Cambodia through new eyes

Hi. I’m alive. Here is what I’ve been up to the last month:

1. Interning at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (i.e. being around lawyers)!
2. Planning and preparing for my mom’s trip to Cambodia and Vietnam in April (YAY)!!
3. My return to America (i.e. I know you didn't think it was possible)!!!

Before I elaborate did you know that the number one thought an expatriate has on a moto in Cambodia is: “Please don’t kill me.” (Source of sampling: Foreign colleagues & acquaintances)

Yep. ANYWAYS...

Okay so work:  I LOVE my job. Seriously. Ever thought you could say that?  I just did, and it’s pretty cool.  For the last month I’ve been interning at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, working on three projects:

 1. Assistant Producing a promotional film for the website
 2. Collaborating on a report about social media as a human rights advocacy tool (though I’m primarily writing the history of democracy, civil society, and the human rights movement in Cambodia part)
3. Deciphering the strange accents of my Irish, British, and New Zealander work colleagues (they pretty much think I’m a terrible listener).

I’ll spare you details about the work, but the fun bits have involved:

Traveling south to Takeo Province where we interviewed two Human Rights activists (Cambodian) formerly accused and acquitted on charges of disinformation SEE:  Takeo Case Ruling 

Watching a burnt-victim begging outside of S-21 fall silent as he is asked what his family & friends think of his situation (he has no access to decent medical care and job opportunities)...

Another stomach-sinking trip into the former torture prison in the middle of the city...

Having a "Phnom Penh Day" with my boss, Rupert & Louis (filmmaker) where I saw the city through someone else’s eyes as Rupert took us through hidden alleys, former hotels, and an old Church taken over by urban settlers after the Khmer Rouge…. [Please excuse sudden outburst for need of photographic creativity]

sideways tuk-tuk

view of the colonial post-office from building across

an old hotel room 

phnom penh alley

cyclo nap-time

self-portrait (kidding)

living in a church

Filming and visiting an evicted AIDS colony at the outskirts of the city where they have no access to medical care and adequate housing…

new housing being built because aluminum housing (below in green) gets too hot

Filming at Boeng Kak Lake, where hundreds of families have been evicted as the government undergoes land concession to private companies and builds a new financial center at the heart of the lake. This has had a profound effect on my education of urban growth in developing cities, with governments with instinctive appetites for $$$. You can tell from these pictures how big the lake is and how much has been filled with sand already. In my opinion (and one probably shared by many), this is one of the biggest mistakes (both environmentally and socially) to happen upon Cambodia…

Traveling north to Kampong Thom and where I played with street children (very dirty, very cute, very, very wrong that no one said anything at all… I mean I could have been anybody if you know what I mean), and then traveling the next day to 2 hours into the middle of nowhere, where I observed a general deforestation of the land and a public forum held by the CCHR's Community Empowerment Programme, where local villagers voiced complaints against the government and officials taking away their land, farming equipment, and not allowing them to dig wells…

The Public Forum (Community Empowerment Programme)

villager speaking out 

Then filming out-takes in the car and stopping by an Angkor Temple in the middle of nowhere (literally)

Louis ("filmmaker guy")

In short I have had probably close to the best month and a half of experimenting in the field of Human Rights Advocacy (with a cross into filming again). Not only have I worked with people that are passionate about community empowerment, land rights, acid attacks, anti-corruption laws, business and human rights, and other issues at the frontline of Cambodian political, social, and economic changes, I have also put my political science undergraduate degree to good use for once. The sad part is that I don’t get paid.  Such is the life of the clichéd socially conscious liberal arts major. Tiny, tiny problem.

So having had a taste for human rights, documentary film, journalism, Asia, expat communities, rugby, bike-moto-running accidents, worms, dumplings, sweet iced-coffees, killer heat, rainy season, and dwindling bank accounts, I’ve found after one year in Cambodia, that it is time to return to my home base-- Chicago.  Trust me, adventures will continue. My Return Date is set to May 5^th.

I’m definitely sad to go, but confident I’ll return to SE Asia one day. After all, Phnom Penh is now a part of me, a part of my definition of “Home” just as Mexico City, Vernon Hills, Chicago, Notre Dame, and Toledo have been. Cambodia is where I learned to just exist. To stop planning, worrying and dreaming… To just live reality (even though I too have criticized its "non-realistic" qualities).

The big question:  What will I do next?  I don’t know. (How exciting!)

Of course, I will keep in mind my perfect job description as I move forth.  It should contain some sort of key phrase like:


Requires being on the frontline of… INSERT: 
[disaster, crisis management, travel, cross-cultural excursions, spying, foreign language training, six figures, expeditions or All of the Above].

Where will I live? Hopefully, NOT a cardboard box.

When will I return to the life abroad? ASAP... For school or work or whatever comes next when the timing is right again... C'est la vie. 

So... Now,  if you’d like to see my CV, please inquire within...