 million

Capital:      Phnom Penh

Government: Liberal democracy under a constitutional monarchy

Provinces: 21

Language: Khmer, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, English and a variety of minority languages

Currency: Dual currency system: Cambodian Riel and American Dollars

Neighboring Countries: Thailand-N and W, Laos-NE, Vietnam - E

Religion: Buddhism, Muslim (Cham people group) minority

Ethnic Background: Cambodian (Khmer)-80%, Vietnamese-12%, Chinese-5%, Tribal groups-2.5%

Rivers and Lakes:

The Mekong River runs from the Laos border in the north to the Vietnam border in the south. Tonle Sap runs from the Mekong in central Phnom Penh north to the lake, claimed to be the largest freshwater fish breeding and production area in the world. Tonle Bassak also runs from the Mekong, in central Phnom Penh to the southern border with Vietnam.

Mountains:

Elephant and Cardamom mountains - southwest

Dangkrek Mountains - northern border with Thailand Eastern Highlands-northeast corner

Former Colonial Status:

French protectorate (18 63-1949)

Associated State within the French Union (1949-1955)

Independence Date: 25th September 1955

National Flag: A centre of red with an ancient temple of Angkor Wat motif, with dark blue bands across the top and bottom.

Brief History

Cambodia was once the most powerful nations in the region, with the Khmer arriving from India in prehistoric times. By the 1st century, they had built a mighty Hindu state with the country’s power continuing to grow through the 13th century until the empire extended from the Bay of Bengal to the South of China Sea. This is the period in which the great temples of Angkor were built.
In the 1500s to the 1800s, foreign powers sought greater influence in the area, and the state declined. The French arrived in the mid-19th century, and offered Cambodia protection from her powerful neighbors, this however, quickly turned into control, and France ruled Cambodia until 1954.

During the Vietnam War the country tried to steer a neutral course, but neither side respected its neutrality: the North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh trail ran through Cambodian territory, while the U.S. bombed and raided the eastern half of Cambodia from 1969 until 1973. In the 1970 General Lon Nol took over but fought a civil war against the Khmer Rouge up until two weeks before the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, when the murderous Pol Pot regime came to power. The following four years saw genocide on a horrific scale, with estimates of at least two million Cambodians dying as a result of the policies of the Khmer Rouge.

Vietnam invaded and overthrew the Pol Pot regime on 7th January 1979, but the Vietnamese were Cambodia’s traditional enemy, thus, when Vietnam reduced its military presence in the late 1980s, guerrilla warfare again broke out, with several groups, including the Khmer Rouge, competing for domination. The United Nations finally brokered a peace settlement, and elections were held in 1993. The royalist party (FUNCINPEC), led by Prince Norodom Rannariddh won the elections but was forced to hold power with the Cambodian People’s party led by Hun Sen. This fragile coalition fell apart in 1997 following a successful coup by Hun Sen.

1998 saw a further set of elections which Hun Sen won, though not with an adequate majority to call parliament, so another coalition government was created. With the death of Pol Pot earlier in the year and the subsequent disintegration of the Khmer Rouge, the conditions may have been laid for stability, with an opportunity for a new start for the country after 30 years of conflict.

First Contact

We've done it.

 Ben has gotten himself a job at an International school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. If you know Ben and I, it has been a relatively short journey to get to this point, considering we've only been married 4 months and although it was on the cards, we had not intended to move to Asia for at least another year! But an opportunity arose, and we have jumped at it. At first we were wary of making the move so soon, since we are quite comfortable here in Port Hedland after just settling in, but over the next few days of decision making it weighed on our hearts so that by the end we were both praying it would come through!

Neither of us has fully gotten our heads around it yet, and probably won't until months after we've arrived in Cambodia- if then. So we thought the best way to explore our thoughts and feelings at this point would be to keep this 'inkling' of what we're experiencing, both for us and our friends and family. It is only 2 months until the big move, which is quite short notice considering it is a whole new country, culture and community we will be settling into. These next few months will see us frantically finish up business here in Hedland and then in Perth, packing our lives into boxes for storage and 4 simple suitcases (if that) to take with us, and putting ourselves forth as human pin-cushions for the million or so vaccinations we must get each.

Sigh. it's a lot to take in. Perhaps we should focus on the basics first, such as completing the forms needed to finalise the position and getting in touch with old friends in Phnom Penh to ask for advice on how to even begin preparing for the new life ahead. We both know that this is what we desperately want to do and where we are meant to be, we just hope and pray for the strength to see it become a reality!!!