First off, I especially want to thank all of you for your prayers!
I realize I have not really explained much about what I have been doing here so far, which is probably because it took me a while to figure it out! As I understand my internship currently, I will be working primarily with GCT until the end of October, then I will be working with NIBC in Siem Reap until the end of February (during which, I’ll be helping out with Calvin College’s interim class in January, the same class that made me fall in love with Cambodia), and then I will be back here in Phnom Penh working with EFC until the middle of May, when I leave here. I don’t know more than a vague description (see June 7) for what I’ll be doing with NIBC or EFC, but I have figured out what I’m doing at GCT.
I have been working the same hours as GCT’s full-time staff – normal office hours here in Phnom Penh, which are Monday through Friday, from 8-12 and 2-5. That 2-hour lunch break is very important to people here! When a co-worker was explaining to me the working of conditions of the women in garment factories here – which, truly, are terrible –alongside 12-hour shifts, overtime work, and extremely low pay, I was told that they only have an hour for their lunch break – a travesty! In all seriousness, though, the break during the hottest part of the day is a really good idea. I’m sure that’s even more true during the hottest part of the year. Plus, people get to go home and eat with their families.
So, what do I do 7 hours a day at GCT? This Calvin College engineering graduate does all things English! Please bear with me for a brief detour into currency, which I promise will turn out to be relevant:
In Cambodia, there are two currencies used simultaneously – United States dollars and Cambodian riel. However, no coins are used; instead, riel come into play whenever people need smaller increments than a dollar. The exchange rate that people on the street generally go by is 4000 riel to a dollar. I have not seen any riel coins, but the paper denominations of riel I have seen so far include 1000 (25 cents – in my opinion, the easiest to think about), 2000 (50c), 500 (half of 25c), 100 (half of 5c), 5000 ($1.25), and 10,000 (half of $5). It’s not too bad, but it is a bit confusing when you are working with amounts of money between $1 and $5, as getting change constantly requires translating between riel and dollars, and either the riel or the dollar bills may be worth more, depending on the denomination.
In Cambodia, there are also two main languages used: Khmer and English (well, also some French, but that is mainly the older generations, and also a bit of Chinese). Khmer is the language that all of the locals here speak, and so all of the little businesses and NGOs primarily use Khmer. English is sort of the business language of the world, and certainly of Cambodia, where much NGO funding and important business deals involve English-speaking places, or else places that have English in common with Cambodia. So all of the higher-level businesses and NGOs primarily use English.
However, similar to transactions between $1 and $5 here, GCT is between the world of Khmer-speakers and English-speakers. The people they serve and the local NGOs they work with speak mainly Khmer, but most of their current and potential donors, as well as half of their board members, speak mainly English. Also, although everyone at GCT speaks at least a little English, most things really need to be in Khmer for at least four of the seven staff members to fully understand. So, GCT is constantly translating between Khmer and English.
And as it’s very difficult to write well in a language that you are not fluent in, my first job is to edit everything after it’s been translated into English. I also get the challenge of sorting out the many, wonderful, scattered ideas of Navy and my other coworkers into cohesive papers. So far, I’ve write a report and a project proposal by organizing others’ ideas and adding a few of my own. Besides editing and writing in English, I’m also eager to train some of GCT’s staff members to do the same, so that they can carry on the work I’m doing after I leave.
At first, it seems pretty unsustainable, since I only have a few months here, and that by the end, I won’t really have had time to fully train a replacement. But the thing is that (praise God) I seem to have come at a time when my skills are most needed. Right now, GCT is trying to decide on and find funding for a few big projects that it can focus on for the next few years. So this is one of the times when they most need good English writing skills, and hopefully, if I manage to help pump out a few good proposals while I’m here, they won’t have nearly as much need for English skills for a while.
So, yeah, that’s the gist of what I’ve been doing – editing, ghost-writing, and teaching. I will try and write another entry soon on my coworkers, because as much as I’ve been enjoying writing, people are always the best part for me.
Johm Reap Lear (Goodbye),
Amanda
