Sorry, this post has been sitting around on my computer, mostly done for about a month!
Okay, so I think I owe some explanation for the previous blog entry for those of you who haven’t gotten to talk with me about the dental clinic and my time in Srae Ambel/Ploung Village during the weeks of September 4th and 11th. This is probably something I’ll be unpacking for quite a while in more blog entries (and probably not in prose), but here I’ll give an orderly, right-brained account.
Central to the work of GCT (Genesis Community of Transformation, the NGO I’m currently working with) is community development through the CO (Community Organization) process. Slowly but sustainably, GCT’s staff teaches communities to organize themselves and use their own resources to help improve their living conditions. Some of the communities GCT works with are urban, while others are rural. Three of the rural communities that GCT works with are located in Koh Kong Province, Srae Ambel District; here is a map: http://g.co/maps/8ugsj. GCT also has land near these villages, which they call the Eden School of Agriculture (ESA), where they hope to bring farmers to educate them in better agricultural practices.
For the interested linguists among you, Srae Ambel means “Fields of Salt,” unfortunately a very appropriate name. There is a river that runs through Srae Ambel that has brackish (salty) water because it is so close to the sea. At certain times of the year, this river overflows its bed during high tide, flooding the rice fields in the low areas, bringing dissolved salt along with it. After years of flooding, there is so much salt in these fields that in the dry season, salt crystals are visible on the surface of the ground.
This is a huge problem, because rice is meant to grow in fresh water. Often, a farmer’s whole field of rice will die because of the salt. But even if the rice plants manage to survive, their yield decreases year by year as salt builds up in the soil. Many farmers in the area are unable to support their families on this meager crop, and as a result, they ask permission of the village chief to raze a new area of forest and plant a new rice field. Of course, increased deforestation also contributes to flooding.
The three villages that GCT works with are named Ploung, Chroy, and Boeung Preav. Unlike Srae Ambel, their names are rather mysterious. Ploung means “bomb,” Chroy means “to fluff rice after it’s been cooked,” and Boeung Preav means “Lake with no purpose.” I haven’t heard any good explanations for why the villages are so called. Ploung is a very poor village, Boeung Preav is only moderately poor, and Chroy is somewhere in-between.
As described in my previous blog entry, it’s about three kilometers from ESA to Ploung if you go the short way on a rough road hedged by forest– but that road is totally impassible by most vehicles during the rainy season because of flooding. All three villages are clustered along one long main road, so as you walk through Ploung, you gradually end up in Chroy, and then in Boeung Preav – and the road and living conditions gradually improve, as well. So far, GCT has focused most of its attention on Ploung, which was where the Dental Clinic was held, and the village in which I spent the most time.
The buildings in Ploung are built on stilts, to tempt a breeze and to avoid flooding. They are mostly wooden, with corrugated metal or thatch roofs. There are a few that are made entirely of thatch and bamboo, though as well. The houses are set back a ways from the road, and their stilts are about a story high, but the storefronts are built right up against the road, with knee-high stilts and only three walls, but a low roof in front to keep out the rain. The road is made of red clay, which is a good road material, but it’s run-down – bumpy, with divots and low shoulders that become permanent lagoons during the rainy season. Because nearly all of the animals are allowed to run free, the road is full of dung, and when it rains, the road goes ankle-deep in brown water.
The yards are mucky and full of animals – dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, cows, buffalo, occasional ducks, and even turkeys. The dogs bark whenever a stranger approaches, the cats keep mice out of the rice stores, the pigs, chickens, ducks, and cows are occasionally sold or eaten. The chickens and ducks also lay eggs, but Cambodians don’t drink cow milk. Some people will also eat dogs or cats. The buffalo are stores of wealth. Every year, they are used to plow the rice fields, and they can be sold for hundreds of dollars a each. They can also be eaten, in a pinch. They sleep under the house, where their dung piles up day after day. Every day, some of a family’s children or women take the buffalo along the road to ESA, into the forest to graze. Many people also collect edible wild plants, hunt, or fish in the forest. The mainstays of the village are fish, rice, and forest plants.
The one building in the village that is not built on stilts is the new primary schoolhouse. This was the location of the dental clinic. It’s a large wooden building with four rooms, painted a cheerfully bright yellow, with light blue trim. There about forty children from Ploung in each grade, but only one principal and one other teacher, both of whom teach a morning and an afternoon class. This adds up to grades one through four. In order to study beyond grade four, children from Ploung have to walk a long way to the next village, and to go on to middle or high school, the walk is even farther. So far, in the history of the village, no one has graduated from high school.
The men are usually bare-chested and wear shorts, pants, or the traditional kroma, a long bolt of fabric wrapped around the waist several times to make a mid-thigh-length skirt. The women wear what look to western eyes like colorful printed pajamas, or else the traditional sroung, similar to the kroma, but longer, in the form of a strapless dress that comes past the knees. Some of them also wear a kroma wrapped around their head in a traditional fashion. The teenagers wear very western jeans and t-shirts, the older kids wear whatever clothing they can find, and the little ones wear either shirts or pants – or nothing at all! People generally either wear flip flops or go barefoot, which is pretty sensible considering that every time you enter a building, you have to slip off your shoes.
Coming to Ploung with my coworkers Boral and Sarath was an amazing privilege. They have been working in Ploung for about a year and a half, and they seem to know and be loved by everyone. Even in the district capital, the town of Srae Ambel, they greeted many people by name and with much fuss and familiarity. (I.e. tossing – and catching – babies, punching teenagers, and teasing everyone) I was really amazed by the report and respect they had gained in such a short time in villages where people have intermarried lived as tight-knit neighbors for generations.
With such a wonderful introduction as to be a coworker of Puu (uncle) Sarath and Bong (older brother) Boral, I was warmly welcomed by everyone in the village. I got so much practice introducing myself in Khmer, as I met so many new people, and each asked the same familiar questions: What is your name? Where are you from? Are you married? How old are you? People were really surprised that I could/would walk from ESA to Ploung in the rain and the waist-deep water (in just one spot), eat the food, and sleep in their houses. I was told many times that I should marry a Khmer man, since I can eat the food (I quickly learned the Khmer for “I’m-not-married-yet-but-I-already-have-a-boyfriend”).
This place has really found a spot in my heart.
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